Mega Man X (1994)

Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Capcom

Though they are related, the classic and X series are relatively distinct entities. X did not take up the torch, wholesale. Mega Man 7 saw release after this game, and eventually there was an 8, 9, 10, and 11. The defining differences are as follows:

Pros:

• The Mavericks, while still essentially Robot Masters, are animal-themed.
• X can wall-jump straight up singular walls.
• X can find Dr. Light capsules to power-up his legs, armor, helmet, and X-Buster.

Cons:

• X’s soundtrack is all screechy guitars and synths.
• Each entry attempts to shoe-horn in more and more story.
• Heavy emphasis on a new character, as the series progresses.

There’s an (ego-driven) reason that Zero is doted on, but that doesn’t mean it was done well, or was justified. It wasn’t. In fact, in a later entry, there exists a situation that clearly demonstrates that they were no longer bothering to play-test the games fully, FOR THE TITULAR CHARACTER. Zero is over-powered and there’s no weakness present in him to balance it out, as with Proto Man. How I love thee, my dear, sweet Proto Man 😍

If you’ve read almost any of my reviews here, or on the other Nut Blogs, you know that, in general, I play games for story. I play them for characters. There are times where skill is the primary focus, however, and the classic and Mega Man X series are two of those times, for me. If I found the story of the X series to be compelling—or logical—I would have been ecstatic. However, it’s not, and I find it completely and utterly obtrusive. The text gets longer and longer in each entry and quickly becomes unbearable. As I noted in my X3 review, the power-ups come to be detrimental, as well. It pains me, because this game is fantastic. X2 is acceptably worse, and I honestly kind of like X3, in spite of itself. That’s where the series ends for me. I tried my hand at X4, X5, and X6 and they are not pleasant. In my opinion, both series lost themselves when they jumped to the Playstation.

This game, though, this one has always been near-perfection. Zero’s role is minimal, the story is basic, and it controls like a dream. There are changes in the levels that occur depending on the order in which you take out the Mavericks. You’ll have to revisit some of them to collect the heart container in each (and the game's four sub-tanks), because of these ultimately beneficial changes. Those sub-tanks are innovation of the best kind, because you permanently possess them and you can fill them by collecting energy when you’re at full health. There’s even a level that starts with the perfect grinding spot. It’s not the kind of secret that you can intuit, but Ryu’s Hadouken can be learned and performed when at full health. It instantly KOs everything and I highly recommend using it to painlessly clear the first part of the Sigma fight. I really wish he had settled for simply being a serial villain like Wily. There was no reason he couldn’t have been all, “I got put back together and I’ve got another set of Mavericks, X!”

The elephant in the room is, fittingly, Maverick Hunter X, which I said did the near-impossible and improved this. It did. I stand by that. Numerical scores are a tricky thing and they can paint you into corners. Well, when writing reviews, YOU can paint yourself into a corner. While Maverick Hunter X improves quite a bit, it is a case of ICING. In terms of the original LACKING, I can only bring to mind the second Sigma level, which starts in a very ho-hum way as compared to the remake.

I can’t give this less than what I gave Maverick Hunter X, and I won’t. This is simply a consequence of the nature of the act of writing reviews. And, when you feel inspired to write them. Also, being human. If nothing else, it helps me call attention to a collection post wherein my fellow Nut Blog authors and I detail the pieces of media that we feel are equally worthwhile in multiple incarnations.

Buyer's Guide: Originally an SNES game. It's on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, and the eShop (but, only if you're using a New 3DS, apparently). Damn your idiotic nomenclature, Nintendo. Your quarter-assed console iterations, too. It's on the SNES Mini, mobile phones, and oddly enough MS-DOS, as well. It's obviously in the Mega Man X Collection, which was on PS2 and GameCube, but is now coming to PS4, Xbox One (Did Nintendo name that one, too?), and the Switch.

4 Bosses Philip Finds Fascinating out of 5

Mega Man X3 (1996)

Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Capcom/ Minakuchi Engineering

We’re going to springboard from the few pros to the associated cons. Ikuze.

Some of the Maverick choices are clever (specifically crawfish and seahorse), but we all knew a rhinoceros beetle was inevitable after Kuwanger. Their arsenal isn’t overly inspired or effectively utilized in the requisite collect-a-thon, though. There’s much more to discover than in the first two games, but accessing most of it isn’t very satisfying. The one fully useful upgrade shows where everything is located and this would be great if you were challenged once you found the right areas. Instead, you’re often left drilling walls or busting them open with the new, summonable ride armors. Worst, too many of the items are just sitting in the open  -_-

There are three extra Mavericks that can be run off or completely destroyed for different outcomes, and while the challenge rooms for two of them are directly in the main path of each level this isn’t as inconvenient as it could be. If you fail enough, they’ll sometimes not show up, out of mercy. While that dick move was side-stepped, there are about 3 blind jumps into spikes. Thanks guys. 

The game’s ultimate weapon hinges on how you handle that third maverick. Sadly, this weapon is almost mandatory given the hitbox of the final boss. This brings up a large contention with this series moving forward: upgrades can now actively hinder you. With the buster upgrade, you fire two charged shots and they can combine. However, 99% of the time you want to fire normal, fully charged shots, on the fly. This upgrade makes it so your first shot is smaller and slower. Further, the upward dash is a great idea, but is often picky on which input it wants to follow in the heat of the moment. You want to go horizontal? You might go up, and vice versa.

