Mega Man X

Mega Man X

AH YEA, Mega Man X, one of the greatest games of it’s time, so great that it eventually spawned many a game, some of them… NOT so great, some of them not even having Megaman as the main protagonist. Don’t act like you don’t remember all the Zero themed Games, who could forget running around as the android with the longest ponytail in existence cutting down mavericks with his bad ass saber? Now I know a lot of you are wondering why I decided to do Megaman when there are so many other great games out there. I picked Mega Man X because it’s the ONLY GAME I 100% completed when I was child, before I never bothered to care about 100% completing games. I know this game like the back of my hand, and have played it more times then any game in existence PERIOD.  If you need any other reason… It’s Mega Man… If that’s not enough for you, you didn’t have a childhood, and should probably stop reading. ANYWAY, without further delay how about we jump into the Game shall we.

Development

Mega Man X (Rockman X) like all of the Mega Man games was developed by Capcom, except X was first of Mega Man game to be developed for the Super Nintendo (SNES), and the first Mega Man X game. Originally a spin-off of the original Mega Man games (Rockman) that started on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) *If you weren’t aware by now, that is why it’s the system is called the NES. I know it’s a no brainer, one would think right. You have no idea how many people actual DON’T know this.* Mega Man X was first published in Japan in December of 1993 and was released in NA and Europe the following year. With Nintendo moving on to more advanced gaming hardware, developing Mega Man X meant reinventing Mega Man through gameplay and a more mature storyline while still maintaining the basic concepts on which the Mega Man Franchise was built. After all, without what made Mega Man a great game, could it even be called a Mega Man game?

Presentation

Taking place a century after the original Mega Man series, Mega Man X is set a futuristic world populated by both humans, and robots known as “Reploids”, robots capable of thinking, and feeling just like humans, without programmed limitations. I know scary thought right? If they are like humans, what if they become destructive, prone to violence, an criminal activity, after all, they are obviously NOT human, they are robots with human behavior, so how will a human stop them. Well that was thought off, these Reploids who do such are called “Mavericks”, and our protagonist X (Mega Man X) is a member of a task force called “Maverick Hunters.” That’s right, it’s X’s job to hunt these Mavericks, and put them down PERAMENTLY, with the Help of his partner Zero, and eventually Axel (much MUCH later in the X story line) X fights to thwart the plans of Sigma, a powerful Maverick Leader, who wishes to bring about the extinction of mankind.  Much like the previous Mega Man games, X is your standard Action-platform game, X must complete a set of eight, initial stages, jumping, and shooting his way through until he finds the leader of said stage and defeats him. Defeating the Maverick at the end of the stage grants X a new power to be used through his X buster, this power can be toggled/cycled through, as you will get 8 in total. However Mega Man X adds a number of new features that changed the initial gameplay mechanics of the Mega Man series. These include dashing, scaling walls, and new armor attachments which each grant special abilities.

The History of X

Dr. Thomas Light

Now before we jump into the plot and story, I want to cover the history of Mega Man X. Why you may ask, well because X isn't Mega Man, they are two completely different androids. Mega Man *Rockman* was created by Dr. Thomas Light *Dr. Wright in japan*, to be a humanoid robot with an advanced artificial intelligence, so advance that he was able to make choices and decisions based of vague commands and directions. X is no Mega Man, He is MEGA MAN X, He was designed by Dr. Light to be the FIRST of a new generation of humanoid robots. X being of a much more mature design then Mega Man, is a bit more detailed. Physically, he appears to be much older thus taller the Mega Man, appearing to be in his late teens or at the oldest his early twenties. His upper chest is covered by an armored chest plate, his shoulders are also armored, and his helmet while similar in design has sharp edges and a red crystal where Mega Mans Square-like protrusions would be. X’s buster or his X buster while similar in design, no longer has a gauge on it, and his feet appear to be armored as his legs don’t seamlessly flow into his feet as they did with Mega Man. X's eyes are also a different color as Mega Mans eyes are Blue, X's however are green. Just look below for and see for yourself, Mega Man is on your left, Mega Man X is the bad ass over on your right.

