All the way back in 2017 on Christmas, I got an SNES classic. I already owned an actual SNES before that, but I figured since they were big that year and it had a buncha game I did not own, a classic would be a fun gift to ask for Christmas. One of the games on there was Mega man X. Before this, I had only played both Mega man 1 and 2 that same year but didn't really enjoy them. So, while I did play a bit of the first stage in X, I didn't really give it much of a chance and quit. Fast forward to 2021, and I decide to actually go back and beat the game. I do so and enjoy it but thought it was just good overall but not great. However, last year I decided to do a classic Mega man marathon which then turned into a Mega man X marathon. I of course wanted to replay X1 before going into the other games, and what do ya know, I ended up loving it. I figured since I played it two years in a row, why not make it a tradition and go for a third year. So, I indeed did fit in one more game this year, and luckily it ended off with a bang.

If I'm gonna be really upfront, the number one reason I love this game is it's OST. It's the difference between giving the game a 7 or 8, it's that damn good. Every single song is a banger, which I can't say for any of the other X games personally. Some of my absolute favorite songs are Sting Chameleon's stage theme, Boomer Kuwanger's stage theme, Spark Mandrill's stage theme, the opening stage theme, the password screen and more. It's all just so masterful, can never get enough of it.

Another reason this one is my favorite is probably the level design. Besides X4 which has some of the best level design in the series too, none of the other X game's I played were as solid in that department, I think. The addition of levels changing based on the player defeating certain Mavericks was very awesome..and the backtracking in this game is way more manageable compared to future games (I'm looking at you X3). Also, I initially did like this more than any classic game and while I still do, a big reason for that is having a dash just makes the X series way more fun I think. This is the one that introduced that mechanic obviously, so I definitely have to praise it for that.

I gotta say as well, the X series on the SNES specifically looks amazing visually. It may have some of my favorite pixel art in any game, it's so visually appealing.

I was originally gonna give this a 10 because I do love this game a lot...but going through it again I did forget how bleh those Sigma stages can be. Apparently in my last playthrough I had no problem with them but this time around, I did notice how shitty they could be. Definitely the worst part of the game and a downgrade from the regular levels but at least the final fight is good.

This was fun to replay as it always is. Maybe the next time I replay it, I'll feel like bumping it up to a 10? Who knows, either way..I'm posting this on New Year's Eve and won't have another review out until after the New Year so I want to wish all my followers and anyone who sees this a very happy New Year. I also want to thank everyone that supported me this year. My account grew an absolutely insane amount these past couple months specifically... and I still just can't believe it! Thank you all so much, I love you guys! I hope everyone that sees this has an amazing 2024, keep on gaming gamers and decrease that backlog!

There is no such thing as a perfect video game. No matter how good a video game could be, or how much it is beloved by the general gaming public, it will never be able to reach the status of truly being beloved by everybody, to where nobody could find a single flaw in it, or everybody could love it as equally as another. However, even if there will never be a perfect video game, there will always be… our perfect video games. The ones that we hold near and dear to our hearts, ones that we love everything about and will continue to love about all the way until we die, no matter what anyone else says, or even if another video game comes along to take its place as your own perfect video game. So, I figured it was about time that, for my 500th review, I would go ahead and talk about my absolute favorite game of all time, without question: the original Mega Man X.

But, before I get into gushing about this masterpiece, we may as well lay down some history for those that somehow aren’t in the loop as to what this is. At this point, it was 1993, and people were getting FUCKING SICK of Mega Man. There were 13 different Mega Man titles that had been released so far, and while there were some different, unique titles of this bunch that we don’t like to talk about, most of them played exactly the same. Yeah, they each had their own set of differences that made them stand out for hardcore fans of the series, but to the general public, they all just seemed to be the same game over and over and over and OVER again, to the point where franchise fatigue set in pretty goddamn early. So, if Capcom was gonna continue making these games, or even take the series to the next generation of consoles, they were going to have to step up their game a bit. They were going to need to add a bit more attitude, a bit more color, a bit more to do, a bit more to find, and more of this universe to explore. To sum it all up, they were going to need to take Mega Man… to the Xtreme (no, not that Xtreme...not that one either).

Needless to say, this experiment with the series managed to become a major success. This singular game would go onto being widely praised by critics and fans alike, selling over a million copies in its original release, and it is now considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Not only that, but it would also lead to creating another separate series alongside the original Mega Man series, one that would continue getting games all the way up to this day, whether it be through main entries that would progress this game’s story and mechanics, side games that would take the series in new and interesting directions, or even things like… Mega Man X Dive… (oh trust me, I have some choice words for that game whenever I get to it… you know, in 5 years). As for what I personally think of it myself… I mean, I think my profile page on this website says everything I need to, but I will go ahead and continue showering this game with all kinds of praise either way. You may as well get a drink or some snacks, because if you couldn’t tell already, this review is gonna be a long one.

I don’t remember specifically when I first learned about Mega Man X, but I do know for a fact that, at that point, I was quite familiar with the Mega Man series, having played quite a bit of the NES games in the past, and falling in love with them enough to where I had become obsessed with them. The first exposure I had to the game was with the original video on it made by The CharityFraudist before it was removed from the internet, and from that first impression I got from the game, I was… mildly interested in it. It did look pretty good, but it just looked like another Mega Man game that just so happened to be made for the SNES. Nothing that I felt like I needed to get my hands on immediately. However, as time would go on… that mild interest I had in the game would only grow from there. I would watch more videos about the game, more videos that would go deeper into it, explaining how it advanced the series further, how it was designed so intricately, and how these decisions made turned it into the classic that we knew and loved today, which got me more eager to get my hands on it then ever before. It was only when I had gotten my Dad’s permission to download it on my Wii U that I finally got the chance to play it for myself, and needless to say… it was love at first sight.

