Well, it's Mega Man X1 but you can play as fucking Zero. Any Mega Man X game becomes twice as fun if it allows you to play as Zero, so what more needs to be said?...

... Ok but on a more serious note the amount of passion and detail put into this hack is fucking unbelievable. Wily appears in the armor capsules instead of Light with changed dialogue to match his character, the Hadouken capsule even turns Zero into Black Zero, X now makes the sacrifice in the Vile fight but he actually manages to safely retreat, the post-credits scene subtly shows off Sigma talking to the X-Hunters giving a nice tease in to X2 and the list goes on in changes to adapt X1 to be about Zero rather than X. There are some odd decisions here and there such as some of the boss rematches being a 2v1 or how Zero burns through special weapon energy faster but as he's such a powerhouse it barely matters as not only will bosses usually have like 1/4 of their HP left by the time you run out of their weakness but the Spiral Crush still hits bosses REALLY hard. Then there's changes that REALLY spice up the gameplay such as how Electric Spark no longer breaks Armored Armadillos shell which initially made that fight a LOT harder for me until I realized that charged Electric Sparks still make very easy work of him or how Zeros increased jump height makes Launch Octopus way easier than he is with X (and getting the Buster capsule too I think). My favorite change however is that Variable X plays in the final Sigma level as opposed to the ominous theme in vanilla X1 and it surprisingly fits very well because man does it get you PUMPED to beat the final boss. But all in all, this is a damn good ROM hack which has love and passion present all throughout it, definitely check this one out even if you like MMX overall as opposed to just being a Zero junkie, because despite the changes it brings, it isn't that much harder than vanilla X1 so it should still be rather easy to get into so long as you know the basic MMX formula.

>Play the game normally, beating the 8 Robot Masters like you normally would
>Get to the Doc Robot stages
>Reset the game
>Input this password

That's how this game was intended to be played.




(Proper reviews of this alongside the rest of the Classic series will come some day, still currently playing through each of them when I'm typing this).

(This review was written after only beating Xs side of this game a few times. I've yet to complete Viles side of the game as of the time I'm typing this at, but I will update this review with points about that once that's done)

So my original plan was to play and review Mega Man X: Command Mission at this point, but as my GameCube controller adapter took longer than I thought to be delivered (even then it isn't expected to arrive until either the 26th or 27th of October and I'm typing this on the 25th), I figured I'd use that time to play through Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, a PSP remake of the original Mega Man X on the SNES. Now Mega Man X1 as it stands is a near flawless game with the only real drawbacks surrounding it being extremely minor, so it was odd that Capcom chose to develop a remake of that game for the PSP as the next step forward for the series, ESPECIALLY since this came a year following Mega Man X8 whose ending had a very clear sequel hook regarding what happened to Axl. This game, rather than being a direct re-telling of X1 instead opts to be the start of an alternate continuity for the X series as there are characters and plot elements here that were NOT present in that game which did have potential as it allowed the writers to freshen up the Mega Man X plot without any of the dumb mishaps that started coming in full force by X4. Now before I get into the actual discussion I do want to state that a lot of what I said in my review on X1 still holds true for Maverick Hunter X, so to avoid repeating myself frequently I'm only going to discuss what's new in this game alongside other notable features that are worth comparing to X1, therefore meaning this review will probably be rather short in my eyes.

Gameplay-wise, at its core it's identical to X1, even down to Xs dash being tied to the Leg upgrade like it was in the original game and despite the usage of 3D models rather than sprites it's fortunately still VERY smooth and fun to play around with. However some QoL features from X8 have been brought over into this game, most notably the ability to exit a stage without already beating that stages boss. It's a nice addition and it was amusingly a feature that came in handy for me as in my first run of this game I accidentally picked Storm Eagle before going to Chill Penguin who I wanted to go after at that point, otherwise it's just a cool feature to have overall. Additionally, like in X8, MHX stores your E-Tank energy whenever you save your game, and it's still there when you restart this addition. I LOVE this change, as means that you don't have to spend your time grinding up E-Tanks again every time you restart your save file (whether that be to give you more chances at using the Hadouken or simply to give yourself more leeway in the final boss), and why it took them until the 8th fucking entry to implement this is beyond me.

In-line with the later X games, MHX does have difficulty settings, with Normal being pretty much in line with X1 while Hard mode makes X take more damage while bosses have new attacks and patterns that they never had on Normal difficulty. I'm pretty indifferent on the difficulty here, as in terms of extremes it's not to the extreme of X5/X6s hard modes where enemies stop dropping health pickups & are placed in stages like a typical Mario Maker level but it's also not to the extreme of X8 where the lowest difficulty doesn't lock you out of certain content, so in general it's just pretty neat although if you wanna see EVERYTHING the game has to offer than you'll have to play it on hard difficulty.

MHX does however see the playable debut of Vile in his own campaign that's unlocked after beating the game as X. While I haven't fully played through it yet (am only like 2 bosses in as of me typing this as I've been busy with other things), I do know that Vile lacks the ability to dash like X does despite the fact that you can literally see Vile dashing whenever you fight him, but it is still an interesting way to spice up Viles gameplay formula, and he has his own array of powerful weapons separate from X has, but he can NOT take hits for the life of him until you get a few Life Ups, so the early game as Vile is pretty damn rough.

The level design however is where Maverick Hunter X begins to get rather different from X1. First things first, the levels that make up Sigmas Palace have been completely reworked into entirely new levels. For instance, the start of Sigma Palace 1 has you go underwater where you fight Launch Octopus as the first boss rematch rather than Boomer Kuwanger or how Sigma Palace 2 now has you destroying ginormous rocks which leads into the rematch with Armored Armadillo, and even features the climbing section at the start of the original Sigma Palace 1. In my opinion, MHXs fortress levels are WAY harder than X1s fortress levels simply due to the downright EVIL enemy placement at times, but it's nothing that you can't overcome without a good strategy.

The item placement in MHXs stages is rather interesting as it's not exactly the same here as in X1. For starters, the Life Up in Spark Mandrills stage now REQUIRES the use of Boomerang Cutter while previously you could get it with a wall dash or how the E-Tank in Flame Mammoths stage and the armor capsule in Storm Eagles stage now require you to have the First Armors head piece equipped, and this I admit does freshen up the experience somewhat as you realize that this isn't actually a 1:1 recreation of X1. Furthermore, the locations of each of Xs armor pieces have been COMPLETELY swapped around. The Head upgrade is now in Chill Penguins stage, the Chest upgrade is now in Storm Eagles stage, the Buster upgrade is now in Sting Chameleons stage and the Leg upgrade is now in Flame Mammoths stage. Although the Leg upgrade isn't impossible to miss in MHX, the boss orders here still have that linearity problem that X1 had as unless you're challenging yourself then you're ALWAYS gonna be going to Flame Mammoth first because the dash is still tied to this upgrade. Despite that, it does at least help in making MHX a unique enough game to play through compared to X1, as your routes across both games will likely be COMPLETELY different.

Then there's the items, and I only have one notable point to discuss here as everything is the exact same as in X1. You know how Zero gives you his arm part if you see his sacrifice without having already collected the Buster upgrade? While in X1 their functions were entirely the same, in MHX Zeros arm actually has a unique function compared to Dr Lights Buster, giving X a new charge shot that does hefty damage to bosses. Too bad that by the time you get it you only have like 3 bosses left to fight, but it's still pretty cool that they decided to give Zeros arm an actual unique function, and even adds some more replay ability to the game as not only does it mean you have to go through the first 3 Sigma levels without a Buster upgrade or the Hadouken, but it also means you have an entirely different tool to approach the final boss with.

The plot of MHX is where it REALLY starts to get interesting. First off, Sigmas reasoning for starting the war is simply to achieve the true potential of Reploids as opposed to getting corrupted by a virus program from Zero like what X4 implied, immediately establishing that this game is in an alternate continuity, otherwise the plot plays out identically to X1s plot for the most part. Additionally the final battle with Vile alongside Zeros sacrifice occur WAY later here, instead taking place at the end of Sigma Palace 3 as opposed to the start of Sigma Palace 1 like in the original and IMO this adds a LOT more stakes to the plot as the final battle against Sigma effectively takes place right after this and the writers even play with it due to how fucking PISSED X sounds when he speaks to Sigma in their pre-battle dialogue as he's literally just come off of seeing his friend sacrifice himself so X can power on while Sigma gloats about the potential of Reploids so it really is understandable that X is so goddamn mad.

Speaking of which, MHX does give the bosses a LOT more character than what they had in X1 as each of them has some dialogue with X before their battles that gives some insight to their personality and why they've joined Sigmas forces in the first place, my personal favorite being Launch Octopus as he became a Maverick simply because of his love for combat, going as far as to scream "EVEN MY EXPLOSION IS BEAUTIFUL" when you beat him and that admittedly had me laughing for a good few minutes afterwards. I won't spoil the rest of it, but the way MHX changes up the plot and characters from X1 is pretty fucking cool for the most part and I'd definitely recommend checking out the cutscenes or the special animation, "The Day of Sigma" as they both give a lot of insight to the characters of Xs world.

I have nothing to say about the bosses that I didn't already say before, so I'm moving right on to the presentation of MHX. The first major change comes in the fact that 3D models are used rather than sprites like in the original. While they can look rather dated at times, it's something that never really bothered me that much as the gameplay is still very fun and the levels/characters are both very vibrant and filled with life despite that.

I do want to give credit to the voice acting however. This is the last time that the Ocean Group (from X8 and X Command Mission) would provide English voice acting for a Mega Man X game, and this game features far and away their BEST performances, in particular fucking Mark Gathas performance as X. HOLY. FUCK does he nail it down SO hard. You can hear the hesitance in his voice during the pre-battle dialogue while also sounding like he isn't fucking around when he does realize that he has to put down these Mavericks, and then when you get to the Sigma fight he sounds like he's ready to fucking kill Sigma with the sheer ANGER in his voice as he's just come off the sacrifice of Zero, so Mark just perfectly fucking encapsulates both sides of X and IMO he's THE best VA he's ever had. That's not to say the rest of the cast aren't great either, as Lucas Gilbertson and Roger Rhodes both return to voice Zero/Vile respectively. Lucas once again nails down the cool and calm personality of Zero but Roger manages to encapsulate a different side of Vile that the story pushes here compared to X8, showing a lot more hatred for X as opposed to simply just enjoying the thrill of destruction like in that game. All in all, this is the best voice acting a Mega Man X game has ever had, nuff said.

The soundtrack, while overall being weaker than X1s, still has some damn good tunes, with my personal favorite being the new rendition of Boomer Kuwangers theme which is SO FUCKING GOOD holy shit, EASILY my favorite track from MHX specifically as it blows the X1 version out of the water.

In conclusion, Maverick Hunter X is an absolutely fantastic remake of the original Mega Man X. It fixes all but one extremely minor nitpick being the linear boss orders while not only introducing new features but also mixing up existing elements to create a fresh experience compared to X1. The voice acting is the best it's ever been, the core gameplay is still as fun as it was previously and there's also some fun content to keep you engaged in the form of the higher difficulties and Vile mode. Therefore, I feel absolutely content in giving this game a 5 star rating as I think it honestly deserves it, DEFINITELY up there with Kirby Super Star Ultra as the gold standard for video game remakes in my eyes and I even recommend this one as a good starting point into the Mega Man X series as it's pretty easy to pick up and play. Unfortunately I hear this game alongside fellow PSP Mega Man remake "Powered Up" didn't perform too well commercially (understandably so as both of them released in the pre-MHFU era of the PSP) and so we'll likely never see X2 and beyond be re-done in the style of MHX and it's a damn shame because everything after X2 has some aspect or another that a remake could address to create an absolutely amazing game, but it's something that'll sadly never happen because of how long it's been since this game released alongside the sales figures, but this is still an absolutely amazing game already for what it is.