Mega Man X

Mega Man

X’s creation at the hands of Dr. Light  would began some time during the later days of the original Mega Man series, to be more exact, sometime during Mega Man 10, no not Mega Man X that’s the game we are talking about now, Mega Man 10 is a completely different game, come stay with me. Sadly no precise dates were given as to exactly when X was created. He was created to have a unique system, one which allows him to think, to feel, and to act completely on his own. However fearing that he could, one day, be a threat to the world because of his inexperienced circuits *immaturity*, Light sealed him away in a capsule that would test the reliability of X’s circuits *to prove his maturity and test if he was ready for the world.* Sadly these test would take 30 years to complete, Light knew he would be gone long before the test could finish. With this in mind he recorded a warning; addressed to anyone in the future NOT to open the capsule until the test were completed. In September X was sealed away to begin the testing.

Dr. Cain

Eventually X would pass all the test prepared for him by Dr. Light, and would be found in the year 21XX *by cain's logs, it is possible that this is the year 2114 or later, if so it took X 100 years to pass the test of the capsule not 30 meaning Dr. Light was right to be worried, X was not ready to be released into the world.* The scientist that found X was none other than Dr. Cain. Cain not being an expert in robotics, *he is a archaeologist* such as the likes of Dr. Light, was astonished by X. He had never seen anything like him, nor he had never seen such design specifications like those left by Dr. Light on his computer, even with it being a century later, they were still more advanced than anything the world had ever seen. From this Cain, with the help of X, began to develop his own version of next generation robots. These robots were called Reploids, sadly he should have left well enough alone, because as I stated the fool was an Archaeologist.  Unlike Light, Cain did NOT test the circuits of his newly developed androids. This is apparently an oversight, one only an amateur of Cain’s level could make. *I mean seriously common sense, if X spent 100 YEARS in a capsule when it was supposed to be 30, what makes Cain think that he, someone who isn’t even on Lights level could create a duplicate of his work, and it NOT need to receive this same testing. I mean the design specifications Light left blew Cain’s mind right, he could barely understand them, an even a century later they were still more advanced than anything he had seen before, which means any advancement that was done in robotics STILL don’t measure up to Lights work. With that any improvement made to the circuits would still not be paramount to Lights design, which means that nothing was done that removed the need to test the circuits of these androids. Which means the testing is STILL NEEDED.* Sorry about that mini rant, moving on. Because of this fools oversight, over time more and more of the Reploids began to act “strange” and eventually became violent, and destructive, attacking humans, and even other weaker Reploids.  These Reploids were deemed “Mavericks” and, as more and more Reploids began going Maverick, the human’s decided to create a department, which would be tasked with dealing with them, the Maverick Hunters.

Sigma (in back) Vile (left) Zero (right) & X

X feeling responsible for this situation, *even though he is clearly not.* joined the Maverick Hunters and became part of Sigma’s 17^th Elite Unit. Maverick Hunters were ranked based of performance, and skill in battle. Sadly while other hunters such as Sigma and Zero rose to higher classes, X remained a B – Class, many say this is due to his tendency to hesitate in battle, never fully committing himself to the task at hand. I SAY it’s because unlike Sigma and *Zero is a completely different case all together.*, because X’s circuits were tested properly, His isn’t prone to mindlessly beating someone’s head in.  Either way due to his tendency to not fully commit in battle, many hunters such as Vile looked down no X, seeing him as weak. However the truth is that unlike Cain’s horrible side show freaks, X has “limitless potential” should he ever decide to use it. Sigma saw this, as did Zero, and Dr. Cain himself.

The Day of Σ

While fighting as a member of Sigma’s Elite Hunter Unit 17, X made a great many friends, particularly, the S-A Class hunter Zero. The Hunters didn’t just hunt Mavericks; they also fought against the Mechaniloids, robots of lesser intelligence then Reploids, who were attacking Abel City. During one of the battles against the Mechaniloids, Sigma noticed that X refused to use his weapons if it endangered an Ally. Sigma took this concern to Dr. Cain, who in turn told Sigma that X’s concern for his Allies is what makes him so advanced. It is then that Sigma becomes so obsessed with X.

