The game’s boxart
Going from Rock Man World 1 to 2, it felt like the games were moving in the good direction. Level design was still bad but got better. The game felt better to play. It was starting to feel more like a Mega Man game.
That last point is possibly the only one still true here. This game is a massive and very unfortunate step backwards for no good reason.
Gemini Man… looks very familiar
Starting with level design, it took a major hit. Many of the stages are entirely unfair; not impossible, but very clearly deliberately designed to be as annoying as possible. It is so flagrant at times it is kind of maddening.
The Weapon Get screen once again
Somehow, also, the game feels much worse to play than the previous ones. Part of this is the slowdown present in-game, which is not entirely unexpected as they are doing a lot with the Game Boy. But alongside this slowdown, the controls are all off. The game suffers from horrible input lag. I know it isn’t an emulation issue as it is not present in the other games, which makes it all the more baffling.
The GB games have some nice small cutscenes at times
As with the previous games, it starts you off with 4 Robot Masters before moving to the Wily stages and giving you 4 more. This time the game moves back to the Robot Master selection screen for these 4 extra, and then moves back to the Wily stages.
Once again, a 9th Robot Master is here and is again a standout in the game. The power you get from this one is necessary to damage one of the Wily machine forms, but it’s not a big deal.
Mega Man is feeling content, and is not in space this time for some reason
In the end, this game felt very frustrating to play. It simply does not feel good and wants you to know it hates you at most turns. Where Rock Man World 1 felt bad because it felt primitive like Mega Man 1 was, this one simply feels bad because it’s not great. What happened here?