Well I've literally just got my final achievement in this game so it's finally time I discuss this half of the collection a bit. Coming off from X4 in the first collection, LC2 continues on with the next four games in the Mega Man X series which are rather divisive among the community but I still got enjoyment out of most of them nonetheless. Now I've already went in-depth on each of the 4 games here so I'll start off this review by giving brief rundowns of my reviews on them which are as follows:

>Mega Man X5: A game that will likely be a lot of fun on your first playthrough, but the cracks really do begin to show on replays (which you will have to do if you want to get all the achievements tied to this game) with Alia refusing to shut up which is very much capable of making you take a hit at times, the convoluted parts system forcing you to waste your time, Tidal Whales entire level, the RNG endings that dictate whether or not you get to play as Zero for the final act & the sloppily-written ending in general, although the references to the first 4 X games and the Classic series are pretty cool I'll give it that.

>Mega Man X6: A game that I personally find enjoyment in despite the consensus surrounding it. Like with X5, it has a fair amount of questionable decisions that'll likely result in the game kicking your ass HARD if you go in blind, but UNLIKE X5, there's very easy work-arounds to X6s questionable decisions, therefore making it the most replayable game in this collection IMO as it's a LOT of fun once you have hindsight of what to expect. Also has the funnest iteration of Zero, so there's that too.

>Mega Man X7: An absolutely terrible game regardless of how you slice it, as there's barely any redeeming qualities to it outside of the unintentionally funny voice acting and good soundtrack.

>Mega Man X8: The best controls & voice acting (barring Maverick Hunter X) this series has seen IMO are present in this game, but the level design here can be VERY hit or miss although it's still a fine experience despite that, just be mindful about this game if you're an achievement hunter.

Now that that's out of the way I do want to state that I've ALSO already reviewed the first half of the X Legacy Collection so I'm only gonna discuss what's unique to this half specifically to avoid repeating myself, starting with presentation changes. The version of X6 that's found here no longer has the vocal songs found in the original release; instead having a remix of the Gateway theme from X8 be used for its intro and credits. How very strange that they did this but refused to fix X6s godawful translation as that's still very much present in the Legacy Collection, and this is made even MORE strange by the fact that the stage bosses in X5 now have translated names that match their original Japanese names as opposed to the Guns N' Roses references that they had for names in the original western release alongside other minor translation tweaks like "Octopardo" being changed to "Launch Octopus" so that the dialogue between X & Volt Kraken actually makes sense. A more universal change to the presentation however comes in the fact that load times and frame rate chugs have been drastically cut down across all 4 games (well, barring Dark Necrobats stage in X5 but I believe the slow down there is actually intentional), ESPECIALLY in X7 and X8 and because of this it seems that this collection is the definitive way to play those 2 games, as not only are the load times cut down in both of them, but the visuals overall are cleaned up & look much smoother than they did on the original hardware.

The achievements in the first half of the collection weren't the hardest things to get, but some of the achievements in the second half are just plain evil. In here you can expect such RIVETING achievements as:

>Destroying the colony with the cannon in X5
>Seeing all 3 endings in X5
>Listening to all of Alias support calls in X7
>Getting every part upgrade for a specific character in X7
>Saving every Reploid hostage in X7
>Getting every single upgrade for X, Zero & Axl in X8
>Playing as all 3 navigators in X8

That's the worst of it, but despite these only making up 7 of the 52 achievements in this game they are NOT fun at all to go for. After getting every achievement here I have nothing but pity for anyone who tries to do the same in the future as those achievements I listed will be sure to make your experience much more of a drag. With the X5 achievements you gotta contend with crappy RNG unless you do some convoluted manipulation tactics to guarantee the outcome you want, the X7 achievements don't need any explaining and in the case of the X8 achievements specifically you have to spend several hours just grinding up the required metal amount to even get the items tied to those achievements.

The new X Challenge stages specific to this collection are also equally brutal. Vile & High Max? Dynamo & Gate? Blast Hornet & Blaze Heatnix? This half of the collection has them all, and it REALLY proves that some of these bosses were NOT designed with the stages that this mode sometimes puts them in in mind, in particular fucking Blast Hornet in Blaze Heatnixs arena, where the 3 suspended platforms pretty much strip out all breathing room you'd normally have to dodge his attacks. Additionally, the X Challenge mode overall seems to have a fetish for making you fight Neon Tiger and Spiral Pegasus because I felt as if the game made me fight one or the other relatively frequently. Not that I'm complaining, because Spiral Pegasus' weakness, Dark Hold now works on pretty much every boss aside from Dark Necrobat which makes it a DAMN good weapon to bring into a stage should the game allow you to use it.

Likewise, I've heard complaints about input lag that I've barely never noticed in-game (if anyone is curious I used a keyboard with Vsync enabled again before eventually swapping to a GameCube controller which I also saw no input delay with) and what I did notice barely amounted to much and was absolutely not able to ruin my enjoyment with any of the games.

So in conclusion, if you liked the 4 games in the first Legacy Collection then I'd say pick this one up. Both parts of it sit at like 20 bucks on Steam at most and go on sale relatively frequently, & across both collections I've gotten around 115 hours so far as I'll definitely be returning to everything besides X7 to continue getting better at them so therefore I'd say it's worth your cash if you liked what you got from LC1, as it also features those same cool extras from that, applying now to X5-X8 whenever necessary. However if you're into achievement hunting then this is NOT a fun one to go through as you'll be here for a while trying to get the worst of them, but at least it feels satisfying to finally get them... I guess....?

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection. Also fair warning that I get angry a few times in this review)

X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X8
Xtreme
Xtreme 2

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. In the eyes of the overall Mega Man community, that's the best way to describe going from Mega Man X6 to this game, both of which are of entirely different extremes. In the case of X6 it's due to the extremely tight level design and poorly explained mechanics which can result in you getting soft-locked that make that game VERY punishing towards newcomers/blind players, but once you gain hindsight of what that game throws at you & figure out how to get around it then that game becomes VERY fun to play on re-visits, while this is an extreme for an entirely different reason. Anyway, it's Mega Man X7, a game with just as bad if not even worse of a reputation than what X6 has. It's a game that's been burned into the ground for well over 20 years since its initial release in 2003 for a plethora of reasons, with some even going as far as to say it's one of the worst games to ever be put out by a AAA developer. X7 is another interesting game in my case as IMO it's not as bad as everyone hypes it up to be, however that's not say it's a good game, far from it. It still stands as the single weakest Mega Man X game in my opinion with Xtreme 1 and X5 being runners up. I tried my hardest to find things to like about this game as underneath everything this game does wrong there's a game that really does try its hardest to take the Mega Man X series in an innovative new direction (post-review note: I think this entire statement was rather premature).

The big new changes that X7 brings to the table come in the gameplay. There's a LOT to discuss here so I'll get the minor new change out of the way first, that being that X can now naturally use the air dash as it's no longer tied to any armor upgrades in this game. I'm surprised it took them this long to give X a natural air dash, but better late than never I suppose. However the level design barely capitalizes on the natural air dash like how X2 & X3 did with Xs natural ground dash so instead of becoming a key feature it ends up being one that's just nice to have in the grand scheme of things. With that out of the way that then leads into one of 2 major new gameplay changes in X7: 3D environments. Yes, after 6 games X & Zero have finally learned how to move about the X-Axis in more ways than just left and right. Now you'd think that with this would come brand new abilities for X & Zero to use to adapt to the 3D space, but the devs just chose to play it safe, and so they retain all the standard abilities that they had in X6, and I do have to commend them for that, as bringing a series known for fast-paced 2D sidescrollers into the 3D space is no easy feat, so why not keep it simple and retain all the functions that players are familiar with? Anyway with this game embracing 3D that leads me into the fact that due to this, X7 has a different gameplay engine than X4-X6 alongside brand new 3D models for its assets. UNFORTUNATELY the new engine leads to gameplay/movement that's nowhere near as fun as it was in the previous X games. Everything (most notably your jumps and wall jumps) feel a LOT more clunky, and even dashes feel notably slower than before. Additionally with 3D environments also comes concerns regarding the camera, and for some ungodly reason THE CAMERA IS TIED TO WHAT WOULD USUALLY BE THE FUCKING SPECIAL WEAPON BUTTONS (on a PS2/PS4 controller for instance it's L1/R1 while special weapons are mapped to the right stick or as I used a keyboard the camera is by default the D/C keys while the special weapons have been moved to the Q/E keys). The real kicker however is that despite how you can set your own action mapping in the options, YOU CAN'T SWAP THE CAMERA/SPECIAL WEAPON CONTROLS. Why the FUCK was this still even a thing in 2003??? Other 3D games learned how to properly do camera controls even before X7, so there's ZERO excuse here. Needless to say this games camera sucks, but fortunately there's only one real instance where it becomes a genuine problem. Furthermore, the game also introduces a lock-on for X that while nice to have for the 3D sections, takes away any semblance of challenge when it comes to fighting enemies in 2D sections. The devs of previous X games knew that having a lock-on in a 2D plain would be fucking busted and so therefore it was only ever tied to certain special weapons e.g. Homing Torpedo in X1 or Aiming Laser in X4. In those previous games, you had to jump if you wanted to aim your shots at an enemy that was normally out of your reach. It's the basic fucking ideology of Mega Man combat as a whole, so by giving X a lock-on regardless of whatever weapon he has equipped just goes against the fundamentals that the franchise had been building up in the 15 years prior to X7. Then there's Zero, and good GOD what did they do to you????? Man he did NOT translate well when going from sprites to 3D models. His default saber combo is so goddamn slow and even his techniques have a hefty amount of wind up to them as well, but at least his attacks hit like a truck so that at least gives him a niche as boss fodder. That's it for the 3D discussion & the implications it brought to the table, and overall it unfortunately was NOT implemented well. The 2nd major gameplay change comes in the fact that alongside X & Zero, the new hunter Axl has joined the fray to turn the group from a duo into a TRIO. Axl controls similarly to X but without a traditional charge shot, and so to compensate he can hover in the air for a few seconds and he has a new charge shot that enables Axl to gain the abilities of some stage enemies. This is thankfully a very unique mechanic and helps to give Axl his own identity as a playable character compared to X. I have 2 main gripes with this. The first is that the level design doesn't take advantage of this NOWHERE near as much as it could, and the second is that IT'S SO GODDAMN HARD TO ACTUALLY USE. It does jack shit for damage and to even copy an enemy you must land the finishing blow on them with the copy shot, however due to the aforementioned lack of damage you're better off chipping down the enemys health with Axls regular attacks, but doing that also runs the risk of you accidentally blowing the fucker up due to stage enemies not having any sort of indicator for their HP. So you either have to do it the quick way that involves accidentally blowing the enemy up or the safe way that takes fucking ages due to the lack of damage on Axls copy shots. Pick your poison. Furthermore, some of the enemies that Axl can copy have some BEEFY health bars, in particular the boulder-chucking guys in Soldier Stonekongs stage, so you can only imagine what trying to copy those fuckers are like, but get this, YOU'RE ACTUALLY REQUIRED to copy one of those fuckers in particular to get a few reploid hostages that are chilling behind a large bed of spikes that only those enemies can safely cross. Oh yeah, reploid hostages return from X6, however the Nightmare guys aren't around in this game to corrupt them and deny you their goodies, so what did they do to compromise? THEY MADE IT SO THAT ANY ENEMY CAN DEFEAT THEM, and like in X6, the items they carry are FUCKING GONE PERMANENTLY SHOULD YOU LOSE THEM & save-scumming is the only way to remedy this. So in short, they DOUBLED DOWN on the aspect that people fucking hated about reploid hostages in X6 rather than trying to tone them back... I just.... WHY???? Did they not just listen to ANY of the criticism that people had with X6? Anyway alongside the hostages comes the return of the parts system, but it's received a bit of a tweak. Whereas in X5 & X6 they were items you could equip or unequip at any time in the stage select, they act kind of like a skill tree in X7. X, Zero & Axl all have 3 different types of part-based upgrades that are separated into rows, and the parts that reploid hostages give you don't actually have any pre-defined mechanic. Instead the mechanic they give to X/Zero/Axl is dependent on wherever they're placed at on a specific character, providing some sort of freedom if you will on how you choose to upgrade your characters. The part upgrades themselves still act similarly as to how they did in X6, providing abilities such as faster buster charging, damage reduction, faster dash speed, a more powerful Z-Saber etc. Overall it's a very unique spin on the parts mechanic and one of the few things I have to commend X7 for. Another gameplay mechanic that X7 actually does well is the return of the character swapping mechanic from Mega Man Xtreme 2. While being a neat mechanic, its true function is to give you a glorified second health bar, as the level design barely takes advantage of it unfortunately. They also fucked up Alia again as she's back to being a total fucking pace-breaker like she was in X5, arguably even worse than in that game how when you're trying to equip parts from reploid hostages she explains EVERY FUCKING TIME that reploids give you special parts, like I GET IT, you don't have to explain it to me every time. Even trying to save your game or return to the stage select feels like a chore as she asks every time if you're 100% SURE that you want to do it or not which also severely fucks with the games overall pacing. That's really it for the core gameplay changes in X7, NOT a good start for this review overall.

