Completed using Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 on Switch. Playing as X, I collected all Heart Containers, Tanks, and individual Armor Parts. In addition, I fought all Mavericks and optional bosses before proceeding with Gate's stages. Unlike with MMX1-4, I played this one almost exclusively in Rookie Hunter Mode to deal with all the bullshit, and this time, I never turned it off.

Calling this game a disappointment would be inaccurate, because that wording implies I had expectations that weren't met. In truth, Mega Man X6 didn't just fail to clear the bar raised by X4, but proved to be a truly awful experience that makes X5 look competent in comparison.

This review doesn't need to be as long as the one I made for X5, though, because nearly every mistake that game made has been repeated and amplified by this one. Level design hits a new low, with unrelenting enemy spam and maliciously-placed hazards that made me thankful for Rookie Hunter Mode. Stages range from boring to infuriating, with Blaze Heatnix and Blizzard Wolfang's being the worst offenders, perhaps in the series' history so far. There are occasional interesting concepts, like the lasers in Shield Sheldon's stage, but their execution is consistently fumbled. The most promising feature, a record that keeps track of stranded Reploids, is ruined by the Nightmare Virus enemies (which are everywhere, by the way) that latch onto them and infect them, rendering them permanently impossible to rescue. All in all, any subtle improvements over X5 are made trivial by the obnoxious design choices that are present nearly everywhere throughout the game.

TL;DR - Mega Man X6 isn't just unremarkable or inadequate, it's just plain bad. It helped me to appreciate the moments during X5 when it seemed like the developers were actually trying, and had me distraught over how quickly such a popular series fell from grace following its highest point. I will not be playing through Mega Man X7; its intro stage was enough of a warning.

Zero me dá tesão

A magia que um videogame tem de te instigar mesmo com todas as suas imperfeições sendo realçadas o tempo inteiro e te fazer supera-las com todas as ferramentas que você tem ao seu dispor sempre me encanta.

Um jogo quebrado, mas um jogo com alma.

O melhor e o pior de Mega Man!

Rock Man X6 is where I'd been told the series really started to feel the pains of the absence of the original team, and it along with X7 were games I'd really been looking forward to in terms of seeing for myself just how bad they were. What awaited me was something I'm not sure I could've expected, at least not in this form, as it's both a game that greatly frustrated me as well as one I ultimately enjoyed more than I thought I would. It took me around 8 hours to complete the Japanese version of the game (with my in-game play time clock around 4 hours).

X6's story ret-cons the ending of X5's story quite heavily, as X5 was originally intended to be the end of the storyline while the Rock Man Zero games were its tacit continuation. However, for the most part, that really doesn't matter. Of course Sigma is back, but this the reploid scientist Gate is unwittingly aiding in his revival. It all ends up to the whole usual "stop the super reploid fascist while cursing the need to continue this fight" song and dance that the series has become very familiar with by now. It's accompanied, however, by a return to having voiced cutscenes, though not animated cutscenes, and that's extra nice as (for convoluted reasons I find difficult to care about) Zero is back again, and his reunion with X is really sweet. It's a story that does what it needs to, as basically every X game's story does.

The most important part of the story, in regards to the gameplay at least, is in regards to the new Nightmare Virus that's ravaging the globe. It's both driving reploids mad in the same way that the Sigma Virus did, but it's also causing observable phenomena that ranges from a phantom Zero taking pot shots at you, to fiery meteors raining down from the sky, to (by far the worst) stages plagued with darkness save for a couple of rotating spotlights that illuminate your view. These nightmare effects only affect stages when they're glowing red (which can be reset by visiting and exiting another stage) or upon a return to a stage, and they make some stages damn near unplayable with how vexing and difficult they make things (particular the darkness one). They're by and large a not very creative and quite vindictive way of making the game harder than it needs to be while not actually adding that much in the way of design, so in a way I kinda have to respect just how clever a design solution that is, albeit for a design choice that categorically makes the game a worse experience to play.

