A tentative step out of the Classic template. I feel like there are a few strong high concepts here for what the team wanted to do separate from Classic Mega Man, but they didn't fully know how best to engage with them, so the end result is a game that wears its heritage close on its sleeve. This isn't a bad thing; I love Classic Mega Man, and I think the concepts advanced here are great steps forward. But, after an abandoned attempt two decades ago and years of hype leading up to this serious playthrough, this game ended up feeling a lot closer to Classic Mega Man than I was expecting.

This isn't to put down Mega Man X any, as it's a great game in its own right. You probably don't need me to reiterate any of the talking points from Sequelitis regarding the first level's smart design and natural way of easing the player into what's different, as well as establishing stakes and themes for the game (light as the latter are). My buddy Tarvould points out that the great opening level is a bit of a drag on repeated runs, which is a fair point, but I think that's more an issue for a series superfan who's played quite a bit - for someone like me who played this relatively fresh, it does precisely what it's supposed to.

This is also one of those rare Mega Man games where every standard stage hits it out of the park. With Classic Mega Man, I'm used to there being one or two stages that are just kinda there, even in some of the best titles; I've never liked Flash Man's Stage in MM2, for example. Not so here - every stage is unique, memorable, and a ton of fun. The system whereby clearing one stage will impact another stage is also suuuuuper cool, though gating Dash behind Chill Penguin certainly limits its impact on Flame Mammoth's Stage. And the soundtrack kicks ass, though you don't need me to tell you that.

Oh, I should mention the Dash specifically. It's cool! Took me quite a bit to "get" it, honestly - I had to learn that you hold Dash into the jump to retain that momentum, and it took me a while to get the cadence right on a dash wall-kick - but it's good stuff! This is sort of what I meant earlier, though. The standard stages are all designed around NOT having the Dash, since outside the latter two-thirds of Chill Penguin, it's entirely possible the player won't have it. As a result, they feel paced like standard Mega Man stages. Like I could see Rock Light running through versions of a lot of these, and while they'd be fairly slow compared to the game that exists, I'd think they'd be roughly on-par with something like Mega Man 7. This isn't bad, but I kept feeling like I was hitting the boss just as the level started getting good. Easy to see why the Dash becomes a default feature starting with the next game.

Quick conga line of nitpicks:
- I've always thought the Mavericks felt like silly choices to include in the more serious Mega Man subseries. Like, if I didn't know Mega Man, and you told me that one series was more serious while the other was generally lighter, and that one series had animal-themed bosses while the other had dudes with elemental affinities, I definitely would've guessed that the animal bosses were from Classic. The fights are good, so I'm not really inclined to complain, but it bears mention.
- Hadouken is a great secret unlock, but it's a little janky having to grind out Armored Armadillo's Stage to get it. At least it's easy to grind 1-Ups there with the Batton.
- Likewise, being able to screw up the jump in Flame Mammoth's to get to the upgraded Buster and having to restart the whole level to try again is a bit annoying. Not a big deal, at least.
- Ride Armor's cool! But it just feels like a quick distraction in this game. Hope they expand upon this later on.
- Sigma's Fortress is okay, but kind of a let down after the rest of the game. Then again, Classic rarely sticks the landing with the Wily Castles, so nothing new here.
- The GameCube port of Mega Man X adds a "Damn!" to X's first line of dialogue. That's a cool way to set tone! This isn't a nitpick, I just didn't have anywhere else to put this note.
- Naming a boss after Balinese demon-queen Rangda is also cool! I should probably stop this list if I'm gonna keep throwing in complements.

By way of comparison: Mega Man X1 feels like what Invictus is to Super Mario World: a cool, sleek, speedy, modification to an existing series; in some ways, only the same game nominally, so much has been updated. But for as much of an incredible leap forward as Invictus was to the Kaizo Mario scene, Invictus is also inextricably tied to Super Mario World and cannot make sense as an entity outside of it. Furthermore, Invictus was only the first jab of a one-two combo between it and Grand Poo World II. Mega Man X1 is excellent, but it needs a follow-up that further remixes and innovates on its template before the X series settles upon its own identity. By reputation, I don't know that X2 or X3 do this, but I'll see for myself with my next annual Mega Man playthrough.

