Mega Man X Command Mission – PS2 – Review

In the
history of videogamedom (is that a word?) the long time, big, famous names
normally include Mario, Sonic, and Donkey Kong, to name but a few.  But did you
know that Capcom has made over 25 different games using the Mega Man universe?
I counted 28 different titles on different platforms spanning back to the first
Nintendo.  Yup, this is one of Capcom’s longest running (if not the longest)
franchises.  But for all these games, Mega Man has never really been translated
into a turn based RPG (the Mega Man Battle Network games were on the GBA) on one
of the big name consoles. 

Until
now.

Mega
Man X Command Mission (MMX) starts off with a top notch anime intro. It’s
exactly the thing that I was hoping for to get me into the mood for some
serious.  From there, the game plays as a traditional turn based RPG with
you taking command of up to three characters at one time (five total
available).  The storyline has X and his fellow reploids fighting to stop the
Liberion Army while being dumped into
Giga
City grossly
outnumbered and outgunned.

Those
players who have played an RPG before will be in familiar territory here.  The
movement can best be described as simplistic.  While it may look good with it’s
cell shaded graphics the game had some things about it that made me a bit
concerned.  First, the game suffers from one of the oldest complaints of RPGs,
it seems that you can’t go more then 25 feet without another turn based battle
beginning.  They get tedious fast as you seem to fight the same enemies over and
over.  Next, I was surprised at the actual movement of your party.  No matter
how many people in your team at any given time, you only see X.  Normally, this
wouldn’t even be a blip on my radar, but after seeing the very nice graphics
that this game has and thinking that even RPGs on the Dreamcast showed all
characters, I felt that the programmers weren’t doing themselves justice.  Of
course this same complaint may exist if they had made it so you saw all
characters while running around and then I’d probably complain that the screen
was too busy and cluttered.  Honestly sometimes I just cannot be satisfied.

Like I
said before, MMX has really good looking graphics.  Besides the full-on anime
that is in the game, the in game action is smooth cell-shaded eye candy.  I
personally like cell shading and don’t think enough programmers use it.  This
gives the game some gravity considering that Mega Man has also been a cartoon
series for a while.  Plus, the subject matter practically screams Japanimation.
I never noticed any slow down while battling bad guys and the boss battles are
both effective looking and well designed.  Some bad guys look a bit goofy, but
for the most part everything has a sincerely dangerous look about it. 

Strong
voice work during the cut scenes and nice "hero" music made me happy to hear
some all around decent audio.  The explosions and other sound effects were done
well, but other then the above average voice work, I never came out of my seat
with the action noises.

MMX
has both good and bad aspects, but I think it should be fair to mention that the
game only takes around 10 hours to beat.  I say this because for some, 10 hours
simply isn’t long enough to earn their gaming dollars.  For others who don’t
have a lot of time for gaming, 10 hours is right up their alley. 

The
game does feature some interesting additions during combat with the addition of
secondary weapons and I really did like the boss battles.  There will be more
then one time when a boss will get the better of you simply because you failed
to implement the correct attack strategy.  Nothing the average gamer won’t be
able to figure out after a couple of tries.  There are enemies from other Mega
Man games that make appearances and Heroes too. 

At this
point I almost would say that this would be a good game for the first time RPG
player.

Review Scoring Details

Gameplay: 7.8

It’s
pretty easy to pick up and get going.  The controls are easy as is the game
going from point A to point B.

Graphics: 8.7

Cell
shading is awesome and this game has it in spades.  I really got into the game’s
anime intro and cut scenes as I felt that the game really benefited from it’s
content and subject matter.  A beautiful looking game.

Sound: 7.0

Good,
quality voice acting, average sound effects and background music. 

Difficulty: Easy

Think
of this as RPG "Lite".  It’s only a 10 hour RPG and you never get lost.  I plan
on letting my young nephew play this one as his first RPG.

Concept: 7.1

Although this is the first turn based RPG in the series, it isn’t the first
RPG.  I am glad that they are trying new and different things in this long
standing franchise.

Overall: 7.4

I liked
it for the good looking eye candy, but simply was not challenged, MMX has lots
to celebrate but fails to really turn heads in terms of originality and
innovative gameplay.