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Megaman 1 - The New Lands Remastered

Levels: Excellent

Graphics: Excellent

Music: Good

Enemies: Excellent

Bosses: Excellent

Weapons: Excellent

Castle: Good (Platforming Heavy)

Difficulty: EASY-MEDIUM

Comments: The New Lands Remastered is an odd misnomer—its more of a full-fledged sequel than a loyal remake. Everything from the original hack (barring the music) has been altered, and nearly all of it for the better. Stages evolve from clever to downright brilliant, utilizing unique hazards and frequently tossing platforming puzzles your way. The visuals have been overhauled to be sleek, impressive, and cohesive, making it way easier to parse important information. Enemies have transformed from slightly-altered baddies to an assortment of fresh new faces with some ingenious attacks. And bosses have received the most absurd glow-up imaginable, now possessing three distinct attacks on top of a new movement AI. Perhaps the only thing I have to caution new players about is that Wily 3 & 4 utilize a lot of insta-death platforming, but as long as you're ready for that challenge, then The New Lands Remastered will not disappoint. Play this expertly-crafted hack to remember just what it is you love about Mega Man.

This hack really is an improvement over the original New Lands, though it might be closer to a remake than a remaster. The revamped graphics are more detailed and especially impressive for using Mega Man 1 as a base. The new music is a treat to listen to as well, with a host of new Mega-Man-styled covers for the player to enjoy. The redone level design and stage gimmicks are pretty solid too, although some of them are harder than they were in the original New Lands. None of the stage gimmicks are too hard for series veterans, however, so experienced players should still be able to reasonably figure them out. The new boss patterns are great too, though they're kind of a pain if you don't have the boss's weakness.

All in all, New Lands remains a treat to play, and earns its spot as one of the best Mega Man hacks out there.

Surprisingly, I did not enjoy playing this hack very much and therefore I can't say I recommend playing it. In my opinion it's over rated. I thought the music was bland, the levels were just ok, the enemy placement was kind of bad, the game was sort of dreary and not very fun. The Iceman stage was my least favorite as it was pitch dark, I could not see where I was going and there were no items or anything to guide me through it. This was confusing and frustrating to me. If the creator improves the part within the Iceman level in the future making it visible I may change my mind about this hack and perhaps recommend it.

I'll admit, while I did find many of the levels hard, most of it was fun hard. Along with some pretty good visuals and music, the stage design for the most part is really good.

... However, the last stage requires you to use the fire weapon in order to traverse the spiky corridors, and it DEMANDS perfection. You need to be perfect with the weapon, or you run out of ammo and become unable to clear the course. It's a frustrating, draining level and a disappointing way to end such a good hack.

Also, disappointing that Yellow Devil was replaced with a tiny eye guy. Lame.

First off, I just want to say that I appreciate and adore Timaeus' progression in their programming skills; I absolutely didn't see this coming, honestly. In fact, they've reached a point in their hacking career where they have the ability to make a "Mega Man 1 Unique Harassment" if they wanted to.

All the familiar faces, such as the Helipon's from 'Mega Man 4', Pakatto-24's also from 'Mega Man 4', Electriri's from 'Mega Man 11', a petite version of the Giant Suzy from 'Mega Man III' (Gameboy) and the Subeil from 'Mega Man 5' were all treats to see. All the new enemies, such as the stomping Roomba things, the mini tanks that shoot in any direction and the baby Changkey Makers were also cool to see. The new weapons were all powerful and fun to use, even Tin Man's weapon. Hunt Man's and Pyro Man's weapons even have floating abilities, making good replacements for the Magnet Beam, which is now replaced with an E-Tank that has 7 uses. Once again, the art was very beautiful and vibrant, and this extends to some of the enemies as well. The few new music tracks were splendid, especially the new fortress boss theme, and the removal of the scoring system from the base game was much needed. All the bosses were very well designed for the most part, and once I got their attack patterns down, I didn't have much trouble using their weaknesses. Oh, and the fact that you get a large life energy after every rematch in the final stage is the icing on the cake; a very important feature considering how tough the game can be.