I can't believe it took me this long to try this game out. I had it ever since I got my SNES classic a few years ago but I guess I never thought much of it? But when I saw how highly rated this game was on this website, I thought I would give it a shot, and boy I'm glad I did.

By 1993, Capcom's Mega Man Series was getting... stale. Somehow they managed to pump out not 4, not 5, but 6 entire Mega Man games for the NES in 6 years. So when it was finally time for Mega Man to come to the SNES, they knew they had to reinnovate the concept of Mega Man itself, and that's exactly what they did. With a brand new setting, characters, upgrades, and new movement options, Mega Man X changed what a Mega Man game could even be.

From the very first few minutes of gameplay, I was awed. The music, the gritty dystopian atmosphere of the opening stage, the enemy design, Zeros reveal, all of this was just in tutorial. You know, the worst part of most video games?

Somehow, Mega Man X turned me into a Mega Man fan. As of this review, I have already completed both X2 and Mega Man 2 as well. Now I gotta play X4, the Zero Series, the ZX series, Mega Man 11, the Star Force Series, some of the Battle Network games, the Legends Series, maybe X3, X5, and X8, Maverick Hunter X... wait why are there so many Mega Man games who is responsible for this💀

Megaman X? More like MEGAMAN GEX!

This game is a banger, especially considering the time it got released.

It was able to evolve the formula of the classic megaman titles while giving its own vibe to a new series, that to this da stands out, because of it great gameplay loop, invcredible pixelart and DIVINE soundtrack, that in my opinion has not been topped by future megaman titles (How can you hate Spark Mandrill theme? It deserves its own concert or something).

Just like other games in the franchise, it can feel too short, but every minute of it is worth it.

Made me a Megaman fan ever since I played it. Just give it a shot if for some reason you haven't already.

Mega Man X is one of those games that I love so much that I've basically bought it on every console that can play it. It's an awesome evolution of the classic Mega Man formula. It's not perfect, but it's definitely really fun and replayable. I like to revisit it at least once a year.

Gameplay:
Mega Man X is an action platformer where you jump, shoot, and unlock new weapons by beating bosses. Typical Mega Man stuff. However, MMX shakes things up with a new roster of collectibles. After the opening level, you are presented with 8 levels that you can play in any order you like (though Chill Penguin is the best first choice, let's be honest). These 8 levels are all solid and provide a good variety of challenges without ever feeling too unfair like other Mega Man games could. They can even feel a bit too easy at times, especially since completing certain levels before others can change the way other levels function to your benefit. It's a cool mechanic though, and can even open up new paths to collectibles. In each level there is a "heart tank" to collect, which will increase your maximum health. In some levels there are "sub tanks", which will store extra health and can be used at any time from the weapons menu. There is also a set of armor to collect throughout four of the levels which will enhance your abilities. The way each collectible is gotten is varied, sometimes requiring a certain weapon or upgrade. Some methods are more obvious than others, but it all makes for some interesting exploration and a system that promotes creativity and experimentation in order to make item collection as efficient is possible, and it has the bonus of making you stronger! By the end of it all, you're ready to take on the final levels with an extensive roster of great weapons and cool upgrades, some better than others, of course.

Bosses are a big part of Mega Man, and they're pretty great in this game... for the most part. For every fun challenge like Chill Penguin or Boomer Kuwanger, there's a Launch Octopus and Armored Armadillo. They're all still good, just lacking in one way or another. Spark Mandrill is too easy to stunlock with his weakness. Armored Armadillo is virtually impossible to take out without his weakness. Launch Octopus's weakness is practically useless against him! It's just some iffy balancing that feels counter-intuitive to the game's design.

