Pretty good; it's a really impressive remake for something like MegaMan X1. X is just as fun to control as the original. X is finally able to skip dashes like in the original SNES games instead of the sluggish dash they gave him after X3. His weapons have a massive amount of options compared to X1's. You can use a charged weapon ability while also being able to switch to a different weapon and fire it. Like Sting Chameleon's invincibility, Armored Armadillo's shield, and Spark Mandrill's weapon which is finally useful and its charged version can make a decent screen nuke. The armor parts are the same here, though you can get Zero's unique buster that can deal 1 or 2 bars more of damage, but X is only able to obtain at Sigma's 3rd palace so it's not really that worth getting. If you struggle with Sigma save Electric Spark for the 1st phase and then use Rolling Shield for the 2nd phase. All of the level design (layout, backgrounds, Light capsules, and enemies) are altered and it works kind of well except when the leg parts are not a free upgrade and are in Sting Chameleon's. Vile is added as a character after you beat the game, he’s neat. I don’t like that his gameplay feels like you’re controlling a boss and not a playable character because most of his attacks are very delayed. You have to switch between different angles your weapons can aim at. It's a bit iffy getting both the timing and the shot to land where enemies are. There is also a huge variety of alternate projectiles you can choose for Vile in his campaign. They’re not major but they’re okay to just keep you entertained for the lack of upgrades and different weapons. After completing his mode I think he doesn't work as a character like X or Zero. If he has significantly faster movement and a decent range for his weapons I would like him in any X game. The rocket punch missiles are what I'd recommend when you get them in this mode, they are more fun to use than the machine gun.


The remixed music tracks are done by X4's composer and it feels really good hearing the soft synths and dark ambiance X4 had with its soundtrack again, and also feature pretty cool guitar riffs used in the music. All of them are pretty fantastic renditions of the original themes. Although some tracks really over-synthesize the music, in particular I don't like Launch Octopus Stage’s theme because I can barely telegraph out the original music because of the synths blurring it out.


The story is actually good!! I really like the concept that this game introduces with X about his potential to rationalize in a higher comprehension to normal reploids and Sigma's angle was only seeing it as to further advance reploid battle potential. Basically his worrying and caring instinctively would get him the drive to get stronger every time and Sigma manipulates him as much as possible. The only time MMX made me delve into the story without splitting hairs. The maverick dialogue is also worth listening to, at least this over the generic grunt dialogue before this point. Boomerang Kowanger was the one that pointed out that Sigma sees that potential in X actually. I like that the mavericks all have a reason to join Sigma besides just hating X when they were Maverick Hunters or something similar. The fact that this game acknowledges the boss rush in a meaningful way to showcase that Sigma is just manipulating the empty shells of the mavericks to fight for him elevates the story a bit. Vile’s side of the story is pretty average. It’s just Vile being edgy and salty for the rest of the run but it’s not fun as it sounds. He forces all the Maverick reploids to fight him for no reason, gets shot down by X and Zero and is forced to become a Sigma reploid at the end. The whole point of it is that Vile doesn’t need to be a Maverick to be evil and it’s corny.

The voice acting is some of the best in the series, not a high bar but it’s really good, although I don't like the forced delivery in the maverick reploids’ voices. It sounds straight out of a 4kids dub sometimes and it kind of kills the impact of the dialogue. Also I don’t like how Zero sounds, he sounds like the most average dude you could think of and I think they should’ve gone for a better tone for his voice. All of that aside, when it’s good it goes insanely hard. This cutscene of X and Sigma SHOCKED me when I heard it. There’s a lot of attention put into the dubbing and I don’t think it deserved to be overshadowed by knee-jerk jokes about X4’s voice acting.

Overall, great game. It’s not a replacement for X1, but it’s a great compliment for people that played it. It might be better if I gave it more time than X1 but I’ve only done my first playthrough.