Onto the cons, some of the enemies, especially the Roomba and the mini tank, can be frustrating to deal with without weapons, as they often appear in compacted areas, and once again, getting hit by tiny bullets that do 4 damage is not very fun. Pyro Man's weapon is expensive for the little vertical floating distance it has; in particular, there is a screen in one of the Wily stages that can eat all of Pyro Man's weapon ammo if a player wasn't sure how to get past it, causing a softlock. There is also a screen in another Wily stage where you have to make pixel-perfect movements to get past some Elec Beams, with hardly any "safe zones" to study the patterns in, and another screen where the timing of the exploding dynamites is off, causing the player to get hit by an explosion from behind; I recommend using Hunt Man's weapon during the whole section if you're struggling. In addition, I didn't know how to dodge Pyro Man's "fire clone" attack, and Cave Man had a bad habit of cornering the player often.

In short, this is not by any means a horrible game, as I have seen much worse from Chinese Mega Man hacks. Despite the game's difficulty being tough for casual players such as myself, I still recommend checking it out. Keep up the good work, Timaeus, and God bless!

As someone who has seen the progression of New Lands for a few years now, the end product here has been definitely impressive, to say the least. The game has been rebuilt into something far more distinct, with a lot of custom ASM that not only polishes some of the quirks in MM1's engine, but also creates brand new behaviors and mechanics that help make it stand out on its own. The new enemies/bosses are pretty challenging yet fun to take on, and the new weapons are entertaining to use, even if they are a little gimmicky. The custom music and graphics are pretty nice as well. Level design is pretty consistent for the most part, though a few sections in stages like Caveman and Wily 3 can get a bit too tough. Overall, though the final result here is definitely a contender for best Mega Man 1 hack.

If you disassemble everything in pieces, it will turn out like this:

• 1. Good graphical improvements in terms of levels, the atmosphere of locations and all bosses.
• 2. Slightly, but the music has been updated
• 3. Upgrade Bosses... Oh my God! Bosses have a different AI!? WITH THAT ALL!?
• 4. One completely new boss
• 5. Completely written from scratch enemies, elements and features
• 6. Completely redesigned abilities. In addition to the main functions - some have Additional

I agree with some people: "This is more complicated than the usual The New Lands", but do not forget that this hack has been completely reworked here. And now it feels like A DIFFERENT GAME ABOUT MEGAMAN.

Will it go to the players? Depends on your skill level in games.

I recommend it from myself and put the status: NEW GAME

I beat the original hack first recently, I feel like this one's level design is alot more frustrating. I think most things are improvements but specifically the level design is worse in some places.

I'd recommend the original The New Lands for the less seasoned players, though that one is still harder than the original Mega Man, I think it's easier than the remaster.

I like the updated robot masters, and the new gimmicks. I also like how the remaster *looks*.

Some stages are better than others, but I specifically had a problem with Cave Man's stage. That stage was unbelievably frustrating, and took me several tries to beat. I also don't like the enemy that makes Mega Man trip if he's on the ground. I liked the old layout alot more.

I like that Tint Man's "look up" section with the invisible tiles is alot easier to figure out. I think that's a really big improvement for that stage, but as a whole, I think I liked the old layout more. But both could be improved.

If I were to not compare it to the original, and rate it as its own hack, I'd say it's got alot of great things, but some stages can be really frustrating, I'd say its more suited for more skilled Mega Man players. Maybe veterans, but I'd argue this is more difficult than most of the official games.

I'm really impressed with the choice of weapons used for The News Lands Remastered. Two weapons are used for movement, and there is a substitution for the E-Tank. Some of the stages are challenging, but overall it isn't that difficult compared to Rockman CX or No Constancy (Hard). Make sure that you're playing on the 1.1 patch, as the original patch soft locks the game somewhere in the Wily portion of the hack.