Mega man to the power of X
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/67/1/Mega-man-to-the-power-of-X/Page1.html
By Douglas Shepard (Editor in Chief, RarityGuide.com)
Published on 01/20/2009
Mega Man X introduced as whole new series on the SNES.
System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Title: Megaman X
Publisher: Capcom
Circa: 1993
Overall Rating:
Intro
This series introduced many fundamental changes to the Mega Man series. It changed a lot of how it would function for many years to come. The X series would have its ups and downs. Still, it provided something different radically changing some elements of the story. It was the first the Mega Man series to have any sort of big changes. It differed greatly from any previous entries in the series and was the beginning of an entirely different series of the Mega Man games.
Story
Dr. Thomas Light had built a completely new type of robot, one that could think, feel and learn, akin to humans and possessing Free Will. This technology though, Dr. Light felt needed time to be tested to ensure the safety and reliability of this new technology. This process would take several years and Dr. Light knew he wouldn’t last long enough to see his new robot, Mega Man X, emerge from the testing. He sealed X away in a capsule so the test could continue undisturbed.
In the year 21XX, Dr. Cain, while searching for information about ancient plant life in the fossil record found a buried research facility. Further inspection yielded that it was Dr. Lights Robot Facility and in was the capsule containing X and some of Dr. Light’s notes containing some information on X’s creation. The testing had been completed shortly before. X awoke and met Dr. Cain. Together they developed the line of robots called Reploids. While possessing the same inherent strengths of humanity, they were also found to possess the same weaknesses. After a few incidents of Reploids going “Maverick”, the government had Dr. Cain found the Maverick Hunters, an organization meant to quell the rogue Reploids and help with the damages. Dr. Cain also created an extremely advanced robot to head up this organization: Sigma. While supposedly immune to the process that causes Reploids to go maverick, after a while Sigma himself went maverick. X, feeling guilty over all the tragedy caused by his aid to Dr. Cain, joins the Maverick Hunters and allies with a mysterious Reploid, Zero. Sigma has taken over a small island. He took the vast majority of the former Maverick Hunters with him.
Gameplay
Here, easily showed the greatest changes in how the game functioned. X has numerous advantages over Mega Man in terms of abilities and growth potential. The largest and most useful change was the inclusion of the Wall Grab. This feature allows X to just slide down a wall. Many secrets are ONLY accessible by using this new ability. The only other ability directly added is a relative to the slide, the Dash. This allows X to increase his jump distance and can be used to slightly boost the damage done by the X-Buster.
X also has the addition of 3 new features in the game: Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks and Armor. Heart Tanks extend your total life bar (see the photos to see the difference between beginning and max). The Sub-tanks are new in execution but not in concept. These are refillable energy tanks. You can get a max of 4 over the course of the game. The last piece, the armor, is something completely unique to the Megaman X series. It’s by acquiring of the boots you get the dash feature (there really is NO choice in the matter). The X-buster, torso and helmet all receive upgrades, changing what you can do and gain access to. The Helmet upgrade allows you to smash through various items with a “head-butt” (jumping into it). The Torso upgrade reduces all damage taken by half. The X-buster upgrade allows for two things: 1) a higher level of default charge shot and 2) The ability to charge up acquired weapons.
The biggest change easily overall that remains unique to the Mega Man X series is how, by beating the other bosses, the levels of others change. The most well-known example is by beating Frost Penguin, the molten material in Flame Mammoth’s stage is cooled and can be walked on to get the otherwise impossible to reach heart tank.
The game itself lacks a save file and it’s all done through password, in accordance to Mega Man tradition.
There is also a nice secret hidden in the game as well: The Hadoken. Acquiring is no small task as it requires a perfect game: 8 heart tanks, 4 sub-tanks and all of the armor pieces, 9 lives. Armored Armadillo’s stage is the key. I’ll leave the rest to you.
Multiplayer
None.
Controls
This game takes some getting used to control-wise, mostly to get the timing for the dash-jump to reach some of the Heart Tanks and Armor upgrades. You can also double-tap the D-pad to dash in the desired direction. It’s not very hard to dash, charge up and jump all at the same time because of this set-up.
Graphics
This game changed how Mega Man appeared greatly among other things. The backgrounds are appropriate and ascetically pleasing. X, as seen above changes a lot as well over the course of the game.
Sound Effects & Music
The Sound effects are much of the quality you’d expect from the Mega Man series. Even after playing this game for years I feel that it’s incredible that I’ve never gotten tired of the game musically or otherwise. Musically this game offers something completely different from any other Mega Man game: a rock/techno soundtrack. Of all the Mega Man games this one is easily one of the best in these aspects.
Obscurity
It’s gain some in this regard, becoming more of a niche title and somewhat less main-stream.
Summary/Author’s Take
This is a game that I really wanted as a kid and nothing really changed over the course of my life in this regard. While a 16-bit game, seeing a re-release (in its original format) on the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, and a revamp on the PSP. Only on the PSP did anything change or really get added. It was a great game that needed very little to keep its present level of appeal both to continuing gamers and new ones. It is a solid game and one that needs introduction after a while. If nothing else, what it offers in place of several of Mega Man’s features is worth the time and money to get into this game.
