But despite being flimsy, the story is presented with high quality animated cutscenes. If you love late 90's anime then you'll love this. The English dubbing is terrible, however.

It's perfect for chilling out to, with the exception of a few intentionally ominous tracks. But everything here is excellent.

It's a truly fantastic soundtrack attached to a game it doesn't jive with. You may or may not find this weirdness endearing.

MM8 adds some twists, though.

Another fresh idea is the Rush Bike, which transforms Rush in to a super fast, missile-launching motorcycle that Mega Man can ride for 40 seconds. It isn't particularly useful, but at least it's kind of fun to see how far you can get before time runs out.

Each Rush ability is unlocked by defeating a level's mini-boss, which to me doesn't feel like a satisfying way to get them. But your mileage may vary.

And adding yet another wrinkle to the already prune-like MM8 is the item shop, which returns from Mega Man 7. Bolts can be collected throughout the levels and used to buy items to aid Mega Man. Although the usefulness of these items is hit and miss. Energy Saver, for instance, increases the ammo of special weapons. Pretty good, right? But then there's Speed Step which makes Mega Man climb ladders faster and I can only assume it was included as a prank.

Another, more controversial feature is carried over from MM7, too. Once again, you aren't allowed to tackle the bosses in any order you want to. You can only access 4 levels at first, and beating them unlocks the remaining 4 levels. So your freedom is cut in half compared to typical Mega Man games.

It's a trade-off.

MM8 isn't stingy about letting you use these weapons, either. Half way through each level is a checkpoint that completely refills special weapon ammo as well as Rush abilities. Dying also results in a total refill. So you're encouraged to really spam them.

As far as fundamental game mechanics go, the worst criticism I can think of is that Mega Man's running speed is oddly slow. It isn't gamebreaking or anything, but it makes you think "huh, wish he ran a little faster".

Other times, they'll hit you with what seems like filler. A section in Astro Man's level involves looking for the exit in an abstract maze that infinitely loops around on iself. The handful of enemies in this section pose no challenge, so the only thing it really tests is your patience.

And that's the issue here. Although the level design never sinks to being bad in my opinion, it swings wildly from being "good" to "sort of okay", and the incosistency can be downright frustrating because you know it could be so much more, but it isn't. Oh, and sometimes a level will turn in to a sidescrolling shooter. Yeah. When I say it's all over the place I'm not kidding.

Whether you enjoy it or not depends on your tolerance for game design that's inconsistent and sometimes even self-contradictory. It's certainly possible to love MM8, but man, it ain't easy.