Next up is the level design and I quite frankly don't have much to say about this. The level design in X7 ranges from boring at best (e.g. Soldier Stonekongs stage, Splash Warflys, Ride Boarskis stage etc.) to downright frustrating at worst, most notably Flame Hyenards stage, which is split up into one VERY long 2D section and one VERY long 3D section with the only checkpoints being at the start of the 3D section and the boss. A helpful tip I found regarding it however is that the reploid hostages that are placed nearby the bombs can be easily cheesed by running away to off-screen them. The bombs will still blow up but the reploid hostages will still be intact, alleviating a LOT of the frustration that would be otherwise involved with getting them. Wind Crowrangs stage is another infamous one as the camera works against your favor in the first section where you have to platform across a fleet of planes while janky controls pose a challenge in getting that stages Life Up. I don't even have much to say about the item placement either, just that the game LOVES to hide them behind walls/platforms in the 3D sections, most notably in Splash Warflys stage and Ride Boarskis stage. I do have to give credit to Ride Boarskis stage now that I think about it as it at least tries to do something creative with the Ride Chaser by having you disarm a bunch of bombs on a track as opposed to simply going from point A to point B, but at the same time the Ride Chaser is VEEEEEERY slow which takes away a lot of the fun in using them when compared to X4 and X5s Ride Chasers. Also, some of the bombs are placed near-parallel to reploid hostages so unless you have TAS-level reflexes then it's likely going to take you multiple trips around the track to get everything. I don't have much to comment on regarding the fortress levels here either. The first level is an extremely slow autoscroller which involves a couple of blind jumps here and there while everything after that stage consists of extremely basic platforming sections. However I will say that I like what they did with the tried and true boss rush making its stage a literal graveyard as opposed to just consisting of teleporters you'd go through in the previous X games. That's the only real compliment I have to give to X7s level design, as otherwise they're some of the most forgettable levels in this series.

Then there's the item game in X7. Like with X6 there's the 8 Life Ups, 3 E-Tanks and the EX Tank, but now for the first time since X3 there's only one armor for X to find, this time being the Glide Armor. The Head piece enables nearby items to be drawn to X, the Chest piece gives X 50% damage reduction alongside knockback resistance & a Giga Attack that gets build up by taking damage, the Buster piece adds smaller homing blasts to Xs charge shot that I've barely ever noticed alongside charged special weapons and the Leg piece gives X the ability to glide through the air. This is easily one of the weakest armors that X has adorned throughout the series IMO as it barely does anything interesting, and I've barely ever noticed some of its supposed """key features""" in standard gameplay, in particular the head and buster upgrades effects. Compare it to say, X5s Falcon Armor where it spices up the armor formula by favoring mobility over combat, or X6s Shadow Armor which played with the fact that X used Zeros saber in that game by giving him a charged saber swing that hit like a TRUCK, and you'll really see just how lackluster the Glide Armor feels. I will say however that the knockback resistance REALLY helps out due to the increased prevalence of it in X7 as it can straight up lead to you getting launched into bottomless pits or any other insta kill hazard that you can't get out of due to the fact that control is taken away from you when your character gets knocked back, but most of the time it just breaks the pace and nothing more.

Going on from that is the plot, GOOD FUCKING GOD THE PLOT. Due to 6 (8 if counting the Xtreme duology) back-to-back games where he's been involved in conflicts that have seen the demises of countless humans & reploids alike, X has decided to step back from the Maverick Hunters front lines in the hopes of """finding more peaceful solutions to the fighting""", put in LOTS of quotations because well, HE DOESN'T DO ANY OF THAT, HE JUST SITS THERE AND SCREAMS "WHY MUST REPLOIDS FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT" EVERY TIME HE'S ON SCREEN. This is some HARD character assassination if I've ever seen it, as what made X such a unique protagonist is that despite his pacifist side, he still chose to engage in the conflict as he KNEW it was the only way at times, and to have him fully embrace his pacifist side is something that doesn't and will NEVER work regardless of how much effort you put into the writing of it. And BECAUSE X is now suddenly allergic to violence do you wanna know what this also means? THAT X IS AN UNLOCKABLE CHARACTER IN HIS OWN FUCKING GAME. WHY. THE. FUCK. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS OKAY?! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THE MAIN PROTAGONIST AN UNLOCKABLE CHARACTER IN HIS OWN GODDAMN GAME?! Anyway BECAUSE of that Zero's on his own for a portion of the game, but he enlists the help of Axl following the intro stage who has a target on his head set by the vigilante group Red Alert, who had taken to putting down Mavericks following Xs decision to step down from fighting, but because their methods of combating Mavericks gradually became more and more violent Axl fucked off from the group, but his ability to copy reploids is a key asset to Red Alert and so their leader, Red tries his hardest to get Axl back into the group. Throughout the game you get cutscenes where Red is seen talking to this guy called "The Professor" and the game doesn't even try to hide that this guy is Sigma, but fortunately he's in a much better state of mind than he was in X6, so there's that... I guess???!!!! X returns to the front lines once you either rescue 64 reploid hostages or by beating all 8 of the stage of the stage bosses, but regardless of whenever you unlock him it's WAY too late as by the point you get him Zero and Axl will both be at MUCH more powerful states due to the parts they'll have acquired throughout the game. Also as I type this I can't help but pay attention to X right in the center of the box art, so that makes me think: Like how X5/X6 tried to mimic MGS with Alias support calls that fell flat on their head, was this game trying to mimic MGS2 by tricking you into thinking you'd be playing as the main protagonist from the previous game? Because if so then that fucking fell flat on its head too as MGS2 did it in a MUCH smarter way that also didn't have character assassination involved in it. That's all I have to say about X7s plot, in general this is the WORST plot in the entire X series without question (a minor note I felt like adding on is that I like how Red is teased as having experienced the Repliforce conflict from X4 which adds in some nice continuity and also helps to further establish Red as a character. Not that it suddenly redeems X7s plot, but it's just a minor thing that I like about it).

That brings me into X7s bosses, and these are just plain forgettable. The only bosses I actually enjoyed fighting here were Wind Crowrang and Sigmas 1st form, purely for the fact that both of them are confined purely to a 2D plain and have actually engaging attacks. There was also Flame Hyenard which was more on the frustrating end due to the buggy physics involved with being on moving objects in X7 which kinda fuck with your controls. And then there's fucking Red who's the culmination of everything wrong with X7s gameplay. He's akin to Gate from X6 as like that fight, Red is fought on platforms that are suspended over a bottomless pit, and rather than slowly moving around like Gate did, Red opts to teleport from platform to platform. However your enemy in this fight is not Red, BUT RATHER THE FUCKING GODAWFUL CAMERA. I played this shit with a keyboard and to make sure I didn't blindly run into a bottomless pit I'd have to stop in place to move the camera and get a better scope of the stage, but that would result in me losing out on an opening to actually attack Red which therefore results in the fight being a total fucking slog in the end. Now that leads me into discussing the health bar of X7s bosses: I hear they have really fucking beefy health bars in the games English release but that must be a NTSC only trait, as I played the "English (UK)" version of it that's featured in the X Legacy Collection and I never thought the bosses really had large health bars as they still went down in respectable time, so therefore if you for some godforsaken reason want to play X7, then either the PAL or the Japanese releases are the way to go if you want to minimize frustration (not that it minimizes much, but still).

Now X7s presentation is a real fucking doozy. First off I'll admit that the 3D models look GREAT and do a damn good job at encapsulating the games overall art direction as they're all VERY vibrant. However they barely have any animation in the in-game cutscenes as their actions just feel devoid of life. Then there's the voice acting... which is some of THE funniest voice acting I've ever heard in my life. For the cutscenes specifically it's comparable to the atrocious voice acting found in X4, but in the bosses then it NEVER fails to make me just fucking burst into laughter with the audio editing and how many sound clips are being overlapped at once. There's the obvious example in Flame Hyenards fight but other instances such as the fights against Ride Boarski and Tornado Tonion also make me fucking lose it from all the laughing I did during those fights. There's NO way people on the dev team were able to take that shit seriously (if they even tested it at all). The original PS2 release also suffers from some HARD optimization issues that were fortunately fixed up in the X Legacy Collection, most notably frame rate chugs during boss fights alongside frequent load screens that are also on the lengthy end, so good thing the more accessible version of X7 is the one that's actually optimized... I guess...? I can give credit to the music however, as at least THAT'S consistently good throughout X7s entire run. From it, my personal shout outs include Vanishing Gungaroos theme, Tornado Tonions theme, Flame Hyenards theme, the Boss theme, the 1st Sigma theme and Signas' theme. In general, a spec of gold among an overall pile of trash.

This review was certainly amusing, as I started off by saying that X7 isn't as bad as everyone hypes it up to be (and I initially give this game a 2 star rating to boot), but after taking the time to not only replay the game but to also think about the points I'd discuss in this review and how I'd go about discussing them, I really do see just how fundamentally flawed of a game X7 is & now I really do think this game deserves the hate it gets, as despite how innovative it could have been it just falls so fucking flat on its head that even if you enjoyed X1-X6 then I really can't recommend this game unless you really want to see where the fuck it went wrong. The controls are clunky, the level design is extremely bland, the plot is irredeemable, there's mechanics from X6 that the devs made no effort at all to fix and the audio editing in the boss fights will destroy your ears if you don't think it's peak humor like I do, while the few actually positive tidbits like the music can easily be found in outside sources, therefore resulting in these aspects coming together to make what's easily the worst Mega Man X game in my eyes by a LONG SHOT. Also if this is your first time reading any of my reviews then I greatly apologize as I'm usually not as negative in any other of my reviews... but regardless, I'm glad I have this game over with, as next up is Mega Man X8 on the PS2, which as it stands is currently the last mainline Mega Man X game, so I wonder how that one truly holds up.

