Mega Man X

Mega Man X
A new era of Mega Man!
Protagonist(s): X Genre(s): Action Platform Platform(s): Super Nintendo Entertainment System Microsoft Windows MS-DOS Android iOS Release Date: JP: December 17, 1993 NA: January 19, 1994 EU: March 15, 1994 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Series: Mega Man X Successor: Mega Man X2

Mega Man X, known in Japan as Rockman X (ロックマンX), is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first Mega Man game to be released for that console and the first game of the X series. The game was later rereleased as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2006, as well as the Mega Man X Legacy Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam in 2018. The game saw a remake in 2005 for the PlayStation Portable, titled Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X.

Plot

The year 21XX. While trying to find a fossil record, Dr. Cain, a human scientist, has uncovered a capsule with a robot from the past: X. The capsule contained a warning message from Dr. Light, his creator. X's design interested Cain, and he analyzed Dr. Light's notes. Months later, Cain was able to create robots similar to X, called Reploids, and they began to be mass-produced around the world. For unknown reasons, some Reploids began to act strange and attacked humans, being labeled Mavericks. To counter any possible threat, the Maverick Hunters were formed. Sigma, an advanced Reploid, was assigned to be their leader. X also became a member of the Maverick Hunters. Time passes and the Maverick Hunters are able to keep peace, but one day Sigma himself became a Maverick, being joined by other Maverick Hunters to start a war against humanity. Although X was by nature a pacifist, he had to do something, so he joined the new leader of the Maverick Hunters, Zero, to stop the ambitions of Sigma and the Mavericks.

Why It RoX

1. The game is a soft reboot/successor to the Mega Man series but being darker without feeling edgy while also focusing more on story.
2. Like classic Mega Man, it has nonlinear gameplay. The game lets you choose the order of initial 8 stages before involving the Sigma Fortress.
3. There's an intro stage at the start of the game to help players familiarize themselves with the game's controls, which will become a standard in most future Mega Man games, X series or otherwise.
4. Like classic Mega Man, the levels are designed to teach the player how the mechanics work without needing a tutorial (intro stage notwithstanding). Some of the levels also have minor changes after defeating certain bosses, like the lava freezing over in Flame Mammoth's stage after defeating Chill Penguin or some electricity being cut off in Spark Mandrill's stage after defeating Storm Eagle.
5. Unlike the Robot Masters from the classic Mega Man series, which almost all of them have their names ending with "Man", the Mavericks are all based on animals.
6. Solid controls. As what would you expect from a Mega Man game. Comapred the the first installment in the Mega Man series, which had stiff controls, the first installment in the Mega Man X franchise has solid controls
7. Introducing the Ride Armor, which allows to destroy some enemies and heavy objects that get in the way.
8. You can jump on walls and dash, which will appear in every X games and sequel series onwards.
9. Fun and challenging bosses.
10. Each boss has a weakness to exploit, which adds for some strategy.
11. Some collectible power-up locations, like sub tanks, life tanks and most notably, the Dr. Light capsules which give X upgrades like reduced damage and dashing, which will become a part of X's natural moveset from Mega Man X2 onwards. Under right circumstances, there's even a secret capsule where X can unlock the "Hadouken" from Street Fighter II, which can kill almost any enemy or boss instantly as long as X has full health.
12. Awesome, intense and memorable soundtracks like Spark Mandrill stage theme, Storm Eagle stage theme, Sigma fortress, Zero theme and even more!
13. Balanced difficulty. Not too easy, not too hard, like if the difficulty tried to be medium, compared to most of Mega Man games, which are challenging, like Contra games.
14. Interesting weapons like the obtained ones from bosses.
15. The ending is pretty cool.

Bad Qualities

1. Like classic Mega Man, the bosses often boil down to trial-and-error, which means that if you don't reach them with a high life count you'll likely get a game over and be forced to replay the whole level just to get another chance at the boss.
2. Unless you play this game on the Wii, Wii U, or Mega Man X Legacy Collection, there is no save feature, you must use a password.
3. The MS-DOS and iOS ports are horrible.
4. The final gauntlet of non-stop bosses can prove to be too difficult without maxed out Sub-Tanks, as you often don't get much chance to replenish your health between fights.
5. The final boss can't be affected attacked by Hadouken. Thankfully, it did in Maverick Hunter X.

Reception

The game receives critical acclaim by both critics and fan of the Mega Man franchise.

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