Meanwhile X and Zero started to look into the Mechaniloid attacks on Abel city. They eventually find that a hacker has been causing Mechaniloids outbreaks throughout the city. They soon trace the signal that is being sent to Marverick Mechailoids, and find that it is coming from none other than Sigma. X and Zero try to stop Sigma but are beaten in the attempt which allows Sigma to escape. Sigma eventually turns all his lieutenant’s Maverick, and launches a full scale attack on Able City, leading into Mega Man X.

See I was going somewhere with all that lore, it wasn’t just because I feel that if you’re going to play a game with a story that you should probably know the story of the game. If you stuck it out, and read all that, you’re a champ, and deserve a cookie… sadly I still have yet to receive any cookies, so you will have to make do with my heartfelt thanks, lets move on shall we.

Plot and Story

Lucky for you the Story of this game is linked closely to X’s history, so all you need to know is the plot. Mega Man X takes place in the 22 century, 100 years after the Mega Man Series. Sigma has launched a full scale attack on Abel City and X alongside Zero are trying to stop him. *No you don’t play as Zero but he does make an appearance in this game.* While on the first mission X encounters Vile, piloting mechanized Ride Armor. Unable to be Vile, X is saved by Zero who forces Vile to retreat. Zero then offers X some encouraging words, and from there X proceeds to hunt down Sigma’s eight lieutenants. Sounds simple enough right?

Gameplay

Like the original Mega Man games, Mega Man X uses the same basic principles, but with many added options. You take control of X, and after completing the intro stage, you Jump, Dash, wall climb, and shoot your way through 8 various levels over spikes, giant holes in the ground, up walls, and from platform to platform, till you find yourself face to face with the Maverick who leads the area. What order you complete these 8 stages in is entirely up to you. If you want to wreak this game you will do each boss in a particular order, as you will soon learn that the bosses have weakness's to X's newly gained powers, powers he gains from beating the other Mavericks. In hopes that someone new who hasn't played this game, will pick it up and play it, I WILL NOT tell you the order in which you need to kill the bosses, as half the fun is figuring it out for yourself. I know i took pride in finding it out for myself, I feel you should too. 

X’s abilities are similar to Mega Man’s, such as you know running, jumping, and charging his X buster. HOWEVER X is capable of so much more then Mega Man, one feature is the ability to kick up, slide down, and jump off of nearly any wall, also there is no Rush, yep the dog is gone, and you don’t miss him, not like X needs him, He is better than Mega Man in every way imaginable. The most prominent feature has to be X’s armor upgrades. Throughout the various levels are four Capsules, hidden off the main path. These capsules contain a holographic message for none other than the OG gangsta Dr. Light; he leaves you a message explaining the upgrade then fades away. Step in the capsules to receive a upgrade to X’s helmet, legs, armor, or X buster, there is one capsule for each upgrade. Each upgrade changes comes with it’s own advantage.

The leg upgrade allows for X to dash, and do a dash jump, the ability to jump further by dashing then jumping at the end of your dash.

The chest upgrade halves any damage X takes, an looks pretty fucking sweet.

The helmet upgrade allows X to break blocks like Mario by hitting them with his head. Besides this like the chest it’s very stylish, and completes the set.

The X buster upgrade is by far the most important, it allows X to charge his X buster to a third level, oh yeah did I forget to mention that for the first time ever, X can super charge special powers he gets from defeating the Mavericks in each stage? This is the needed to collect all the heart tanks, and sub tanks, and they are need to get the 5^th and final upgrade. What is that, I’m not going to tell you just yet.

Once you got em all not only will you be ridiculously stronger *don't let it go to you head you can still die EVEN WITH all the upgrades,* but you will look like this. Nice right, much better looking then Mega Man right? * Ironically enough in the cover of the game the X buster is on X's other hand. It changes depending on what direction he is facing in game.*

Now if you have noticed X does not have a super large heath bar like Mega Man, instead X's heath will grow as he collects Heart Tanks. There is 8 of them, and in addition to these heart tanks, there are also Sub tanks, 4 to be exact, which you can collect. The sub tanks will fell up automatically as you continue to get health capsules *not heart tanks, health capsules* these sub tanks need to be used before you hit zero hp.