Well after spending my time learning & beating the 4 games in this collection and moving on to X5 on the 2nd collection, all I can ask myself is what IS Zero fighting for? Oh and X3 is very rough until you find a few Heart Tanks I guess. Anyway, it's 4 masterfully crafted 2D sidescrollers all in one bundle, alongside a full-on sound test for each of the 4 games, a whole menu dedicated to presenting merchandise for this series as well as concept art for each game, and "The Day of Sigma" OVA, which outlines Sigmas descent into becoming a Maverick and ties into the start of X1 (depending on what way you look at it, this OVA may retcon a major plot point that gets established in X4, so take that as you will). So overall, what isn't there to love?

Edit after getting all 52 achievements: Absolutely get this half of the collection specifically even if you're just itching to get into this series (the 2nd half of the collection includes games which are harder to recommend to anyone besides die-hard fans, but that's for a later stage). All 4 of the games included are of very consistent quality, but as I went into depth on each of them on here after making this review, I'll just give my key rundowns on each of them;

>Mega Man X1: An absolutely fantastic way to kick off this series, taking the pre-established Mega Man formula and putting a very big twist on it to create a brand new experience compared to those games. Also introduces core foundations that the rest of this series would stay true to.

>Mega Man X2: A game that's always an absolute treat to play. The gameplay & abilities that X can find are both extremely fun, the level design is top-class and the bosses are in that exact sweet spot between easy & hard with a few of them even changing up how you go through the game which promotes replayability. Easily my favorite game in this series.

>Mega Man X3: The weakest of the 4 games here IMO, but it's still an extremely fun game nonetheless alongside having my personal favorite OST from any X game. However I think this one gets a lot of undeserved slack from people who aren't very good at the game.

>Mega Man X4: This one stands as the easiest game in this series IMO as it's rather generous with its level design and game overs, but visually speaking it's the best looking X game by a long shot. Also has some of the funnest bosses to do without weaknesses if you ask me.

Now moving on from that, also featured in this collection is the Rookie Hunter mode, intended to lower the games difficulty to help newcomers ease into the series. This "lowering the games difficulty" is the understatement of the century, as it moreso turns X into a flat-out God! Contact damage just ceases to exist, and in the PS1 games you no longer get insta-killed by spikes & falling into a pit just places you at the nearest platform. It's absolutely crazy for something that's just supposed to make the games easier.

This brings me onto my next point: the achievements (otherwise called "Hunter Medals" in this game). There's 52 achievements in total (104 in total if talking about both collections but I'll talk about that whenever I'm done with it), breaking down to 11 for each of the 4 games, 3 for the X-Challenge and 6 for miscellaneous stuff. Each of the 4 games has an achievement that involves doing a complete run through of them without ever turning on Rookie Hunter mode. Now if you've already beaten them then this should be a walk in the park but if you're NEW to the series like I was when going into this collection then it gives you an incentive to well... play the games as the developers originally intended. The achievements in the 1st collection aren't too bad for the most part, with the only really bad one being where you have to beat X3s Sigma battle without the Golden Armor which is a pretty damn hard feat to pull off, even with Zeros Saber, but besides that all of them are fairly reasonable to do without resorting to Rookie Hunter cheese.

The X-Challenge mode is also a neat little side-mode alongside the 4 games present. What it is is a mode that pits you up against a duo of various bosses from throughout X1-X6 in sections of 3 stages for 9 sections overall. Before the first stage in each section you can pick from a selection of like 8 or 9 pre-determined special weapons (each one is the weakness of any of the 6 bosses in each section, pick based on whichever of the boss you struggle with more). There are a couple of very creative boss duos here and there such as Dr Doppler and Godkarmachine, as well as some of the boss duos they pit you up against being pretty evil as well (the one against Iris and Double at the very end can feel more like a bullet hell at times). There is apparently a secret final stage that only unlocks after clearing X-Challenge on hard difficulty, so that's something I'll have to endure through at some point in order to unlock that final stage. Regardless, still a very fun mode no matter your skill level.

However, I have noticed some minor input lag from time to time, but it's nowhere near enough to make the game unplayable (keyboard with Vsync enabled) and I can still do some pretty tight sections such as that one wall climb section in Doppler Stage 1 even with it. Additionally, the SNES games can look kinda jarring as the default resolution for them in the Legacy Collection is slightly stretched from their original releases. But unless you seriously look out for them then it's something you'll barely ever notice in regular gameplay aside from Xs health bar looking kinda off.

In conclusion, a pretty damn good package all things considered that pretty regularly goes on sale on Steam at least. With 4 very fun platformers (that are additionally more accessible without emulation thanks to this collection, as their original copies are getting pretty damn expensive, ESPECIALLY with X2, X3 and X4) and a whole bunch of neat extras, I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone even just looking to get into the Mega Man X series. X-Challenge is a fun mode to at least check out once (but it probably thrives on replays once you know what each stage contains... like any Mega Man X game in existence). There are a couple of presentation issues here and there like the odd pixels in the SNES games or the small input lag but they aren't seriously gamebreaking or anything and won't ruin your experience. So again, a package that's well worth the money mostly for newer fans, but more dedicated fans will get some fun out of it as well thanks to the extras and side-modes.

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection)

X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
Xtreme
Xtreme 2

It's certainly impressive that the Mega Man franchise, let alone the X series didn't immediately go under following the absolute disaster that was Mega Man X7. If most other series had a game like that then they'd likely never see the light of day ever again as seen throughout time with games like Duke Nukem Forever or Sonic Free Riders, but as Capcom in the 2000s had a literal Gatling Gun with Mega Man games for ammo, they still saw LOTS of potential in it despite their huge mishap, as not only did the X series still receive new installments but new Mega Man sub-series were still created after this in the form of the Star Force series and the ZX duology. Anyway, as I just mentioned, the X series still powered on after X7 and that led to the release of Mega Man X8 for the PS2. Even though this came following X7 it's still clear that game had a hard impact on the X series, as even 19 years on (man this game is nearly as old as I am), X8 still stands as the latest mainline entry in the Mega Man X series, and it is kind of unfortunate because overall the game feels like some sort of apology for X7 as it's a MASSIVE step up from that game, removing pretty much every aspect of bullshit from that game while also bringing back fan-favorite mechanics from the first 4 X games. Also another minor thing is that I'm gonna try and change up my usual structure for longer reviews here by breaking up my points into smaller paragraphs as to not make it feel cluttered or anything, as previously I'd have very big paragraphs dedicated to each core aspect of the game I was reviewing (and depending on how satisfied I am with the final review then I might go and tweak my previous reviews to match this structure as well).

The first major change in X8 comes in the gameplay department. Rather than expanding upon the 3D mechanics introduced in X7, this game chooses to go back to the traditional sidescrolling that the X series has always been known for. It's a change that sounds like a bummer, but it was likely done with the best intentions due to how terribly X7 incorporated 3D mechanics into the Mega Man X formula, so anyone without a single digit IQ would know that sticking to what the series was used to was the much better decision overall. Furthermore, due to the 3D presentation in X8 the game plays with this a LOT when it comes to the level design by having instances where enemies and bosses will attack not only from the background but from the FOREGROUND as well, making it a very unique twist on the regular MMX formula as this is something that even X7 barely tried doing.

Anyway, going on from that is the controls, and I just have to say this, but WOW. Even Capcom must've known X7s controls/movement were trash, so gone are the garbage clunky controls from that game and in its place is arguably THE MOST precise controls and movement from the entire X series, at times they even feel a little too precise as the movements of the heroes feels SO GODDAMN FAST AND PRECISE. I'd even go as far as to say these are the BEST controls in any X game, even beating out the controls of the SNES games which I thought were already smooth enough, because MAN it's fun to zip around without any sort of weight to your character.

Going on from the controls, Axl's back alongside X & Zero and this game makes WAY more of an effort to give him his own identity here compared to X, as in X7 he shared a lot of Xs moves and they even shared the same set of special weapons for the most part. In X8 Axl has his own unique set of special weapons separate from X that come in the form of various separate firearms (while Xs special weapons are just enhancements to his X-Buster). Axl can blast at enemies while he hovers, his copy shot is actually useful and to further set him apart from X, he can continuously fire as long as the attack button is held, therefore giving you actual genuine reason to use him.

This brings me into the fact that X8 arguably as the most balanced set of playable characters in the entire X series, as each of their strengths and weaknesses are emphasized a LOT not just in the level design, but in the way they control too. Zero is as you'd expect: fast & powerful close-ranged attacks with his saber alongside a double jump to make platforming easier, but he has the shortest dash and he lacks any sort of projectile, while Axl is more utility focused due to the rapid fire properties on his weapons that can also be aimed up and down alongside his hover which grants extra air time (mandatory in getting some collectables too), but he can only shoot from a stand still & his individual shots do sub-par damage (however due to his rapid fire, the damage quickly stacks up), and lastly X strikes a middle-ground as he is also a projectile-oriented character, and while he can attack while moving, he can only fire straight ahead of him and so jumping is once again the key in aiming your shots (oh yeah, the sloppy lock-on from X7 has also been removed, HURRAY!).

Each character has their own actual reasons to use them & is something that actually leads to a little bit of a strategy element as the team mechanic returns from X7, and believe me, it is utilized HARD in X8 with the big gameplay-related change it brings to the table being that if one character loses all their health, it automatically switches over to the other character in your team, while in X7 you'd just lose a life if that happened, so fortunately it's cutting out an extremely pointless feature that most people would just bypass. However, coming into contact with insta-kill hazards such as spikes or bottomless pits will NOT force you to switch to the other character, so there is still some balancing involved with it. Furthermore, X8 also introduces the double attack, a move where both characters in your team work together to perform a screen nuke which obliterates all enemies on the screen and does hefty damage to bosses.

While being more of a nice to have feature overall, the game does actually reward you for landing the finishing blow on a boss with a double attack as it leads to a VERY hefty bonus in determining your ranking at the end of each stage. While in the previous 3 X games your rank would have actual effects on the game of varying function, here it's just a pure measurement of performance and contributes NOTHING to the overall experience. Overall, it's simple to understand doesn't have much of an effect on the game like ranks in the previous 3 games, a very solid implementation of the rank system if you ask me.

This leads me into the difficulty options for X8. Difficulty options have been present in the X series ever since X5 but in all of my reviews of the games that had them I completely forgot to ever mention them, so it's a good thing I've finally remembered about them in the game where they have the overall biggest impact on the experience. I'll go more in-depth on its specific implications at more appropriate stages in the review so I'll get the big factor out of the way here and that's that you can't fight the final boss if you play the game on easy difficulty, so even if you're a newcomer to X8 then I must recommend that you play it exclusively on normal or hard, as that's how you get access the final boss. Even the X Legacy Collection encourages it as the basic completion achievement for X8 requires that you do it on normal difficulty or higher, simply because that's how you get the final boss.

The parts system returns once again in X8 but it's received a MASSIVE overhaul, as they're FINALLY no longer tied to Reploid hostages, who have been scrapped for good from X8. THANK GOD for this change because trying to get all of those suckers in X6 and X7 did get pretty frustrating at times as if an enemy got to them then you weren't getting the goodies they were carrying unless you used save-scumming, so I'm glad they got rid of it here. Instead, parts are acquired through a shop, which while being something that the Classic series did before, is a first for the X series. And it's not just parts like a more powerful Buster/Saber or reduced damage intake, but also entirely new blades for Zero alongside items like Life Ups and E-Tanks that you would pick up on the field in the previous 9 X games. To even get these items from the shop, you must collect a currency known as metals that are located in each of the stages and also drop from enemies. The metals do come in varying quantities but it is still easy to rack up a good amount of them in respectable time, therefore making the shop system (and to an extent the entire part rework in X8) a very welcome addition IMO as it makes getting some of the items a lot more straightforward.