And that sort of "clever yet definitely bad" design plagues a lot of this game. The stages are for the most part fine, although the bosses are pretty easy once again. However you still get the errant stage, such as the one with the junk crushers, that are brutally hard for a normal non-fortress stage, and the fortress stages themselves are really brutal at times in ways that feel ridiculous. You can mitigate the difficulty by collecting pieces of the two sets of special armor found in this game or by using Zero (who must be rescued via a semi-randomly occurring event at certain secret locations in certain maps), but that presents its own problems outside of those pieces often being very hard to collect due to how difficult those nightmare effects make returning to past stages.

Like in X5, you need to collect health upgrades and parts to augment your abilities beyond just the new armors, but there's a new twist added to that that's technically an improvement but adds its own new slew of significant problems to the mix. One nice thing is that the boss level system has been cut back to be no longer dynamic but more of a signifier of how tough a given boss is compared to others, and honestly even calling it a "system" isn't terribly appropriate compared to calling it a simple aesthetic choice. Now, the parts you can equip between missions are found spread among the 16 injured reploids that are found in each of the 8 base stages, with certain reploids holding certain ones. Many of them hold nothing but an extra life for your trouble, but some do hold those special upgrades, and it's often worth going out of your way to look for them and try to rescue them (I rescued all but two or three during my own playthrough, myself). They're not often evilly hidden, but they're an extra thing to look out for either your first time or on return trips to a stage, granted that does mean that for some you'll need to brave those awful nightmare effects for some of the more well hidden ones.

However, not all is happy in Reploid Rescue Land. First of all is that they're under threat quite often by special nightmare bot enemies, who will permanently kill a reploid should they touch it, and you'll have to load a save and retry the stage in order to get another chance at rescuing them. While most of the most important reploids holding upgrades aren't in mortal peril (you actually NEED the very well hidden jump upgrade to beat the game as X, but that one is perfectly safe from harm), some are, and those parts they're holding can be lost forever if you aren't quick enough to save them. Granted most parts aren't that useful and only a handful can be equipped at a time, but still, it sucks to lose stuff like that because you didn't know a reploid who needed such quick action was upcoming in the stage (and some are VERY tough to rescue from death simply by design of the stage).

Additionally, these nightmare bots also contribute to the Hunter Rank system this game has. Abandoning the more speedrun-style grading system from X5, the Hunter Rank in X6 is determined entirely by the amount of Nightmare Souls you collect from these fallen special enemies, and you'll need a LOT of them if you want max rank. The thing is that max rank actually matters quite a bit, as how many of those findable parts you can equip at one time is determined by that rank, and you're gonna need to grind a LOT if you wanna equip more than two at a time (which is plenty, but three or four is certainly preferred). This is even MORE of a problem when you consider that X and Zero don't actually share Hunter Ranks, so you'll need to grind with BOTH if you want either to be usable. This is even MORE Of a problem when you consider that in addition to the health upgrades found in stages, extra health and max weapon energy upgrades are also given by rescued reploids, and those are ALSO exclusive to the character who picks them up, so if you've been using X the whole game, Zero is going to be damn near useless even IF you put in the time to get him to a respectable (let alone max) Hunter Rank, and that's extra sucky considering some of the harder platforming (as mentioned earlier) and boss encounters are far easier with Zero than with X, that is if the right character happens to be upgraded accordingly.

I briefly mentioned the bosses earlier, but I need to go into a bit more of that now because it's a point worth elaborating on because holy heck does the game deserve it. In yet another weirdly self-inflicted wound, one of the game's best bosses is the first fight against a new rival robot called High Max, but he's only found in a secret boss room. However, not only are these secret boss rooms easy to stumble into unintentionally, but High Max can actually only be hurt by certain special weapons, making it very possible that you'll stumble into him while looking for Zero but not have any of the special weapons that can hurt him yet, so you just have to game over and pick another stage (or another path through that stage) instead. This is also combined with his second fight, and the stage leading up to it, being BRUTAL in their difficulty, and all of the fortress fights in general are some really not fun levels of challenge in the level of endurance they demand from the player. This game's bosses are split between brutally hard and pitifully easy with only two or three bosses in between, and it's a problem that's pretty bad even for a later Rock Man X game.

