The soundtrack is good yeah, but it's a real shame that that's the only thing I see talked about when this game is mentioned.

Graphically, I think this game looks very good. There's not really much I can say on this topic but everything is clear, the pixel art is clean, and I never felt overwhelmed by the visuals.

The actual gameplay is exquisite, being easy to learn and hard to master. Comboing enemies together using your 'rang can be very satisfying, and rolling through levels in time trials is equally so. These inherently fun elements are amplified by wonderful level design, in both normal and hard mode. On the topic of hard mode, it turns what's normally a fairly average to easy game (except for the difficulty spike near the end) to a game genuinely deserving of being called "hard".

I don't think I can really explain how good the gameplay is because like I said, it's that category of simple with a lot of depth to it. I will say though, I'd recommend this game to anyone who's a fan of platformers.

This game fixes my problems with the original Megaman for the most part with new stellar level designs and (less important but still) a better art direction. That'd make this good by itself but the developers had the absolute genius idea to make each and every Robot Master an unlockable playable character.
This decisions adds so much replay value it is actually incredible. On paper you wouldn't expect the game to change much just from changing the weapon (and admittedly for some characters like Fire Man it doesn't) but it can really flip the entire game on its head. Going through the stages again with a different moveset that you need to learn is just so nice, it really boosts this game up for me.

I don't have terribly much to say; core gameplay is the exact same as the last which is what made that game so enjoyable to play despite its design shortcomings. I feel like the bosses in this game are worse than the original, and a few levels can be kind of annoying (first elec, second elec and ice) but this is still MMZ, it's still great. I really enjoy the form system in this game, it's definitely better than both parts systems in 3 and 4, letting you choose what you want to focus on in the moment (my main is active, switching to rise for bosses while energy and x get used on occasion) which adds a bit more to the gameplay.

This game is probably the one you should start with if you want to get into MMZ, even ignoring plot reasons.

I have very complex feelings about this game, but I don't really feel like getting them all out right now. Might come back and elaborate later but for now I'll just write the following:

-Level design is generally good though sometimes it can be annoying (Area G + Area L)
-MMZ gameplay returns for the most part which is awesome though notably it feels like this game is less oriented on combat than those
-The map system is just stupid and the little amount of side-quests it offers is NOT worth the annoyance of going from area to area to start a level (even worse if you don't have a map handy)
-The biometal system is really cool in theory but in practice I find I tend to just use model ZX or model H
-The way you get higher biometal levels is really cool (having to avoid hitting certain areas of a boss) even if it can be annoying at times (stupid lion man)
-Hard mode is actually hard (still haven't been able to beat the final boss with it on, embarrassingly)
-Aesthetically great, maybe the best in the entire MM franchise
-The secret boss and optional biometal you get from it are cool asf

This game isn't the savior of the X series, but it also isn't as bad as the games that came directly before it.

The partner swapping mechanic is definitely the best part of the game, I didn't really care about it in X8 because I hated playing as everyone there but here since I enjoy each character being able to use 2 instead of 1 in a level is really nice. It does feed into the problem X8 has of being really stupid to 100% though, which is definitely something this game struggles with. Though that's alleviated at least somewhat by the New Game+ which is fun by itself because of the broken Sigma Blade you get for beating the campaign, which turns Zero into a god which is always fun.

The reason I don't think this game is super great though just comes back to level design. A lot of the levels I don't think are very interesting, that or they just overhaul the core mechanics which sucks because those mechanics are why I like MMX.