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Mega Man III Against the World

Levels: Good

Graphics: Okay (palette change)

Music: No Change

Enemies: Eh (few changes)

Bosses: Eh

Weapons: Okay (ammo change)

Castle: Okay (Doc Robots are Okay, Wily Castle is Good, Wily 6 is BAD)

Difficulty: HARD

Comments: When it comes to mercilessly hard hacks of MM3, few can compete with Against the World, a hack so brutal it took me roughly seven hours to complete. Every level is a brutal crawl to the finish line, with enemies constantly flooding the screen and hammering you with increased damage. Descents down ladders will lead to sudden death drops, pits and spikes border every platform, and—worst of all—your i-frames after taking damage have been halved, allowing enemies and bosses to combo you into oblivion. Your only comfort is that E-tanks are plentiful and the layout of the stages remains generally the same, so you can surmise where the checkpoints are. But Against the World will beat you down over and over, an insatiable mean streak running through it; I had to use save states for both Gemini Doc Robot and Wily 6, as they demand too much from a mere human player. Against the World would have been a solid recommendation had it been a little more lenient, but as it stands, only play it if you're starving for kaizo-esque torture.

Enemies appear in stages they didn't before. Stage design is also new.

This is what I would call a hard difficulty hack. For one thing, Mega Man's invincibility lasts a lot shorter than usual so it can be ridiculously easy to stack damage on yourself. It's a good, challenging hack.