Mega Man X

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom (Japan & US) / Nintendo (EU)
Release: 1993 (Japan) / 1994 (US & EU)

After starting the blog with a rather obscure game last time, I decided to follow up with a much more popular one. Mega Man X, or Rockman X, is one of the most popular games on the system, easily eclipsing its sequels and even Mega Man 7.

Before I start with the review itself, there are two things I'd like to mention. First, according to the German manual, Zero is female. I don't know if this is an error or if Zero was originally intended to be a chick, but most likely it was just a mistake by a translator who obviously didn't have much of a connection with the game. He probably just glanced at the artwork, saw the long, blonde hair and concluded that it's a girl. The other thing is that, as a kid, I bought a defective cartridge of this game on a flea market. Every time after X got stunned by Veil in the introductory stage, the game would reset to the title screen. As a kid who couldn't even read the English dialogue, I concluded that you had to defeat Veil to move on and kept trying it for weeks. I was eventually told by a friend that my game was defective and got a working copy much later.

Mega Man X is a huge technical improvement over the calssic series, even compared to Mega Man 7, which came out a year after X was released. Enemies explode, metal scraps fly around and the sprites are much more detailed. However, the gameplay is where it counts, and that's where I think the X series actually took a step backwards. With more complex graphics came more complex gameplay, and you can now upgrade Mega Man (who is really only called "X" in this game) by picking up hearts, energy tanks which can be refilled with common health pickups and armor upgrades. This throws off the game's balance - you basically have to start the game in Chill Penguin's stage to get the dash, and if you pick up the special armor in Sting Chameleon's stage early on, the remaining Maverick stages generally become too easy. But once you hit Sigma's fortress, Capcom expects you to be upgraded, and if you are missing most items, the game becomes nearly impossible. The worst effect of this mechanic is that it puts people who use FAQs (something I hate doing) at a huge advantage, as a more skilled player who simply can't find most of the absurdly well hidden items will have a much harder time completing the game. A similar argument can be made about the boss fights - there's simply too much going on there, and it takes away from the task of figuring out and adapting to a clearly visible pattern, which should be the centerpiece of a good boss fight.

Fortunately, most of these issues aren't really that apparent in the SNES games and especially not in the original entry to the X series. Mega Man X is still a blast to play - the armor upgrade, which is easily the most important item in the game, isn't that hard to find, and most bosses can be conquered with practice. Aside from the final battle against Veil (where you're actually supposed to win) and the fight against Sigma, this game is actually a little on the easy side once you've played it a few times. But even then, great graphics and an awesome soundtrack will get you pumped for an action-packed game that remains being tons of fun almost twenty years after its original release.

Conclusion: Despite my long rant about how some of the X series' new features take something away from the core gameplay, I'm still a huge fan of Mega Man X. This game is easily on par with my favorite entries in the classic series, and even today, I'm still enjoying it as much as I did when I finally got a working cartridge more than ten years ago. Mega Man X is a true classic that stood the test of time and manages to surpass many of its later sequels, which featured 3D graphics and other technological advancements, but far less impressive gameplay.

Rating: 9/10 (Great)