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Mega Man X
It is the year 20XX, and mankind is facing a very serious threat - that of machines revolting against their creators. Will X find the culprit and hinder the revolution?

Background Story

When Mega Man X was released, it created a new standard for platform games. It featured superb graphics, catchy tunes, innovative gameplay (based off the good ol' Mega Man games, but updated so as not to feel repetitive) and something the old MM series had never had a lot of; a storyline. Mega Man X set the mood for a brooding, depressing story about a world where androids - "reploids" - were infected with a virus, turning them into bloodthirsty maniacs ("mavericks"). To counter this threat, a new Blue Bomber was sent forth into battle. His name was X, and the fact that he was designed by Dr. Thomas Light sometime in the year 200X was fairly obvious. But who was the new, strange nemesis that X had to face? Who was the creator of this horrible maverick virus? It would be some time before the dedicated fans realised that this new threat - Sigma - was to be the new face of evil for many games to come...
In this game, we also encountered a strange, taciturn reploid by the name of Zero, a friend of X and someone who would turn out to be a lot more heroic than one would believe. In Mega Man X, this reploid also began a very successful career of not dying.

The Wonders of Renaissance

In theory, Mega Man X could have been a complete fiasco. After all, what was so exciting about it? Everything had, more or less, been done before. Being able to choose between eight mavericks to fight was yesterday´s news to most players - they had been doing that in seven games already - and the story looked like a very bleak attempt to wrap a very boring present in brightly coloured paper. Using special weapons gathered from defeated mavericks to defeat other mavericks wasn´t exactly novel, either, since the fans were used to that as well. The way things looked, Mega Man X could have been very, very boring. It turned out, however, that Mega Man X was able to save itself from that dire fate.

Night and Day

The graphics were, of course, a huge positive factor. Players were used to the Mega Man universe (one forest, one ice level, one fire level and a huge, ominous castle), but not to seeing it like this; suddenly, they found themselves in deep, blooming forests, dark, foreboding chemical plants and chilly ice fields of unrivaled detail and beauty. The graphics were so detailed and colourful that you could easily stop just to admire then from time to time, such as when day turns to night in Sting Chameleon´s stage (screenshot to the right) or when clouds zoom by in Storm Eagle´s stage, giving the player a stomach-lurching sensation of speed (screenshot further down). The enemies were incredibly detailed as well. For one thing, some of them were big. Some took up almost half of the screen. Also, some maverick bosses could perfom insanely cool stunts (who can forget Chill Penguin´s Insta-Ice-Sculpture trick or Sting Chameleon´s tongue?) and actually presented a bit of a challenge - something their older cousins had sorely begun to lack in the later MM games. (Not that much of a challenge, though. Later games improved on this. Mega Man X still remains the easiest of them all.)

Bangs, Crashs, and Electric Guitars

It was clear that everything needed to be changed with the coming of a new series. In this first game, the basis was laid out for a new style of music - gone were the cheerful tunes of the old Mega Man. They were replaced with electric guitars, rock drums and a wide range of synth
instruments, together creating a very gloomy but powerful soundtrack. Many tunes from this game still ring in my head as I write this. Also, veterans quickly discovered an audio easter egg of sorts - the tune that plays when you select a maverick to fight is a rather familiar one...

Dude, Where´s My Challenge?

There are negative things to say about this game, of course. Very few games have seemed perfect to me (except Metroid Prime, which is, according to me, the best game out there), and Mega Man X has quite a few flaws. Up until now I have spoken at length about how revolutionary the game was in its genre when it first appeared; now it is time for my personal verdict of it.
The first and most obvious flaw is its incredibly short length. Sure, the final fights against Sigma could be a pain at first - until you discovered his moving pattern and weapon weakness, at which point you could easily blast the sucker out into space and beyond. The maverick fights are ridiculously easy once you´ve figured out the correct order; after you do, you can kill them all and complete their stages in half an hour at most. Also, there is the matter of replayability. Unless you´re a hardcore Mega Man X addict, you´ll play this game once and go "blah". If you managed to vaporize Sigma without the aid of a fully completed armor or the rather stupid hadoken move, you´re not likely going to replay the game to get those extra additions. And frankly, if you´re a decent platform gamer, you won´t really need any of them. It´s that easy.

One For The Road

As much as I laugh at the "challenge" this game presents, I can´t really bring myself to dislike Mega Man X. It just feels as if Capcom wanted to cram so much entertainment into one cartridge that it all came out as a nice-looking heap of mashed potatoes that tastes rather stale when you have a go at it. It´s all very pretty, but it´s not a game to return to, and you´re only likely to replay this game to relive those moments when it´s just so nice being X (such as when you finally get to kick Vile´s behind once and for all, or when Sigma´s head falls off his shoulders and just lies on the ground sneering, a scene which incidentally still makes me roll on the floor laughing whenever I see it).

In closing, this was a great game when it was released (hence my enthusiastic presentation of it). Now, however, it can´t really compete with the later additions to the series (hence my review of it). It´s still worth a play if you´re new to the series, and even if you aren´t, this is the one that started it all - you can´t really call yourself a fan unless you´ve played this.

Verdict

Graphics - 9,5 / 10
Sound - 8 / 10
Gameplay - 6 / 10
Difficulty - 3 / 10

Total - 6 / 10