Level Design

Taking advantage of the SNES’s 16 bit graphics, Mega Men X’s level Design is similar yet vastly different from the previous Mega Man games. Allowing for X’s new abilities to really shine here. They are a lot more vibrant, and much more detailed. Why wouldn’t they be? After all this game was released on the SNES which in its time was one of the best consoles around. Each level has something active or fluent about it, an many of them undergo drastic changes depending on which Maverick boss you defeated.

Boss fights

A major element in Mega Man X is the boss fights. Each one requires you use X’s abilities such as wall climbing and dashing, even jumping that the right moment to avoid damage. There are several mini bosses in this game, but we don’t care about them right. The bosses we are talking about, are those traitors to the Maverick Hunters, the 8 Leaders of each stage, and Sigma Himself, oh and that annoying as spider, and Vile, seeing as in X WHO EVEN WITH ALL HIS UPGRADES STILL CAN’T BEAT VILE, and is saved by Zero again. As I stated above, each boss has a weakness, when you find it out, taking them out is that much easier. The bosses are as listed: Vile, Chill Penguin, Spark Mandrill, Flame Mammoth, Storm Eagle, Armored Armadillo, Launch Octopus, Sting Chameleon, and my least favorite…Boomer Kuwanger. Inside of Sigma’s Fortress you fight Bospider, fucking pain in the ass… Rangda Bangda, D-Rex, VelGuarder and lastly Sigma. These boss fights aren’t particularly hard, unless you’re fighting the got damn spider… You really only need to kill the first 8 for the part I’m about to cover next. Below i'll explain how to fight the first 8 without using the proper power ups. For the rest i'll explain with the proper powers as i'd be nuts to fight them with out tem.

Vile 

This guy doesn't much care for X, he thinks he is weak because X shows compassion. Sigma freed him from prison before the invasion, and now... now we have to kill him.

Chill Penguin

Probably the easiest of the 8 that you have to fight, first off you will notice the room is pretty small, no worries since you will spend most your time on the wall, he shoots Ice out his mouth, blows cold breath that makes ice penguins then jumps on the hook on the ceiling to blow them in your direction, just climb the wall and shot him at any possible opening. which there will be a lot off. He will jump around from time to time, and slide on the floor, both are easy to dodge, like is said, not really that hard of a boss fight.

Spark Mandrill

Not that hard of a guy, climbing the wall and jumping off is a good way to dodge him if he is dashing at you to punch you. He will jump on the ceiling hand climb around, just climb the wall and hit him with a charged shot. If he slams on the ground he will send two balls of electricity going around the room jump over them, not much else to say here.

Flame Mammoth

From the start Flame Mammoths room is a bit bigger then the rest. His floor is a belt that moves, he controls what direction it goes and will shift it periodically through out the fight.  You DO NOT want to be on the ground when he lands from jumping as it stuns you, you want to be on the wall on the opposite side of where the belt on the floor is pulling you, this will let you fire off charged shots as he jumps and gets pulled away from the wall when he lands, If he shoots fire bolts from his hand gun, don't worry if your on the wall they won't hit you. If your brave you can try ground combat dashing around under him when he jumps, but keep in mind i'm covering these fights without any power ups.

Storm Eagle

First off you will notice that there are no walls here, that's right, this is a death match where anything goes, and your friend Storm Eagle here, he runs this ship... well whats left off it. He will start off flapping his wings, just run in his direction, and shot off a few rounds. Try to stay as far away from the edge of the field as you can, because you can and WILL be pushed off if you flirt with death, and being to close to the edge is flirting with death. If he flies up, get ready bob and weave, as he is going to start diving from the sky. Charge up you X buster between shots and give him a few good ones.  if he hits you with his tornado run at him don't jump, don't let him push you to the edge. He will soon decide to throw.. what looks like... an egg at you, when it hits the ground it hatches and small creatures fly at you, kill them. Keep this up and eventually you will kill him.