Really one of the only good features of the game is the presentation, which has nicely given a step up since X5 with the addition of the animated stills for cutscenes and VA since that game. Though the story isn't that important, it's still competently done and entertaining for what it is. This game also continues the trend of later X games in making continues effectively the same as extra lives, with this game having a really forgivingly implemented checkpoint system that counterbalances a lot of the more mean design choices in a way to make them tolerable. They even cut down on all of those mid-mission calls from home base by making them optional, which is another nice change. The music is also pretty good, with the end credits song in particular being such a bop that I actually got it to listen to on my MP3 player X3


Verdict: Not Recommended. I'll fully admit that, despite all of the trials and tribulation this game put me through, I genuinely like this game better than X5. It's definitely not a better game, but it's just such a fascinatingly flawed and dynamic experience that it has utterly captivated my attention in a way that X5 could just never hope to do. It's definitely a game most people won't enjoy, and for very good reasons, but it's a badly executed game that I regardless enjoyed a fair bit, and although I can't really recommend it, I think X6 will always hold a weirdly warm place in my heart for just what a horrible mess it is XD

I actually love this game. Now if you asked me what I thought while playing it, I would've said its the worst Mega Man I've ever played. But, after beating it, I feel so accomplished. Its like I overcame a huge challenge. Maybe I'm just a masochist, but man that was a lot of fun.
X and Zero both feel incredible to use. X's special weapons are all really good. They're really strong and are all useful one way or another. Rainy Turtloid, Infinity Majinion, and Bizz Wolfang's weapons are the only ones I didn't really use all that much. Commander Yamark's weapon is incredible. Using it for both Zero and X is wonderful. I really like the Blade and Shadow armor as sidegrades for X. Zero's techniques all kind of suck, aside from Commander Yamark's weapon, but its whatever. The animation and sound effects of his moves just make him feel so satisfying.
The stage design is psychotic. I'm a huge fan. I really like rescuable reploids and the upgrades they can provide. Nightmare viruses make them more interesting, but the viruses themselves can also be super annoying. The Nightmare system adds a twist to all the stages when its in full effect. I played Infinity Majinion's stage when it had all the Nightmare effects and it was insane. The best stages are Commander Yamark, Rainy Turtloid, and Blizz Wolfang's stages. I hate Deep Shark Player's stage since its so slow. The remaining stages all have interesting ideas, just done without any real polish. They are all really difficult and arduous to beat, but man, when I beat them, I felt like I was at the top of the world. Maybe I'm just a masochist. Infinity Majinion in particular felt like such an insane stage that when I beat it, I was just in awe. I had a great time. The Mavericks themselves are all really weak. Its a bit anticlimactic going through such hard stages only to fight such weak bosses.
I like how progression is handled. You only need to beat one Maverick to beat the game. The secret exits in the stages are really cool ideas. I like how that's how you unlock Zero and fight High Max. I wish you could do the Gate Stage 1 as X without the Shadow Armor, but that's whatever. The locations of some of the secrets, like Light Capsules and heart tanks are psychotic. Like one is just through a wall that you can just walk through. Its insane. I am a fan though. I like the chip system and the rescuable reploids. It makes exploring the stages feel more rewarding. The music in all the stages is also just drop-dead amazing.
The Gate stages are fun. They throw everything they have at you and you just have to beat them. It feels like a lot, but after I took it all a little bit at a time, I was able to beat it. It did take like a while, but man I felt so accomplished afterwards. The beginning of Gate Stage 2 as Zero in particular was quite the challenge.
I really like the story of this game. Gate and High Max are good villains. I like how Alia has a history with Gate. I don't like how Sigma comes in at the very end, he feels very unnecessary and forced. His fight is really fun though.
I really like this game. It feels like a great challenge to overcome. The game doesn't hold back. When I beat this game, I felt like I earned it. It feels like a first draft of something that could've been the best Mega Man game ever. We didn't get a more refined version, but I love what I played. Its definitely not for everyone, but it is for me.

They really went and published a Mega Man X kaizo rom hack lmaooo

Incompetence and ignorance is often what brings a game down. Mega Man X 6 is a rare case in that malicious design is what brings it down. It is far and away, without question, the meanest game in the whole Mega Man franchise. More than any other game in the series, it demands you to be a skilled and knowledgeable player and still wastes your time. The game, is evil. It’s fun, but it is evil.