The story of the game is one that is somewhat familiar for the Mega Man series, but at the same time, it takes it to places it had never been before. The game takes place 100 years in the future after the classic series, where an archaeologist by the name of Dr. Cain would discover a capsule within the remains of a robotic facility, one that contains a robot created by the late, great Dr. Light. This new robot, known as Mega Man X, was different from all the other ones, able to feel complex emotions, have human-level intelligence, and even its own free will to do whatever it feels. This type of technology was then replicated by Dr. Cain over the years, in order to create a new set of robots that would also carry these same traits, which would go onto be known as Reploids. Over the years, Reploids and humanity would then co-exist with each other, learning to help each other out and make the world a better place. That is, until some of the reploids started going haywire, starting to cause destruction and commit crimes all over the world, now being labeled as Mavericks.

In response to this, a group of Reploids would be formed to take care of these rogue robots, including Mega Man X, known as the Maverick Hunters. However, eventually, the leader of the Maverick Hunters, Sigma, would end up going maverick himself, and with the help of eight other different mavericks, would go onto spread a level of chaos across the world that nobody had seen before. Feeling partially responsible for this, Mega Man X, or just simply X, decided to set out to take out all of these mavericks, as well as Sigma himself, to ultimately save the world. Again, like I mentioned earlier, it is very similar to the original Mega Man if you only look at it on the surface level, but there is a lot more going on here in comparison, which I can really appreciate and love.

The graphics are fantastic, having the perfect fit for a Mega Man game made for a new generation, while also having plenty of life, energy, and personality through all the stages, characters, enemies, and bosses, the music is some of the best that I have ever heard in all of video game history, having plenty of BANGERS to accompany you through the many different stages present in the game, while also managing to fit the tone for whatever is happening in the game, the control is just right, being mostly what you would expect from a Mega Man title, but also integrating new mechanics that feel buttery-smooth to pull off, making playing the game just that much more satisfying, and the gameplay is, once again, mostly what you would expect from a Mega Man title, but it adds enough to where it feels like a completely new experience, one that many would go to love and adore for years.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of X, go through many different levels in plenty of different locations, with a good majority of them you can choose to go through in any order you want, run, jump, and shoot your way through many different obstacles and enemies that stand in your way, gather plenty of different health and ammo pickups that will assist you along the way, fight many different bosses and Mavericks of varying types and sizes, and gain plenty of different power ups from these Mavericks that you can use against other enemies and bosses to your advantage. On the surface, it is pretty much what you would expect from your typical Mega Man title, which could cause some who were sick of the series to be drawn away immediately, but when you actually get into the game, not only does it have plenty of new features that would become a staple part of the series, but also that X-factor that breathes new life into this series that it desperately needed at the time.

For starters, aside from the many weapons that you can get from the Mavericks in this game, there are also now many different new, optional goodies that you can find which will greatly benefit you on your journey forward. From the start of the game, you may notice that your health bar is significantly smaller than the life bar from the NES games, which may seem like quite the downgrade at first, but then as you go along the game, you will then find the Heart Tanks, which will increase your health till it is at its proper size. Some may call this completely unnecessary, but I love this change, since it allows for a sense of progression not only for yourself, but also for X as a character, which I will get more into later. Alongside this are the Sub-Tanks, which are the replacement for the Energy Tanks in this game. Unlike E-Tanks, which you could only use once before they go away forever, you are able to use these tanks an infinite amount of times, as long as you are able to store plenty of energy in them to fill you up. Once again, this could be seen as a bit of an unnecessary change for some, but I greatly prefer having a few E-Tanks that I can refill rather than a bunch that I can only use once, so this change is all good in my book.

From the beginning of the game, you can also see that, as an upgraded version of the original Mega Man, X has plenty of new moves and capabilities that the original Mega Man never had. On his own, he is taller, faster, stronger, and he has the ability to jump up walls repeatedly, which is a fantastic enough addition to your moveset already, but that is only the beginning of what X is truly capable of. Throughout the game, you can find many capsules laid around the stage, each one containing a brand new piece of armor for X to use, as well as a message from Dr. Light on how to use it. Of course, there are ones that are pretty situational or typical, such as the helmet upgrade, which lets you break blocks, as well as the body upgrade, which allows you to take less damage when hit, but then you get the GOOD shit, such as the Buster upgrade, where you are able to charge your X Buster even further to fire an extremely powerful shot and to charge up your weapons, and the leg upgrade, which lets you dash along the ground and move through stages a lot faster than before, which would become a staple ability of X for future games in the series.

All of these upgrades and optional goodies that you can acquire are all fantastic in their own way, and they do a great job at making both X and the player much stronger than ever before, able to take on anything that stands in your way with the amount of style and aggression that feels just right. Sure, not all of them are too useful, and you could just view them as a means of completing the game, but not only does it feel satisfy to find a good chunk of these goodies, which are actually pretty cleverly hidden among the stages, but they do add to your character in numerous ways, and they don’t feel like just simple “things to collect”.

Not to mention, they all contribute towards you getting the ultimate reward for your effort, which you can gain from Armored Armadillo’s stage before the end of the game. After performing a cryptic sequence of events, you can then find a final capsule on the edge of a cliff, containing another message from Dr. Light, who just so happens to be wearing a very… familiar costume. You then get the upgrade, and it turns out to be the Hadoken, straight from Street Fighter II, which you not only perform in the exact same manner as in that game, but it also is your most powerful weapon, able to one-shot any enemy and boss no matter what. This, in my opinion, is the PERFECT reward for getting all of the items in the game, not just as a Street Fighter fan, but also just in general, as it feels incredible to nuke every single boss after this with this weapon, but not to the point where it feels broken, since you can only use it if you have full health.

