There is no such thing as a perfect video game. No matter how good a video game could be, or how much it is beloved by the general gaming public, it will never be able to reach the status of truly being beloved by everybody, to where nobody could find a single flaw in it, or everybody could love it as equally as another. However, even if there will never be a perfect video game, there will always be… our perfect video games. The ones that we hold near and dear to our hearts, ones that we love everything about and will continue to love about all the way until we die, no matter what anyone else says, or even if another video game comes along to take its place as your own perfect video game. So, I figured it was about time that, for my 500th review, I would go ahead and talk about my absolute favorite game of all time, without question: the original Mega Man X.

But, before I get into gushing about this masterpiece, we may as well lay down some history for those that somehow aren’t in the loop as to what this is. At this point, it was 1993, and people were getting FUCKING SICK of Mega Man. There were 13 different Mega Man titles that had been released so far, and while there were some different, unique titles of this bunch that we don’t like to talk about, most of them played exactly the same. Yeah, they each had their own set of differences that made them stand out for hardcore fans of the series, but to the general public, they all just seemed to be the same game over and over and over and OVER again, to the point where franchise fatigue set in pretty goddamn early. So, if Capcom was gonna continue making these games, or even take the series to the next generation of consoles, they were going to have to step up their game a bit. They were going to need to add a bit more attitude, a bit more color, a bit more to do, a bit more to find, and more of this universe to explore. To sum it all up, they were going to need to take Mega Man… to the Xtreme (no, not that Xtreme...not that one either).

Needless to say, this experiment with the series managed to become a major success. This singular game would go onto being widely praised by critics and fans alike, selling over a million copies in its original release, and it is now considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Not only that, but it would also lead to creating another separate series alongside the original Mega Man series, one that would continue getting games all the way up to this day, whether it be through main entries that would progress this game’s story and mechanics, side games that would take the series in new and interesting directions, or even things like… Mega Man X Dive… (oh trust me, I have some choice words for that game whenever I get to it… you know, in 5 years). As for what I personally think of it myself… I mean, I think my profile page on this website says everything I need to, but I will go ahead and continue showering this game with all kinds of praise either way. You may as well get a drink or some snacks, because if you couldn’t tell already, this review is gonna be a long one.

I don’t remember specifically when I first learned about Mega Man X, but I do know for a fact that, at that point, I was quite familiar with the Mega Man series, having played quite a bit of the NES games in the past, and falling in love with them enough to where I had become obsessed with them. The first exposure I had to the game was with the original video on it made by The CharityFraudist before it was removed from the internet, and from that first impression I got from the game, I was… mildly interested in it. It did look pretty good, but it just looked like another Mega Man game that just so happened to be made for the SNES. Nothing that I felt like I needed to get my hands on immediately. However, as time would go on… that mild interest I had in the game would only grow from there. I would watch more videos about the game, more videos that would go deeper into it, explaining how it advanced the series further, how it was designed so intricately, and how these decisions made turned it into the classic that we knew and loved today, which got me more eager to get my hands on it then ever before. It was only when I had gotten my Dad’s permission to download it on my Wii U that I finally got the chance to play it for myself, and needless to say… it was love at first sight.

The story of the game is one that is somewhat familiar for the Mega Man series, but at the same time, it takes it to places it had never been before. The game takes place 100 years in the future after the classic series, where an archaeologist by the name of Dr. Cain would discover a capsule within the remains of a robotic facility, one that contains a robot created by the late, great Dr. Light. This new robot, known as Mega Man X, was different from all the other ones, able to feel complex emotions, have human-level intelligence, and even its own free will to do whatever it feels. This type of technology was then replicated by Dr. Cain over the years, in order to create a new set of robots that would also carry these same traits, which would go onto be known as Reploids. Over the years, Reploids and humanity would then co-exist with each other, learning to help each other out and make the world a better place. That is, until some of the reploids started going haywire, starting to cause destruction and commit crimes all over the world, now being labeled as Mavericks.

In response to this, a group of Reploids would be formed to take care of these rogue robots, including Mega Man X, known as the Maverick Hunters. However, eventually, the leader of the Maverick Hunters, Sigma, would end up going maverick himself, and with the help of eight other different mavericks, would go onto spread a level of chaos across the world that nobody had seen before. Feeling partially responsible for this, Mega Man X, or just simply X, decided to set out to take out all of these mavericks, as well as Sigma himself, to ultimately save the world. Again, like I mentioned earlier, it is very similar to the original Mega Man if you only look at it on the surface level, but there is a lot more going on here in comparison, which I can really appreciate and love.

