Well, we've finally made it to the big one. Mega Man X is, frankly, almost a perfect game. The level design is so meticulous throughout that it's been analyzed time and time again, more than any other Mega Man game by a longshot. It evolves the series' formula in so many cool ways, both mechanically and in terms of aesthetics, and comes with a killer rock soundtrack to boot. It's hard to figure what new I can lend to the discussion, but I'll try my best.
THAT Opening Stage
- Mega Man X kicks off with the first opening stage in the series, and I love opening stages in Mega Man. They're always better than just immediately jumping into the stage select because they can balance between being solid tutorials, exciting setpieces, and story set-up at the same time.
- X1's opening stage in particular has been analyzed to no end, but it really is that good. It's both an exhilirating spectacle with dynamic level design like falling chunks of highway, a great tutorial that secretly teaches you all of Mega Man X's mechanics, and has some great story set-up where you get beaten by Vile only for Zero to save you and say you can become just as powerful as him once you reach your full power. It's simple but it's really effective motivation to go after upgrades and get boss weapons.
- So far, the only real mechanical improvement to the Mega Man formula so far is the addition of a wall jump, which is very much welcome. Visually though, the unique Star Wars inspired dark future aesthetic really helps X stand out from the Classic games.
- My only gripe with the opening stage is, of course, the fact that you don't have the dash yet. Every other X game after this starts with you having a dash, but X1 makes you get it as an upgrade, and the game just feels slower and less fun for as long as you don't have your dash move.
Playing The Item Game
- One of my favorite additions the Mega Man X games make to the formula is the collectible hunting. Yes, Mega Man 4-6 all added some exploration for items, but most of those items could be gotten in a single run through a level with little effort. X, on the other hand, not only has a lot more upgrades to find (16 in total), but many of them are locked behind use of an ability or beating a certain other level first.
- This adds another thing to consider when picking out your boss order. Not only is there still a weakness chain, but you're also encouraged to break out of the weakness chain to limit the amount of backtracking you have to do for items. When executed well, this structure can lend the X games a much higher skill ceiling.
- As far as X1 goes, I think the item game here is mostly really good. There's a solid amount of genuinely cool skips like that infamous Heart Tank in Boomer Kuwanger's stage, but there's also one noticeable issue. As I mentioned, the dash is locked behind a weapon upgrade in Chill Penguin's stage, and you need the dash, both for landing larger jumps and general enjoyment. This means that no matter what, you must start with Chill Penguin. No other starter level is valid, and that removes a decent amount of strategy from this first entry.
Chill Penguin
- Chill Penguin's stage is obviously meant to be the first Robot Master stage you play so it's pretty simple overall. The first half is made to be played without the dash so it's pretty straight-forward.
- The second half is where things get a bit more interesting. Once you get the leg upgrade, you're given a bit of space to mess around with the dash, and it's a fun movement option. Jumping carries your momentum, so you can do dash jumps to get some serious speed and distance. My one gripe with dashing in X1 is that you can't hold down the dash button to do a dash wall jump, you need to time a button press. Thankfully, this is another thing that gets fixed in X2.
- Soon after, you get a brief segment to mess around with the Ride Armor, a mech suit that you use occassionally throughout the games. I like the Ride Armor, they tend to offer a nice power trip and I like how punchy it feels to use in combat.
- The last stretch of the stage is a short climb up a hill dodging snowballs, once again showing how dynamic X's level design can be.
- The boss fight against Chill Penguin is built around the X Buster so he is pretty easy. Using a Charge Shot on him can make him flinch and interrupt his attacks, but those attacks are quite varied and fun, from sliding around the room, to blocking your shots with ice sculptures, to causing a storm.
- As usual, you also get weapons from the bosses. The Shotgun Ice is like a weird blend of the Blizzard Attack from 6 and the Crystal Eye from 5, a single shot that splits into a shotgun-like burst when it hits an enemy. It's a solid offensive option that can be really versatile with the right set up, definitely an iconic MMX weapon for a reason.
Launch Octopus
- I'm going with the minimal backtracking route this time which means I'll be having to face MMX's biggest difficulty spike pretty early. Launch Octopus and his stage is tough and very combat-focused, but it's especially tough when all you have is the X-Buster and a single part upgrade.
- Launch Octopus is the obligatory water stage, and it sadly feels more like Dive Man than Bubble Man. There are spikes to avoid but they're all placed along the bottom of the screen so you never have to watch how high you jump.
- Furthering the Mega Man 4 comparisons, this stage has a whopping four minibosses, though one is only optional. These minibosses aren't quite as annoying as the one in Ring Man's stage, but they have pretty beefy health bars that can make them take a while to defeat.
- However, I do really like those fishes that you can blow apart from the inside, that's a legitimately very cool combat interaction.
- The big saving grace of Launch Octopus's stage is the secret area. Midway through the stage, you can blow up a boat and have it crash down and reveal a path. Inside this path is a secret minboss fight against a sea dragon and a hidden Heart Tank. One of my favorite things about Mega Man X are the way the secrets are hidden, and this entire optional area is one of my favorites for how satisfying it feels to discover.
- Launch Octopus as a boss is one of the tougher ones in the game for how much projectiles he tosses at you, but he's quite fun when fought Buster only. You need to constantly be swapping between using singular Buster shots to take down his projectiles, and charging up a big blast to deal some actual damage, it's good stuff.
- The Homing Torpedo is another solid weapon. It's just as you'd expect, a homing missile weapon, but you get a decent amount of ammo and it's AI is fairly reliable.
