Mega Man Xtreme isn't a bad game by any means, but I see little to no reason to play it in the modern-day. Bringing Mega Man X to the Game Boy Color has a lot of potential, but Capcom has failed to do anything but the bare minimum. Unlike Minakuchi Engineering's classic series Game Boy titles, Xtreme does not take elements from the NES games and create something new with them. Instead, Capcom chose to simply replicate stages from X1 and X2, meaning that if you've played those games, there is literally nothing new for you here. I'm sure it was quite novel in the early 2000s to experience SNES levels on the go, but playing this on PC in 2021 the novelty is lost on me.

Visually, the game looks quite good, as is expected from Capcom. Backgrounds are detailed and colorful, and while character sprites are a little basic, they have plenty of animation frames and move very smoothly. The colors are a bit garish, but that's a more minor complaint compared to the contrast issues the monochrome mode has. In terms of audio, there are no original songs to speak of, with pre-existing MMX songs rearranged by Toshio Kajino and Saori Utsumi. They are generally fine, but they all sound a little bit off like the composers changed just one or two notes but left the rest the same. Overall though, the presentation is solid despite some minor quirks.

The game generally plays fine, but it plays the same as X1 and X2. Those expecting any sort of new gimmick or features will be disappointed. Mega Man games have always been a little repetitive but usually sprinkle in some new mechanics to make things feel fresh. Xtreme doesn't do this and as a result, feels pretty dull to play. The game also has some legitimate design flaws that make it more frustrating than it needs to be. Since all the bosses are from the SNES games, Capcom didn't bother adjusting the boss fights for the smaller screen size, meaning X actually has a greater chance of getting hit than normal, making these fights more frustrating than they need to be. This is a shame because these bosses were pretty great in their original SNES incarnations. The new bosses, like Zain, for example, are pretty lame and don't stand out. There's also the fact that half of the levels aren't even available until a second playthrough, which feels like such a copout since some of the bosses in your first playthrough are weak to weapons that you can't even acquire until a second playthrough. I really couldn't be bothered to play it twice, but from what I sampled, it's once again more of the same.

Mega Man Xtreme was probably alright for its time, but in the modern-day, there is essentially no reason to play it. As a Mega Man die-hard, I found it boring and at times very frustrating, and walk away from this one feeling unfulfilled.

Obviously it's a worse version of X and X2 but it works well enough. Absolutely need to fiddle to get the start=dash keybind to be on a more sensible button. Music is worse but they did a good job somewhat of keeping the feel of the stages. Most of the upgrades are still here and the collectibles too. Bit annoying that you gotta go through sigma stages twice for no reason if you want to see it all but whatever. I still couldn't get the hang of the auto wall dashjump since I was too used to manually doing it.

An admirable attempt to port a 16-bit home console game to an 8-bit handheld. While largely successful, I can't think of a single reason to play Cyber Mission -- or XTREME as it is called in the West (no doubt the localiser gushing over the brilliance of his pun). It's through & through, a watered down Rockman X; the novelty of it lost today when the original SNES game can be played on many modern mobile devices.

Perhaps if Cyber Mission tweaked the original games (X1 & X2) in some meaningful way there'd be a reason to play it. But nope, it's a pretty direct port. Levels are a bit shorter (likely to save memory), but the design is mostly identical. The only positive change I can think of is a slight change to a single, annoying jump from X2 for an upgrade.
The bosses, on the other hand, fair a bit worse. The development team seemingly accommodated for the reduced screen estate of the Game Boy compared to the SNES when recreating levels. The bosses not so much. Spark Mandriller, who was a comfy breeze in X1, is now one of the hardest bosses in the game. His proportions to X were kept intact, but the boss arena itself was shrunk to fit the smaller GB screen. This has an inverse effect on the final boss, Sigma, whose weakpoint is much easier to hit than before. The difficulty balancing is a little erratic.
The music can be grating at times, though a few tracks bop. Some slack should be given, but this is not something I recommend wearing headphones while playing.

I can't discern a reason why anyone should play this when the vastly superior X1 & X2 are just as easily accessible. Maybe if you're a diehard Rockman fan you'll find some merit in Cyber Mission's existence. It's a competent 8-bit conversion, but hardly a stand-out game from the franchise.

MEGA MAN MARATHON #6

I’m not playing this shit anymore. I beat Normal and Hard mode and Xtreme mode is just those stitched together and I’m not that dedicated. This was bad. Dashing by crouching and pressing A is really unnatural and unfun. It’s ball busting my hard but unlike other Mega Man games it’s cause of screen crunch not cause of fair design. X games just don’t work as well on Game Boy. This was not good. The remixes were good though and the sprite art was great especially that “Ready” sign like why was that so clear it looked like something out of a modern sprite game.

A weird title serving as a Sonic Pocket Adventure esque demake hybrid of Mega Man X1 and X2 with little to distinguish itself beside that fact. It's cool to see them try and squish 2 full SNES titles onto the GBC, but too many concessions were made for very little benefit, ranging from the cumbersome method of using the dash, to the game's dumb structure of splitting the campaign into halves, then allowing you to play the full adventure only after completing the two halves separated. Just play the SNES originals, there's little here to really consider worth sinking your teeth into.

Capcom is no stranger when it comes to creating handheld experiences of Mega Man games. They've done five games on the original Game Boy so it's kind of a no-brainer that Mega Man X would get the same treatment as well, and what we got was Mega Man Xtreme. It was probably ambitious in 2000, taking the formula of the X series on the go, but in a 2023 lens, it's more a watered-down version of X1 and X2. It plays identically to those two with the only difference being the dash placement options; you either double-tap on the d-pad or use the start button. I'm not a fan of either of these controls, but I went with the 2nd option, and wow this felt cumbersome; I had to readjust my fingers to dash comfortably, but at that point, I rather not have the dash at all. They also do this thing where they split the campaign into two difficulties where you fight the first four Mavericks on Normal and then the second half on Hard. There's also Extreme Mode that has your typical Mega Man X stage select screen with all the eight Mavericks featured from the first two games available at the start, but at that point, I just didn't see a reason to replay it again when I've seen everything the game had to offer.

Mega Man Xtreme is an interesting little game. It's cool seeing these selected stages from X1 and X2 being remade on a tiny handheld shot-by-shot, and while it's inoffensive, it offers little reason to play this in 2023 when the SNES games are readily available on modern systems.