Little lttp with this one (courtesy of a lovely seasonal bug) but in case you missed it, check out some young’uns trying to finish one level of the original Mega Man.

So, what gets me is that I was 7 when this came out and was able to handle it. Then MM2 followed not long after, and that cemented my love for not just the character but the design philosophy and general gameplay concepts as well.

The fact most of these folks don’t experiment with the buttons, or identify enemy patterns and behavior is a little telling to me. I might be reaching, but I’m guessing it’s due to being raised mostly on mobile / browser games in the late 00s. We may not think NES games are all that demanding, but it’s true they don’t explicity tell you what to do, what your goal is or offer you hints when you die. That alone makes it seem much harder than many games today that hand you advice or even plainly state your next objective. So, I kinda get why so many aspects of Mega Man (and several ’80s games) are so foreign to kids born way later.

Regardless, it’s a fun video and the kids here are great sports. It’s the latest in a long running series of REACT videos so check ’em out !

And FWIW, I’m sure there are modern games these folks can destroy that I’d blankly stare at becuase the visual vocabulary of modern games is so different from the ’80s / ’90s. It’s almost like people have different life experiences and we should be OK with that!