Mega Man - The Hedgehog Trap

Levels: Good

Graphics: Good

Music: No Change (new music for one stage)

Enemies: Good

Bosses: Good

Weapons: Eh (Shadow Blade is the only weapon that’s changed)

Castle: Good

Difficulty: MEDIUM-HARD

Comments: Despite the cute idea of throwing Mega Man into 8-bit Sonic zones, the Hedgehog Trap is, well, a trap. It’s a stunningly difficult hack that demands a lot of your patience, as enemies have more health and some of the platforming is very unforgiving (the sawblades in Scrap Brain zone are hellish.) A unique twist that the Hedgehog Trap employs (besides the well-rendered Sonic zones) is that it has you facing off against the Doc Robots first, and then pits you against two “regular” robot masters per stage at the standard Doc Robot section. While a couple of these bosses aren’t too bad, you’ll run into a lot of resistance here, especially without a checkpoint placed before some of them like the dreaded Top Man (seriously, he’s the worst). The good news is that the game gets more merciful towards the end (finally, some E-tanks!) but you’ll have to suffer through a lot to get to that point. It’s a pretty good challenge and has some clever design at certain sections, but it lacks the balance and elegance found in better hacks.