The graphics are fantastic, having the perfect fit for a Mega Man game made for a new generation, while also having plenty of life, energy, and personality through all the stages, characters, enemies, and bosses, the music is some of the best that I have ever heard in all of video game history, having plenty of BANGERS to accompany you through the many different stages present in the game, while also managing to fit the tone for whatever is happening in the game, the control is just right, being mostly what you would expect from a Mega Man title, but also integrating new mechanics that feel buttery-smooth to pull off, making playing the game just that much more satisfying, and the gameplay is, once again, mostly what you would expect from a Mega Man title, but it adds enough to where it feels like a completely new experience, one that many would go to love and adore for years.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of X, go through many different levels in plenty of different locations, with a good majority of them you can choose to go through in any order you want, run, jump, and shoot your way through many different obstacles and enemies that stand in your way, gather plenty of different health and ammo pickups that will assist you along the way, fight many different bosses and Mavericks of varying types and sizes, and gain plenty of different power ups from these Mavericks that you can use against other enemies and bosses to your advantage. On the surface, it is pretty much what you would expect from your typical Mega Man title, which could cause some who were sick of the series to be drawn away immediately, but when you actually get into the game, not only does it have plenty of new features that would become a staple part of the series, but also that X-factor that breathes new life into this series that it desperately needed at the time.

For starters, aside from the many weapons that you can get from the Mavericks in this game, there are also now many different new, optional goodies that you can find which will greatly benefit you on your journey forward. From the start of the game, you may notice that your health bar is significantly smaller than the life bar from the NES games, which may seem like quite the downgrade at first, but then as you go along the game, you will then find the Heart Tanks, which will increase your health till it is at its proper size. Some may call this completely unnecessary, but I love this change, since it allows for a sense of progression not only for yourself, but also for X as a character, which I will get more into later. Alongside this are the Sub-Tanks, which are the replacement for the Energy Tanks in this game. Unlike E-Tanks, which you could only use once before they go away forever, you are able to use these tanks an infinite amount of times, as long as you are able to store plenty of energy in them to fill you up. Once again, this could be seen as a bit of an unnecessary change for some, but I greatly prefer having a few E-Tanks that I can refill rather than a bunch that I can only use once, so this change is all good in my book.

From the beginning of the game, you can also see that, as an upgraded version of the original Mega Man, X has plenty of new moves and capabilities that the original Mega Man never had. On his own, he is taller, faster, stronger, and he has the ability to jump up walls repeatedly, which is a fantastic enough addition to your moveset already, but that is only the beginning of what X is truly capable of. Throughout the game, you can find many capsules laid around the stage, each one containing a brand new piece of armor for X to use, as well as a message from Dr. Light on how to use it. Of course, there are ones that are pretty situational or typical, such as the helmet upgrade, which lets you break blocks, as well as the body upgrade, which allows you to take less damage when hit, but then you get the GOOD shit, such as the Buster upgrade, where you are able to charge your X Buster even further to fire an extremely powerful shot and to charge up your weapons, and the leg upgrade, which lets you dash along the ground and move through stages a lot faster than before, which would become a staple ability of X for future games in the series.

All of these upgrades and optional goodies that you can acquire are all fantastic in their own way, and they do a great job at making both X and the player much stronger than ever before, able to take on anything that stands in your way with the amount of style and aggression that feels just right. Sure, not all of them are too useful, and you could just view them as a means of completing the game, but not only does it feel satisfy to find a good chunk of these goodies, which are actually pretty cleverly hidden among the stages, but they do add to your character in numerous ways, and they don’t feel like just simple “things to collect”.

Not to mention, they all contribute towards you getting the ultimate reward for your effort, which you can gain from Armored Armadillo’s stage before the end of the game. After performing a cryptic sequence of events, you can then find a final capsule on the edge of a cliff, containing another message from Dr. Light, who just so happens to be wearing a very… familiar costume. You then get the upgrade, and it turns out to be the Hadoken, straight from Street Fighter II, which you not only perform in the exact same manner as in that game, but it also is your most powerful weapon, able to one-shot any enemy and boss no matter what. This, in my opinion, is the PERFECT reward for getting all of the items in the game, not just as a Street Fighter fan, but also just in general, as it feels incredible to nuke every single boss after this with this weapon, but not to the point where it feels broken, since you can only use it if you have full health.

Ignoring all the new additions, the game itself still remains incredibly satisfying, even if you disregard all of the different goodies you can find. This can all be seen as early as the intro stage of the game, which is one of the best intros of any game in video game history, even more so than World 1-1 in the original Super Mario Bros. Upon pressing start, you get thrown right into the game, without any kind of intro cutscene or instructions screen to hold you back, and you can learn all of the basic controls right off the bat, blasting through the many different enemies that you are faced with. Not only that, but it also places you in unavoidable situations where it also teaches you how to use your new abilities, such as when you get thrown down into a pit upon destroying a giant bee robot, forcing you to climb back up the cliff to get back in action.