Ignoring all the new additions, the game itself still remains incredibly satisfying, even if you disregard all of the different goodies you can find. This can all be seen as early as the intro stage of the game, which is one of the best intros of any game in video game history, even more so than World 1-1 in the original Super Mario Bros. Upon pressing start, you get thrown right into the game, without any kind of intro cutscene or instructions screen to hold you back, and you can learn all of the basic controls right off the bat, blasting through the many different enemies that you are faced with. Not only that, but it also places you in unavoidable situations where it also teaches you how to use your new abilities, such as when you get thrown down into a pit upon destroying a giant bee robot, forcing you to climb back up the cliff to get back in action.

It not only does a great job at setting you up for the gameplay, but it also manages to integrate the game’s story and theme in perfectly. Upon reaching the end of the stage, you are then stopped in your tracks by a brand new foe: a purple-Boba-Fett-reject in a mech suit known as Vile, and upon fighting him, he seems practically unstoppable! None of your attacks seem to be doing any damage, and he proceeds to wipe the floor with you, with there being seemingly nothing that you can do to counter him whatsoever. It eventually leads to a point where you get trapped in an energy shot, grabbed by the fist of Vile’s mech, and taunted as you face what could be your final moments in the game. That is, until… you hear something from off-screen start to charge up.

All of a sudden, an energy blast is fired from off-screen, ripping through the arm on Vile’s mech suit, and freeing you from his clutches. Vile then flees the scene, as a new ally comes in to chase him off, known simply as Zero. And let me tell you, when you first see this guy in action in this scene, you think he is BADASS. He’s got the style, the power, the attitude of a warrior, and… flowing, blonde locks, which is kinda weird, but he is still cool! Infinitely cooler than you, that is. It is then at this point that X starts to doubt his capabilities as a Maverick Hunter, being unable to defeat this one foe, who seemed to overpower him in every way imaginable. However, Zero then gives both X and the player reassurance, saying that you are destined to take him out, and that you will get stronger as you press forward… maybe even stronger than him.

It is then, from that point on, that your goal is clear. You then proceed to take on all the different stages, defeating all of the Mavericks, gaining all of their powers, finding all of the upgrades, and getting stronger, faster, smarter, and overall better throughout the whole game. You then feel this power fully envelop you as you take on Sigma’s Fortress, defeating the many different enemies, bosses, and even all the Mavericks again with all of your newfound powers and abilities, even going as far as to fully come back around and defeat Vile after all this time. This, right here, is what makes this game perfect in my eyes: that feeling of growth, the immense satisfaction of achieving these goals, the hidden potential you have right from the start, and seeing it through all the way to the end in the best and most timeless manner a game could ever manage. It’s just like real life, when you think about it: just when you are at your lowest point, all you need to do is to just simply pick yourself up and keep on going, trying new things and going down different paths, until you can ultimately find the right path for you, and having the ability to prove all of the nay-sayers wrong. I’m sure we have all felt that at some point. I certainly have, believe me.

Overall, there are some things about the game that I could nitpick here or there, such as the helmet upgrade being useless after a certain point, some points of the game being somewhat annoying to go through, and the boss rush of the game going back to how it was in the original Mega Man, but at this point, none of that matters to me, and none of that ever will matter to me. This is, without a doubt in my mind, my favorite game of all time, one that I loved from the moment I first pressed that start button all those years ago, and one that I will forever continue to love, enjoy, praise, and remember for many, many years to come. I would absolutely recommend it, not just for fans of Mega Man or 2D platformers in general, but for EVERYBODY to play at least once in their lives, as it truly is that great on its own, and it is that special to me. There may come a time where I find a game that will manage to surpass this in terms of… well, everything that I had just mentioned, and when it does, I will gladly welcome it with open arms, but until then, I will always forever love Mega Man X, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon……………………….. so that means it is all downhill from here, folks! No, I kid, I kid, but it is a shame that Zero, Vile, and Sigma are now dead, and that they will never come back after this……………. nope, never. Nope nope nope nope. Certainly not in the next game, no. Certainly not in the third game either, nope.

Game #485

"X is a variable. It represents limitless potential."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRa7F1GyoMI

On this date, 1993, Mega Man X was released in Japan. In every sense of the word, it was a game about evolution. The tone maturing as the audience of the classic series had grown, the gameplay loop revolving around obtaining upgrades to make the rest of the game more manageable (best emphasized with maverick rematches) and the sheer jump in terms of mechanical complexity and scale compared to the classic series all drive this point home perfectly.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/919/301/6e5

Making an entirely new spin-off series with a darker and only vaguely familiar world, where the existence of the Mega Man we once knew is all but apocyrphal, was an enormous risk for Capcom. Yet with the series' sales declining to the point Nintendo had to publish MM6 in Capcom's place after the Nintendo Power contest was already held, it was perhaps the only move that could save the franchise.

The potential for new ideas was limitless, so much so Zero was nearly the main character instead of X. I'll start by talking about the mechanics, because the gameplay is by far the most interesting part of the experience.

https://pa1.narvii.com/7472/02f28f3638ae7d7aa771824791fc8f04fb590354r1-500-400_hq.gif

In the classic Mega Man series, the player would need to rely on tools such as Rush's henshins to progress through Wily castles. This hindered level design in the robot master stages as there was no guarantee the player would receive them. In Mega Man X, the player is immediately granted one simple move to flip the world on its head and that is the wall jump. On paper, it's a simple novelty. In practice, it allowed the world to expand to heights rarely if ever seen in an action-platformer. Every stage would have added verticality complete with upgrades such as heart tanks, armour pieces, and sub-tanks.

