Beat in 30 frames per second mode. I started with gravity man, which was not the worst choice since he was weak to the star shield. The gravity attack was interesting as it seemed to hit the entire screen and instantly remove enemies. I used it for some annoyingly placed enemies like the shield guys, though sometimes it took more than 1 shot. Next was stone man as I figured gravity would wreck the heaviest thing. No but I did use gravity up on him. The stone attack expanded in a circle outward over the entire screen, making it useful for hitting above and below, though it was difficult to actually hit with it. Next was crystal man as I figured stone would smash, but no and this was a very tough fight that took a lot of save scumming to avoid his bouncy balls. The crystal shot was interesting because it broke into 3 bouncy projectiles upon hitting a wall. I liked running into a wall while shooting it so 1 projectile would zoom behind me towards the boss while the others flew through the air to minimize the chance of a boss dodging. It sucked to not be able to shoot again until all projectiles were gone. Next was gyro man for no reason. I had no idea what would counter him, but it was obvious once I seen him and thought helicopter man. His attack was the best in the game because it could be changed in direction up or down. It was cheap to shoot and great for hitting enemies at different elevations. Next was wave man though I was not sure if it meant water or or energy or what would counter it either way. He was somewhat tough to beat. His water shot moved along the floor, falling down with gravity so it was great for hitting lower enemies. Next was napalm man as I figured water would counter fire. He was not so much fire element as war themed and I actually had the proper weapon. His bomb weapon did not shoot far but moved along the ground for a bit and fell with gravity. Good thing it had proximity detonation or it would have sucked. Next was charge man only because I wanted to save star man for last. I was not sure if he was electric themed or more like hard man. He ended up being train themed, which was lame. The charge kick was a melee attack attached to the slide, even worse than the top spin. Last was star man, who I mostly killed with the gyro shot, though I did finish him off with water. So I failed to have the appropriate weapon for more of the bosses than not.

The optimal order would be star, gravity, gyro, crystal, napalm, stone, charge, wave. Though stone was not difficult and could be another starting point.

The bosses in the first castle were more like additional robot bosses, with easy patterns to learn and 1 specific weapon that countered them. I did not collect all the letters to get Beat. The bosses in Wily's castle were very annoying. The first with the 2 spinning platforms in its body took me a while to figure out that shooting the platforms was what caused them to come out. Next was the big flying thing with 2 moving platforms. This was by far the most difficult fight because of the unpredictable way it flew around, especially not leaving room to avoid contact damage. I had to use an E tank to stay alive, but the killing part was not difficult. Since weapon ammo was not restored for the entire 2 castles, I was running a bit low by the time I got to the robot boss gauntlet and did not have enough to entirely kill each with their weakness. In particular I was completely out of stone and S arrow, low on star, and about 50% for everything except gyro which was the best weapon and thus got most ammo pick ups. Wily's first form was tedious, waiting for his saucer to smash down. The next tank fight was good but the final hide and seek battle was pretty much the same as the final battle in 4, only slightly more difficult this time. Thus it was more tedious than fun as I switched between the standard weapon and gyro depending on his altitude. I used the charged up shot more often than in 4 and found that this game was a bit better balanced and more fun than 4. Even though most of the game was already seen in previous Mega Mans this was still one of the best NES games.

8.5/10