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Rockman Kai

Levels: Okay

Graphics: Okay (palette change)

Music: Eh (a few MM2 tunes)

Enemies: No Change

Bosses: Okay (weakness changes, a few room changes)

Weapons: No Change

Castle: Okay

Difficulty: MEDIUM

Comments: In a word, I think Kai is "fine" for a MM1 hack. The levels sport different layouts and enemy composition for once, although there are still portions ripped straight from the original game (including the awful Foot Holder section). However, in a bizarre twist, Kai is mostly vertically-oriented, with every screen exit sending you directly down or up. Perhaps a better name for the hack would be "Elec Man's Revenge", given how many ladders you'll climb by your journey's end. Still, it's a decent stage-focused remix that MM1 fanatics will probably get some enjoyment out of. For everyone else though, it can feel a little too vanilla at times, even with its vertical focus.

Rockman Kai being the original romhack where Rockman Kenk addresses some of the issues that was present in this modification. The overall experience is pretty much same as I got in Rockman Kenk, but the difference is pretty noticeable in a few stages where there was one random pitfall in Fire Man's stage, and Elec Man's pitfall area had more spikes where you had to land onto a platform on the right side of the wall. I think there was some enemy placements I don't believe were there when I was playing Rockman Kenk, but I'm unsure on this..

Rockman Kai actually still stands up pretty decently without it's remaster, and it is still worth playing if you don't want to play it's more polished version.