Story:
The story's nothing crazy, but it's worth mentioning. The game's about X, a robot with free called a Reploid. He battles against other other Reploids that have gone rogue, called Mavericks. A Maverick named Sigma has risen up to destroy the world, and it's up to X and his far stronger companion, Zero to take him and his followers down. However, X is beaten by one of Sigma's henchmen, Vile, and he realized he needs to grow stronger before he can face Sigma. It's a neat element that ties the story to the collectibles and helps you feel more awesome when you finally collect all the armor parts and heart tanks. In short, Mega Man X's story is simple but effective, and a fair upgrade from the stories in previous Mega Man games... Well... in the first game it's simple, anyway... Uhhh the series gets more complex as it goes on, for better or for worse.

Music and visuals:
Mega Man X has a soundtrack that needs no introduction. It has some absolutely awesome, iconic songs that I love listening to from time to time. There's really not much else to say. It's just really dang good.

The visuals are also excellent. They are colorful, clear, and have aged quite well. There are some parts, mostly in the more mechanical looking levels, that can look fairly dull, but it's far from anything bad, especially for the time. The character designs are worth noting too, as they're an awesome upgrade from the type of designs found in previous Mega Man games. Not that classic Mega Man ever had subpar designs, Mega Man X is just a really good evolution, adding more detail to an already solid foundation. Heck, it's even inspired my own art.

Conclusion:
Mega Man X is a really neat game. It offers the player lots of freedom to play and explore how they want. The level design is solid, and the presentation is great. It's aged decently well too, so I'd definitely recommend it to any fans of 2D action-platformers who haven't checked it out yet. It doesn't have a proper save system though, so keep that in mind for whichever platform you decide to play it on. The game's easily available to buy through the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and it's the only game in the entire collection where the "Rookie Hunter" mode is actually balanced. Amazing.

A really fun experience that left my thumbs very sore, but totally worth it. Great level design, a catchy soundtrack and some really challenging but fun bosses. Surprisingly actually enjoyed backtracking in a game for once, not really something I'm a fan of but the level design is so good it's basically begging for you to go back to previous levels anyways.

It's definitely a mix between easy and hard, and that's a really good thing. It pushes you to the limit but not so much to the point where you want to put the game down, it's fun hard and even then it can be pretty forgiving in certain spots too which was something I dreaded from picking up this series, thankfully it's pretty accessible, glad I got to finally give it a go not just with this franchise, but the genre in general, opening up tons of other franchises to me I'd like to get into in the future.

Disclaimer: I played this via the Legacy Collection.

This game is honestly so fundamental to my development that replaying it, let alone saying anything negative about it, feels like sacrilege of the soul.

But, for as much as I love it, I don't think it holds up the sheer weight of the pedestal I place it on.

When I say "I'm more of an X fan than a Classic fan", I mostly mean subsequent entries in the series and not this one. Why? Well, there are a lot of minor issues that add up, but to me the core of that statement is that X1 feels more like "Classic 2" than its own subseries.

I know this game often gets praise for the story not being intrusive and it just being 'pure gameplay', but this coupled with the bosses not feeling too out of place with the Classic roster just makes the overall format feel too familiar. This isn't helped by the fact that, despite having dashing and wall jumping, most of the levels feel about as slow as they did in the parent series. I've always associated the X series (Zero and ZX included) with speed, so it was a pretty jarring thing to come back to.

It doesn't help that, all things considered, the game is obscenely easy despite some frustrating elements. The monkey's paw to "All of the weapons are useful" is that the game will just gradually and continually snowball until X becomes so strong he'd fit right in with a Musou S-Tier. Sure, the game loves to throw "THINK FAST" dashers at you from off-screen, and enemies respawn if you move even an inch away from their spawn point, but does it matter? They really didn't nail the ideal difficulty balance for this game and it shows.

Still, I can't fault this game much. It's still a joy to play, and my god the presentation is heavensent. Everything from the spritework to the designs to the vuvuvuvuvuvuvuvuv buster charge sfx to the soundwork to the GODLIKE soundtrack is just pure sensory bliss. Even a lot of the art floating around the LC's museum is divine. Makes me wish it was easier to find out who did individual pieces. You know the designs are good when Zero became a certified official Videogame Cool Guy despite his only real purpose in X1 being 'gets owned'.