Armored Armadillo

Back to small room, first thing you need to know, is sitting still or climbing the wall might not be a good ideal, wait until he moves then act. If he gets ready to start rolling off at you, you need to bob and weave as he will bounce all over the room, if he is shooting at  you with the gun mounted in his head climb the wall. As soon as you find a opening start shooting, eventually he will block with his shields on his arms, keep shooting. when you have him like this if he shoots at you just jump them and keep shooting don't risk a charged shot, if he rolls climb the wall drop down and keep shooting, eventually he will die too.

Launch Octopus

Ah Launch Octopus, good thing X can breath underwater, because that's where you will fight him.   Launch Octopus shoots rockers, he will jump around a bit and shoot them as he jumps or stand still and shoot them, either just open fire. if he is jumping around try to dodge and shoot anything that might hit you or jump it.  The wall isn't where you really wanna be, if by the off chance you are there when he jumps up and makes a tornado you will be in pretty bad shape, if your on the ground keep running the opposite direction. wash rinse repeat till he blows up.

Sting Chameleon

Stings room is a little bigger then most, but not by much, first thing to take notice of is his tongue, notice how far out it goes from his head, this will help in you fight. If he jumps on the ceiling start moving, he will make spikes fall. He will generally blend in to the background, there isn't much you can do here, though i urge hyper vigilance. He will make a sound when he is about to reappear, move away and shoot him as quickly as you can, He is going to try and hit you with his tongue, you should have seen his tongues reach when the fight started. If he appears in the upper right corner of the room he will fling green spines at you, they are easy to dodge, climb the wall and shoot him. Wash rinse repeat till he is dead.

Boomer Kuwanger

Boomer fucking Kuwanger, i hate him so much, his level is ridiculously annoying, he how ever is a push over. He will generally dash at you, throwing his horns at you, like a boomerang.  wall climbing is pretty much a given here unless your gutsy,  he is easy enough to dodge. I didn't take long fighting him think it was  1:13 seconds.  He will phase around, but not really a threat, his level is just annoying as hell. Just hit him with some charged shoots when he presents a opening then take back to the walls, we will eventually die like the rest of them.

Bospider

This is a particularly annoying boss fight. to start there are four vertical wires in this room, throughout the fight  horizontal wires will stick out connecting the four, and Bospider will drop down zig zagging through the wires. What makes this fight a pain in the ass is the speed at which Bospider drops at, She is really fast, and you can only hit her when that big red jewel is showing. My advice equip your Ice gun, and keep dashing, when she is about to land, shoot, doesn't matter what direction just shoot, it will bounce off a wall and hit her. sometimes you will get lucky as there will only be on wire connecting her from her lane to the others and it's near the bottom, this allows you to see just where she will end up at as she won't have time to change lanes on you, set yourself up and hit her with a REGULAR charged shot. Eventually she will drop baby spiders, this is why i call Bospider a woman, men (Storm Eagle aside) don't have babies. The babies are a distraction, try to stay focused on her.  keep this up and Bospider will eventually meet with a burning death via explosion... just like the rest of her Maverick friends.

Rangda Bangda

Rangda Bangda is a wall who attacks you with is eyes and nose. Use Sting Chameleon powers here, shoot his blue eye as it floats around be aware of where you are because the wall here close in, you want to be off the ground as you can get pushed into the spikes in the floor and die. When he closes in the walls shoot his nose as it floats around.  As for his red eye, treat it as you would his blue eye, if it move just shoot it when you can. Destroy each piece of him to kill him, pretty easy boss fight.

D-Rex

This is a pretty odd fight as D-Rex has both a top and a bottom that can move separately. DO NOT get caught in between the two, he will drop down on you, and it will hurt. He will shift his body around form side to side trying to hit you against the wall. Equip the power you got from killing Boomer and take him down, he is a fairly easy boss, i bet him in 1:08 so it shouldn't be that hard for you to do it.

