After completing Xtreme 1, I of course immediately fired up its sequel, as it was basically the last traditional-style Mega Man game I hadn’t yet beaten that I had any interest in playing. Now, this being a proper GBC-exclusive game, not a black cart game like its predecessor, I expected something at the very least a bit flashier, if not ultimately more of the same. While perhaps not quite what I expected, I certainly got something ambitious, that’s for sure ^^;. It took me about 6 hours to get the best ending with pretty gratuitous save state use, playing the English version on an emulator with an Xbone pad.
The story is once again more or less an excuse to remake a bunch of levels from X 1, 2, and 3, but with a bit more effort put into it this time. X, Zero, and confusingly enough, some crew from the later X games as well go to a mysterious island to learn who has been stealing reploids souls, and they end up having to do battle against the island’s strange inhabitants. It does its job just fine to set up the story as well as give the game excuses to have a lot more original levels and bosses that aren’t from any of the adapted games.
For anyone who played the first Xtreme, the setup of this game will likely be very familiar. You once again have 3 routes, with the first two each having half of the bosses, and the 3rd one (unlocked after beating the first two) has all 8 of them as well as the real final boss to fight. However, instead of just differently named difficulties like the last game, now it’s X mode and Zero mode, and then Xtreme mode where you can swap between them whenever a lot like Mega Man X3 does. However, this game is just as much a victim of its own ambition as it is just poorly designed.
The adapted levels are ones left over and not yet adapted in Xtreme 1, and its pretty clear that all the best ones had already been taken. As far as both the bosses and the stages go, they feel far more poorly adapted than the previous game’s (including one of the worst bike stages in the franchise), especially ones Zero has to fight who were never intended to be fought with him. What takes the cake though are the original levels and bosses. This is up there with the other worst MM games in just thinking “good Mega Man levels are hard” and running from there. They are unfair, difficult, and grueling trials of memory and attrition, and the true final boss is easily one of the worst bosses in the whole franchise.
As far as the presentation goes, this is once again really flexing just what the GBC was capable of. The animations especially look really impressive in just how many frames they get for the player characters. The music is also once again not really anything to write home about, as while its doing its best to adapt the tracks from the games its adapting, the GBC sound chip can only do so much. They’re noble attempts, but I’d stick with the original versions myself.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is easily one of the worst traditional Mega Man games ever made. While it isn’t the absolute bottom of the pile of the ones I’ve played, it’s very very close at either #2 or #3. Even if you’re a big Mega Man fan, this is a game where it’s pretty darn hard to get much fun out of it, and you’re likely better off avoiding it entirely.
The story is once again more or less an excuse to remake a bunch of levels from X 1, 2, and 3, but with a bit more effort put into it this time. X, Zero, and confusingly enough, some crew from the later X games as well go to a mysterious island to learn who has been stealing reploids souls, and they end up having to do battle against the island’s strange inhabitants. It does its job just fine to set up the story as well as give the game excuses to have a lot more original levels and bosses that aren’t from any of the adapted games.
For anyone who played the first Xtreme, the setup of this game will likely be very familiar. You once again have 3 routes, with the first two each having half of the bosses, and the 3rd one (unlocked after beating the first two) has all 8 of them as well as the real final boss to fight. However, instead of just differently named difficulties like the last game, now it’s X mode and Zero mode, and then Xtreme mode where you can swap between them whenever a lot like Mega Man X3 does. However, this game is just as much a victim of its own ambition as it is just poorly designed.
The adapted levels are ones left over and not yet adapted in Xtreme 1, and its pretty clear that all the best ones had already been taken. As far as both the bosses and the stages go, they feel far more poorly adapted than the previous game’s (including one of the worst bike stages in the franchise), especially ones Zero has to fight who were never intended to be fought with him. What takes the cake though are the original levels and bosses. This is up there with the other worst MM games in just thinking “good Mega Man levels are hard” and running from there. They are unfair, difficult, and grueling trials of memory and attrition, and the true final boss is easily one of the worst bosses in the whole franchise.
As far as the presentation goes, this is once again really flexing just what the GBC was capable of. The animations especially look really impressive in just how many frames they get for the player characters. The music is also once again not really anything to write home about, as while its doing its best to adapt the tracks from the games its adapting, the GBC sound chip can only do so much. They’re noble attempts, but I’d stick with the original versions myself.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is easily one of the worst traditional Mega Man games ever made. While it isn’t the absolute bottom of the pile of the ones I’ve played, it’s very very close at either #2 or #3. Even if you’re a big Mega Man fan, this is a game where it’s pretty darn hard to get much fun out of it, and you’re likely better off avoiding it entirely.