Mega Man X was the most badass shit to me as a kid. An anime art style, a more mature story, and an excessive usage of electric guitars in the soundtrack. They seriously could have toned it down a notch, but I ate that shit up still... This has always been one of my lesser played entries in the series. I've had some issues in the past, and even now upon replaying.

I have to complain about the dash boots on Chill Penguin stage just like everyone else on planet earth and get it out of the way. It's the same energy as "mm2 is not the best mega man game because of wily 4 boss", but it's always been a damper on replays for killing creativity on routing. Since it's such an integral part of X's moveset, I always get it first. Think not being able to run in Mario World, it's that slow.

I think this is some of the most boring level design in the franchise. I feel like Capcom was trying to ease classic series fans into this new fast-paced series, but the level design took a hit in favor of being extremely basic and not ever really taking advantage of X's new abilities. The stages are littered with enemies that take way too many hits to kill and wind up leaving me barely doing any platforming and just spamming the buster shot. The bosses are alright though. They're pushovers with their weakness but they're pretty fun to fight with the standard buster shot and have good patterns that make use of the new dash move. Random, but fuck that stupid platforming segment in sigma stage 1 with the static background which makes it difficult to see the depth of the moving platforms.

This game is also too damn easy. Upgrades make X very powerful and to the point where you'll basically never have to worry about your health when playing levels. The amount of damage you take is so minimal and it's easier to just use the invincibility frames to dash past any enemies in the game instead of fighting them. To be fair though, I probably should try playing this without upgrades for more of a challenge.

What this games level design does right though was the addition of permanent upgrades for X. Ah, RPG elements, my favorite. Hidden about in the stages are armor, health upgrades, stuff like that. These were super fun to find when I had played this as a kid, and they are for the most part hidden well and require knowledge of the games mechanics. It's less fun now since I know where every upgrade is. I miss the childlike wonder of discovering the upgrades in all the games.

I always viewed the success and critical acclaim of Mega Man X as a movie-like experience. I believe people enjoy this game as a one-time playthrough where it will give you a quick and digestible story, and never challenge you enough throughout the game so that first-time players will be able to get through without trying too hard.