Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Retroware is back, this time with an 8-bit game based on the Angry Video Game Nerd. It's a total Mega Man clone, from how the stages are set up to the way the game plays, and thankfully, this isn't a shitty game that sucks ass. It's actually pretty good!
This is a full playthrough of the highest difficulty, Hard As Balls. This game has easy, normal, and hard mode equivalents, and while I've never played it on easy, the normal and hard difficulties have some notable differences. On normal, the weapon powerup gives you three bars, and if you get hit, you can recollect the piece you lost if you're quick enough. On hard, the powerups only give you one bar, and getting hit means it's lost forever. There are also more enemies in certain places on hard mode, and you take a little more damage. I think enemies have a little more health too, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Hard has a nice level of difficulty to it, and it really makes you learn how to deal with everything using just your default shot, because it's much harder to reach the bosses while powered up. The bosses aren't too hard though, aside from Super Mecha Death Christ Version 4.1 Beta Bitch. I got to him while powered up in this video, and I killed him right before his hardest attack, where he rapidly goes through all of his attacks one after another. I was thinking of including another fight with him at the default power level, but maybe I'll do that in another video...
Quick note: I did every stage without dying, but it was non-consecutive. I'm just too short on time right now, but I would like to do a proper run from start to finish. It's not too tricky once you've got all of the dangerous stuff memorized. The last boss doesn't give you much room for error though, so you'll really want to get him down before doing a full run.
The only thing that really bugged me about this are some visibility issues. A lot of old games have desaturated backgrounds to help you clearly and instantly identify what's interactable and what it isn't. This game doesn't really do that, so sometimes it's hard to see things you can jump on, or even enemies or bullets coming at you. Of course it becomes less of an issue once you play it enough and know where everything is, but it's a little annoying. Other than that, I had fun playing this.
If you like Mega Man, you'll probably like this game, but of course it's aimed at fans of the Angry Video Game Nerd. If you like both of those things, this game might be for you!
0:00 Intro
7:29 The Devil
12:41 Speziman
17:10 T.P.
21:50 Letule
28:10 Festerdrome
35:13 F-14 Tomcat
40:43 Super Mecha Death Christ
46:35 Last Boss
48:10 Ending & Credits
AVGN 8-bit will be available on October 23rd, for Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and Steam, and there's a demo available if you'd like to try it out yourself. Check it out!
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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
Retroware is back, this time with an 8-bit game based on the Angry Video Game Nerd. It's a total Mega Man clone, from how the stages are set up to the way the game plays, and thankfully, this isn't a shitty game that sucks ass. It's actually pretty good!
This is a full playthrough of the highest difficulty, Hard As Balls. This game has easy, normal, and hard mode equivalents, and while I've never played it on easy, the normal and hard difficulties have some notable differences. On normal, the weapon powerup gives you three bars, and if you get hit, you can recollect the piece you lost if you're quick enough. On hard, the powerups only give you one bar, and getting hit means it's lost forever. There are also more enemies in certain places on hard mode, and you take a little more damage. I think enemies have a little more health too, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Hard has a nice level of difficulty to it, and it really makes you learn how to deal with everything using just your default shot, because it's much harder to reach the bosses while powered up. The bosses aren't too hard though, aside from Super Mecha Death Christ Version 4.1 Beta Bitch. I got to him while powered up in this video, and I killed him right before his hardest attack, where he rapidly goes through all of his attacks one after another. I was thinking of including another fight with him at the default power level, but maybe I'll do that in another video...
Quick note: I did every stage without dying, but it was non-consecutive. I'm just too short on time right now, but I would like to do a proper run from start to finish. It's not too tricky once you've got all of the dangerous stuff memorized. The last boss doesn't give you much room for error though, so you'll really want to get him down before doing a full run.
The only thing that really bugged me about this are some visibility issues. A lot of old games have desaturated backgrounds to help you clearly and instantly identify what's interactable and what it isn't. This game doesn't really do that, so sometimes it's hard to see things you can jump on, or even enemies or bullets coming at you. Of course it becomes less of an issue once you play it enough and know where everything is, but it's a little annoying. Other than that, I had fun playing this.
If you like Mega Man, you'll probably like this game, but of course it's aimed at fans of the Angry Video Game Nerd. If you like both of those things, this game might be for you!
0:00 Intro
7:29 The Devil
12:41 Speziman
17:10 T.P.
21:50 Letule
28:10 Festerdrome
35:13 F-14 Tomcat
40:43 Super Mecha Death Christ
46:35 Last Boss
48:10 Ending & Credits
AVGN 8-bit will be available on October 23rd, for Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and Steam, and there's a demo available if you'd like to try it out yourself. Check it out!
-----
Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
