The “geometric snake bit in #3” – are you talking about the twin beams of fire? That reminds me of the death beams section of Quick Man’s stage in Mega Man 2. You can use Flash Man’s weapon to stop time in the boss fight to take off half of his health, but playing it without Game Genie I always have to burn it atopping time to get past the death beams so I’m stuck with the regular weapon for Quick Man. It’s still an easy game.

Mega Man 4/5/6 – I had all of these and I didn’t see them as any kind of “second trilogy”, but just as the three games after Mega Man 3, even more evolved (we weren’t caught up in an NES “canon”, we just played the games), since number six was the first Mega Man game not to break new ground (2: eight bosses, E tanks, passwords; 3: slide; 4. charged shot; 5. Beat and the MEGAMANV letters in the stages when all collected you get a bonus, I forget which). Best series on the NES, tied with Dragon Warrior.