What do I mean by evil? The game feels like a prank. You go to Blaze Heatnix’s stage and the first thing you do is fight this annoying Nightmare Snake miniboss. You beat it and then play a bit of the level only to come across yet another Nightmare Snake miniboss. This repeats until you have beaten five of these damn things.

Not to be outdone, Blizzard Wolfang’s falling icy Tetris block segments, the seemingly randomly generated layouts of the randomly selected action rooms in Ground Scaravich’s stage, and the entirety of Metal Shark Player’s stage are all unbelievably annoying and frustrating. To compound on the frustration, every level has a random chance to be affected by the Nightmare Virus, which adds more obstacles/enemies/nuisances. Sometimes feels like the developers are laughing at you for playing it.

I didn’t include Rainy Turtloid’s stage’s acid rain gimmick in that list of grievances, because I don’t think it’s all that bad. I kind of like it, actually. It gives you this sense of urgency and also turns parts of the level into a (very) simple scavenger hunt to get the rain to stop. It’s an interesting novelty for a Mega Man game, especially when compared to five back to back minibosses.

What I don’t like about Rainy Turtloid’s stage is the hidden armor capsule. This capsule gives you a part for the Shadow Armor, a ninja-like set that is by all accounts not very viable, but allows you to walk on spikes. To get to this capsule, you have to get through a narrow passage full of spikes. And it is TRICKY. If you are a pixel off, you’re getting one shotted by the spikes. Some players have found that damage boosting off a nearby enemy is the best way to get across the spikes, but the recommended way is to have completed the other set of armor, the viable Blade Armor, and use its dash to get across. It’s kaizo level stuff no matter what. The hardest spike traversal in the game and it rewards you the ability to not worry about spikes anymore. I’m sure you can see the hypocrisy of the situation here.

The Shadow Armor’s spike walking isn’t even necessary, because arguably the most important spike traversal in the game can be crossed by using one of the special weapons you get from the bosses. The Ice Burst plops a small block in front of you that you can jump on. You can use this block to jump across a large stretch of spikes in Blizzard Wolfang’s secret area so you can save Dante the Reploid dog, who gives you the Jumper parts, which is capital R Required to get through the final stages, if you’re not using Zero (because he can double jump).

Before I get ahead of myself and talk about the endgame too soon, I want to take a moment to talk about the very accurately named Another Route secret areas, which ironically can be used to start the endgame sooner than usual.

The Another Route is a shorter and sometimes trickier version of any of the main stages, where you fight one of the three secret bosses, in order of appearance: the Zero Nightmare, the nearly invincible High Max, and Dynamo from X5, here to start some trouble again. Beating Dynamo gives you points towards your rank, beating the Zero Nightmare unlocks Zero as a playable character, and painstakingly whittling High Max’s health to zero awards you with the ability to go to the final stages.

You could, in theory, begin the endgame without seeing a single boss Maverick. I don’t know why you would want to do that, because those stages are just about the most evil the game gets. Even if you pick Zero and skip the need to get the Jumper parts, the final rematch with High Max is an ordeal WITH his weakness.

I’ve been complaining a lot about Mega Man X 6 but I want to reiterate that it feels good in the hands, one of the most important things a Mega Man game can do. Dashing and jumping around any level feels good, I just wish those levels were better made.

There’s a discussion to be had about half assed level design paired with a strong list of verbs to play around with in those levels feeling good and the growing usage of machine learning to replace creatives, but this review is already too long.

A good list of verbs really does go a long way though, because despite my griping about Mega Man X 6, I’ve beaten it like four times. This was of course when I was a little bit older and could grapple with the hatred this game eminates, though.

I do not recommend Mega Man X 6. It’s too cruel. But I still respect it for choosing to be such a bastard of a game.

This might be one of the worst games I have ever played
Awful level design especially at the end
Imbalanced weapons for X and the worst that Zero has felt so far made this game a chore to sit through
Genuinely not a fun time at all
1 is for how good the soundtrack is and the fact that some boss fights are alright

Objectively speaking, this game has some of the worst boss and stage design I've experienced in my run of the franchise.

And yet as I'm playing, there's something about how insane and rage-inducing it was that it circled back to feeling exhilarating.

So do I like it or hate it? In a way, I felt both.

End-game is horrible without the Shadow Armor though, no question about that.