Many have argued the lack of dash boots in the intro makes it slow-paced, but I would argue starting the player at a speed closer to classic Mega Man's before forcing them to learn the dash does a perfect job of making the player feel stronger in an instant and bring the game on a whole new level all over again as it allows for even more exploration potential. Allowing the dash and wall jump to then be combined into the super wall jump made it feel like the character was naturally evolving to create new techniques, rather than just picking up a power-up that allowed the player to press a new button and leave it at that.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a7/01/f9/a701f9c5ce830a138b114923d6fd800b.gif

The world simply feels lived and polished. When X runs low on health in Chill Penguin's stage, he starts to breathe heavily as always but now frosty breath emits from him, a subtle touch regarding how humanlike he is compared to classic robot masters. Rather than just reuse enemies across stages, they are seen in different cycles of development to articulate their robotic nature. The Utoboros can be fought multiple times in Launch Octopus' stage as a mini-boss, but it can also be seen as scrap metal pieces in Flame Mammoth's conveyor belt. Enemies from the intro stage can even be spotted as tubes in Flame Mammoth's boss room if one looks closely enough.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/2/26/Utuboros.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20181210020154

Yet what makes the world feel more alive than anything is the weapon and stage interactions. Bosses have body parts which can be damaged individually, which was unheard of at the time and still not something seen widely in its genre. I'm not talking giant bosses that can only be damaged by hitting the head. I'm talking arms, legs, and shells. Flame Mammoth's trunk and Launch Octopus' arms can be sliced apart, and Spark Mandrill's shell can be electrocuted off his body. Even when a boss isn't weak to a weapon, they may still be affected by it. Then there are the stage interactions. By looking at the map, one can see just how connected the world is. There's no reason for there to be 3 distinct views in the stage select, but Capcom decided to just flex the entire game and it sure shows. Whether it be crashing Storm Eagle's ship into Spark Mandrill's factory or Launch Octopus' death causing Sting Chameleon's stage to flood, I would be blown away by the stage changes and how they even enabled new item pickups such as the heart tank in Chameleon's underground.

https://tcrf.net/images/1/1d/Mega_Man_X-Stage_Select.png

As a result of the powerups, the difficulty is on a natural curve. Players who are not attentive to the world may do well at first with sheer reflexes, but the more observational players will have an easier time by the end as X becomes more and more of a badass like Zero. X's arsenal here is perhaps the most useful in the entire series and every weapon has multiple uses, no matter how esoteric. The chameleon sting can launch diagonal shots or make X intangible. The rolling shield can travel along the world or give X a long-lasting shield. The Storm Tornado can hit both horizontally and vertically for massive damage. It simply goes on and on. But even if the player collects absolutely everything, there are still challenges to be had such as Sigma's battle, and it's satisfying in its own right to cut down one's time as much as possible through optimal routing and mastering maverick loops to the point one can consistently pull off hadoukens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqaUHZF92ZA

Yet despite all the fancy new additions like the chadouken or the weapons with extra charge levels, at the end of day Mega Man X is a game that pays homage to its roots. The inspirations from the classic series are on display the entire way through. Mets appearing as a primary enemy, the boss rematches resembling the structure of the original Mega Man game, Sniper Joe inspired enemies in the Hoganmars, the Boomerang Cutter being an upgraded Rolling Cutter, the remix of the original Mega Man boss jingle, and so forth all demonstrate Mega Man X was a testament of love for the franchise rather than trying to reinvent for the sake of reinvention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbJRMWLgmr0

Since I mentioned the boss jingle, let's talk about the audio design. Only Capcom would be unhinged enough to hire Megumi Ogata to say the only vocalized line in the entire game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krLAHJ9Ku5g

The remixed music is cool in its own right, with the boss battle theme sampling 2's stage select for example. One fact that's always overlooked is the stage select theme from X actually samples Tekkaman Blade's opening. I don't care to argue whether it's plagiarism, I just find it hilarious and badass at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuLvDZEhbbA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l6UrTqR55E

I'm admittedly not the most well versed in music theory to discuss it in depth, but I really do believe the instruments and samples all fit Mega Man X's world perfectly. Armoured Armadillo's theme being upbeat and fast-paced perfectly fits a level where the player is riding at high speed on a cart to just casually murder hundreds of mavericks at once and it's still funny as hell to me.

Another personal favourite is the set of credits music. The main ending theme is slow and somber to reflect X's inner turmoil, while the cast roll theme is a bit more upbeat as X holds onto the memories of the fallen he once called friends. These are both followed by the staff roll theme that feels like a victory lap with how happy go lucky it sounds, only to be cut off by Sigma's foreboding theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-do1UYx9pyw

The sheer tonal whiplash in a span of 5 minutes is unreal, and what makes it even better is the game thanks YOU for playing, because YOU are Mega Man X. It's always heartwarming when a game ends with little touches like that.

As for the story, there's not much for me to say. I will point out the translation sadly removed all the mavericks' motivations as they were not translated in the manual, among some other changes that were mainly for the worse barring the cooler maverick names (seriously who the hell remembers Icy Penguigo over Chill Penguin?) but I would actually argue the minimalist setting is a strength for the game.

