If you’ve never played this game before, it’s Mega Man “X”, not 10.  Ironically, this game was released before Mega Man 7, but confusions aside, it was Capcom’s first Mega Man entry on the SNES.  With the X series, Capcom decided to reinvent the Mega Man franchise towards a more mature trend when entering the the 16-bit arena.  It’s no Resident Evil, but it did venture into themes of death, revenge, and salvation.  Did it dissapoint?  Does it still stand to today’s standard?  Read on.

Story

If you cared to read the manual, you’ll find that this game takes place in the year 21xx (whenever that is).  It starts as an archaeologist/scientist stumbled upon the remains of a robotic research facility.  From this excavation, he discovered X (the main protagonist) and brought him back to life.  With X’s help, they were able to develop a new generation of androids dubbed “Reploids” who can learn, adapt, and pretty much has all human traits.  But what happens when robots start thinking on their own?  Shenanigans!  Led by the sinister Sigma, now there are evil robots who’ve gone “maverick” and it’s your job to stop them.   Not the greatest story in the world, but this shouldn’t be what you should be focusing on.

Gameplay

For the lack of story that is presented, it definitely makes it up with the gameplay.  You begin at a select screen with 8 bosses/levels that you can select at will.  Each stage is themed after its boss, for example, Chill Penguin will feature a snowy level, and Launch Octopus features an underwater level.  The main gist of this game is just like any other game in the series.  Select a stage, run through the level blasting through hordes of enemies, and you fight a boss at the end.  That may not sound very fun, but it’s actually quite an addicting formula.  This is platform gaming at its best as each as each levels are very well designed and balanced.  Each levels are quite different from each other, so you feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over again.  Although the levels are a bit difficult for new adopters, it’s much more forgiving than any of the prior series.  The lower difficulty may deter away hardcore Mega Man fans, but Capcom has definitely made this game more appealing and playable to the wider audience.

To curb the difficulty, Mega Man will periodically receive further upgrades to enhance his abilities.  Like the original series, defeating a boss will allow you gain their abilities.  This new power can be used to uncover hidden items, or even use it to fight other bosses.  There’s definitely a rock-paper-scissor mechanic for each boss, since each ability can be used to exploit the weakness of another boss.  Because of this, it makes the game more linear and less open-ended since you choosing the wrong boss encounter will make the game very difficult.  New to the series, are various hidden capsules spread throughout the stages that enhances the blaster, helmet, armor, and leg.  For example, the blaster enhancement will allow X double charge the blaster to unleash a devastating attack.  There’s even a secret capsule in this game that gives X the ability to perform Hadouken.  These enhancements really increases the longevity of the game since you’ll have to scour through each level in order to find these upgrades.

Graphics

Even for its first 16-bit debut, this game is beautiful even by today’s standards.  Instead of the cute, stubby little Mega Man from past games, X has been completely redesigned with a mature anime style look and feel.  The colors are much more vibrant, and each characters are much more detailed this time around.  When receiving a hidden capsule power-up, you can visually see each enhancement being applied to the character model.  By the time you finish the game, X will look entirely different from when the adventure started.  There has also been big improvements with the sprite animation as well.  Little details like Mega Man panting in fatigue when his health is low, or an robot laughing when you get hit by hit projectile makes it a more dynamic experience.  Occasionally, you’ll see some slow down when lots of characters are on screen at once, but these hiccups are very minor and don’t detract much from the gameplay.

Today’s Standards

Like I mentioned before, this game represents what a classic platformer should be.  It’s challenging, entertaining, balanced and is a jewel from the 16-bit era.  It’s also a game that’s easy to pick up and play casually.  The game is as fun to play today as it was 13 years ago.  If you don’t have a SNES lying around, there has been several re-releases for this game.  The Mega Man X collection released for the Gamecube and PS2 is a perfect way to play it if you want to experience with the original 16-bit graphics.  However, if you have a PSP, I highly recommend checking out the remake: Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.  Not only are the graphics redone in 3-D, but the story line has been improved to further immerse players into the Mega Man universe.

Sleepy Gamer says.. BUY IT!

Tags: , ,