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[TreIII]

I've been tempted to give X6 another chance... largely because the music in that game is excellent.

Good idea? Bad idea?


X4 and X5 are my favorite in the entire MM series, for what that's worth.

If you can deal with the lackluster level design (often paired with the game's "Nightmare" gimmick), pretty boring bosses, and bad controls, I'd at least say it's worth playing around for the sake of the cool Armors you can get for X.

On a really good day, I'd still pick X6 over X7, any day.

 

[NEO0MJ]

If you can deal with the lackluster level design (often paired with the game's "Nightmare" gimmick), pretty boring bosses, and bad controls, I'd at least say it's worth playing around for the sake of the cool Armors you can get for X.

I loved the expanded armor system in 5 & 6, gave you a lot of ways to tackle levels. And getting ultimate armor at the start was game breaking, lol. That invincible dash attack was too good.

 

[SkyOdin]

I've been tempted to give X6 another chance... largely because the music in that game is excellent.

Good idea? Bad idea?


X4 and X5 are my favorite in the entire MM series, for what that's worth.

As long as you know what you are getting into, I don't think X6 is that bad. I am one of those odd people who prefer it over X5, though.

X7 is the only game in the X series I consider to be irredeemably awful. X8 was a true return to form though. It isn't quite on par with X or X4, but it is easily as good as X2 and X3. X8 also has the best armor system out of the entire X series, being the only X game that lets you mix and match different armor pieces.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

As long as you know what you are getting into, I don't think X6 is that bad. I am one of those odd people who prefer it over X5, though.

X7 is the only game in the X series I consider to be irredeemably awful. X8 was a true return to form though. It isn't quite on par with X or X4, but it is easily as good as X2 and X3. X8 also has the best armor system out of the entire X series, being the only X game that lets you mix and match different armor pieces.

I never played X8. I was so dismayed by X7 that I ended up never bothering with it. That said, I am planning to grab the PC version of that when I have a chance. It looks like it could be really cool.

 

[Diggeh]

Classic is always the best to me, but X is so darn good. Strong start RK!

 

[rockmanjoe]

I will never forget the first time I played this game as a kid. I had endless amounts of "OMG SO COOL!!" reactions. No other game has ever impressed me as much.
The pixel art looking more like anime.
The smooth walking animation.
The charging animation. (reminded me of dbz at the time lol)
Falling down a pit in the intro stage then discovering I can wall jump (!!!).
The Vile fight in the intro stage (and subsequent rematch in the sigma fortress, which made you notice how much stronger you've become)
Zero.
The armor upgrades.
Dashing and dash jumping (!!!)
The music.
The level design. Armored Armadillo stage will always be my favorite stage in all of platformers.
Also how some of them changed depending on which stages you cleared beforehand, like the remains of the ship where you fight Storm Eagle being at the start of the power plant stage and making the lighting go out
The insane boss explosions (made defeating them sooooo satisfying).
etc etc etc etc

It is polished to the extreme. It is the perfect next-gen evolution of an already great series.
Best game ever made.

 

[Videoneon]

One of my favorite games of all time. I think that Mega Man X is the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity and he is the only reason I live

X is god, X is justice

Spoiler

please make more Mega Man X games Capcom ;_;

 

[Error]

timeless classic, music is amazing in this game.

 

[jello44]

Robot waifus were a mistake.

D:

I loved the expanded armor system in 5 & 6, gave you a lot of ways to tackle levels. And getting ultimate armor at the start was game breaking, lol. That invincible dash attack was too good.

I got it the old fashioned way by getting all the other armor pieces and finding the capsule for the ultimate armor.

After many failed attempts to beat him without it (I didn't have it) I made Sigma my bitch with that thing.

Oh yeah, one of the best secrets of MMX is finding the Hadouken. It even plays out like some April Fool's Day joke, but it's there.

 

[CD'S BAR]

Yeah, one of the greatest games ever made really. Gameplay, level design, music, replayability. This game has it all. And it spawned 3 great sequels.

 

[CrispyBoar]

Great write-up, RK!

Oh lord, fuck those so hard. Even when you know the layout, one little screwup and you're dead.

Squid Adler's stage in Rockman X5/Mega Man X5 is worse than with Jet Stingray's stage in X4, especially when you're trying to get all orbs in order to get a part of a certain armor. Ugh. You'll die a lot trying to both practice & memorize the pattern to get them all.

Not to mention both Avalanche Yeti & especially Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage in X8 are equally annoying.

 

[jello44]

Squid Adler's stage in Rockman X5/Mega Man X5 is worse than with Jet Stingray's stage in X4, especially when you're trying to get all orbs in order to get a part of a certain armor. Ugh. You'll die a lot trying to both practice & memorize the pattern to get them all..