The lack of dialogue between every boss helps every villain come across as a merciless destroyer, putting the player in a life or death duel. It simultaneously helps the game's pacing as its flow is that of a game meant to be replayed various times due to its short length as well as secrets. The coolest part to me though is that there's no need for an NPC to declare to the player they need to collect 8 heart tanks or 4 sub-tanks. This is gotten across perfectly fine with Zero telling X (or as the credits would say, the player directly) they may become strong like him one day and opening up the menu to see there are 4 slots for sub-tanks. Sometimes, less is more.

The last thing I will touch on is the graphics. Every character is animated so vividly, even enemies. Block-throwing enemies and axe-throwing enemies will laugh at the player if they land a hit. Armoured Armadillo will strike a pose once he absorbs X's energy. Tiny bits of blood are drawn on Zero's portrait as he lays on the ground. X's sprite set gains all sorts of new parts the more the player collects capsules. The sheer level of detail on display is incredible and I give Capcom props for putting out such a masterpiece.

https://media.tenor.com/aR2TwV8tofQAAAAd/mega-man-x-snes.gif

Anyone owes it to themselves to play Mega Man X for the 1st, 2nd, 5th, or even 300th time. Happy birthday to my all time favourite series and my favourite game within it.

https://preview.redd.it/26xj0u2326541.jpg

During a time where the general consensus was that the Mega Man series desperately needed to be souped up a bit, Capcom answered those prayers with Mega Man X, far exceeding many's expectations in the process. I've been a classic Mega Man person since I was a kid, but X1 kicks major ass. It stands where it does today for damn good reasons, and is possibly the magnum opus of the sidescroller brand of the franchise.

Recently I had complained about Mega Man 7's urging to revisit levels to dig up hidden items and upgrades just to make your life easier, a trait typically found and fondly remembered in the X series. What's the difference here? Well, it's less tedious, there's more incentive to do it, more room to explore, and generally it feels much more rewarding. The movement (which is absolutely wonderful, just as good as everyone says) really helps with this. You can use your wall jumps, speed boosts, and various tricks combining the two of them to discover areas you wouldn't see normally, often containing health and armor upgrades that are much worth the effort. It's not quite like going out of bounds, but for me it's a similar feeling that brings childlike glee and wonder.

You can also exit previously entered stages much more conveniently, not having to get a special item for that or anything. This is great because some stages are altered a bit depending on the order you do them in, for example if you do Chill Penguin first then Flame Mammoth's stage will be frozen over, allowing you to reach the latter's health upgrade. You can also come back to Chill Penguin's stage with Flame Mammoth's weapon to destroy a structure containing the health upgrade in the former's stage as well. There's a lot of stuff like this, and for my money it's far more enjoyable here than their attempt to integrate this into 7 with Rush Search or whatever it was.

Sometimes, however, I feel like the enemy placement is a bit poor and some stages go on surprisingly longer than others, both of these most notable in the first stage of Sigma's hideout. There's a big scene where both a major protagonist and antagonist meet their demise, but then the level continues for about just as long as it took to reach that section and caps off with an annoying spider boss battle. It makes that whole moment feel a lot more anticlimactic than what was probably intended. As far as the enemy placement goes, there's not much to really elaborate on there. Go to the vertical corridor in the aforementioned Sigma stage and you should see what I mean, but there are many more minor cases throughout the game. This could just be a skill issue on my part, however.

Anyway, yeah! It's really good! X1 is essentially singlehandedly responsible for saving the franchise, and many people remember it fondly to this day both due to this and due to just being really goddamn fun. Sadly, it seemed like they didn't really know where to go with the sequels to this game, and at the end of the day most people know the X series for being notoriously inconsistent in quality overall. I'll be replaying X2 and X3 soon to refresh my thoughts on them, but I remember them being really damn underwhelming compared to this one.

I almost forgot my yearly Mega Man X replay! The gall!

Everybody in the world has talked on end about how great Mega Man X is, I have too, it's one of the easiest games to come back to simply whenever, and is what I believe to be one of the greatest examples of player expression in any video game.
Mega Man as a whole is pretty good in that respect, but X has it so simple that it makes repeat playthroughs under different routes just as fun as any other. Even if I've played this exact same route like 30,000 times. Some might enjoy fighting the bosses in weakness order, some prefer getting all of the upgrades out of the way as quickly as possible, you might want to optimize your route to make backtracking as minimal as possible, any and all ways are perfectly valid. There's no extra hunt going on in the meantime that might interfere with your run, no time limits, Mega Man X is fast, fun, and easy.

very easy.

i did not game over to chill penguin.
i did not game over to chill penguin.
i did not game over to chill penguin.

almost drops a star because of how god fucking awful sigma stage 1 and the final boss are but come on man it's smegga man x. such a banger even if i prefer x4. items are fun to use, dash jumps are fun to pull off, vile and zero make up the Obnoxious Brat ratio of the game, launch octopus is sick despite being inordinately more difficult than the rest of the mavs this time around? just a good time. oh yeah, boomer kuwanger is here too. far from a perfect game and still stuck with some of that nes mega man bullshit but they managed to make the first actually good mega man here! woohoo! arin hanson might call the game design perfect but i'm going to shave him hairless and chase him around my apartment like a rat.

ta... quero iniciar falando que não gosto de nota num geral mas estou dando graças a deus que ela aparece bem grande aqui porque ela vai parecer dissonante da análise mas juro que não é

Mega Man X é um jogo com o qual eu tenho uma história complicada não chega a ser de ódio, mas de incompatibilidade. o jogo pedia demais de mim e eu não queria me entregar pra ele. a combinação de Dash e Wall Jump sempre me incomodou, eu não gostava dessa suposta liberdade de movimento, me fazia eu me sentir ruim, inapta, péssima e de pouca criatividade.