I wanted to make a review Sonic Adventure 2 because I've not expressed myself about it enough. It has been my favorite game of all time for a long while. It inhibits so many parts that I can identify with and appeal in regards to in video games, even if throughout the years where I'm recognizing flaws in the game and in the writing. From the tight and instant gameplay loop, to the charmingly conveyed narrative, it will always have something for me to go back to. The constant tension and creative movement is sublime from any other action game I've played, and the story while having a bad translation and its own set of problems, is still a personal piece that tells a message of purpose and the potential good in humanity. Sonic Adventure 2 is a byproduct of its time; originally released just at the end of the Dreamcast's twilight, at the start of the early 2000's, and just when the 3d platforming genre started to expand. So much has gone past this era of the franchise that I can't help but appreciate SA2 for how it passionately paved the series and placed its mark on the genre. It's an incredibly tight game that thrives off its edgy appeal.

The gameplay keeps you at the heart of the action at every single turn; level hazards, enemy patterns, higher paths, maneuvering rails and multiple pathways all play into the ranking system. It rewards players that mastered their movement and combat options and make sharp turns according to the level layout, and this in turn lets them get the best out of a level. It's like an arcade game, and you could say this replaces the level direction on Adventure 1's open movement with SA2's linear obstacle course level design, though in my opinion it justifies this in creating scripted set pieces that are engaging enough mechanically and visually. It streamlines intersections of levels that involve action and movement while still having enough of a skill ceiling to create replay value. It's less about translating movement to level design elements like in the classic games, and more about flowing through different segments of level design. It's cathartic. I feel like Sonic games since its wake ignored this and instead chose to hyper focus on the latter to exacerbate this design even more to the point that it's all scripted inputs. Despite all the oddly quirks it has in its movement and gravity, and the level design in some of the later parts, there are no games can draw me in as easily as candidly as SA2 has, and still have a fun time out of it.

Diving into SA2 by the first core idea you get greeted by the box art and the opening cutscene; good and bad, heroes and villains, organic and artificial, nature and industry. This is the main idea it spreads throughout the game in small ways to enhance the whole experience. Like how it uses its absurd gameplay pieces to portray how G.U.N corrupt is, it's kind of farcical that way. The characters have a wide range of vocal themes highlighting their motives or their thoughts in a certain point in the story, contrasting their interests. The U.I blends and interacts with the style of the game perfectly, it has a digital neon aesthetic that represents themes of advanced technology in the game. The character art is angular and has exaggerated proportions. It sings its edge and style the game was going for, it can get corny at some points but the energy can still hit you.

It's hard writing genuine reviews for these games without slowly drifting into being argumentative, because I need to vindicate Sonic games of all things in order to truly ask myself that I loved them like I've always had, due to the new standards and views in the side of discussion. I asked myself to see the other side of the coin many times, because I did share some of the problems when I've started to get conscious about the game in contrast to SA1. Sonic Adventure had loose, floating movement that often was extremely satisfying to take advantage in levels. Sonic Adventure 2 had strict movement that will mostly lean towards one direction and hard to control anywhere else. SA1 had 5 different characters that were easy to digest due to the the short amount of levels they each had and free story progression between them. SA2 had only 2 of them with played out story progression, and with 3 different gameplay types. SA1 had the premise almost summed up in the opening, had a straightforward story that had its plot beats told in each side of the story, and had satisfying development wrapped up by the end of most campaigns. SA2 had a story that to some felt convoluted and had a lot of plot holes. It's very easy to pin point the disconnect here. But then, when I started to play the game beyond its flaws I began to experiment with it. I saw how all these aspects flow and understood the direction it was going for. The Speed stages were becoming less aggravating and I started to appreciate how it used all of its mechanics as the focal point for each level. The Mech stages weren't sluggish and I saw how much potential there was in stacking enemies together, and the annoying room encounters were much more satisfying to approach. The Emerald Hunting stages which were the hardest part for me to sit down and play on my own, began to grow up on me. I started to learn the level layouts and tracked a pattern order where I search each section of the level. Once I did that it became a really fun time to replay over and over to find out niche parts of them that I've never considered. I watched the story through the Japanese translation and it's jarring to see how it enhanced the story with all the baggage of the English script. It had great voice direction, the interactions were more grounded, the story actually hit me emotionally. There is so much more that SA2 has to challenge the player beyond trial and error, and the story is worth delving into beyond its short comings. I mastered this game 3 times over because there is so much that isn't on the surface that keeps me entertained. Seeing all these things elevate placed itself as my favorite game of all time.