It not only does a great job at setting you up for the gameplay, but it also manages to integrate the game’s story and theme in perfectly. Upon reaching the end of the stage, you are then stopped in your tracks by a brand new foe: a purple-Boba-Fett-reject in a mech suit known as Vile, and upon fighting him, he seems practically unstoppable! None of your attacks seem to be doing any damage, and he proceeds to wipe the floor with you, with there being seemingly nothing that you can do to counter him whatsoever. It eventually leads to a point where you get trapped in an energy shot, grabbed by the fist of Vile’s mech, and taunted as you face what could be your final moments in the game. That is, until… you hear something from off-screen start to charge up.

All of a sudden, an energy blast is fired from off-screen, ripping through the arm on Vile’s mech suit, and freeing you from his clutches. Vile then flees the scene, as a new ally comes in to chase him off, known simply as Zero. And let me tell you, when you first see this guy in action in this scene, you think he is BADASS. He’s got the style, the power, the attitude of a warrior, and… flowing, blonde locks, which is kinda weird, but he is still cool! Infinitely cooler than you, that is. It is then at this point that X starts to doubt his capabilities as a Maverick Hunter, being unable to defeat this one foe, who seemed to overpower him in every way imaginable. However, Zero then gives both X and the player reassurance, saying that you are destined to take him out, and that you will get stronger as you press forward… maybe even stronger than him.

It is then, from that point on, that your goal is clear. You then proceed to take on all the different stages, defeating all of the Mavericks, gaining all of their powers, finding all of the upgrades, and getting stronger, faster, smarter, and overall better throughout the whole game. You then feel this power fully envelop you as you take on Sigma’s Fortress, defeating the many different enemies, bosses, and even all the Mavericks again with all of your newfound powers and abilities, even going as far as to fully come back around and defeat Vile after all this time. This, right here, is what makes this game perfect in my eyes: that feeling of growth, the immense satisfaction of achieving these goals, the hidden potential you have right from the start, and seeing it through all the way to the end in the best and most timeless manner a game could ever manage. It’s just like real life, when you think about it: just when you are at your lowest point, all you need to do is to just simply pick yourself up and keep on going, trying new things and going down different paths, until you can ultimately find the right path for you, and having the ability to prove all of the nay-sayers wrong. I’m sure we have all felt that at some point. I certainly have, believe me.

Overall, there are some things about the game that I could nitpick here or there, such as the helmet upgrade being useless after a certain point, some points of the game being somewhat annoying to go through, and the boss rush of the game going back to how it was in the original Mega Man, but at this point, none of that matters to me, and none of that ever will matter to me. This is, without a doubt in my mind, my favorite game of all time, one that I loved from the moment I first pressed that start button all those years ago, and one that I will forever continue to love, enjoy, praise, and remember for many, many years to come. I would absolutely recommend it, not just for fans of Mega Man or 2D platformers in general, but for EVERYBODY to play at least once in their lives, as it truly is that great on its own, and it is that special to me. There may come a time where I find a game that will manage to surpass this in terms of… well, everything that I had just mentioned, and when it does, I will gladly welcome it with open arms, but until then, I will always forever love Mega Man X, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon……………………….. so that means it is all downhill from here, folks! No, I kid, I kid, but it is a shame that Zero, Vile, and Sigma are now dead, and that they will never come back after this……………. nope, never. Nope nope nope nope. Certainly not in the next game, no. Certainly not in the third game either, nope.

Game #485

Samus Aran is to date the only Nintendo character to ever achieve the prestigious EGOT:

The E.M.M.I.

The Gorea

The mOther brain

and the Tony Award, for her stunning work in the recent Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate

Seldom is a game devoured by me quite like 'Armored Core 3', and this has left me feeling a little undercut on my task here. I can't remember the last time I beat a game this fast, let alone sat down for 16 hours across two days to do nothing but play it. Maybe I’m a depressed neet, or maybe this game is just goated, who can really say for sure? At any rate, upon reflection on my time with this cult classic there's honestly so little of FromSoftware's work here that I feel is worth criticising, and while all my game reviews have done an excellent job in making me feel totally useless, here I worry that this piece will be me grossly wasting your time beyond previous levels, dearest reader. That’s not supposed to be an insult to the game, mind you, just my writing ability. This is all because although 'Armored Core 3' is far from the most profound work in this fabled developer's catalogue, it has put the mecha series into an ascendancy which holds so much potential that it leaves me hungering for more in a way that I have never felt with previous entries, which is going to make this review seem more like me verbally gushing ceaselessly from every orifice because I’ve properly noticed the beginning of something great before it’s full form physically causes that phenomena to occur.