Title: Megaman X
Publisher: Capcom
Circa: 1993
Overall Rating:
Intro
This series introduced many fundamental changes to the Mega Man series. It changed a lot of how it would function for many years to come. The X series would have its ups and downs. Still, it provided something different radically changing some elements of the story. It was the first the Mega Man series to have any sort of big changes. It differed greatly from any previous entries in the series and was the beginning of an entirely different series of the Mega Man games.
Story
Dr. Thomas Light had built a completely new type of robot, one that could think, feel and learn, akin to humans and possessing Free Will. This technology though, Dr. Light felt needed time to be tested to ensure the safety and reliability of this new technology. This process would take several years and Dr. Light knew he wouldn’t last long enough to see his new robot, Mega Man X, emerge from the testing. He sealed X away in a capsule so the test could continue undisturbed.
In the year 21XX, Dr. Cain, while searching for information about ancient plant life in the fossil record found a buried research facility. Further inspection yielded that it was Dr. Lights Robot Facility and in was the capsule containing X and some of Dr. Light’s notes containing some information on X’s creation. The testing had been completed shortly before. X awoke and met Dr. Cain. Together they developed the line of robots called Reploids. While possessing the same inherent strengths of humanity, they were also found to possess the same weaknesses. After a few incidents of Reploids going “Maverick”, the government had Dr. Cain found the Maverick Hunters, an organization meant to quell the rogue Reploids and help with the damages. Dr. Cain also created an extremely advanced robot to head up this organization: Sigma. While supposedly immune to the process that causes Reploids to go maverick, after a while Sigma himself went maverick. X, feeling guilty over all the tragedy caused by his aid to Dr. Cain, joins the Maverick Hunters and allies with a mysterious Reploid, Zero. Sigma has taken over a small island. He took the vast majority of the former Maverick Hunters with him.
Gameplay
Here, easily showed the greatest changes in how the game functioned. X has numerous advantages over Mega Man in terms of abilities and growth potential. The largest and most useful change was the inclusion of the Wall Grab. This feature allows X to just slide down a wall. Many secrets are ONLY accessible by using this new ability. The only other ability directly added is a relative to the slide, the Dash. This allows X to increase his jump distance and can be used to slightly boost the damage done by the X-Buster.
X also has the addition of 3 new features in the game: Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks and Armor. Heart Tanks extend your total life bar (see the photos to see the difference between beginning and max). The Sub-tanks are new in execution but not in concept. These are refillable energy tanks. You can get a max of 4 over the course of the game. The last piece, the armor, is something completely unique to the Megaman X series. It’s by acquiring of the boots you get the dash feature (there really is NO choice in the matter). The X-buster, torso and helmet all receive upgrades, changing what you can do and gain access to. The Helmet upgrade allows you to smash through various items with a “head-butt” (jumping into it). The Torso upgrade reduces all damage taken by half. The X-buster upgrade allows for two things: 1) a higher level of default charge shot and 2) The ability to charge up acquired weapons.
The biggest change easily overall that remains unique to the Mega Man X series is how, by beating the other bosses, the levels of others change. The most well-known example is by beating Frost Penguin, the molten material in Flame Mammoth’s stage is cooled and can be walked on to get the otherwise impossible to reach heart tank.
The game itself lacks a save file and it’s all done through password, in accordance to Mega Man tradition.
There is also a nice secret hidden in the game as well: The Hadoken. Acquiring is no small task as it requires a perfect game: 8 heart tanks, 4 sub-tanks and all of the armor pieces, 9 lives. Armored Armadillo’s stage is the key. I’ll leave the rest to you.
Multiplayer
None.
Controls
This game takes some getting used to control-wise, mostly to get the timing for the dash-jump to reach some of the Heart Tanks and Armor upgrades. You can also double-tap the D-pad to dash in the desired direction. It’s not very hard to dash, charge up and jump all at the same time because of this set-up.
Graphics
This game changed how Mega Man appeared greatly among other things. The backgrounds are appropriate and ascetically pleasing. X, as seen above changes a lot as well over the course of the game.
Sound Effects & Music
The Sound effects are much of the quality you’d expect from the Mega Man series. Even after playing this game for years I feel that it’s incredible that I’ve never gotten tired of the game musically or otherwise. Musically this game offers something completely different from any other Mega Man game: a rock/techno soundtrack. Of all the Mega Man games this one is easily one of the best in these aspects.
Obscurity
It’s gain some in this regard, becoming more of a niche title and somewhat less main-stream.
Summary/Author’s Take
This is a game that I really wanted as a kid and nothing really changed over the course of my life in this regard. While a 16-bit game, seeing a re-release (in its original format) on the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, and a revamp on the PSP. Only on the PSP did anything change or really get added. It was a great game that needed very little to keep its present level of appeal both to continuing gamers and new ones. It is a solid game and one that needs introduction after a while. If nothing else, what it offers in place of several of Mega Man’s features is worth the time and money to get into this game.
|
Story |
|
Linking two stories, old and new. |
|
Gameplay |
|
Different and good changes. |
|
Multiplayer |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Controls |
|
Quick to learn. |
|
Graphics |
|
The beginnings of something good. |
|
SFX and Music |
|
Rock and techno awesomeness. |
|
Obscurity |
|
MMX. It’s takes some knowledge. |
|
Overall |
|
The distinctive beginnings of a new series |