Going on from that, a rather strange new gameplay addition that X8 brings to the table is the expansion of the navigator system. This was a system that was just pure unbridled filler in the previous 3 games as Alia would just tell you meaningless stuff that you could easily figure out on your own, but the navigator system in X8... is actually rather well done and is ACTUALLY helpful for once. First things first, alongside Alia there's 2 new navigators in the form of Pallette and Layer. Pallettes information primarily revolves around the stages as she gives you hints as to where collectibles are, Layers information revolves around enemies as she gives you ideas and tips based on the bosses that you encounter throughout the game and Alia strikes a balance between giving you more basic tips for stages and enemies alike. At the start of each stage you can choose from one of the three navigators alongside the 2 hunters to make up your team, but alternatively you can choose to go in without any navigators assistance at all. As I mentioned earlier, these are actually helpful this time around and if you're a newcomer to X8 then I'd genuinely recommend actually paying attention to what they say, in particular Pallettes tips as without her then some of the items can feel rather cryptic. Furthermore the 3 navigators can even be unlocked as secret playable characters, but the way they fight matches that of the 3 hunters (Alias gameplay matches Xs, Layers gameplay matches Zeros and Pallettes gameplay matches Axls). Overall it's a mechanic they didn't need to expand upon but they did anyway, but the way they did it is actually genuinely well done.

The last major change to the gameplay is that getting game overs now functions as it did in the SNES X games, where getting a game over sends you all the way back to the start of the stage rather than back to the last checkpoint, so lives are now of actual importance this time around. On easy difficulty you have infinite lives, but on normal you have 2 by default with up to 3 more being purchasable in the shop and on hard you're locked to 3 lives with no way of getting more, and this, combined with the level design that I'll discuss next, results in X8 being one of the harder games in the X series in my honest opinion.

Speaking of that, X8 has some rather interesting level design when it comes to Mega Man X standards. Now this series is no stranger to having levels that entirely revolve around gimmicks, but X8 dials it up to 11 as pretty much every level has a specific gimmick tied to it. Booster Forest (Bamboo Pandamoniums stage) for instance has one of the funner gimmicks IMO as it revolves entirely around getting a Ride Armor through the stage by throwing in platforming challenges that do genuinely feel like a puzzle, and the game greatly rewards you for getting the Ride Armor through the stage by allowing you to get items alongside a much easier boss at the end. Troia Base has another fun gimmick as it involves a series of minigames that all revolve around beating the same kind of enemy, but each time they change it up so as to not make it feel repetitive or anything, & the game even rewards good performance in these mini games with collectibles and even a battle against Cut Man from the classic series if you get the best rank in every one of them, therefore making it my personal favorite level from X8 due to the way it plays with its gimmick, how it rewards you for your performance and even classic series fanservice if you manage to play REALLY well.

However due to X8s extremely varied level design there's also multiple instances where it isn't so great. The first instance is Dynasty (Gigabolt Man-O-Wars stage) where all that you do is chase Man-O-War with a Ride Chaser and nothing else, easily do-able in like 30 seconds so long as you can keep on top of him. This stage IMO feels like pure filler and this is further boosted by the fact that there aren't even any items to collect in the stage, and as far as I'm aware this is the ONLY Maverick stage in any of the X games to not have any items located in it. Then there's Central White (Avalanche Yetis stage) which is another Ride Chaser stage except this one goes on for WAY too long instead as alongside rather lengthy sections that involve platforming & blasting enemies there's also 2 midbosses who are more than capable of eating up your resources which is NOT good since you need both of your hunters active to get this stages items, both of which are located right at the very end of the stage). Additionally, the level designers seemed to have a thing or two for insta kill hazards as a few certain stages (Primrose, Troia Base, Inferno and Sigmas Palace) go ALL OUT with the spikes as you must make careful movements like wall jumps or air dashes to get across, but like with Gates Laboratory in X6, nailing down the movement timings in these sections provides a VERY BIG feeling of satisfaction, so at least I can say that about the level design, however this is why I also think X8 is among the hardest games in the X series (alongside X3 & X6), as having the game over system from the SNES X games alongside level design like this will surely put your movement skills to the absolute test.

This leads me into the item placement of X8, and at first glance it seems to be VERY convoluted, as X8 pretty much has every single trope associated with previous games item placements all in one package. You've got items that need charged special weapons, items that require Zeros double jump, items that require Axls copy shot, Armor capsules that only X can access etc. There are more than what I listed, so it's very understandable that you'd think it's convoluted. However, X8 has a new-game+ feature, a mechanic that was introduced in X7 that I also forgot to discuss in my review of that game. With this mode, all the items that you collected in your previous run of the game get carried over to a new save file, and X8 honestly feels like it was designed with the new-game+ in mind as trying to get every item in one single run will lead to a LOT of backtracking. I'm talking, people who complain about X3s backtracking would likely have a mental breakdown if they tried to get all of X8s items in one run. So my recommendation is to only go after the items you can get on a first run while backtracking for a few items and save the rest of them for a new-game+ run of the game. You'll have a LOT more fun if you approach X8 that way as by the end of the new-game+ run you should have pretty much every item in the game acquired. The stage that encapsulates this the best IMO is Inferno (Burn Roosters stage) as it has an armor capsule that only X can access, an item that requires Axl to copy a certain enemy, and an item that requires one of Zeros blades, and said weapon is unlocked from an item located in this very stage. If you're trying to get every item in X8 in one run then you'll have to backtrack here up to 3 times depending on the team you use for it, so that's part of why the new-game+ feature is so damn helpful in smoothly 100&'ing this game.

Going on from that is the items themselves in X8. I mentioned earlier that Life Ups and E-Tanks are now items that you buy in the in-game shop using metals, so alongside the traditional armor capsules, then what is there to collect? The answer to that question is that X8 introduces the brand new collectible, Rare Metals. Barring Dynasty, each stage has 2-3 Rare Metals located in each of them. Rare Metals enable brand new items to be acquired in the shop, INCLUDING E-Tanks so therefore you technically are still collecting them. Zeros new weapons are also tied to Rare Metals alongside other very helpful perks such as Shock Buffers and converting damage taken from enemy attacks into energy for your special weapons. Overall, despite some of the opinions surrounding them, I don't mind the Rare Metals and I think they spice up Mega Man Xs usual item formula in a unique way. A minor thing that I find amusing is that X8 gets rid of the EX Tank from X4-X7..... in the first game SINCE X4 where extra lives actually matter since game overs send you back to the stage select again regardless of where it happened at.

Then on the other end of the items are the special armors in this game, and X8 has far and away the most unique armor system in the entire X series. Basically, the way it works is that the first armor capsule you find, regardless of the stage you find it in will give you the Neutral Armor which while changing up Xs appearance significantly, doesn't actually enhance any of his abilities. That's because true to its name, the Neutral Armor acts as a template for the two new armors that X can find in this game, the Icarus Armor which gives it red highlights, and the Hermes Armor which gives it blue highlights. Not only does X immediately acquire the benefits of armor capsules in this game unlike in X5/X6, but X can also MIX & MATCH between the parts of the Icarus and Hermes armors to create an armor set that's most comfortable to use. However, the game still encourages using either of the full armors as that's the only way to use their Giga Attacks. Because of this, X8s armor system is EASILY my favorite armor system even if the armors themselves aren't my favorite (they're still a tonne of fun to use however). I'm happy they eventually did it here because it was understandably a feature that wasn't present in X5/X6 which also had multiple armors for X to collect. However that's not the end of the discussions about Xs armor, as after being absent from X7, the Ultimate Armor makes its triumphant return here with a brand new look and abilities to go along aside it. It still retains most of its core functions as its X4 counterpart like unlimited special weapon energy, Plasma Shots and the Nova Strike, but the latter of which is now tied to a cool-down gauge so it isn't as spammable. However the Nova Strike itself is WAY stronger than it was in X4-X6, as here it's pretty much an insta-kill on bosses, only leaving them with 1-4 units of health left for reasons I'll discuss when I get around to the bosses. The hover ability that it previously had has now been replaced with the Shoryuken, making its return from X2/Xtreme 2. Like in X5, you can even unlock the Ultimate Armor if you get every X-related item in the shop and start a new-game+ run, so that's pretty neat. Overall, a damn fun set of armors that X has at his disposal here alongside a fun system to boot, so what isn't there to love?

But X isn't alone with new abilities to play with in X8, as Zero & Axl both get their own unique armors to boot albeit only in palette swaps as opposed to new designs for both of them. Zeros black armor returns after being absent in X7, where it gives him a boost to his attack and speed but at the cost of reduced defense, and Axl gets the white armor which enhances his speed and allows him to hover while firing for an indefinite amount of time. Pretty neat abilities overall, but Black Zero is an absolute BEAST in combat if you can get around his reduced defenses and make full use of his increased attack. Additionally, as I alluded to numerous times throughout the review, Zero also has a plethora of new weapons to use rather than just his standard saber, with the more notable weapons being the D-Glaive, a returning weapon from X7 that gives Zero MUCH more range on his attacks and the Sigma Blade, a weapon that becomes available after beating the final boss which defeats pretty much every stage enemy in one hit, making it a VERY ideal tool for getting some of the Rare Metals in Troia Base. Overall, Zeros new weapons are a tonne of fun to use in X8, not just the aforementioned examples, but the other ones I didn't mention too, and like the armor customization, I'm surprised it took them this long to implement new weapons for Zero as well, but better late than never I suppose.

After that comes the plot of X8 which I don't wanna dwell on for too long as this review is already getting long and I haven't even discussed the bosses or presentation yet. First things first, X has his actual character back after the character assassination he underwent in X7 and I've NEVER been more happy to see him back to the determined yet pacifistic fighter he's always been and you can clearly see his determination in the way he speaks not only to Sigma, but to the returning Vile as well, with a new color scheme that makes no effort at all to hide the fact that he's a shout out to Boba Fett. While there's been no explanation as to how he came back, his character hasn't changed a BIT since X3 as he's still very much a glutton for chaos and to be a threat to the Maverick Hunters.

Zeros character also underwent some redemption from X7 as he, like X overall feels WAY more determined to the task at hand, so much so that it not only leads to Zeros awesome monologue at the end of the game, but it even stems into his dialogue with Layer, the latter of which CLEARLY shows signs of romantic interest to Zero while he doesn't buy it. You could say this is because he's still scarred after what happened with Iris, but it's still pretty humorous nonetheless. And then there's Axl and... well. He CERTAINLY speaks like an optimistic new hunter who wants to one day be among the leagues of X and Zero, but it works so well as that's the EXACT kind of character he has here. X has also fortunately warmed up to Axl in the time between X7 and this game as now he's a proper part of the Maverick Hunters and all 3 of them have a VERY good dynamic together. Overall, while not the most groundbreaking characterization in the world, it's still leaps and bounds better than X7s characterizations and further helps to make these guys feel like an actual proper team.

