I think a lot of people would be surprised by this review, like, come on! This should be the definitive experience!

Unfortunately, to keep this review short-ish, It’s not, personally. I think this hack could be the definitive version of the first Megaman World, but sadly I don’t think it can be just yet. The coloring is a bit weird at times, and quite personally I think a lot of the stage palettes don’t fit or make much sense, like Elecman’s palette (why is it purple?) or what Cutman’s stage is doing. The enemy palettes are fine for the most part, but it’s weird how things like Elecman’s stage hazards are an oddly colored blue, or the Mets are a skin color instead of Yellow. I also noticed that the weapon colors for Rolling Cutter and Thunder Beam are basically identical.

Perhaps the most striking oversight to me was during the ending cutscene; Mega Man’s darker blue is used just for shading; so even the “pants” he wears during that cutscene are the lighter blue like the rest of him!

But not all is bad. The weapon icons are a nice touch (although they are missing from the actual pause menu), and the fact it also works in Wily’s Toolbox without a hitch is something to applaud. It’s also very nice the author considered that the LCD colors would look washed out on a real GBC’s screen.

By the way, the game outright crashes when forced to boot on original DMG/Monochrome models. (For comparison, Mega Man World 5 DX has a “For GBC Only” screen).

However, as it stands I think this hack could use a bit more polish. The hack is nonetheless great, but I think the author could have spent some extra time fixing a good few oversights, and polishing it up a little. It may not be the definitive way to play this game, but it certainly is another reason to pick up and play this game! From that alone I had a blast revisiting the stages and seeing what my muscle memory retained after a decent bit of time!

Overall, I’d (personally) give it a 7/10. Acceptable, but could use a bit more work.

I wish I could do more than a flat “Yes” or “No” for the recommend segment. As if you want to play the definitive Mega Man World 1 experience, you might want to wait for an addendum patch. But if you’re itching to replay the GB games again or are looking for an excuse to dump some time into another Mega Man game, then I would say it’s worth checking out!