Seemed more mechanical to me. The mystical part lies with the "Snake room" as I like to call it. Y'know, with the giant snake you have to ride on and stuff.
Well, the tribe Knuckles and Tikal came from was -very- advanced in their time period, even the Echidnas from brotherhood had highly advanced Gizoids. And Oil Ocean was most likely an abandoned oil station that was flooded with oil too. But that's a diffrent series altogether.
I kinda thought that there were SOME out-of-place areas too. In Mega Man 8 in Astro Man's stage? Mets. Although they are a staple, I think they don't really fit in a stage that's almost constantly moving, changing, and a giant pit altogether.
Plus they aren't very space-ey.. But alas, they are the most COMMON enemy in the game, you find these herds in many stages. yep.