The game is demanding, but fair-checkpoints are well placed, power-ups are sparse but sufficient, and there's always at least one weapon or technique that makes each challenge easier to surmount (hence why I'm not knocking off a whole point for those dastardly Foot Holders). Pattern recognition plays a large role in survival (the moving platforms in Guts Man's stage, those sneaky disappearing bricks, etc.), but even after cracking a pattern, there's still some serious skill required. A vertical level (Elec Man) and an autoscrolling level (Wily 3) add more creativity to the mix. +2 Stages: There's a great balance of enemy-based challenges, environmental hazards, tricky platforms, and even a puzzle or two. Otherwise, the precision in this game is downright impressive compared with its contemporaries (and, indeed, compared to most any other platformer since). +0 Control: Mega Man's a little slippery when coming to a complete stop, and it's a little obnoxious that you can't pause while one of your projectiles is still on the screen. +2 Sound Effects: Mega Man introduces a host of distinctive sound effects that will become staples of the series, and the sounds the special weapons make are particularly fun and satisfying. +1 Music: These tunes set the standard of hummable, high-energy music with a good beat, but the relatively rough sound quality and short loops on some of the tracks serve as a reminder that this is still an early NES game. +0 Graphics: While certainly above average as far as games of the time period go, simple backgrounds and enemy designs with a basic amount of detail make for less of a visual feast than later installments. Either way, do you really need an excuse to go blow up robots? +0 Story: There's no story to speak of, if you're just going by what's presented in the game, but the instruction manual's "stop mad scientist from taking over the world" plot is perfectly adequate for a platformer from this era.
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