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Noting the particularly glowing reviews of this new release, I had high expectations for it, but was fairly disappointed.

Gameplay is very standard, and level design is inconsistent. There are some stand-out levels, but the rest are either boring or infuriating. Special mention has to go to this game's ice physics- they're atrocious. Needle Man's stage is putrid. Half of it is reused from the vanilla game's Wily stage 3, verbatim. Doc Needle is even worse, requiring you to jump out of a slide onto a small platform with a bulky enemy just before the 2nd boss door. The entire floor is covered in spikes, and their hitboxes are just tall enough that you cannot fall through the gaps without dying. It is the definition of foul. Top Man's stage was good at least, and had a fun gimmick (a quiz where you have to correctly guess what element comes from which game). I especially enjoyed Spark Man's stage. My highest commendations to the creator for that one. Did we really need to change the bosses' weaknesses around? Their behavior is identical to vanilla, so I see no reason to do so other than to make players waste time switching between weapons. Especially inexcusable is Search Snake being Shadow Man's weakness, since the snakes can't even hit Shadow Man while he's sliding. Also Doc Wind has an un-dodgable gust pattern why

The graphics, while pretty in isolation (like in the screenshots on this page), are really bad from a design standpoint. There is no clear separation between the foreground and background in most levels, and nowhere is this worse than the first stage I played, Magnet Man. When I dropped in at the start, I got seriously confused and was ready to drop the game almost immediately. The developer must've been in on the joke, as Wily 2 makes use of the confusion as a level hazard. This is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but I really don't like the clashing art styles. Like in Magnet Man's room, you have very detailed hooks and girders in the background, next to spiked pole graphics that look like something out of Super Mario World. Very disorienting. Doc Gemini looks nice at least.

The music leaves something to be desired. Most of it is just robot master themes lifted from the other NES games between 4-6. I would've preferred to have the vanilla music, in all honesty.

Overall, this hack is a very mixed bag. Between the awful levels, the boring levels, and the passable levels, I'd say just play Top Man and Spark Man, then shut it off.

I don't think I can stress enough how *good* this game looks. Every level had a mountain of care put into its graphical design and theming, leaving the finish product with a level of personality and polish near-unrivaled on the console. It doesn't hurt that the game is fun to play too! Level design is mostly solid, with the biggest flaws coming from some unforgiving platforming (as well as the occasional lack of contrast between objects you can platform on and background details). The difficulty is otherwise appropriate for a Mega Man hack, and accessible for those already familiar with the series. This is an instant romhacking classic, up there with the likes of Rockman 4: Minus Infinity and Rockman 3: Last of Mushroom Kingdom.

As promised, here is the boss weakness list for curious players: Magnet Man - Top Spin Needle Man - Magnet Missile Hard Man - Needle Cannon Snake Man - Hard Knuckle Shadow Man - Search Snake Gemini Man - Shadow Blade Spark Man - Gemini Laser Top Man - Spark Chaser

Metal Man - Gemini Laser Crash Man - Magnet Missile Flash Man - Top Spin Air Man - Needle Cannon Bubble Man - Hard Knuckle Flash Man - Spark Chaser Heat Man - Shadow Blade Wood Man - Search Snake

Turtle Dispenser - Shadow Blade Yellow Devil Mk.2 - Needle Cannon Holographic Mega Men - Shadow Blade Wily Machine 1 - Magnet Missile Wily Machine 2 - Hard Knuckle Gamma 1 - Spark Chaser Gamma 2 - Top Spin

Just played through so this is still fresh on my mind: this is a nice visual treat with a bit of other MM music spread throughout, which is nice but for the most part I'd probably prefer the original game's soundtrack or completely new tracks. The levels that had fresh gimmicks were neat, like the rotating stage. The multiple paths didn't impact much but it was nice to have the option. I mostly liked the new weakness order and some of them made for much easier fights (like Needle on the yellow demon). My major complaint is the ratio of to-the-edge jumps you have to make is a little high, I'd personally move about half of those 1 tile closer for a more Capcom level of difficulty. I do also wish the Wily bosses were different, maybe even just visually, but I know editing those are pretty difficult. Overall it's worth taking a look at and I bet if the creator revisits it a new version might be even better.

As always, I say: beautiful graphics, juicy and soundly made... and to this, such definitions FOR a HACK ARE NO EXCEPTION!

Honest and pleasant level design, balanced complexity. Although the music is not its own (that is, remixes from other games), but they fit well for these levels. There were different paths in the main (and secondary) paths

One downside: The bosses have not changed AI

Do you want something classic, but at the same time amazing - this hack is for you