por isso, fui pro Mega Man clássico e me encontrei lá, lá não tinha ambiguidade, você pula, da tiro e as vezes da slide. não tem dash, não tem wall jump pra eu abusar no level design, é quase como um RPG de turno, eu tenho minha vez de atirar e movimento limitado, vou usar isso, é muito mais seguro e confortável é simples.

pois bem, minha relação com as coisas mudou desde essa revelação com Mega Man X, minha agonia de não ter tudo claro e certinho passou, abracei minha criatividade latente em todo seu potencial, achei que estava pronta pra Mega Man X agora, afinal joguei todos os clássicos pra voltar até aqui né? vai dar bom.

acontece que meu problema grave foi não ter jogado o X logo depois do 6, porque minha mente esta causando uma confusão grande com as sensibilidades do 7, 8, & Bass e 11, os quais claramente tem mais dedinho de Mega Man X do que não. mas vou tentar me transpor num tempo onde só sabia de Mega Man 1 a 6 e falar o seguinte:

Mega Man X não é tão diferente dos de NES em seu level design.

principalmente se levarmos o 5 e o 6 em conta. Alias, estou disposta a dizer que pela quantidade de opção de movimento o level design de Mega Man X é mais estressante e injusto do que o de sua versão baby. ele é cruel, péssimo e malvado. mas você tem o dash, você tem o wall jump, você tem a armadura que diminui 50% do seu dano. a impressão que eu fiquei é ele é o easy mode de um Mega Man clássico, por mais que sua estética mais adolescente tenda a discordar.

a questão aqui é que com contexto maior não me senti impressionada, e ainda acho Mega Man 4 e 5 jogos melhores do que esse. no final das contas, a minha versão de 15 anos atrás encontrou um problema que não conseguiu ser arrumado pelo tempo, ainda é um jogo que me incomoda, me da uma coceira esquisita.

mas ele tem coisas boas, todas as armas de chefe são legais e iconicas, ainda mais a possibilidade de dar charge shot nelas. a interação de terminar uma fase e afetar outra também é impressionante, eu adoro jogos que tem interações indiretas como essa. é um jogo feito com carinho, com outra coisa em mente, com o amadurecimento do mega man não muito diferente de quando sonic adventure teve que brilhar. é um jogo que quis crescer com seu publico, e hoje em dia eu não acho isso ridículo, mas sim carinhoso.

é difícil eu não ser reativa com um jogo tão querido que é utilizado sempre pra mostrar as fraquezas de seus antecessores. queria que não fosse assim, mas é importante pra mim apontar que o que ele tem de diferente ainda não se solidificou aqui tanto, mas creio que vai e creio que vai ser aí que vou gostar de Mega Man X -a série- de verdade

edit: faltou eu falar de musica e é aqui que me assassinam mas a trilha sonora é bem mais fraquinha do que eu lembrava... tem umas MUITO boas mas uma parte enorme é esquecivel

edit2: passado meu mau humor e 7 jogos depois...

é eu nao sou mais tão incompativel com mega man x assim

Replayed this on a whim when C_F put out their Project Zero hack (you all gotta check that shit out), and then went back to re-replay the vanilla version

It's Mega Man X, it's designed perfect in almost every conceivable way and set an enormous precedent for maximalist character technique design, and reinvented the role of RPG-style powers in quasi-linear game design and storytelling. It's only flaw is the ubiquity of its innovations makes it tame to come back to, if just because games that succeeded it drive down such aesthetically divergent roads.

Mega Man X was the most badass shit to me as a kid. An anime art style, a more mature story, and an excessive usage of electric guitars in the soundtrack. They seriously could have toned it down a notch, but I ate that shit up still... This has always been one of my lesser played entries in the series. I've had some issues in the past, and even now upon replaying.

I have to complain about the dash boots on Chill Penguin stage just like everyone else on planet earth and get it out of the way. It's the same energy as "mm2 is not the best mega man game because of wily 4 boss", but it's always been a damper on replays for killing creativity on routing. Since it's such an integral part of X's moveset, I always get it first. Think not being able to run in Mario World, it's that slow.

I think this is some of the most boring level design in the franchise. I feel like Capcom was trying to ease classic series fans into this new fast-paced series, but the level design took a hit in favor of being extremely basic and not ever really taking advantage of X's new abilities. The stages are littered with enemies that take way too many hits to kill and wind up leaving me barely doing any platforming and just spamming the buster shot. The bosses are alright though. They're pushovers with their weakness but they're pretty fun to fight with the standard buster shot and have good patterns that make use of the new dash move. Random, but fuck that stupid platforming segment in sigma stage 1 with the static background which makes it difficult to see the depth of the moving platforms.

This game is also too damn easy. Upgrades make X very powerful and to the point where you'll basically never have to worry about your health when playing levels. The amount of damage you take is so minimal and it's easier to just use the invincibility frames to dash past any enemies in the game instead of fighting them. To be fair though, I probably should try playing this without upgrades for more of a challenge.

What this games level design does right though was the addition of permanent upgrades for X. Ah, RPG elements, my favorite. Hidden about in the stages are armor, health upgrades, stuff like that. These were super fun to find when I had played this as a kid, and they are for the most part hidden well and require knowledge of the games mechanics. It's less fun now since I know where every upgrade is. I miss the childlike wonder of discovering the upgrades in all the games.

I always viewed the success and critical acclaim of Mega Man X as a movie-like experience. I believe people enjoy this game as a one-time playthrough where it will give you a quick and digestible story, and never challenge you enough throughout the game so that first-time players will be able to get through without trying too hard.