And then there's the story itself. It expands upon Axls copy abilities that were established in X7 as X8 shows that now an entirely new type of Reploids have been constructed with Axls copy ability, dubbed the "New Generation Reploids". These Reploids have the DNA of Sigma ingrained into them as a method of ensuring that they don't go Maverick, but the main antagonist of this game (spoiler alert: it isn't Sigma) reveals that because of this, the New Generation Reploids have the ability to go Maverick at will, which is actually a pretty unique way of expending on the reasons for Reploids going Maverick, as before this the most common causes were because of corruption via a virus, undying loyalty to individuals like Sigma/Gate or because of misinterpretations like the Repliforce. Because of the dangerous nature of these Reploids and countless Maverick incidents already, humans and other Reploids alike decide to book it and go the moon in hopes of living peacefully there, and to do this the Jakob Elevator is created. However while this going on a Maverick attack occurs at Noahs Park (real subtle with the Christianity elements there Capcom) and X, Zero & Axl head to the scene, where after disposing of the mechanoloid responsible for the attack they discover that the head of the project, Lumine has been kidnapped by Vile, and from there they deal with other Maverick activity while figuring out what Vile & Sigma want with Lumine. I won't spoil the rest of the plot as it is pretty interesting and I'd be here all day discussing it, but overall, despite simply being nothing groundbreaking on its own, it's VERY unique for Mega Man X standards.

That then links into the bosses of X8. In general, the bosses all have a new major gimmick attached to them known as their Overdrive State, where once you get them down to a certain amount of health (around 25% on normal and 50% on hard, while on easy they don't enter it at all. This is also why the Nova Strike doesn't immediately wipe their entire health bars) they gain i-frames and release their strongest attack on you. These attacks hit HARD, and in some cases they insta-kill you such as Bamboo Pandamoniums overdrive, but at the same time they're very telegraphed and you have more than enough time and space to dodge them. They're a neat addition overall and work VERY well with X8s bosses as not a single one of them feels cheap, chaotic or ear-grating with their voice clips. Burn Roosters fight in particular is significant as unlike pretty much every other boss in the X series, the stage doesn't immediately end once you beat him, but rather you have to go through an escape sequence by climbing up platforms while lava rises below you. Why this is the only fight to do it, I don't know, but it still helps in making him feel more unique than not just other fire bosses, but fellow fire bird Blaze Heatnix from X6, as both of them do have quite a few attacks that are similar to each other and even have similar weakness as well.

Additionally, like you could randomly encounter Bit & Byte in X3, you can randomly encounter Vile throughout the 8 Maverick stages where you must fight him until you eventually repel him with enough damage taken. Like with the Bit/Byte encounters in X3, X8 has rooms dedicated to Vile encounters, but even if you don't encounter him there'll still be something there to deal with before you can move forward such as in Primrose where you must dodge through blocks that move up and down or in Inferno where you get faced with a mook rush that you can use to gather up some metals for the shop. Vile himself is a pretty fun fight with the array of attacks that he uses, and there's even some instances where you WANT him to show up such as in Primrose, as the hazard that you have to deal with otherwise can be rather frustrating if your luck isn't great. You then encounter Vile again for the last time in the fortress stages where he not only has a new attack that's VERY fun to dodge, but he also finally uses a Ride Armor again and to even damage him you have to knock him off the Ride Armor and damage him while he's on his own, a VERY unique way to do a Vile fight if you ask me rather than just separating it into 2 phases like how X1 and X3 did it.

And then there's the final boss who is definitely one of the more unique final bosses as he attacks with an array of moves from the previous 8 Mavericks and even has their same weaknesses depending on the attacks that he uses. However his second phase just feels cheap as once you get his HP into overdrive range you're on a time limit. Fail to defeat him in time (I think it's around 30 seconds) and he hits you with an insta kill move. The game doesn't give you much indication that there's a time limit to this attack either so that's why I think it's rather cheap, and as he LOVES to make himself invincible on and off during this phase I make sure I have Ultimate Armor X on my team so I can one-tap him with the Nova Strike as that does alleviate a lot of the stress involved with it, but to unlock White Axl the legitimate way you have to land the finishing blow on him as Axl... which is easier said than done if anything.

Moving on from that I do want to take time to talk about X8s presentation, because it's actually really damn good. For starters, there's ACTUALLY GOOD ENGLISH VOICE ACTING in a Mega Man X game. CRAZY, I KNOW? Mark Gatha, Lucas Gilbertson and Jeffrey Watson all return from X Command Mission to provide the voices for their respective characters, and MAN do they do a good job at encapsulating their personalities. Mark absolutely nails down Xs determined yet compassionate personality, Lucas does a damn good job at showing the calm & colder personality of Zero and Jeffery encapsulates Axls nature as the younger rookie of the three. And then there's Roger Rhodes whose performance accurately matches Viles status as an Ax-Crazy Reploid who enjoys the thrill of violence and fighting the Maverick Hunters. Additionally, Dave Pettitt who voiced Epsilon in X Command Mission returns to X8 to provide a ridiculously hammy voice for Sigma, but man does he do it WELL, as X4 AND X7 both seemed to indicate that a hammy voice was in Sigmas nature, so while it was natural that the voice direction would gravitate more towards that same kind of nature, it's just done so much better here.

Performance-wise, I do at least know that the original PS2 version of X8 had some notable load times that were drastically cut down in the X Legacy Collection version of it, and this same version also seems to make the overall visuals/UI look more smooth which is always appreciated. However the X Legacy Collection uses the original PC version of X8 which is notable for removing the infinite metal glitch, which isn't too substantial outside of getting things like the playable navigators or the Sigma Blade which require a LOT of metals so there's unfortunately no way around grinding for metals if you want those items.

Lastly, as per Mega Man X fashion, X8 has a damn good OST. Personal shout outs from it go to Bamboo Pandamoniums theme, Burn Roosters theme, Avalanche Yetis theme and Sigmas theme. All in all, good tunes in a Mega Man X game, go figure.

In conclusion, Mega Man X8 is a MASSIVE step up from X7 in virtually every aspect, and felt like the beginning of a path to redemption for the X series following that game. The gameplay/movement is the best it's ever been, the level design is actually interesting and there's a LOT of content that'll keep you engaged for a while, although the level design can take a dip at times but not to the point where it'll ruin the game. However, the damage was likely already dealt by X7 as even today X8 still stands as the latest mainline entry in this series, and it is sad because X8 is genuinely a pretty solid platformer and therefore I definitely recommend this one to all Mega Man X fans, as you'd still be forgiven for skipping right over X7 and going straight to this game as well, there's actual fun to be found in the gameplay here. Anyhow with all 10 of the main MMX platformers reviewed on here I do have to admit that discussing all the major entries in this series was something I had a lot of fun doing even if few people actually read them and if I came off as being negative a few times in them (COUGH X7), and I'll certainly try to retain this long structure for reviews of different games later down the line, however this won't be the last time I'll be talking about Mega Man X, as there are still a few minor entries/spinoffs I'm yet to delve into, starting with one I mentioned a few times near the end of this very review, Mega Man X: Command Mission for the PS2/GameCube. That's a game I'm still in the midst of playing through as of the time of me typing this out (unfortunately I haven't had much time to play it recently as I wait for my GameCube adapter to come), so it'll be a while before I get around to reviewing that game, but I will just say that it's a Mega Man X game that ISN'T a platformer, so that's gonna be interesting to discuss.

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection... but as of my birthday I now actually own a physical copy of this games PC release)

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With a new generation of consoles comes brand new hardware to take advantage of, and Capcom absolutely went guns blazing with the new hardware as seen in Mega Man X4, the first proper Mega Man X game to not be developed for the SNES. This game marked a few notable shifts in the X series: this is was the first X game in which Keiji Inafune did not have a role in the promotional artwork, instead being primarily handled by Haruki Suetsugu from this point till Mega Man X6. This was also when the writers started trying harder to create a more ambitious plot that would interlink across multiple games, a practice first tried in X2. Lastly, some gameplay mechanics would undergo changes here that would become staples in later games. Also this doesn't link into any points in my review but I thought I'd share another random bit of history like in my X3 review: in that same review I mentioned that Sony had an extremely stingy attitude towards 2D games being on the PS1 as they were looking for more 3D games on that system, therefore leading to the PS1 version of Mega Man X3 never releasing in North America until the PS2/GameCube X Collection in 2006. Sonys stances also led to Mega Man X4 never getting released like X3, but Capcom fired back by threatening to not release future games for the PS1, most notably Resident Evil 2, quickly leading to Sony breaking out of that attitude as losing a game like RE2 would be WAY too detrimental for the PS1s overall library, so they noped out and both western territories would fortunately get X4. Also goes to show the faith and respect that Capcom had for Mega Man in the 90s, whatever happened to that attitude?

Speaking of gameplay, Zero's back to kick ass alongside X, and his attacks have underwent a MASSIVE re-imagining from X3, where he just felt like X but with a larger hitbox and occasionally swung with his saber. Once you get past the main menu you have to pick between playing as X or Zero, and you're locked with whoever you pick here for the rest of your playthrough (all that changes is a couple of bosses, and that Zero has no armor capsules to find). However I usually just stick with X due to a certain boss later on in the game that's a complete pain in the ass with Zero, but more on that whenever I get around to the bosses. So what does Zero bring to the table compared to X? Well, unlike in X3, his combat revolves ENTIRELY around his saber, while there he only really uses it for one attack while mostly sticking to his Buster in that game, which ironically enough is completely absent in X4. His saber swings all pack a punch and his moves can all be seamlessly interlinked into longer combos that also pack a punch against enemies and can be used to tear through bosses HP. Furthermore, like how X can acquire new special weapons when defeating bosses, Zero will acquire new techniques which are naturally integrated into his moveset when he gets them, rather than something you have to manually equip (it is worth noting that Zeros techniques are tied to a separate button from his regular attacks, what button it is varies on the version you're playing on). His techniques range from standard utility like a double jump or an air dash, gap-closers or even a screen nuke. However this power comes at a price, and like in X3 Zero naturally has lower defenses than X, but fortunately it isn't to the extremes at it was in that game. Furthermore outside of the aforementioned screen nuke, Zero does not have any sort of ranged attacks, you MUST get up close and personal with enemies to do any damage to them. This accumulates in a specific boss in the fortress levels that's just a complete pain in the ass to fight as Zero. I'll wait till I discuss the bosses before really going into detail on it, but for that sole reason I stick to X more often when I play X4 despite Zero himself being a fun and unique twist on the standard Mega Man X format, but I still really do enjoy the odd playthrough here and there where I use Zero outside of that boss. Anyway, the core gameplay is identical to X2 and X3, but as this game has more detailed sprites than the SNES games then that does lead to some actions feeling significantly different to use, most notably the dash, where you can really see the extra frames of windup and endlag involved with that action here than in X1-3, but to combat that you can make more use of dash jumps to help maintain the smoother movement that the SNES X games had. Another minor change introduced in X4 is that X can still use regular Buster attacks WHILE having a special weapon ready, allowing you to approach bosses in a MUCH more strategic/flexible fashion IMO as it allows you to get some quick hits in with your X-Buster while using their weakness to reset their pattern out of a bothersome attack. Now that I think about it's moreso of a gamechanger for Xs combat if anything rather than just a minor addition.

X4s level design also underwent a major revision. Stages are now split into two separate halves that are split up by a loading screen. Getting a game over now only sends you back to the start of whatever section of the stage you're in rather than back to the stage select, therefore kinda reducing the impact of lives as the penalty for getting a game over is drastically reduced compared to the SNES games. That's not to say the levels themselves aren't fun however, far from it. These are some of the most masterfully-crafted levels in the entire series, with not a single one feeling overall intrusive to the broader experience. You have stages like the Volcano (Magma Dragoon) or Cyberspace (Cyber Peacock) that have an emphasis on platforming, with the latter also having an emphasis on speed alongside that as you must get through sections within a certain time limit to get items. You also have stages like Air Force (Storm Owl) or Military Train (Slash Beast) where the platforming is more laid back in place of blasting your way through enemy hordes with some of the coolest setpieces in the game visually. Furthermore, even the fortress stages in this game are designed in such a way to take full advantage of the special weapons/techniques that X/Zero have acquired throughout the game down to the enemy placements and specific platforming sections, something that I wish other fortress stages in the X series did as well. Unfortunately I do have a few gripes with X4s level design, in particular the second part of Cyber Peacocks stage, which introduces this anti-gravity gimmick and... doesn't really do anything with it. No puzzles that gradually become more complex, no items that are placed in a way to take advantage of this... just an extremely linear section with the anti-gravity feature just making it look like a puzzle rather than actually being one. Furthermore, the last fortress stage features both the signature boss rush AND the final boss, so if you leave to fill up your E-Tanks for the final boss then you have to do the boss rush again.

