I was just playing it for the first time. I played it for maybe 45 minutes before it crashed when I tried to switch it over to my second monitor (TV). I didn't beat the level and I thought it was pretty hard. Maybe I'm just too used to infinite tries from Shovel Knight and Gunvolt, but I wish MN9 had infinite tries too. This level is pretty long and it sucks having to replay all that to get back to where you were.
The first thing I noticed was that Beck's movement feels good. I think the game feels like what if after MMX they wanted to get back to basics with MM instead of going the other direction and get even more complex, like MMZ. I guess this feels like the Street Fighter 4 of Mega Man. You don't get a charge beam, slide, wall jump, or anything like that in what I played. It feels a lot like MM1 in that way. The only thing you get it your air dash, which can be done multiple times while in the air and lets you change directions in mid air. You can also use like a slide. It doesn't feel like there are any many limits on what you can do with the air dash or how many times you can do it. Proper and creative use of the air dash looks like is going to be the thing that sets good players apart.
I think the graphics are kind of lame looking still and I want the game to look more like the concept art. I don't know if I'm going to get that, but I don't really like the shiny CG look it has right now. I want it to look 2D, celshaded, anime, and all that. The character portraits also don't look good right now and don't even match the game's graphics.
Gunvolt is crazy hardcore batshit crazy anime badassness trying to one up the MMZ games, but is really not that much like Mega Man. Gunvolt is really its own thing, unlike MN9.