HAHAHA yup, that one part at the very end of Squid's stage gave me fits of rage while trying to get all the orbs.

 

[SkyOdin]

Squid Adler's stage in Rockman X5/Mega Man X5 is worse than with Jet Stingray's stage in X4, especially when you're trying to get all orbs in order to get a part of a certain armor. Ugh. You'll die a lot trying to both practice & memorize the pattern to get them all.

Not to mention both Avalanche Yeti & especially Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage in X8 are equally annoying.

Ugh, I have to agree with you on all of these points. I hate Squid Adler's stage. Jet Stingray's stage is pretty fun. Once you get the hang of it, you can breeze right through it with no problems. Squid Adler's stage is always a stressful and annoying experience.

I still have no idea what they were thinking with Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage either. It is a blight on what is otherwise a decent game. Avalanche Yeti's stage is frustrating too, but it at least seems halfway fair.

 

[aett]

Not to mention both Avalanche Yeti & especially Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage in X8 are equally annoying.

The biggest flaw in X8 is that there aren't enough classic platforming stages. I do appreciate how they tried to make the game have more varied gameplay, but I would have preferred more stages like Gravity Antonion than the vehicle stages, or even non-vehicle-but-gimmicky-stages like Trilobite's.

 

[TreIII]

Squid Adler's stage in Rockman X5/Mega Man X5 is worse than with Jet Stingray's stage in X4, especially when you're trying to get all orbs in order to get a part of a certain armor. Ugh. You'll die a lot trying to both practice & memorize the pattern to get them all.

Not to mention both Avalanche Yeti & especially Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage in X8 are equally annoying.

HAHAHA yup, that one part at the very end of Squid's stage gave me fits of rage while trying to get all the orbs.

As bad as X6 was, the team behind that game at least had the good sense to not put in a bike section. That's at least ONE thing I will speak to that game's favor.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

The Classic Megaman Series for me is the best version of Megaman overall BUT the best individual game of them is, without question, Megaman X. Goddamn do I love this game to bits! And unlike the Classic one it took less time for X to take a nosedive. X5 and its infinite and unskippable text boxes ruined it for me. X6 was just bad and we don't talk about X7 and X8.

Not even Classic Megaman in its worst times had games we'd rather ignore altogether.

 

[Rapscallion]

It really was an incredible leap from the NES game to this terrific game. It pretty much made Mega Man 7 (which is a great game in its own right) look tame in comparison.

There's just so much to love about the game and so much to do. So many well hidden secrets, collectables, and stage variations made playthrough the game multiple times a must. I still think it's incredibly awesome that the world changes as you start to defeat specific enemies in specific orders.

It is an easy game..up until Sigma. Man he is a rough boss, even with 4 fully charged tanks.

 

[studyguy]

If you played the entire soundtrack, I could easily name off what boss stage it was from.
Probably can't do this for any other megaman or most any game. This shit is so good, I don't actually have my SNES anymore, but I still have my MMX cartridge alongside my Kirby Superstar carts kicking around somewhere.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Ugh, I have to agree with you on all of these points. I hate Squid Adler's stage. Jet Stingray's stage is pretty fun. Once you get the hang of it, you can breeze right through it with no problems. Squid Adler's stage is always a stressful and annoying experience.

I still have no idea what they were thinking with Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage either. It is a blight on what is otherwise a decent game. Avalanche Yeti's stage is frustrating too, but it at least seems halfway fair.

Maaaan, you guys are crazy. Jetbike stages were the best. Squid Adler's stage was tough, but so satisfying. I got to the point where, when I play through the game now, I can usually grab all the orbs on my first go. It still feels outrageously good.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

MMX is still a blast to replay to this day. My only qualm is that Storm Eagle's theme(one of the best themes of all time in any game) is basically only in mmx

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Mega Man X is my favorite franchise. I love the futuristic world, wall kicking, armor, and overall an evolution over the Classic series. The first game in particular is my second favorite in the series (after X4), with a fantastic soundtrack (Opening Highway, Storm Eagle, Boomer Kuwanger). I also bought Maverick Hunter X on PSP, which was also awesome.

 

[bumpkin]

Awesome write-up, dude!

MMX is one of my all-time favorite video games.

 

[CrispyBoar]

Ugh, I have to agree with you on all of these points. I hate Squid Adler's stage. Jet Stingray's stage is pretty fun. Once you get the hang of it, you can breeze right through it with no problems. Squid Adler's stage is always a stressful and annoying experience.

I still have no idea what they were thinking with Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage either. It is a blight on what is otherwise a decent game. Avalanche Yeti's stage is frustrating too, but it at least seems halfway fair.

I agree, Jet Stingray's stage was fun, & Avalanche Yeti's stage is OK.

Squid Adler's & Gigavolt Man-O-War's stages on the other hand...no. Just torture.