Now that I’ve overly drawn out the worst opening of my entire critical output on the internet, this is a good time to start by stating that mechanically speaking, this is the best title yet. Naturally. All but barring only one glaring balancing issue. The game is as smooth as the series has ever been, with a great selection of weapons and parts, as well as great potential for detailed builds in its welcome array of optional parts. The addition of ranged left arm weapons and the economic leniency underpinning the whole experience means I got into customising a variety of ACs in this game more than any other instalment. However, builds that involve overheating are just simply too strong. Most bossfights in this game are of course other ACs, not to mention the whole alternative progression of the Arena mode, many of which are simply left in the dust due to certain weapons which generate loads of heat. Paired with a flamethrower, these selections are hilariously overpowered and I simply refused to touch them unless I got into a battle that was really chewing me up quite badly. Such fights did not, however, include Ace funnily enough—despite everything I had heard about him—of whom ya girl sent to the own-zone in one short attempt. I'm definitely not proud, nor editing this review post publication to include me bragging, you don't have any evidence because I am a perfect princess. Other than that though, no notes, still an excellent combat system with tons of nuance and a great mechanic-system relationship.

From the offset of the game's very impressively animated opening short, the presentation of '3' is the most oddly distinct part of it to me given how much it controls and often looks like—superficially, at least—the Generation 2 titles, while still decidedly pulp there's an emerging angelic coldness to the tone of the game that is truly discerning the series from it's mecha peers. Choirs peering through like blinding white gleams of sunshine over the indifferent concrete monoliths of electronic beats, these textures cascade over peerless, aimless metal in one of the more elegant science fiction aesthetics of the Playstation 2. As a nice technical aside, 'Armored Core 3' boasts Dolby pro logic II surround sound which really brings the best out of the mix in music and SFX, resulting in probably the best sounding machine gun of any 2000s action game. FromSoftware's work here truly illuminates a vision of what 'Armored Core' was to be all this time, and while continuing to excel in the ludically thrilling battles the series has always done well, it is strange that I have so much more to praise about the artfulness found in the direction of 'Armored Core 3', but this really was, in my identifications, the true beginning of FromSoftware's iconic and hauntingly picturesque moments. Such a word by popular outlets limited only to their hack and slash titles, under-recognised is it in their older projects such as this, but the framing of some sections is so strong that I'd forget to even whinge about map reuse. In the final leg of the game, hurtling toward the final set of missions, a sortie sees the player taking on a goliath MT, captured in the reduction of the 4:3 tunnel vision, the metal beast sets above a sea of sand, wings outstretched. The moment you look up to lock it into your FCS, and the image is cast of the desperate glide across the wasteland Arena map—now devoid of the visual noise it once had, a clean, static battlefield of endless soft oranges and metal monoliths—is such a moment of spectacle for a game of 2002 that is to such ends rarely so elegantly and subtly framed even today. Still undeniably pulpy—an attitude heightened in effectiveness across time with it's safely played texture work and environment scales given the hardware—'Armored Core 3' is the elevation of the series in all presentational respects, resulting in a remarkably well paced and artfully keen experience.

Mission quality, variety and purpose here is far and away the best of the series thus far, in fact, I'd go as far as to say there are no letdowns. The worst a sortie gets in 'Armored Core 3' is forgettable, and even then not frequently. The variety of Areas have been sorted in conceptual factors by the separate sections of the game's new setting, the underground city of Layered. Yes, this is a reboot trying to retell the same story, but it does so with so much more specificity in world building. The 'Armored Core' of 97' was by no means bad at this element, with its cold writing, barren locations and dehumanised presentation, but '3' achieves such things with more compelling premise of an AI controlled, lulled civilisation, like 'Arx Fatalis' by way of 'The Matrix', and defined mission locations that give character to each descending level of Layered to better inform how life there truly comes together. This means each level possess an inherent attribute of environmental storytelling that is so accessible to inference; the highest level is a nature deck featuring what appear to be falsified ecosystems, hosting a few personal favourite missions such as the bossfight mentioned before as well as a thrilling thievery operation on a sunken ship. Beneath this layer though is the more residential city areas, banal transit places like highways and mazes of grey-guarded roads where one mission asks you to quite literally just be a big annoying robot to lure out security forces in your disruption of the vapid commute. The game skips the commercial and jets straight for the appropriately industrial in the lowest layers, giving a genuine and well textured feeling of progressing more forward to the predictable threat of the AI Controller gone amuck in the metal heart of the city.