I would lie to my mom about having extracurriculars in high school when in reality I’d run home to speedrun this game because I’d had a route with just one backtrack (that I still use to this date). I’m definitely rusty compared to then, but I’ve still got it. I adore this game so much. It’s one of my favorites of all time and probably always will be. It only takes me about an hour or so, but it’s damn magic. I did a hadouken run this time even though I just beat bosses off muscle memory. Peak gaming and an incredibly good jump on point due to being easy by Mega Man standards and incredibly designed.

Provavelmente o maior hot take que tenho em meu perfil. Espero que não me massacrem, fãs de Mega Man...

Bem-vindos a mais uma análise do seu perfil favorito do Backloggd! Eu recentemente tive muita curiosidade de jogar aqueles jogos importantes que revolucionaram a indústria de alguma forma, nem que mínima. Então meti o louco e comprei quase todos os Resident Evil e tals, e disse também que jogaria a franquia de Mega Man, já que sei que é um clássico dos games, então dar uma oportunidade não custaria nada, não é mesmo? Meu querido amigo @Davi_fg disse para mim começar pelo Mega Man X, e aqui estamos nós.

Vou ser bem direto agora: eu acho os bosses desse jogo bem qualquer coisa. Acho seus movesets tão fáceis, tão simples. Seus design eu nem falo, eu acho todos medianos para baixo. Que negócio tedioso, sério. Cada luta parecia um parquinho.
E claro, não podia faltar aqueles bosses que nem fazem sentido de mal feitos. Sim, mas feitos. Acho a jogabilidade de Mega Man X decente até, mas tem certos bosses que só não dá, são muito mal estruturados. Eu estava jogando com um boss lá que taca os chifres dele, não me recordo o nome, porque nem isso o jogo é capaz de me fazer lembrar, e ele era extremamente ridículo. Ele ficava teleportando em mim, eu não conseguia fugir, porque ele me agarrava e jogava pra cima e bláblá. Fora que eu acho que a jogabilidade de Mega Man X não é fluída o suficiente para as vezes tacar aqueles minions irritantes, como no boss da aranha. Tipo, você só aceita que vai tomar dano.

[EDIT]: Lembrei agora que eu também não curti a maneira de derrotar os bosses, é muito 8 ou 80. Se você usa a fraqueza eles morrem facilmente, sem NENHUM esforço, agora, se usar um tiro de preferência o boss fica muito mais difìcil, as vezes nem tomando dano direito. Acho o sistema de tiros muito desorientado, parece que é obrigatório usar certo tiro.
Em certas fases, ainda mais nas do Sigma, é quase obrigatório usar a imortalidade do tiro verde pq tem inimigo para um caralho. Não da para passar sem transcender nos desvios, e tudo só se amplia na dificuldade por conta do sistema de: sumiu da tela, o bicho respawna.

Eu não me importo se depois de você jogar 50 vezes fica mais legal ou coisa do tipo, po, eu estava começando no jogo e me deparo com isso.

Não me entendam mal, não é que eu não goste de jogo ´´difícil``. Por exemplo: Cuphead é um jogo que tem sua dificuldade aqui e ali, mas é uma dificuldade que me instiga a querer aprender a como lidar com a situação. Mega Man X só me faz ver como eu acho mal colocado as fases, os inimigos, os bosses e etc.

Ok, ao menos, a trilha sonora desse jogo é boa sim. Nas fases antes de chegar no boss, você é acompanhado de uma trilha sonora muito boa. Mas a própria musica dos bosses (que é a mesma) é muito chata.

Outra coisa que gosto muito em Mega Man, é sua forte identidade visual. Todo mundo reconhece o Mega Man, todo mundo reconheceria o Zero. Isso é realmente bem maneiro, não tenho muito o que dizer.

Achei esse jogo overrated demais e não pretendo continuar a franquia de Mega Man X, porque ao que parece, esse era o melhorzinho da série X. Vou me retirando antes que me assassin-

[...]

- Gaibrus está morto!
- Qual a causa da morte?
- Ao que parece foi um X-Buster carregado...

I’m sure this isn’t anything remotely approaching an original thought but I’ve never played Mega Man before or been exposed to it really through cultural osmosis so please forgive my rote observations when I say that Mega Man’s backstory was already weird but I truly did not expect it to become just like, exactly Blade Runner, but with “deckard’s a replicant” just being overtly canon instead of an asinine nerd theory.

X1 gives you very little to work with narratively but the aesthetic upgrade doesn’t do anybody any favors here. Going from charming Tezuka-inspired Saturday Morning superhero vibes to something closer to genuinely cool looking action just makes it all the clearer that X is a cop who is hunting down his fellows for, what, wanting to live free? Sure, Sigma and Vile are cardboard cutout evil cartoon villains, but the limitations of the early SNES mean there’s precious little actual dialogue to go around here, so the motivations of the rest of the cast remain a mystery. How were they convinced to turn, ALL of them? They were the cops who killed off robots who elected to use their free will, and suddenly all of them see the light at once? There aren’t a lot of reads I can think of that are generous towards the humans who own them. There aren’t a lot of versions of this world I can imagine based on what little we’re given that suggest this society is worth protecting. Gotta wonder what X sees in it, whether he’s thought about this stuff. Doesn’t seem like he has.

The portrayal of these robots is fucked, dude. It’s colder than Blade Runner even. There, at least Deckard has enough empathy to hesitate. At least he’s punished for what he does, for his participation. At least when he kills that woman in the middle of the film and the crowd moves on and he shakes it off and goes off to kill the rest of her friends it can be read as something of an indictment.

X is, ironically, a killing machine. The first robot capable of choice, the first one truly able to say no, said to be the progenitor of all these others, and he never once considers any other course of action but murder. He doesn’t talk to any of them. He doesn’t even try. He’s a gun. What a waste.