Also, can I just say that I LOVE the First Armor (as it's now called in X Dive) look? Almost makes him look like Gundam RX-78.

Mega Man X really conveys what it's trying to be: A new generation of Mega Man!
The plot of this game, while not too complex, offers more than what the Classic series offered at the time, with more dialogue, a new villain in the form of Sigma...
and Zero, one of the coolest characters in the franchise... even if he gets killed like a bitch in this one. He tried his best.

The gameplay is really fun, and the new Dash ability that X has is really fun to use! Combined this with some great level design, and more exploration than before, thanks to the incentive to get more Heart Tanks, Armor Pieces and Sub Tanks, and you got yourself a great action platformer!

The only part I didn't really like as much as the rest of the game were the Sigma stages. They were not bad, but I didn't find their level design as strong as the rest of the game. The final boss was cool, though.

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection)

X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
Xtreme
Xtreme 2

After only reviewing the general X Legacy Collection and the Xtreme duology on here previously, I'm finally getting into the nitty gritty of the X series: the actual 8 main console platformers starting with X1, a game which was originally supposed to just be next-gen Mega Man at the time but it ended up starting the more serious and edgy sequel to classic Mega Man. None of the robots from the classic series are around anymore, and Dr Light is now only around in the form of special capsules I'l discuss later. Now I'm not here to discuss the circumstances surrounding this game, I'm here to discuss the game itself, which is revered as not just one of the best Mega Man games, but one of the greatest sidescrollers period.

First thing to consider when discussing Mega Man X is the gameplay. Now even from my very limited experience with the classic series (I've tried to get into it many times over the years but I got walled by some thing or the other each time, but now that I've gotten through all 10 of the main MMX platformers I think I'm ready to give it another shot) I can still see just how much X expands upon it gameplay wise. In the classic series you could only really walk, jump, slide & shoot, whereas the X series introduces some revolutionary new features (at the time), those being the ability to dash and wall jump. This not only substantially improves your movement, but also gives you some very helpful new tools in approaching platforming and dodging boss attacks, and believe me, the level design absolutely takes advantage of Xs new movement options, more on that in a bit. X himself functions similarly to Mega Man at his core, as he has his standard Buster complete with the charge attack that the old Mega Man started to use from Mega Man 4, and with Xs Variable Weapon System, he can still get new weapons based on the foes he defeats throughout the game.

Anyway, with expanded gameplay and movement options naturally comes changes to the level design, and MAN does this game have some killer level design, doing a phenomenal job at both easing you into the games mechanics and making full use of the mechanics. The intro stage (a feature that first appeared in this game) starts off slow, with some smaller platforming sections and slow enemies to ease you in, as at this point you can't dash yet. Then that goes on to Chill Penguins stage, which also starts off slow, but then you come across a special capsule in the middle of your path with a hologram of Xs creator Dr Light in it. You step in it and BOOM, you now get the ability to dash, and the level design for the rest of the stage takes advantage of this to good effect, throwing at you some tighter sections of platforming and groups of enemies that you can either choose to engage or just ignore with your newfound dash. Easily some of the best level design in any game I've played when it comes to teaching you the games mechanics.