As a final quibble, the music has discrete looping points where it actually stops momentarily. This has gotten me hurt because I associate the ceasing of the music with the defeat of an enemy. Think the mini-boss is dead? Nope, someone just utterly failed at Looping 101. 2023 Update: This is a problem with the PS1 port. The SNES original's music is perfectly fine. Gee, I wonder how I was able to find this out~

This game still has the trappings of the first game (it even has stage changes based on the order you defeat Mavericks!) and is playable, but it's ultimately dominated by problems that would only grow worse as the series went on.

Buyer's Guide: Originally available on SNES and later the PS1, Saturn, and PC. The 32-bit iterations have additional animated cutscenes and it is this version that was ported to the PC and included in the Mega Man X Collection on PS2, PS4, Game Cube, and Switch. Don't go looking for the original cart. It's obscenely expensive.

2 Cheese Pizzas Hidden by Assholes out of 5

Mega Man X2 (1994)

Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Capcom

While innovation is the keystone of almost all successful franchises, there are times when such evolution sends one completely off the rails. It’s just my opinion, but this is what I believe to be the case with the Mega Man X series. Each successive entry added more insipid story elements (eventually with horrendous voice acting), more complex requirements for hidden extras, and eventually a frustrating collection system masquerading as equippable perks. There are reasons for this, but it doesn’t change how I feel: Aside from X4, this complexity is inversely related to the quality of the games. Each is worse than the last.

That said, let’s focus on X2. As the first step away from the stellar original game, it stands as ‘acceptably worse.’ The bosses have decent enough patterns that are fun to learn to buster-only. The stages are a slight bit more lackluster but passable enough, even if there aren’t any cross-stage changes, as there were in the first game. The extras only require you to quickly take out three additional Mavericks, which can appear in any of the stages. The armor upgrades make sense and two are exquisite. The air-dash is indispensable and when combined with a charged-up boss weapon can be extended greatly. This mechanic is utilized often and even very cleverly in one spot, which appropriately leads to the greatest reward in the game.

The music didn’t stand out to me, to be honest. However, this is also true of X1, so I can hardly hold it against this particular sequel. The X series' music just pales in comparison to the classic series’ giant collection of unique and identifiable stage themes. In the end, literally, the Sigma stages are short and overly easy once you’ve been through them fully. The final area is even a direct copy/paste of a Maverick stage. Seriously? At least Mega Man 3 remixed the four stages used for Doc Robot battles. Ultimately, the Sigma fights are far less memorable this time around, but the duel with an old friend that proceeds them is genuinely a blast to buster.

I have a very love/hate relationship with the X series, but if you like the original, and find X2 (or the X collection) at a flea market, you might as well. There are far worse games you can play. Some are just much closer at hand to it than others.

Buyer's Guide: Originally available on the SNES. Your """best""" bets are the Mega Man X collection on PS2, PS4, Xbox One, GameCube, and Switch, or the Virtual Console, however. If for some reason you have an "i-mode" or "EZweb" compatible phone, and live in Japan, you can get it that way, as well.

2½ Unaccounted Zero Parts out of 5

Maverick Hunter X (2006)

Genre: Platformer | Players: 1 | Developer: Capcom

Usually when 8 and 16 bit games are remade using 3D character models, I rage. Sprites are infinitely glorious and the remade games usually feel cheap and hollow to me. This is not the case with Maverick Hunter X and I’m in awe of how much vibrancy and depth of field is achieved through the character models and the beautifully animated backgrounds.

Technically, it is only ‘based on’ Mega Man X, but it’s the game you remember. By some means of sorcery they have improved an SNES game. It not only rearranges power-up placements, but actively fucks with your memories. These shenanigans would be blasphemous in an RPG, but in a Mega Man game? It’s nirvana. Don’t get comfortable, because you won’t be able to play this completely on auto-pilot, your first time.

In terms of new features, the two most important deliver in spades. The Difficult Mode will be what you’ll want to play the game on, from here on out. Not worlds harder, but a great challenge, if you don’t get armored up as your first course of business. Even so, enemy AI is augmented with new moves that are sometimes difficult to dodge even if you know they’re coming. There’s also the addition of stellar voice acting. X’s banter with the Mavericks is brilliantly jingoistic and the characterizations of each robot master are appropriate and amusing. There’s even a 20+ minute movie for players who actually like the plot of the X series.

The only other special feature to speak of is the addition of Vile as a playable character. He is far weaker than X in terms of constitution and firepower (at least initially). While I appreciate Proto Man for his physical weakness, he's also stronger than Mega Man, to balance that out. Vile's arsenal is a bit awkard to utilize, as well. Ergo, while I appreciate challenge, he ultimately fails to be a fun challenge. I’m sure others might find him to be a worthwhile inclusion, though!

Despite how well done this package is, at the end of the day it’s just Mega Man X with a handful of (great) upgrades. You’ll only get as much play out of this as you’ve gotten out of the original. If you played it once, and you don’t own a PSP, pass. If you’ve played it countless times and you have a PSP, what are you waiting for?

Buyer’s Guide:
Available exclusively for the PSP, unfortunately. At the time of this writing, GameStop is selling their PSP holdings Buy 2 Get 1 Free. Also, it’s available as part of a Dual Pack with Mega Man Powered Up. I purchased said pack for $15, New. This is BY FAR the version you want, as MHX is worth that on its own (given the above stated criteria).

4 McCain Supporters out of 5

Nutted by NEG.