That brings me into X4s item game. The 4 armor capsules and 8 Life Ups are back, but the E-Tanks in particular have been tweaked significantly: in the SNES games you could get up to 4 E-Tanks which were all dedicated to restoring HP, but here there's just 3 E-Tanks, and only 2 of them are dedicated to restoring HP while the 3rd is dedicated to restoring special weapon energy. This is a cool idea on paper to help give the E-Tanks more function than just health recovery, but because of the abilities that X gains from his armor in this game then it ends up becoming one of the most worthless items in the entire game, but at least it actually becomes useful in the later X games. Anyway speaking of armor, X4 also kicked off another new trend for the series: multiple armor sets in the same game starting on the Fourth Armor. The Head piece enables X to use his special weapons without expending ANY energy (as long as he doesn't charge them up), and that's why the special weapon E-Tank comes off as being worthless. The Chest piece gives X the usual 50% damage reduction alongside being able to convert damage taken into energy for the Nova Strike: a special attack where X is propelled forward while doing a shit tonne of damage to enemies and bosses. There's 2 Buster pieces this time around, one of which enabling X to use the Stock Charge Shot, where he stores up to 4 charge shots and fire them back to back, and the other enabling X to use the Plasma Shot, where he fires this HUGE ball of plasma that leaves behind plasma orbs as it travels that absolutely shreds stage enemies (both of them enable charged special weapons too). And the Leg piece gives X the air dash alongside the ability to hover for a few seconds. Very solid set of armor overall, with the leg pieces hover kind of getting in the way outside of the final boss where it's an extremely nice tool to have. I also usually stick with the Plasma Shot as it's simply a more powerful charge attack that's in line with almost every other buster upgrade, but from time to time (such as in my last playthrough of X4) I'll mix it up by taking the Stock Charge Shot and it's actually a pretty underrated ability as you can quickly get through bosses health bars with it, and it's surprisingly fun despite the time it takes to get used to it. But that's not the end of Xs armors in this game, as this game also sees the introduction of the Ultimate Armor. Mechanically-wise it's identical to the Fourth Armor with the Plasma Shot, but you can use the Nova Strike an unlimited amount of times rather than having to build up the energy to use it first. As this is an absolutely game-breaking set of armor, the only way to get it is via a secret chain of button inputs on the main menu, and there isn't a single point in X4 that I think is hard enough to warrant using the Ultimate Armor. Zero also his own secret button input chain that turns him into Black Zero, that in this game is nothing more than a palette swap of Zero that strangely still keeps the red afterimages of Zero during his dash. Anyway X4 also has an entirely new item called the EX Tank which increases your default amount of extra lives from 2 to 4. This also just feels worthless as it was introduced in the first X game to not seriously penalize you for getting a game over, and unlike the first 3 X games there is no secret capsule that only appears after getting all the other items, giving less incentive to get this outside of a pure 100% save file. Additionally, X4s items just don't feel as rewarding to get imo as only a few of them are placed in actually clever spots, but there are still a few that I enjoy getting such as the Buster capsule or the items in the Marine Base.

Mega Man X4 as I alluded to earlier also puts a lot more effort into the plot. I don't feel like describing it all so I'll just discuss my general opinions on it here. Anyway, the higher-ups of Repliforce are some of the BIGGEST fucking morons I've ever seen in any form of fictional media. The entire plot of this game could've been EASILY avoided if they didn't have the mindset of "DERRRRR MUH PRIDE" and actually followed the advice of the Maverick Hunters, allowing them to clear their image while avoiding this whole war in the first place. The Maverick Hunters themselves are also at fault as well, primarily due to how fucking direct with their statement to the Colonel that Repliforce will be considered as Mavericks rather than slowly explaining the whole situation to them while also allowing them to give their side of the situation too. I will say however that Double is one of the greatest and most hammy villains in the whole X series (partly due to the voice acting he has, more on that in a later paragraph), with the plot very carefully teasing the twist that he's a bad guy throughout. Furthermore, each of the boss intros features a short sentence outlining just exactly why you're even fighting these guys, which while small, amounts to giving the stage bosses more character than what the bosses across the first 3 games had, so that's neat.

Rant on the plot over, so that brings me onto X4s bosses, which are some of the most well-designed bosses in the series. Their patterns are a LOT more varied than X3s bosses but none of them reach the point where you'll be at them for ages without using weaknesses on your first time around. Storm Owl, Magma Dragoon and Double in particular stood out as being my favorite bosses from X4, the former two having a fair and varied pattern but they can absolutely fuck you up if you aren't careful, and Double in particular feeling like an X3 boss as his pattern his very basic that actually becomes more challenging if you try and use his weakness. Anyway that brings me onto my next point regarding the bosses. Remember how I stated that I usually stick with X in my X4 runs because of a specific boss that's a complete fucking pain in the ass to beat as Zero? That boss is the General of the Repliforce who's fought in the fortress stage. FUCK THIS GUY, he's very reminiscent of Kaiser Sigma from X3 (both are fat fucks that have a weakpoint that's the size of a peanut), but General takes more of a beating WHILE doing comparable damage to Kaiser Sigma, and the General isn't even the final boss of X4! He's simple enough as X, but as Zero it's a LOT more painful due to Zero having no ranged attacks at all that work against him (you can try his screen nuke but that'll just pelt off his armor), and due to Zeros lack of armor upgrades, Generals attacks hit him way harder than they do to X. This is a fight that boils down to pixel-perfect positioning, and hell even the final Sigma battle felt like a joke as Zero compared to this fat fuck with the difference in difficulty. (22/10/2023 post-review note: so I decided to do another playthrough of X4 as Zero this evening and when I got to the General fight I kicked his ass without even using an E-Tank, and I haven't even played X4 in a few weeks. Was I wrong after all?)

Well fuck I followed up one rant with another rant, but fortunately I have a lot of good things to say about X4s presentation. At the start of the review I alluded to the fact that the devs made full use of the 5th generation hardware when making this game, and believe me, they fucking did, with it showing as early as the FUCKING CAPCOM TITLE CARD at the beginning of the game. This game opts to use sprite-based graphics as Mega Man games traditionally did as opposed to going in the 3D direction like many other games in this time, and that resulted in this game having absolutely TIMELESS visuals in an era where like 80% of the games have visually held up like hot fucking garbage. I'd even go as far as to admit that it's the best looking game on the PS1 IMO, as even compared to other sprite-based titles on that system, X4 is on a league of its own. Additionally like with X3s PS1 port and Mega Man 8, X4 features FMV cutscenes to help present the story. The animation in them is decent... but the English voice acting is not at all decent. X4s voice acting is something that's been the topic of jokes and memes for years so I won't dwell on it too much but I will just share some of the more notable instances of this games shitty voice acting so anyone who reads this can see for themselves. This flashback cutscene of Sigmas encounter with Zero that would lead to Sigma becoming a Maverick stands out due to the surprisingly good choreography in that fight alongside the serviceable voice acting, making it easily my favorite of this games cutscenes and one that I usually don't skip. Additionally, the original Japanese voice acting is actually really fucking good for the games entire duration and I'd recommend checking out those versions of the cutscenes whenever you get the chance to. The OST is also jam-packed with really good tracks too fortunately, but that's to be expected from a Mega Man X game. I said in my review on X3 that that games OST was my favorite X OST but I think I said that pre-maturely as I can't decide between that, this and a certain other X game on which is my actual favorite (shout outs in X4s ost go to both Intro Stage themes, Cyber Peacocks theme, Jet Stingrays theme, Storm Owls theme and Slash Beasts theme). Definitely give it a listen whenever you feel like it as it consistently stays great throughout it.

In conclusion, Mega Man X4 is an absolutely amazing Mega Man X experience in both gameplay and visuals that is also a good starting point into the series now that I think about it due to the generous level design and how you aren't as punished for getting a game over. Both X and Zero have extremely fun and rewarding gameplay styles and the new tools that they acquire are also very fun to mess around with. The visuals are absolutely amazing for 5th gen standards and the soundtrack is great, although the plot isn't so hot and the voice acting has certainly showed its age, but with the core gameplay and levels being so fun then does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? Anyway that's it for the first half of the X series, one that's regarded to contain games of very consistent quality, as after this point come the games that make up the VERY divisive second half of the X series, starting with Mega Man X5, again for the PS1/PC. That's one that people either love or hate with no inbetween, so that should be interesting to review.

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection)

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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.

Another shorter review for my profiles standards, this time on a game that I haven't touched in well over a decade but still remember like yesterday thanks to nostalgia goggles. The team gimmick is one of the most unique and well-done gimmicks in a Sonic game & the level design uses each strength of the teams to full effect and the music is just fucking awesome. However to get the true ending you not only have to effectively do the same game 4 times via different campaigns (mind you, one of those campaigns turns the game moreso into a fucking Rareware-esque collectathon rather than a Sonic game), but Chaos Emeralds are tied to Special Stages again which have some of the shittiest controls to ever grace a video game, so overall the game has neat ideas with awesome set-pieces that begin to crumble once you realize you have to contend with both extreme tedium and terrible controls to 100% it. I plan on returning to this one in the future to see how exactly it's held up for me since I last played it as a kid (but given how clearly I still remember everything, I'm predicting my opinion won't change much).

I haven't played it that much yet to really scratch the surface of it but from my first impressions I can tell that this is gonna be one to keep me hooked. The original SNES F-Zero always stood as one of the weaker games in that series IMO due to the lack of content, the random bumper cars and how you got hard punished for crashing by having your vehicle turn into a pinball for a few seconds, but I can't deny that it was still an absolutely revolutionary game, as not only did it help to show off what the SNES was truly capable of hardware-wise, but it also paved out part of the entire racing game landscape in this day and age. But then F-Zero 99 was revealed in a Nintendo Direct a few weeks ago and I admittedly was rather upset (then again I actually had expectations from modern day Nintendo, so what the fuck was I doing). 20 years since the last installment in this series and THIS is what they came up with? But after finally getting around to playing it... HOLY. FUCK. THIS is what the SNES game SHOULD'VE been. Multiplayer? Checked and THEN SOME. F-Zero X boosting? Check. The ability to actually practice on every track? Check. Even the sky road, a new gimmick introduced in this game is a welcome addition as despite being a glorified comeback mechanic, it still feels natural and not bullshit as to even access it you must first gather enough golden orbs on the track to fill up a gauge underneath your vehicles health bar, therefore meaning you have to actually work for that shit. Combat is also way more emphasized here as if you get a KO on an opponent then your vehicles energy gets a full restore to allow you to get a few more boosts in and possibly squeeze out a win, making it another fun addition to the SNES formula, even if your combat options are more limited than in F-Zero X/GX/Climax. Furthermore the balancing is WAY better this time around, as the strengths and weaknesses of all the vehicles are heavily emphasized here so you're incited to use more than just the Fire Stingray once you figure out how to play the game. The Blue Falcon is still the ideal beginner vehicle as it's the most balanced in every stat, the Golden Fox is for more expert players as despite its awful durability, handling and top speed, you get greatly rewarded for working around those with top-class acceleration and the longest boost, the Wild Gooses top-class durability makes it an ideal pick if you're paranoid about your energy in regards to the amount of vehicles you'll be trying to pass and the Fire Stingrays high top speed makes it adept at the longer tracks. Each vehicle has a proper niche to fill and there's actual reasons to use all 4 of them this time around, therefore providing some balancing that was SORELY missing in the SNES game. This is a shorter review but all in all I really do feel as if the 20 year wait for something F-Zero related was absolutely worth it, and whether or not you're an F-Zero junkie like I am or not I highly recommend this. This game is still getting content updates at the time of me typing this, and I hope to God the devs treat it well, as depending on what they add in then I have absolute faith in saying that this is one of the single best multiplayer games on the Switch.