Although this new level design leads into something that this series puts more of an emphasis on than in the classic series: items. Mega Man X by default starts with significantly less health than the original Mega Man did, but X can increase his maximum health by collecting special heart-shaped items called Life Ups that are scattered in each of the 8 regular stages. E-Tanks have also been re-worked into items that you keep permanently after getting them, but to actually use them you must first fill them up by getting health regens while X is at full HP. Not exactly a fan of this as if you fuck up a boss fight you've been saving your E-Tanks for then you have to go and spend time filling them up again, but it still works regardless, especially with a change that Mega Man X4 introduces that I'll discuss when I review that game. As I mentioned in my paragraph about the level design, there are also special capsules created by Dr Light designed to improve a specific ability of X upon enter them, culminating in a badass set of armor that makes X look as if he means fucking business. There's 4 in total, with the Head upgrade giving Mega Man X the ability to break blocks above him, the Chest upgrade reducing the damage he takes by 50%, the Buster upgrade which gives him an extra level for his charge attack alongside the ability to charge up special weapons, the Leg upgrade giving him the ability to dash, and a secret capsule that allows X to perform the Hadouken from Street Fighter. This is a fucking amazing concept, and it's something I always look forward to when visiting any game in this series. Additionally, while these abilities are rather simple compared to later armors in the X series, this one did set out the standards for almost all of the later armors (Head upgrade does whatever the fuck the devs want, Chest upgrade is some sort of defense tool, Buster upgrade powers up your charge attack alongside being able to charge your special weapons and Leg upgrade improves your mobility in some way), as all but a few armors abide by this formula. Unique to this game (as well as X3 & X6) is that some stages will change in a way if you beat a certain stage beforehand. These few stage changes all work in your favor, removing certain hazards such as Spark Mandrills stage losing all of the electricity-based hazards if you beat Storm Eagle first, or Flame Mammoths stage being frozen over if you beat Chill Penguin first, allowing you to cross over what would usually be lava and getting that stages Life Up. While minor, it does encourage replayability by getting you to try out different routes and see which is optimal for you.

Why does X need these parts? Well they were for the event of a conflict... which this games plot revolves around. Mega Man X takes place about a century after the classic series, where advanced robots known as reploids now thrive among the human race. Reploids, unlike the robots from the classic series, were designed with the ability to have their own free will, allowing them to do as they please. Mega Man X, the main protagonist (duh) is the pioneer for the reploids, as he was found by a scientist known as Dr Cain many years after Dr Light sealed him away to test his systems to prevent him from going rogue. Dr Cain being so impressed by Mega Man X decided to mass produce reploids based on him. However, Cains reploids didn't go through the same system testing as Mega Man X, resulting in some them going rogue and being labelled as "mavericks". To combat this, the Maverick Hunter organisation was established, with Dr Cain helping out in its foundation. Sigma, the most advanced reploid at the time of this game was put in charge of the Maverick Hunters. However following an unfortunate encounter that I will not spoil until I get to the game where it's revealed, Sigma himself went maverick and waged a war against humanity. This is where Mega Man X comes into the fray and joins the Maverick Hunters, but he immediately gets bested by a maverick known as Vile, who gets interrupted and repelled by fellow Maverick Hunter Zero before he can finish off X. X ponders that he wasn't strong enough to defeat Vile before Zero encourages him that he can become stronger by defeating 8 of Sigmas henchmen while Zero tracks down Sigmas fortress. X defeats the 8 henchmen, finding Dr Lights armor capsules along the way and meets up with Zero, where they work together to storm Sigmas fortress. The 2 hunters encounter Vile again who still proves to be too strong for X despite his newfound power. Zero intervenes by sacrificing himself by destroying Viles special ride armor to even out the battle between him and X. X defeats Vile before running into Zero who's been reduced to a literal fucking torso by his sacrifice. If you didn't get the Buster upgrade from a Dr Light capsule before this point, then Zero gives X his own arm to equip, giving X the same abilities as Dr Lights Buster upgrade. After some words of encouragement from Zero, X powers through the fortress, besting the 8 mavericks he fought previously before encountering Sigma himself. After a long and hard fight against both Sigma and his dog Velguarder, X triumphs over him and GTFOs as the fortress begins to crumble. The story ends with X staring at the destruction of Sigmas fortress while he ponders over his decision to fight these mavericks and whether it was truly the right choice or not. The credits roll before being followed up by a post-credits scene where Sigma vows to return and get his revenge on X. It's a serviceable enough plot, immediately establishing itself as being more serious than the classic games, but not too seriously like some later games, and establishes X having a pacifist side in him despite his combat ability, as although he wishes for peace, he still chooses to fight as he knows it's the only way at times. Pretty interesting way to write a protagonist, especially in the 90s.