Velguarder

Here is the deal, before you fight Sigma, you have to beat his dog, this is a pretty straight forward fight, i used the ice gun to make sure i got him even if he was jumping off the walls, he died in less then 1 min. Pretty much it's that simple. Keep shooting the Ice gun, you will almost always get a hit in, an try to make sure he doesn't land on you when he runs off and jumps off the walls. also he spits fire, and these bolts of what might be ice or electricity, i don't know i never got hit by em, He died to fast to actually try anything different lol.

Sigma

Finally we are ready to fight Sigma, oh joy. After killing his dog Sigma his stricken with grief, he loved that dog, who were you to take it away from him. He pulls out a green light saber and prepares to go Qui Gon Jinn on you. Change to the power you go from spark mandrill, and climb the wall as he rushes you. He will shoot at you from the eye in his forehead, and bounce off the walls, keep shooting at him when you have a good shot, from time to time he will block your attacks, just keep dodging him and shooting at him and he too will di... what the fuck did his head just float up and attach to another body got damn it Sigma. That's right he is ready for round two, he has floating hands that shoot out electric blots, DON'T get hit by these. Change to Armored Armadillo's power. Avoid the fire he breaths, and the electric balls he shots out, and climb the walls if it looks like the hands don't come down to pick up anytime soon, be quick about it as they rotate during battle. You have to shoot him in the face, or he won't take any damage, keep this up and he will die, X will beam out, and you will have beaten the game. Only to find out that sigma ISN'T DEAD, holy fuck mate, just die already.  Did i hear someone say Mega Man X 2?

Over all Mega Man X was a great game, I enjoy playing it still do to this day, and while there are is a remake of this game for the PSP I prefer the original, mainly because they moved the power up locations around and that pissed me off. This game is a classic, and in my opinion has well aged well, despite the limitations of a 16 bit console in the face of our New Generation gaming consoles and high end PC’s. I’ve played this game more times then I can remember each time trying something different, such as no power up runs, no heart tanks, or sub tanks, no charged shots in boss fights, or I won’t fight bosses with their weakness. Sometimes I even test myself to see how fast I can beat a boss. I still love this game till this day. Why is that some of you may ask, well it’s because of the final secret that upgrade I refused to mention before. Though if you have the any common sense you would have goggled it and found out how to get it.

The Hadouken

Just as the name says, X can learn how to do the all-powerful Hadouken, all you need to do is Defeat ALL the 8 main bosses, get ALL 4 of the upgrades, find ALL the Heart tanks there is one in each level making a total of 8, and get ALL 4 sub tanks. Once you have all of this go BACK to Armored Armadillo’s lvl, before you make it to the end of the lvl you might want to farm some extra lives, there is a bat here, with a HUGE head, who loves you and wants hugs, kill it for an extra life, what can I say love hurts, that bat just had to learn the hard way. After you have farmed at the very least 6 lives from the bat, (more if our prone to dying on you way to to the end of the stage.) make your way to the end of the stage. When you get to the stage where you ride the rail cart thing, right to the out side of Armored Armadillos door, dash jump to the wall at the highest point, wall kick up the wall, and you we see a health capsule, nothing else here, so  what do you do now? You kill yourself. Yep not even playing do this 5 times, Now when you come back through here, and wall kick up the wall there will be a armor capsule, in the place of the health capsule, Dr Light will give you a message, step in then receive your prize, THE ONE HIT HADOUKEN. This move kills every boss save for Sigma in his final form in one hit, you need full hp to use it, and it is about a half second cool down timer till you can launch it again in case you miss.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it and playing the game, and if you haven't played Mega Man X i hope this encourages you to go out and pick up. I personally am a Bigger fan of the X series then i am of the Mega Man series, but you decide for yourself just which game is for you.  I will not be rating this game, I see no reason to give it a number rating. It's probably the most pointless thing in gaming to be honest. If you want to purchase this game, it's on the PSP and even cell phones i recall right. Again I want to thank you all for your continued support, and your time, and as always I’ll see you all next time.