Mega Man X has some of the best music tracks and art design on the SNES, but what really makes me love this game is the movement. Dashing and wall-jumping is the perfect evolution from the classic series, and adds so much the gameplay in terms of exploration and combat. The options for maneuvering in the platforming and battling now range all the way from basic hopping and shooting to aggressive weaving in and out. The most impressive part is that despite the freedom of motion granted to X, the game still finds ways to offer a consistent challenge. It’s the prime example of a platforming game making every moment as engaging as possible.

To be honest, I wasn't a Mega Man guy. I've played some of the NES titles, but I always thought the games were unappealing. It was a stupid conclusion to make based off just those two games I played, but it was what I stuck with.

My friends talked about the X games, and I can safely say that Megaman X1 is pretty good. it builds off what the NES games establish, with the weapons and bosses but focuses more on the levels themselves and your movement options. It introduces the wall jump (godsend) and the ground dash, two moves that would end up sticking around. The latter especially is really fun to use, it grants insane momentum and allows for some really cool jumps.

The levels are put together nicely, enemy placement never feels unfair and the enemies themselves are well designed, but the real highlights are the bosses. Each boss, like before has a weakness, and you get their weapon upon defeating them. Every boss is mostly fun, though I can see how they can get frustrating if you fought them in a mixed order, however I think the randomness of their movements makes them a little lame - sometimes they'll open up to weakness several times and sometimes they'll repeat the same attack multiple times.

The game also kind of dips in quality at the Sigma stages, and I found myself not using most weapons in 90% of scenarios, the other 10% being bosses that are weak to them. While they are a cool novelty, they don't feel all that useful within the levels, but maybe that's just me. Besides that, it's still good fun and I'd recommend it for anyone looking to get into the series, or just needs something to play.

Mega Man X is like the Chrono Trigger of '90s action platformers; genre-transcendingly good by virtue of having great presentation, excelling at everything it does with no notable weak points, and being extremely welcoming to novices - it feels like what you would get if you eugenically bred platformers for a hundred generations. As with Chrono Trigger, there are some who would see its relatively low difficulty as a weak point, and its extreme polish as sterility; however, it's really hard to argue with how refined and slick the entire experience is. The hidden items and power-ups are rewarding to find, and the levels are short enough that backtracking through them rarely feels like a chore. The controls are smooth, intuitive, and satisfying (bar one little niggle I'll get into later). The bosses have their own unique gimmicks and a wide repertoire of moves, but never feel unfair because you always fight them in a large enough space that their attacks don't "gotcha" you out of nowhere. I know that the difficulty curve works from experience; this was one of the first games I completed (sans cheats) as a kid because it was so good at teaching and motivating me to get better that I went from trundling along and DPS-racing every enemy I came across to flying past obstacles while holding down my charge shot within a few days of picking it up.

Some of the negatives:
- The four Sigma stages sagged a little, with their rehashed bosses and lack of secrets or power-ups to discover making them feel like padding
- The one negative on the controls was the fact that double-tapping left or right would cause X to dash; given that some bosses require careful adjustment of positioning through little 'baby steps', it felt way too easy to accidentally dash straight into an oncoming attack. I wish there were a way to disable this in the options and have the dash tied only to a button.
- Earlier games in the Mega Man series felt a bit railroady in terms of needing you to have the exact right weapon in order to hit a boss' weakpoint; I feel like MMX occupies the other extreme, where you can play nearly the entire game with the buster only and all the cool weapons you acquire being heavily situational. They're super cool, but the low difficulty means that you're never really incentivized to get really familiar with their use.

That said... if the above points are the worst thing about your game, you did an exceptional job. This was a formative experience in my video gaming life and a must-play for anyone at all interested in this genre.

Most of the game is a strong 8 to me but holy hell the final boss gauntlet is agonizing, not because they're particularly difficult but because they're just so SLOW. OH BOY I CAN'T WAIT TO WALLJUMP IN A CORNER FOR 5 MINUTES!!! Missed the final boss's weakness that would've proly trivialized it bcus even tho I tested everything I guess I hit em at the wrong angle so XD

I also just think not refilling weapons or subtanks based on at least their state at the last checkpoint is awful, to the degree that during the final boss gauntlet you're better off game overing intentionally to get all your weapon charges back if you don't want to just do 1 bar at max charge (but don't system reset because the password makes you replay the entire first level too LMAO)

I'd probably like it a lot more on replay but the prospect of replaying games like this isn't particularly attractive to me, there's so many games and so little time to play them all. I DO think it's one of the more compelling ones to revisit though, alongside something like classic Sonic.

One of the few games to start making me cramp up and give me sore thumbs. Zero is cute also.

Where the original Mega Man games up to this point emphasized careful platforming with limited movement options while trying to shoot peas at bug-eyed bots, the psychos behind Mega Man X said "FUCK THAT! Wall-jumping, dashing, huge charge blasts to destroy these robot goons!"

Mega Man X spoiled me so much that I can't really look at the previous games too fondly, it feels way too good to move and shoot in this game. They cranked the pace of this so much that it must've been hard for some fans to even consider it a Mega Man game. The iconic soundtrack also adds to the atmosphere, and I love the secret pathways that are often found by brute force, rather than leaps of faith like the original games. A cool detail they never really reprised for the series was how clearing certain stages would effect other stages, such as beating Storm Eagle would make his ship crash into Spark Mandrill's domain.

This is simply another game I can't even attempt saying what hasn't been already said. Mega Man X has insanely good movement options and controls, while still managing to blend in that careful platforming of the original series nicely.