With the plot covered, that leads into the bosses that Sigma has under his wing. These fuckers are FUN, as despite having their ways of fucking you up, they do still have their patterns and weaknesses you can use to your advantage. This all culminates in Sting Chameleon IMO, as this guy is HARD if you choose to take him on with only your Buster. He has his patterns, but he's still very much capable of fucking you up both up-close and at range, but if you're having too much effort taking him out? Beat Boomer Kuwanger first, and watch as Sting Chameleon absolutely crumbles to your Boomerang Cutters. Some of the best designed bosses in the series in my opinion, as their attacks are fair, but if you so choose, you can lock down a few certain bosses with their weaknesses. Also shout outs to Sigma Fortress 4, the last Sigma level that's solely dedicated to the battle against Sigma himself. The devs must've known that fucker would be HARD, so they give you a spot right before the boss room to fill up your E-Tanks and gather extra lives. Very generous for a game on the SNES.

All I have left to talk about now are some minor compliments and gripes. Visually speaking, the game has held up like fine wine even to this day. The graphics still look smooth and beautiful, and the OST absolutely kicks ass (shout outs to Storm Eagles theme for being one of the best tunes from the SNES X games, that shit rocks HARD. Sigma Fortress 1 is another amazing tune that just feels both climactic and urgent at the same time, symbolizing that this is not only the end of Xs journey to stop this war, but also the most dangerous and urgent part of it. It also feels like it takes on a whole new meaning after you beat Vile and see Zeros sacrifice). The only major gripes I have are that your boss orders do feel kinda linear, as unless you're specifically challenging yourself then you're always gonna start on Chill Penguin for that leg upgrade (thank God the dash is something you get from the beginning from the next game). The armor upgrades in this game do feel somewhat simple as well, but that's just with the hindsight of the later armors from this series.

In conclusion, yeah this certainly has earned its title as one of the greatest sidescrollers of all time, and honestly a good starting point into the franchise. It's near flawless IMO, although there are a few minor tweeks that it could do with. Fortunately these are removed in the later games, so those should be fun to look at.

For a next step in the classic Mega Man formula, Mega Man X does a really good job. Of course, it fumbles from time to time, but that doesn't ruin the experience as a whole.

Gameplay wise, this game is some of the most fun shit I've played. I already enjoy how the classic games play, but now this game ramps that shit up to 11. Wall jumps are already cool as hell, but oh my lord, the dash makes this game so much fun. Chaining together dash jumps and blitzing though stages feels great, and better yet, the game rewards you for it. The maverick weapons are pretty good, but they barely hold a candle to the X Buster, especially with the arm upgrade.

The soundtrack FUCKS. Like goddamn, they locked the fuck in on this OST. Spark Mandrill, Storm Eagle, Sting Chameleon, Boomer Kuwanger, Zero's theme. Goddamn, these songs are great.

I will say that there are some stuff that is pretty annoying. Namely the secrets, like heart tanks. It's obnoxious since they're basically mandatory if you don't want this game to start being obnoxious with its balancing. Sigma himself is as fun as stubbing your toe if you don't have a Hadoken in your back pocket. Speaking of the Hadoken, I didn't even bother trying to get it, because it felt like I was doing nothing but busywork just to one shot a boss or two. It's cool as hell, but I'm not doing the most just to kick the rest of the game in the balls.

Even will all its obnoxious secrets, I say this game kicks major ass. It's a great branching off point for the series with a really strong foundation.

Is it a bit upsetting that the best Mega Man X game is the first one? Sure but... actually there isn't a silver lining, that really sucks... But hey, who cares about all that, let's talk about this incredible video game.

It is a bit difficult to talk about though since all the positives are pretty obvious but I'll try. I remember when I first played this game and unlocked the dash. I couldn't comprehend what was so great about a dash? It seemed so unremarkable... Oh how naive I was.

Why is dashing so fun? I don't get it. How did we go from a slide to this legendary movement device? Although I must say that I don't trust anyone who keeps the dash on the B button, you are a weirdo.

The levels are really fun and have a good mix of uniqueness between them without being too restrictive which I think is the best combination for an X series level. They should be cinematic but it should never overtake the pure freedom of movement the X series provides.