 

[RowdyReverb]

Great post! I really hope we get a Mega Man X Legacy Collection someday soon

 

[RK128]

I'm so happy many of you guys enjoyed the OP ! Wanted to do the original MMX justice and I'm glad I accomplished that.

If you've been following my Ratchet Retrospective, I promised that I would post a retrospective for the third game (Up Your Arsenal) tonight.......sadly don't have a lot of time (college work + only coming home only a hour or so ago), so will be posting it either sometime on Thursday or alongside the Legends 2 thread on Friday/Saturday.

Hope you all understand .

 

[SolVanderlyn]

As bad as X6 was, the team behind that game at least had the good sense to not put in a bike section. That's at least ONE thing I will speak to that game's favor.

Heatnix's stage is way worse than ANY bike stage.

Have this awesome music medley

 

[clarkision]

Mega Man X is one of my all-time favorite games and series. SOOOOOO GOOOD!!! Great write up!

 

[jello44]

-

Have this awesome music medley

Yo, this is fucking awesome.

 

[jnWake]

One of the best games ever. So damn replayable.

I wish we had the dash from the start though, but I guess running isn't so bad.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

One of the best games ever. So damn replayable.

I wish we had the dash from the start though, but I guess running isn't so bad.

At least the rest of the games have it from the start, and Chill Penguin's stage is a good place to start going through the bosses.

 

[El-Guap-Cakes]

Nice write up! Loved this game. The Vile fights were so terrifying as a kid! And I remember being blown away when I finally found the secret Hadoken capsule with Martial Arts Dr. Light.

 

[NeoGold123]

Enjoyable read, as always, RK.

This one hits really close to home for me. I had seen my cousin playing some of the classic series and only goofed around on there myself. Being so young, I was never really interested in beating the game or making progress, just jumping and shooting was fine enough for me. I had fun, and never forgot the Blue Bomber. Fast forward years later, I have my own SNES and I'm super into games, and I'm with my father at a flea market looking through a shop's games. What is this I see? Mega Man X? Dad, can you buy this for me? I played that game nonstop after school for months. I think my friends thought I was crazy, because that's all I'd ever do for a long time. First game other than Mario I'd ever owned, and the first game I ever beat.

For a time, before I'd ever heard of speed runs, I had it down to right about 45 min from start to finish 100%. Not sure what I clock these days, maybe about an hour and a half or so, but I still get nostalgic every time I hear that twinkling tune at game's end, with Mega Man standing on the cliff overlooking the sea. Can't wait to read the rest of the Mega Retro Reports!

 

[maxcriden]

Awesome write-up as always and very informative to me as someone who hasn't played much MM. Are MMX games a bit more doable on controls for someone who finds the originals kinda tough to control properly/feel confident jumping and moving with?

Are there any MM games on the Wii Shop via VC or WiiWare that aren't on Wii U VC?

 

[Blues1990]

Heatnix's stage is way worse than ANY bike stage.

Have this awesome music medley

I've always been partial to this one, performed by the very awesome band, ThunderClash.

 

[vato_loco]

A strong contender to GOAT. I just love to replay it so much. This one is amazing, and X4 has a soft spot in my heart, being the first game I ever played on my PS1.

 

[_SAKY_]

Presentation for this game is outstanding, as they have more detailed sprite work, the levels have a lot going on, and the frame rate is lock solid.

Except for the Armored Armadillo stage. Definitely has some framerate dips, in two spots, has you speed through the stage on the rolling platforms. Just saying. still my fave MM game though.

Great job OP!

 

[Meccanical]

The first Mega Man X is still my favorite.

Granted, the only others I've played were 4 and 5.

 

[RK128]

Awesome write-up as always and very informative to me as someone who hasn't played much MM. Are MMX games a bit more doable on controls for someone who finds the originals kinda tough to control properly/feel confident jumping and moving with?

Are there any MM games on the Wii Shop via VC or WiiWare that aren't on Wii U VC?

That is my goal for the MM threads, as I'm a bit of a fish out of water regarding these series of games; I played a good number of them, but not on the level as the Sonic series (where I played more or less all of them before starting the retrospective). Glad I'm doing a okay job on that front !

Regarding your question, the MMX games control wise are very similar to the Classic series, with X (at least in the SNES games) moving almost 1-to-1 like Mega Man; movement and jumping feel the same. The main difference is the wall sliding and dashing ability. If you can get used to that, then you're set .

Heatnix's stage is way worse than ANY bike stage.

Have this awesome music medley

......This is the best thing I've ever heard :'). Such a great remix of the iconic MMX tracks. Thank you for sharing this man .

 

[Syril]

Heatnix's stage is way worse than ANY bike stage.

