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This hack is for the most part great. The level design of the eight robot masters is solid and challenging but not unfair. The wily stages rely on platforming and utilities, and while they are creative, if you die, you have to redo alot of parts to get back to where you were, which make it not fun to play. However, using save states make things alot more manageable.

The bosses were good. Some are better than others, but some of them were not changed enough to create a new strategy to defeat. But they were still challenging overall.

The weapons and their damage inputs are pretty much the same, unfortunately. At least the ammo is more balanced now, which was a nice attempt to balance them, but it was not a success since the bad damage input of the original Megamam 2 is unchanged.

The graphics are good here, and some stages were memorable because of them. I loved Wily 6 concept, Crash Man Stage, Metal Man stage and the touches of making the first screen of one fortress being the final screen of the last, creating the feel of progression!

The musics are better than Final Mix and are really good overall, but Wily 1's Cold Man song did not fit for a Wily Stage, though.

Overall, the hack gives a good experience for people that want some challenge, and it have nice themes going in (both musics and graphics). Just make sure to use save states on the Wily stages for a better and less boring experience in there.

Rockman GX VER

Levels: Excellent

Graphics: Okay (Occasionally Eh)

Music: Good

Enemies: Excellent

Bosses: Okay

Weapons: Okay (Few Changes)

Castle: Excellent

Difficulty: MEDIUM-HARD

Comments: GX's greatest strength is that it's one of the few hacks out there that manages to be challenging due to its enemy placement instead of spike placement. GX is excellent in the way it uses its foes, and this keeps up through the Wily stages as well (although Wily 3 has some tense platforming). All the new music is also a delight, though some tunes are significantly better and catchier than others. The only place GX seems to struggle is with its weapons and bosses: the former doesn't really change Mega Man's repertoire outside of rebalancing ammo usage, and not enough is done to add variety to the latter (Flash Man is the only interesting boss). Still, when it comes to stage design that's not dependent on tricky jumps, GX is top tier.

I play a lot of hacks, the Mega Mans chief among them, and one commonality is the level design that aggressively hates you, but you don't see much of that here. Around every turn, I expected the worst, and more often than not, it didn't happen. That isn't to say that you won't have to rely heavily on Items, but they're mostly to add more puzzles to the level structure, many of which do a good job, but a few are based upon new rules that you'd have to experiment a bit to figure out. There are a few hiccups in level design, like the split-second perfect timing required for the disappearing blocks in Metal Man's stage, and those awful beams in Quick Man's stage, but it's mostly fair. There's all new music, too, and a lot of it sounds familiar, but I can't identify it all. I did, however, hear music from several other Mega Man games, including the X series and even the ZX games.

What I like most about this hack is that it maintains the weirdness that you'd see in Mega Man 2, and even old NES games in general. Metal Man's stage has a background that's dark, but has inexplicable chartreuse decorations and platforms that look like something out of Transformers. Heat Man's stage has green blowtorches, and Quick Man's stage has this Ancient Robot Egypt thing going on. Bubble Man's stage might be my favorite; it starts out with a rainstorm in the darkest night, and goes underwater into some sort of cavern reminiscent of Mega Twins or World of Illusion. The Wily stages are also very cool, since the starting screen is always the boss room from the previous stage, adding a really neat continuity that wasn't there in the original. This is easily one of the best Mega Man 2 hacks out there!