So I finally played the game for about an hour and, I'm not gonna lie, I was really frustrated through most of it. Honestly, I don't even really mind that much the art design or the recycled gameplay or even the goofy cut scenes. What bothered me was how buggy and unfair the game was.
The first thing I did was go to the Options Menu in which I was greeted by an aggravatingly long loading screen. Then I started the game itself, and the opening level was nice enough, except during the boss fight, the game seemed to momentarily freeze as I was trying to dash over the boss. Now, I do have the disc version of the game, so maybe this doesn't happen in the digital version, but frankly that shouldn't happen in any version of the game.
Then I played Might No. 1's stage and became almost immediately frustrated with the number of stupid ways I died throughout the level. Like falling down a pitfall that was not clearly indicated and had no time to react to, or discovering that you apparently can't walk all the way across a falling platform before it falls, or those ridiculous falling towers at the end (I maintain that the only way to get past that final stretch with the falling towers and the fireballs is just pure dumb luck). And then I got to final boss, fought him two or three times and lost every time.
Then I did Mighty No. 2's stage and couldn't even make it to the boss. I died once while navigating the instant death free-fall, but what really did me in was the wrench mini-boss. Like…somehow that bouncing ball knows exactly where I'm going to be at any time. And then during the second round you have to deal with the ice attacks. Also, I'd like to add that I kept glitching into the ice stacks. After that, I changed the settings so that I would have 9 lives instead of 2, because fuck this game.
Finally, I did Mighty No. 3's stage and that actually went fairly well. Except, of course, when I got to the infamous turbines that you have to "Crouch Dash" under. You know, that thing that the game never ever told you how to do? Oh wait, no, it told you about it in the friggin' tips menu. I mean...there's barely any difference in the animation between a crouch dash and a regular dash anyway. But anyway, I beat the level and got my first power-up. Yay.
Now, to be fair, I think part of the issue is that I still need to get used to how this game plays (if I had known about the energy reserve thing, I probably could've beaten Mighty No. 1), but a lot of it I think is also shoddy game design. I know Mega Man games can be challenging, but I don't recall them ever being this hard or unfair (well, except Rockman and Bass, but that game can eat me). And I'm not sure the game designers really knew at what pace this game should be played. They give you this cool dash mechanic that lets you go faster, but then the game seems to punish you for using it by leading you into instant death traps that you could never see coming (kind of like playing a Sonic game). And for that matter, the dash mechanic is kinda clunky in that I never quite know exactly how far I'm going to go or where I'm going to land, or I inevitably end up in some impossible situation where I want to dash into an enemy, but will, subsequently, send myself careening towards death in the process.
So yeah, not a great first impression, but I guess I'll keep at it. Star Fox Zero didn't make a great first impression on me either, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Here's hoping MN9 can do the same.