Reviews

Posted by: jkdmedia

When I was little and the original Nintendo ruled supreme, one of my favorite game series to play was Mega Man, and I have especially fond memories of Mega Man 2. When the SNES was released I was intrigued by Mega Man X, and when I first played it, I instantly was hooked on it as it. Mega Man X was even more fun than the original games on the NES because the gameplay was faster, storyline was darker, and enemies were more extravagant. While I only got to play the ones released on the SNES I was thrilled to hear that Capcom was in the process to release the a collect of Mega Man X to X6 in one neat little package. Read on to find out more about it.

The Mega Man X series takes place in the future where there is a huge battle between the Maverick Hunters, a group of heroic robots who like humans, and Mavericks who hate humans and wish for their extermination. This evil group is lead by a malicious robot Sigma. Like I mentioned earlier, the series was slightly edgier and darker in tone, and has a very anime feel about it. Even though this is the case, deep down this is a Mega Man game tried and true, as players will have the ability to select and go through various stages to defeat crazy boss robots, talking their unique powers and using them for your own personal use.

There are several things that made the Mega Man X series different from the original games. The first is as the game progresses you will get some crazy cool armor add-ons such as the ability to do double dashes and various other enhancements that make Mega Man the ultimate fighting robot. Besides that there are a few new mechanical changes. Mega Man can now cling to walls and even pull off air-dash moves, which really helps gamers out, especially when it comes to finding secret armor upgrades.

Another thing that made the Mega Man X games unique and set them apart from the original Mega Man is that eventually players go to play the game using another Maverick Hunting robot other then Mega Man. That robot’s name was Zero, and he plays a little differently than Mega Man but was a blast to play because of his signature gameplay item, which is his Z sword, which is perfect for slicing and dicing Maverick robots. While Mega Man was perfect at using projectile-based weapon’s, Zero was exceptional at up close and personal attacks. Even though you can’t play him until the third game, fans of the series were ecstatic to hear this as it really expanded the gameplay.

Many fans of the series will be happy to note that this game contains one unlockable game that was previously only available to gamers in Europe and Japan. That game is Mega Man Battle & Chase, which was Capcom’s answer to Mario Kart series. Even though this game cannot stand up to Mario Kart, it had some pretty interesting strategy elements in it because you can take various parts from opponent’s cars when you beat them in a race. So you can constantly upgrade your car to be bigger and better. This is a really nice addition in the game and really helps give this game more replay.

Mega Man X Collection is rated everyone for animated blood and violence. It will take up to 86KB for game saves.

Gameplay: 8.1
The best thing about this collection is that the gameplay has remained the exact same as the original games. Yes, all of the challenges, level designs, and even password system is the exact same as when the games were originally released. Getting to see all the games in one package is a real treat to see how the gameplay progresses.

Graphics: 6.5
The emulation that the developers used for this game is top notch and this can be seen in the game because it looks almost identical to the original counterparts. I can not verify this with Megan Man X4- X6, but for the first three games they look just like the SNES releases, except better. In the X series, every so often players will notice that the game suffered from some slowdown, but I never noticed any slowdown in the Mega Man X Collection.

The only thing that is of concern is that I noticed some interlacing issues while I was playing this game on my HDTV. This only happened on a couple of levels, and at times made those levels hard to play.

Sound: 7.2
When I popped this game into my PlayStation 2 I was happy to hear all of the original sounds and music that the game contained. When I was playing through Mega Man X I was thrilled to hear the original music in the opening stage as it took me back to the first time I played it so many years ago.

Difficulty: Medium
This is an “Old School game,” that plays by old-school rules, complete with password systems that are still functional. If you have ever played any of these games, then you will feel right at home, if you are new to the series it will be difficult in the beginning but you will eventually get the hang of it and shoot the replicates with the best of them.

Concept: 7.5
This is an unfair category to try to rate, since all of these games are emulations of older games previously released. I guess the best question to answer here is how have the games aged.

Overall: 7.8
Even though the later Mega Man titles are not as good as the first few, it is still a very incredible collection of Mega Man X games in one nice little package. If you are a fan of the series then I suggest picking it up to relive some of the great moments that this game still offers. Best thing about this is that this collection has a low price of $30 so it is a worthy purchase for those who love this game.