(Played on PC via the X Legacy Collection)

X1
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
Xtreme
Xtreme 2

With Mega Man X putting Sigma out of the picture in the previous game, Maverick incidents have gradually became less and less frequent while peace gets restored to the world. 6 months pass and the Maverick Hunters have tracked down the final remnants of Sigmas forces to an abandoned warehouse in Mega Man X2, a sequel to the first Mega Man X released only a year after that. Surely with a release that quickly after the previous game, that can't be a good sign about the quality of this game... right...? If you couldn't guess by my rating, no it absolutely fucking isn't a bad game, in fact being my overall favorite game in the entire X series. It's an overall improvement over the first game in all but a few extremely minor aspects that I will discuss in this review alongside this games range of strengths.

First major thing that changes between X1 and X2 is the gameplay. Fundamentally they're near identical, so what's exactly changed? The answer to that question is that X can now dash from the very beginning of the game, whereas in X1 it was tied to a Light Capsule. This simple change is a total fucking gamechanger as it allows your boss orders to be a LOT more varied unlike in X1 where you'd almost always start off with Chill Penguin. This is really the only major gameplay change between X1 and X2, but man is it a welcome one.

With that out of the way the next logical thing to talk about would be the items, in particular that the Dr Light Capsules are back to give X a brand new set of armor (dubbed the Second Armor) with different abilities than X1s armor. The Head piece allows X to scan the area around him for secret paths. The Chest piece gives him a 50% damage reduction and also allows him to convert received damage into a screen nuke called the Giga Crush, the Buster upgrade gives X a new stronger tier of charge shot that allows him to fire two charge shots back to back, alongside being able to charge his special weapons, the Leg piece grants X the ability to dash while airborne and like in X1 there's a secret capsule that allows him to perform another Street Fighter move, this time around it's the Shoryuken. This is a damn good set of armor, with the double charge shot being an absolute beast of an attack that goes through bosses i-frames and the air dash being another new helpful tool for movement and avoiding boss attacks. Only real gripe I have though is that the Head piece is worthless, but are these ever really useful outside of a certain later armors head piece? The 8 Life Ups and the 4 E-Tanks are back, alongside a set of 3 new items that I will wait until I get to this games plot to discuss. Only major gripe I have with the items however is that some of them can feel WAY too cryptic for new players to find, and I get that this was probably intentional due to the way the Head piece of Xs armor functions in this game, but even that feels rather cryptic to find as well as it's hidden underneath what seemingly looks like a bottomless pit in Crystal Snails stage. Despite that though there is lots of fun to be had when you do know where the items are.

With these returning items comes level design to accommodate them, which this game does WELL. X2 is significant as this is one of 2 Mega Man X games alongside X7 that you can 100% without having to backtrack for any items you couldn't get previously if you followed the correct order. This does require a bit of sequence breaking, as you must first beat Wire Sponge and then use the Strike Chain to get the Buster capsule in Wheel Gators stage (which you're intended to get with an air dash) and then damage boost of an enemy later in that same stage to get the Life Up (which you're intended to get with a charged Speed Burner). While I can get the Life Up just fine with damage boosting but I usually just wait till I have the air dash to get the Buster Capsule as trying to get it with the Strike Chain requires a pretty precise chain of inputs. Anyway I'm getting sidetracked, X2 has some damn good level design with gimmicks that don't feel too intrusive, like destroying an enemy submarine in Bubble Crabs stage, avoiding spotlights in Magna Centipedes stage or changing gravity in Morph Moths stage. This game also saw the introduction of the Ride Chaser, a mechanic that would become very infamous in the later games solely due to a certain stage in Mega Man X5. X2s Ride Chaser is significant as it's the only instance of it where you can turn left and right with it so you have a lot more control over it, and you are intended to use it to get a Life Up in Overdrive Ostrichs stage but doing that's a pain so you can just sequence break it with a charged Speed Burner instead. All in all, some very good level design for what are among some of my favorite levels in the entire series.

Next up is the plot. 6 months have passed since Sigmas defeat in X1 and the Maverick Hunters have tracked down the last remnants of Sigmas army to an abandoned warehouse that's been converted into a factory for producing mechaniloids. X rushes in, accompanied by an unnamed Maverick Hunter dubbed the "Green Biker Dude" by fans, to storm the warehouse and stop the Maverick production. After destroying a mechaniloid, the scene cuts to X being watched by a trio of undefined Mavericks called Serges, Agile and Violen who vow to avenge Sigma and stop X. After defeating 2 stage bosses, it's revealed that Zeros body was salvaged from Sigmas old fortress!... however his body has fallen into the hands of that Maverick trio from earlier, dubbed the X-Hunters, who contact X and challenge him to a fight against the 3 of them for Zeros 3 parts: his head, his body and his arms, otherwise he gets resurrected as a Maverick under the X-Hunters controls. There's still hope however, as the main part needed to give life to Zero, his control chip, is in the hands of Dr Cain. Following this the X-Hunters make themselves present across optional areas in any 3 of the remaining 6 Maverick stages, and here the story goes off into 2 different branches depending on whether you fight these guys in the Maverick stages or not, but regardless the story plays out the same for the most part: X defeats the remaining 6 Mavericks, and if you fail to gather all of Zeros parts from the X-Hunters then they raid Dr Cains lab to steal his control chip and any other parts you may have collected, but if you do get all of Zeros parts then Dr Cain will begin trying to revive Zero. X powers through the X-Hunters' secret base at the North Pole, defeating the X-Hunters for good alongside re-fighting the 8 stage bosses he fought earlier. However once that's over, Sigma reveals himself to X, likely having been brought back by the X-Hunters off screen. X makes his way to Sigma where he's confronted by him alongside either a.) the real Zero revived as a Maverick who you must fight or b.) a fake Zero (that may or may not have been the inspiration for Black Zero in the later games) that quickly gets destroyed by the real Zero. These scenarios obviously vary on if you got all of Zeros parts or not. Regardless Sigmas plans to defeat X with Zero are thwarted, and X confronts Sigma himself, who reveals his true nature as a computer virus that can brainwash reploids into becoming Mavericks. Sigma is defeated, the X-Hunters' base is destroyed and X ponders AGAIN about how much fighting does he have to do to achieve peace in the world, this ending also beginning the foreshadowing of the X vs Zero battle in X5. It's a good step up from X1s already serviceable plot, with the sub-plot of resurrecting Zero being a nice twist on what would also be just another serviceable plot, and that leads me into discussing the bosses.

Going onto the bosses, X2 rocks another well-designed set of them like in X1. Less of them can be locked into a pattern, but more of them have unique gimmicks to make them more of a threat, most notably Magna Centipede who can take away one of your abilities at random if you get hit by his tail attack, but if you hit him with Silk Shot you break his tail, preventing him from using that attack for the remainder of the fight. Or Morph Moth, who starts off as a cocoon who only really swings around and throws trash at you, but goes through a metamorphosis once you get him down to half health where his attacks are a LOT more varied. Or Overdrive Ostrich who has the ability to leap at you from the background if you off-screen him. Or Flame Stag whos whole fight revolves around vertical combat. It's hard to decide between this, X4 or X8 which has my favorite set of bosses. Furthermore the special weapons you get from the bosses are all great fun to use as well. Speed Burner for instance is effectively just a glorified double air dash once charged up allowing for some fun sequence breaks (and hell, some items like extra lives are PLACED in such a way that you have to chain an air dash with a charged Speed Burner). Silk Shot, when charged up in areas that seemingly look like dead ends net you a shit tonne of health regens which is useful for quickly filling your E-Tanks up (this is cryptic but it's still a damn good application of the weapon). Crystal Hunter is another favorite of mines as it allows you to freeze enemies to turn them into platforms. Also located in each of the 8 Maverick stages are special rooms that are used for you to engage with an X-Hunter should any of them be on that stage, and beating them nets you a part of Zero. There's Violen who primarily attacks with his big mace in a rather unpredictable pattern, Agile who primarily attacks with projectiles and fast sword strikes in a much more predictable pattern, and Serges who plants bombs from atop a platform that's equipped with a shield that you can only get through with charged shots. Failure to defeat all 3 of these guys in the Maverick stages means having to fight Zero right before Sigma in the final level, but as they're optional you only have to fight them if you want to. This creates a LOT of variety in your routes if you do decide to go after the X-Hunters for Zeros parts, as where they appear is completely random, and even getting to their rooms in some cases can be a bitch itself, particularly in Bubble Crabs stage as that's where the submarine eventually goes to, but to trigger the X-Hunter encounter I think you either have to get there before the submarine does or just destroy it before it can get there which is easily done with a Giga Crush. Anyway as I mentioned earlier you fight Zero in the final act right before Sigma if you fail to defeat the X-Hunters here, and unfortunately he is really fucking predictable, as you can lock him into spamming his ground punch and punish accordingly, allowing you to reserve your energy for Sigma, who is also somewhat easier due to his damage output being toned WAY down compared to X1. Even on my last playthrough I only had to use 1 E-Tank across the whole fight even with fucking up in getting Zeros parts. IMO it's the 2nd easiest Sigma battle, with X6s Sigma being the easiest, but more on that whenever I get to X6.

Last thing really is minor complaints, such as that a few of the tracks can be ear-grating, but not the point where I want to lower the volume, or that the English version removes all the teases to Serges being Dr. Wily from the classic series. The OST is a little weaker than X1s but it still has its high points (shoutouts go to the Intro Stage, Flame Stag, Bubble Crab, Wheel Gator, X-Hunter Stage 1/2, X-Hunter Stage 3, Zeros theme and the Credits), and the visuals are a step up too, most notably for me in Overdrive Ostrichs stage due to the distinct desert theme alongside the mirage effect alongside Wheel Gators stage where you can see the screen shake from the vibrations of the giant tank travelling across the ground.

So in conclusion, this is an absolutely worthy sequel to X1, and a HUGE step up in all but the most minor aspects, hell I'd even go as far as to say it's the absolute peak of the entire X series. So if you loved what you got in X1, absolutely try this as you'll be sure to enjoy this one a LOT with the sheer amount of replayability it has thanks to the fun level design & bosses, and if you liked this, then absolutely try Mega Man X3, which I will review in due time.

I played this game till the point where I started to not have any fun fighting like 80% of the roster, so that should tell you everything you need to know about how much time you'll likely spend in this game if you get properly invested in it.

Update: After creating a roulette wheel for every single weapon/style combo in the game and using it to dictate what I use in my hunts, I've begun to have some SERIOUS fun playing this again. Let me tell you, the game becomes a LOT more interesting once you're forced to use a trash style or something you normally wouldn't use in standard quests, shit like that goes a long way in keeping the game fresh after having already poured over 1000 hours into it.