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Rockman Gaiden

Levels: Good

Graphics: Good

Music: Good

Enemies: No Change

Bosses: Eh

Weapons: Eh

Castle: Good

Difficulty: MEDIUM (Wily 4 is HARD)

Comments: SOPHIA hacks are generally known for their quality, and it's (mostly) no different with Gaiden here. Levels boast some peppy music and decent visuals, with Wily 1 debuting a stylish silhouette gimmick. The gameplay is of an equally high quality as well, utilizing just the right blend of enemies and platforming. The big problem with Gaiden is that it botches the final level, featuring two brutal fights back-to-back (you'll die if Guts Man tosses more than one block) followed by a Wily Machine that's nearly impossible to dodge. Perhaps if your arsenal was improved the boss gauntlet would've been tolerable, but Gaiden sadly sticks to the basics: Hyper Bomb and Super Arm are useless, Thunder Beam and Fire Storm rule. In the end Gaiden is a fairly fun hack, but it could've easily been so much better.

Graphically, the hack is good. The musical plan is also pleasing. The problem here is the balance of complexity. Somewhere it is easy to pass, and somewhere without the Ability - the level can not pass... but not this remark gives me says "NO" to this hack. I'm all for interesting pitches, but...

In Wily's Castle 1 - The palette hurts the eyes. It was unpleasant to pass. The boss, though original, but the palette - selected extremely... poorly. Because black objects merge with the enemy, and the red color of the stimulus...

Okay, went through it... But I came across a BUG that completely RUINED MY DAY. I accidentally jumped up when I was Bomb man. And, the game doesn't let me go any further... And start the game again. FROM THE BEGINNING.

This BUG is critical. Be careful, and that's why I say NO. Don't be disappointed with the mistake - the price in *just play*

This hack was awesome to play through. Clever level design and some enemy tweaks are here, which is the key thing I'd look for in a hack, but this has so much more than that. The levels are bursting with color and life more akin to that present in Megaman 2 than in the original, which compliments the good design throughout. Paired with an awesome selection of new music from Battle Network, Zelda, Golden Sun, and more, the whole package is just fantastic.

Difficulty is about on par with the original (maybe a little more difficult overall), so I can easily recommend this to any fans of the Megaman series. You won't be disappointed!

This is a pretty solid hack with many interesting worlds to explore. Of course, what drew me in was the screenshot of those crazy white and pink blocks that look almost like those that produce eggs in Yoshi's Story, but there are many strange, colorful environments. One of my favorites - and one of the strangest - is Fire Man's stage, which starts out in a forest, but goes to outer space, and then... I'm not really sure where, but it's quite a ride! The Wily stages all look great, too, especially the beautiful underwater pastels of the final stage, which has a great surprise near the beginning that I don't have the heart to spoil here. The new weapon palettes are spectacular, as well. Some of the weapons were even tweaked a bit, and their new functions are better than ever!

There are a few slight drawbacks, but nothing major. There's all new music, and there are some great tunes, but a few can hit some shrill notes that don't quite work. The boss weaknesses are rearranged, which is fine, but instead of being one big circle, it's 2 small triangles now, so if you like using weapons against the bosses, that's cut down a bit here. Still, great enough to recommend to any Mega Man fan, and you don't have to abuse states to get through it!

I didn't know what I was expecting when I started it up, but it surprised me in a lot of good ways. The enemies were pretty challenging, but not in any way incredibly cheap, and the bosses were hell of a lot of fun to fight this time around. Though there were a couple of times I had to abuse the savestate, but this was me due to lack of skill, and nothing anything to do with the romhack. I especially like the music he put into this, it gives MM1 a bit of fresh air instead of hearing the same tunes over, and over again.

Overall this a is very good one, I recommend it.

It is a good hack with new levels. All the levels were redone and they were well designed. The enemies placement are well structured in the levels.

The bosses patterns were redone or updated. Their weaknesses were changed as well. In general, they became more difficult to defeat.

The difficulty is moderated in the initial levels but it increases considerably in the final levels. It is necessary to effectively use the bosses weapons to progress in them.

This issue may be related with my emulator. In one of the final levels, where a sunset is present, Megaman and all enemies have a black palette. It probably is intentional and doesn't affect the gameplay. However, the counters of Megaman health and his weapons becomes black as well and their levels of energy aren't displayed. It only happens specifically in one of the final levels. All other levels are unaffected.