Well holy goddamn. It's a stage so chock full to the brim with bullshit, it's over 10 minutes long and HideofBeast can still spend every waking second talking about what's going on. Listen as he tells you exactly what sort of vomit you're watching pass itself off as genuine gameplay.

 

[Reset]

Squid Adler's stage was better than Jet Stingray's stage since at least the whole level wasn't a bike section.

 

[Imm0rt4l]

My favorite Megaman game. Love the music.

 

[Raitaro]

Great write-up OP!

Just as I did not truly develop a deeper love for the Mario series (beyond thinking they were fun pick up and play platformers with catchy music) until Super Mario World with its elaborate world map, save feature and puzzle focused levels, the Mega Man series also did not fully click with me as a child until I got (magazine-induced) hyped for and then quite obsessed with Mega Man X after I managed to buy a US import copy. I think it was the first MM game I beat as well, which made me feel somewhat proud at that age.

The game really managed to build intelligently on top of the classic series' run, gun and jump mechanics by adding more story elements, more moves, more movability, more meaningful collectibles, a more badass protagonist, and an overall bigger feeling like you were playing a badass game. While always a high note in this series, the music in MMX in particular blew me away at the time because of its quite unique metallic/metal sound. The move to animal-inspired bosses also spoke to me at the time and made me fantasize what other animals they could use for later games.

I can't wait till you give your view on the sequels OP. At the time I was often debating with myself whether I liked X1 or X2 better, though I have not played X2 lately and can't say if it holds up as well. I do remember liking the opening with the bike quite a bit, which made the game feel a tad more spectacular / movie-esque for me back then. For some reason I never played X3, perhaps due to moving on to the N64. I did play X4, but only much later when I finally felt I could not do without also owning a PSX as well, and this game actually made me fall in love with the series again (while sometimes cringing at that game's dubious voice work in the cutscenes). I never tried X5-8 anymore though for what it's worth.

 

[cordy]

An A+ game. Just amazing in every way possible.

 

[Onemic]

Man this was the game that introduced me to Mega man and one of my favourite SNES games by far. Unfortunately I never beat it.

Im in Megaman nostalgia mode and as such Im trying to play all the X games from MMX to MMX5. Since MMX has a remake, Maverick Hunter X, which game would you guys suggest to play? I have my old MMX cart lying around, but I'd probably play it on an emulator tbh since I can use save states(ya ya, I know, it makes it easier) and busting out the SNES every time to play is a hassle. Plus Capcom in their insane minds have yet to release MMX legeacy collection on the Vita.The series seems like a perfect fit for portables!

The main problem I have with Maverick Hunter X are the graphics. Even though they were nice when the game came out 10 years ago, with age I think I'd much prefer the SNES graphics. Plus it has the original GOAT music as well. Only thing is that Maverick Hunter X has the anime cutscenes which go a long way in further explaining the story....So, which would you guys suggest to play?

 

[TreIII]

Onemic,

I'd say you owe it to yourself to play the original, as it really is such a well-crafted game that has aged just as well. Honestly, better than its remake, in my opinion.

Play MHX after you've completed the original, so that you can get a better appreciation for its changes, at the least!

 

[RamaTheVoice]

Man, I just posted in the Rant thread how much it sucked that there were no new Mega Man games, and then I see this!

One of my favorite games of all time... I think I'll go replay it one of these days!

 

[jello44]

Onemic,

I'd say you owe it to yourself to play the original, as it really is such a well-crafted game that has aged just as well. Honestly, better than its remake, in my opinion.

Play MHX after you've completed the original, so that you can get a better appreciation for its changes, at the least!

Agree with this.

It's nice to see all the changes with MHX, but MMX is still superior.

 

[RK128]

Didn't expect to see this thread get bumped XD!

If anyone wants to play MMX for the first time, the Maverick Hunter X title is a good way to experience the game (and will be covering that when I finish covering the X series), but I highly recommend you find a way (Wii U VC, MMX Collection, Retail SNES version, ect) to play the original.

Its a classic for a reason and while the PSP remake rocks, the original SNES game still is the best way to experience this gem of a title .

 

[Onemic]

Onemic,

I'd say you owe it to yourself to play the original, as it really is such a well-crafted game that has aged just as well. Honestly, better than its remake, in my opinion.

Play MHX after you've completed the original, so that you can get a better appreciation for its changes, at the least!

Ya, I think I'll do this. If I can finally beat the game, I think I'll go get the MMX Legacy Collection and play the other X titles I missed as well.

 

[RK128]

Ya, I think I'll do this. If I can finally beat the game, I think I'll go get the MMX Legacy Collection and play the other X titles I missed as well.

I think you can find them for a good price; remember spending 20-30 bucks and walked out of GameStop with the X Collection & MMX8 two or so years back.

I'm sure you will find the games for good prices online.