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This isn't the first or only Mega Man hack to have puzzle-focused level design, but it's the best I've played of them. If such a thing were to exist, Mega Man 4 is the best candidate, since you have 5 utilities, rather than the usual 2 or 3, and that gives puzzles a bit more variety. The hacker is smart enough to know that you only start out with Rush Coil, so that's all you'll need for the 8 robot masters, but if you managed to get some of the other utilities before reaching certain stages, you'll find that they make your life easier; it's a very good example of layered design. There are also moments of sheer brilliance, like in Pharaoh Man's stage; the checkpoint dumps you into a room with a few blocks and a very high wall. Now, you can get out with Rush Coil, but it's much easier to use the Balloon Adaptor, and guess where you get dumped off when you find it. The level design generally does a great job of teaching you how to use your utilities to get around, and might even hone your Mega Man skills even further; I finally figured out how to get that 1-up at the end of Cassock Stage 3 after 25 years. You really have to think about how to progress.

Now, there are a few problems in the design, mostly related to a lot of trial-and-error scenarios, so states might be recommended. The 2 biggest issues are going downward to the next screen and regular jumps. The regular jumps are sometimes spaced just far enough apart that you don't know whether a pixel-perfect leap will make it, or if you'll need Rush Coil, and you also don't know when an enemy is just waiting to jump out at you and screw up your efforts. Going downward often leaves you with 2 or more choices as to where, and you'll almost always die if you choose the wrong one; the screen scrolls slowly enough that you're at least given the courtesy of being able to get out a good, "Noooooooooo!" before being dashed to little robo-bits on the spikes below. It might also have been nice to have implemented a weapon select on the Select button or something, because you're switching pretty often, but the pacing with this is pretty consistent, so it's not as annoying; it's not nearly as irritating as it is in, say, Crystalis.

No new enemy behavior, boss weaknesses, weapons, graphics, or music, but I'm fine with that; the hack had a singular focus, and pulled it off pretty well. I also like that the title clues you in to how the levels are going to play out, so that you approach them with the appropriate mindset. The stages each have new palettes, and most of them are pretty subtle, but between them and the new layouts, you'll have moments of occasional beauty. The water at the bottom of Drill Man's stage was a nice touch, for instance, and Dust Man's stage has a lot of mint green with a little purple that reminds me of a mix of cabbages on a spring morning or maybe Level 4 from the NES version of Tetris. Wily Stage 1 is pink with purple water, which crafted a lovely Rush Marine section. Perhaps my favorite was Dive Man's stage; the canisters were filled with green and black, like some sort of hideous algae, but as you went deeper down, they lit up like fire, as they looked in the original; it was a great visual effect. If you're looking for a good Mega Man 4 hack and don't mind that its focus is more on puzzles than action, this is it!

A new game to explore? The only new thing is the colours. The enemy placement, enemy colours, weakness are still the same.

The level design isn´t bad, but BORING, since you have to pause and switch to the coil a lot in the levels. This makes the levels boring to keep going, even placing energy to fill it, which is very appreciated. Thumbs up for that.

I have to admit that few parts of the levels were interesting, like the wrapper position.

But even with those issues, this hack isn´t bad (I mean, it could be worst). Even myself preferring new colours to enemies, new distribution and new weakness (if you truly want to give a new life to the game, starts with that).

If you don´t care about wasting time switch weapons every time or want a rom that takes a while to beat, you will like this hack, but others should get boring while playing it (like me).

Simply the best MM hack EVER.

I have to admit that there are a few things that I don't like too much, such as the few pixel jumps and the way you HAVE to use R. Coil in a lot of places while you may run out of it (though Schwa DID add items to refill weapons energy near those places, most of the time).

Other than that, the level design is GREAT and the new art in the last stages fit in perfectly.

If you need to play ONE Megaman hack, play this one, just like if you want to play ONE SMB3 hack you need to play Schwa's Chaos Control.