Pyroclastica

This is a completely faithful port and I honestly don’t know any reason to play it over the SNES original (or one of the billion other ports of this game)
There are saves (you don’t have to use the passwords every time), but the save system has the exact same constraints as the password system. It won’t save Hadouken if you get it, and it won’t save which Sigma level you’re on (like if you leave a Sigma level, grind for lives, get a password, and come back. None of that is saved)
Yes I did learn this the hard way and yes I have beat every boss in this game a minimum of 3 times now.
That out of the way, this game has an amazing reputation for a reason. The NES Mega Man games, while awesome, really did go as far as they could, and Mega Man X has a ton of new ideas.
Probably also lives where most would consider to be the sweet spot on the difficulty curve. It’s easy enough that anyone can beat it, but not so easy that it feels like there’s no gameplay. The wins feel very, very earned.
Capcom used to really now how to wring out that SNES sound chip. It’s hard to believe a 33 year old game, which wasn’t even on a CD, can sound this good. The highs are extremely high
(Then again, to be fair, there are also some theme songs which are very annoying. They can’t all be bangers)
Mega Man X also keeps around one of my favorite parts of all Mega Man games: Getting into the boss fight several times, failing and running out of lives several times, and having to figure out how to speed run the level. You just cannot do that as a game designer if the movement mechanics do not feel satisfying, and every level feels great to play and move around in
Filing as “still holds up,” with the caveat about the save system above

Mega Man X