While maybe a trite advancement in the narrative, the motivations of the AI antagonist are positively not so, perhaps those who played 'Master of Arena' will recognise the beat being revised here, but a creature of automation manufacturing jet fueled, commercially militant violence in the light of it's hopelessness at the prospect of humanity seeing anything other than the metal funnel they meander submissively in under-earth is so elegant a connection to the broader themes properly initiated in 2000s 'Armored Core 2' that it makes the enchanting final cutscene of '3' all the more a perfect closure, in brutally harmonic correlation with the instances of fellow Ravens turning against you when the winds of change that follow you brush past their tender feathers. Truly one of the studio's greats, and a daring stage set for the future.

Talos 1 is perhaps my favorite puzzle game of all time. The rich, primarily implicit storytelling interspersed with fascinatingly elegant puzzle design gave me something I've been looking for in art for a long time, and have yet to find elsewhere. I've been following this game's development process since it was first unveiled in May of this year. It seemed shocking to me that they actually met the 2023 launch date, and approaching release I became very excited that this could be a new addition to my list of favorites. Unfortunately, I fear it may have been slightly undercooked for my liking.

Nearly every aspect of this game is a significant step down from the first game. Not necessarily bad, but this game proposes fundamental alterations rather than small revisions to a system that was extremely well thought out, with some jank execution in previous installments. The stars, for example, are completely neutered from the incredibly unique outside the box thinking they previously required of the player and are now reduced to menial scavenger hunts once you become accustomed to the gameplay loop. Can you find the sprite? Can you find the incredibly conspicuous switches scattered around the map? Can you find the connector we hid and then find the dashed lines crossing the sky?

The puzzles aren't much better, if I'm being honest. The best puzzles in the game are unilaterally hidden behind the gold doors at the end of the game. In other words, they require sitting through 120 puzzles that are tantamount to tutorials for different gameplay objects interacting before the player is actually tasked to use critical thought to come up with a unique solution -- something that should be expected of every puzzle game from the very beginning. Even if you disagree with me that the game over-tutorializes and refuses to let the players think for themselves, it's impossible to deny how utterly easy the late game of TTP2 is compared to the late game of TTP1 or any of Road to Gehenna.

In some discussions with other friends who are also Talosheads, I heard the phrase "bringing Talos to the masses" stated at one point. I definitely get what they meant -- Talos 2 has a lot of AAA cultural benchmarks that appeal to people who think the puzzle genre might not be for them -- but I really don't think anything about the first game is necessarily unapproachable. The game certainly does challenge the player, yes, but Talos 1 is extremely easy to comprehend given its limited kit of tools. There are 6 gameplay elements, and given how quickly it exhausts the basic tech one needs to know to solve late game puzzles, it has to rely on amping up the difficulty much earlier, and in a way that feels extremely natural. The second game does not do this. Every world is fundamentally a tutorial for the Object Of The Week and the caveats it proposes for other items. It introduces a new object per world so as soon as you finish the first 10 puzzles that feature it, it's gone. The game then requires you to recall everything you learned about the object in question at the very end of the game (FOR ONE PUZZLE) for completionist credit in a way that I find rather disconcerting and stilted.

The puzzles aren't doing much for me, but I'm at least able to take some joy out of the plot, even when it's completely baffling and stupid. One of those aforementioned cultural AAA benchmarks that I find most present throughout the game is the quippy Whedonisms and banter with characters. I do enjoy some of the characters, Byron and Alcatraz especially, for their realistic depictions of various political extremes in a way that does not come off as remotely hamfisted or meanspirited. And I especially enjoy Thecla for the fact that she is an incredibly meanspirited representation of dogmatic religious zealots. The rest I can kind of take or leave. The primary twist and ending are fucking dumb, I'm so sorry. I completely lost interest when all we were doing was talking about Miranda, Cornelius, and Athena. They are non-characters as far as I'm concerned, despite the fact that I find Athena's depiction in TTP1 to be really inspiring and life-affirming (she might be my favorite protagonist in media, period). It's just trying too hard to be meaningful and explain to me why it is meaningful, when the first game had the formula figured out and was able to handpick other readings to convey ultimately the same message about self-actualization and what it means to be a human in a way that feels much, much less forced.

I think that's ultimately my problem with this game. It tries to take far too many liberties that damage a perfectly functional system, while also rehashing many of the same ideas from the first game in a way that feels ultimately kind of non-transformative and extremely bloated, not just in scope of plot and the ideas it conveys, but also in the amount of content one must trudge through to reach anything worthwhile.