Beating certain levels will have changes on other levels. Like if you beat Chill Penguin before Flame Mammoth then the fire in his stage wwill be frozen over. This is really cool and I really wish the series tried to expand on this idea but while I really like the concept in practice I don't think it really works.

I've only seen the fire in Flame Mammoth's stage be active once, there just isn't any reason to not beat Chill Penguin first unless you are doing a dashless challenge run which I think is pretty lame and is ultimately kind of limiting.

Really most of my criticisms with the game are when it limits the player. Everyone already knows how well designed the tutorial stage is but on replays it is a bit tedious to get through without the dash. Honestly I kind of wish the dash was unlocked here instead of at Chill Penguin's stage. The dash isn't technically required for the game but at the same time... It really is the heart of the X gameplay so it is a bit of a shame that it being in Chill Penguin's stage limits your choices.

The story isn't much to write home about but it works and I don't mind the story being vague, I much prefer it to a straight up bad story because I can at least fill in the gaps myself which can be quite fun, I do wish Sigma had more presence though, it really feels like Vile is the main villain of the game. That would work if Sigma being the main vilain came as a shock to X but no.

Vile being invincible in the tutorial works but I don't know if I like it happening again at the end of the game. Feels a bit lame to also need to let Vile beat you up after you've likely gotten all of the armor pieces just so Zero can sacrifice himself.

Maybe alternatively they could have made it so X could now destroy the ride armor as a pay off to the start of the game but just as X is about to destroy it for good Vile grabs X and sets it to self-destruct which would lead to Zero taking X's place and sacrificing himself to contain the blast while Vile escapes and the second part of the fight begins, that would feel more satisfying imo.

I've rated this game full stars yet I've talked alot about the negatives in this review instead of highlighting the positives but that's just how it goes when you love a game so much I suppose. I have replayed this game many times and have been very into the Mega Man fanbase so I have alot to talk about with this game.

I really like the exploration in this game but once again it is just a bit depressing how the exploration isn't really improved in later games. Well it kind of is but it still feels like so much more could be done but of course that isn't the fault of X1.

This game is an absolute blast but of course you already knew that, still it doesn't hurt to gush about such a masterpiece.

Wow. I finally finished this game. My 11 year old self would be proud. I love this game, it really does mean a lot to me but now that I actually completed it I can see its flaws. This game isn’t perfect, for example the repeated bosses in the final stage felt a bit like filler and some of the controls feel a bit clunky (man grabbing ladders was really hard for me😭) but there also is a lot of really great stuff. The character design is SO COOL, the music is just iconic for me, the level design is very good and the gameplay mechanics are nice. The power ups you get through the adventure really make you feel like you are getting stronger along the way and are very fun and creative.
As for the flaws, the game is extremely hard, probably the hardest game I have ever played. I like hard games and I felt challenged through the entire experience, the point is that there were a lot of moments where the bosses put you in inescapable positions where your only option is to take damage. Another complaint I have is against some bosses I didn’t really like: the spider and the final boss’s first form. They are pretty long to get through and they just feel like a chore.
In conclusion I really like this game and I know the review is probably shit but I am so emotionally attached to this game that I just can’t really critique it how it should be done.

After playing through the Mega Man classic series, part of me was a bit worried that going back in time 25 years to start the Mega Man X games would feel like a huge step back, ultimately hampering my ability to enjoy this game for what it offered at the time rather than what I want it to offer now.

What a fool I was.

The game isn't perfect obviously. Dashing never ended up feeling quite as intuitive or satisfying for me as sliding in Mega Man classic did, and the stages can often feel like slight variations on the same 'robot factory' theme over and over again. But these small complaints are so easy to brush aside when the levels are all so fun to traverse, the boss weapons are all so fun to use, the secrets are all so satisfying to discover, and the story gets as close as a Mega Man game has come so far to actually being good.

I couldn't put this game down until I rolled credits and all I can think about now that I have is 'when will I get to replay this game already?' TL;DR: This game rules.