Best Mega Man on NES?

[DevilRising]

Here's the thing. Personal opinions and tastes aside, ALL six Mega Man games on NES are classic, GOOD games. My personal choices are MM2 and 6.

And the later entries in the series certainly added key things: sliding, Rush, the Mega Buster charger shot, etc.

But the fact of the matter is, out of all of them, Mega Man 2 is the only one that is a complete, TOTAL package game, and there are specific reasons for that. Mega Man 1 was a shot in the dark, a new concept they were messing with. And it was good, but it didn't sell well enough to warrant a sequel. BUT, Capcom allowed Inafune and Co. to make a sequel, IN their spare time, while also developing another game. And thus, Mega Man 2 was labor of love, purely a passion project, and it shines through every pixel and tune and stage design and boss, etc.

It is the most "flawless" Mega Man, in that yes, it COULD be "better" with a slide and the charge shot, but it doesn't NEED them. And it is one of the greatest games of all time, from the soundtrack, to the graphics that still hold up today, to the excellent bosses everyone remembers, arguably the best Wiley's Castle, the most popular weapon in the series (Metal Blade), etc.

All the MM NES games have something notable about them, something classic, and I'm sure to SOME fan, somewhere, each one is someone's favorite. But for my money, MM2 is the flagship title of the entire franchise (along with MMX and MMV on Game Boy), because it just stands out as THE title that really defined the character. And hell, if Inafune still calls it his favorite, and the "best" Blue Bomber game...then who are we to argue?