X, you can't dare to fight me. Your big heart. That is your kindness and your weakness. I'm okay... trust me.

This was my childhood Mega Man X game, and, unfortunately, I cannot stand it. Inconsistent difficulty that hovers between grueling and piss-easy, one of the worst sets of levels of any of these games, a baffling slate of boss weapons, grating music, far too many collectibles, and a countdown system that I’m still not sure I understand. It looks nice and plays pretty well, but that’s a pretty low bar for Mega Man. Miserable.

My machines will usher in a new world of light!

Super Adventure Rockman is an interesting little project. It is, effectively, an OVA with some light interactivity and a few rail shooter segments sprinkled in. I tried to play this one myself, I really did. I even tried to install a plugin that translates Japanese text on the fly, and, failing that, I then tried to use Google Lens. Unfortunately, the text here moves too quickly for a translation tool to keep up with, so I had to just resort to watching a playthrough. Anyway, this seems fine! The OVA animation is surprisingly great, and the story goes to darker places than anything seen in a Mega Man game up to this point. Ra Thor, Ra Moon, and the Neo Yellow Devil are all insanely cool antagonists as well. Other than that, though, Super Adventure Rockman is a very mixed bag. Still, Capcom should localize this so I can play it. Where's the Mega Man: Handhelds and Spin-Offs Legacy Collection?

As long as Mavericks exist… As long as evil exists in the mind of humans… I’ll come back again and again!

For the most part, Mega Man Xtreme is a brisk, condensed version of Mega Man X. The setup here is pretty interesting—a new group of Mavericks, the “Shadow Hunters,” hack into cyberspace to destabilize the planet’s security systems, thereby forcing X to jump into cyberspace himself to stop them. It’s a decently novel, if convenient, reason for X to replay stages from his very first game. Xtreme feels pretty great to control, and the graphics are very good for a Game Boy Color title. While this can never replace Mega Man X, it’s more than worth its salt as a fun little companion piece.