Sting Chameleon
- Sting Chameleon is easily the most underrated stage in the game. No one talks about it, but it really has everything you'd want from a good Mega Man X level.
- Right from the get-go, you see the leaves rustle as X spawns in, immediately showing off just how good this game's attention to detail is. Even further, this is the first real showcase of Mega Man X's environmental shifts mechanic. Sometimes defeating a Maverick will affect another stage, so defeating Launch Octopus will flood Sting Chameleon's stage allowing you to get a Heart Tank more easily.
- Speaking of collectibles, this stage also has another secret area hiding a miniboss. It's not as cool as the one in Launch Octopus's stage, but it's still neat, and it hides away the Body Upgrade. The body upgrade in X1 just gives you better defense which is a nice upgrade, but still pretty unremarkable. In general, I think the later games tend to have cooler armors.
- The second half of Sting Chameleon's stage is a bit more setpiece-heavy. There's a neat cave section with falling rocks I believe you can use the fairly underused Helmet upgrade to help you avoid, and yet another pretty fun Ride Armor section.
- Sadly, I don't love the fight against Sting Chameleon. It's not bad, but his constant teleporting, defense against the X-Buster, and the fact that he often spawns high up makes defeating him without his weakness feel like a bit of a chore.
- His weapon, the Chameleon Sting, is also pretty underwhelming. It's a standard spread shot, but I never really found any reason to use it over the other weapons. Though, I think it's now worth mentioning that MMX is also the first game where you can swap weapons on the fly with the L and R buttons, thank goodness. Every Mega Man game should have this from now on.
Storm Eagle
- Storm Eagle is one of the most iconic MMX stages and for very good reason. It's got a really cool airport setting, more collectibles than most stages, and a nice balance between wide open areas and linear gauntlets.
- In general, this is a more platforming-focused stage than most, primarily based around hopping across moving platforms. It's a nice change of pace from the more combat-focused fare like Chill Penguin and Launch Octopus's stages.
- I really like how getting the Helmet upgrade is handled too. There's a bunch of these fuel tanks that hide items (like the Helmet upgrade) that you can blow up immediately with Flame Mammoth's weapon, but you can also still blow them up manually with the Buster. It's a great example of how Mega Man X's item game can be really fun to figure out.
- Sadly, the upgrade itself is pretty lame. The Helmet can be used to break very specific kinds of blocks that you'll rarely find across the game, and it can block certain objects from falling onto X. It's very situational and thus very underused, easily one of the lamest upgrades in a MMX game.
- This stage also tackles the boss door in a unique way. Instead of simply entering a room with the boss in it, you instead board Storm Eagle's ship and fight him on his turf, it's very cool.
- And the Storm Eagle fight is... fine. He has a decent amount of attacks, but he tends to overuse the move where he dives at you which makes for a pretty static fight.
- Thankfully, his weapon is one of my favorites. The Storm Tornado is absurdly powerful and can shred through enemies with little effort.
Flame Mammoth
- Flame Mammoth's stage is almost really good. It's a factory stage with conveyor belts, crushers, and lava pits to avoid falling into... but there is a big problem. So, defeating Chill Penguin will cause this stage to freeze over and the lava pits will turn into ice. The problem is, of course, why wouldn't you do Chill Penguin before any other stage? So most players would never actually experience Flame Mammoth's stage in its intended difficulty, only ever its nerfed state.
- There are still some neat bits though. I like the wide open area that houses multiple collectibles, and the aforementioned conveyor belts are still fun to navigate even without any danger of falling.
- But most of all, this stage has the best upgrade in the game. Actually getting it requires a somewhat awkward jump and the single use of the Helmet upgrade, but your reward is the Arms upgrade. This not only gives you a third level to your Charge Shot, but it allows you to charge up all your special weapons. This is such a cool game-changer that really surprised me upon first playing MMX, but it also elevates the game in some unintended ways. The boss rush has always been a pretty hated segment of any Mega Man game, but the ones in the X games tend to be the least bad for me since there's bound to be a few bosses you haven't tried the supercharged version of your special weapons on.
- So let's quickly run through the charged-up version of the weapons I've seen so far. Storm Tornado gets an even more powerful vertical tornado attack that I find very useful for boss fights, Shotgun Ice lets you create a sliding platform that's a bit situational but very useful for getting a specific Heart Tank, Chameleon Sting makes you invincible for a bit which is insanely helpful especially for boss fights, and Homing Torpedo just turns into a spread shot which is a bit lame. But so far, most of these charged shots are a real hit.
- Flame Mammoth's fight is pretty solid too. Having to deal with not getting stunned by Flame Mammoth's leaps, and the conveyor belt, and the oil spills, and his flame shots makes for a really dynamic fight Buster only, even if his tanky health does make it drag out a bit.
- Fire Wave is another good weapon. It's a basic flamethrower, but you can use it while moving which feels really nice, and the charged version is a decently powerful floor attack. I think it's interesting how most of the weapons in the X games feel a bit more grounded than the ones in the Classic games. They're less wacky, more derivative of actual weapons.
- This also marks the only necessary backtrack in X1, which is to return to Chill Penguin's stage and use the Fire Wave to destroy an igloo.
Boomer Kuwanger
- Boomer Kuwanger is another highlight of a stage for me, being almost entirely vertical. The vertical Mega Man X stages tend to be pretty fun since dash wall jumping up a tight shaft usually has a really nice flow to it. But beyond just the basic game feel, this stage crams in so many cool visuals and memorable setpieces across its run.
- The progression of climbing up the tower conveyed through the visuals is already really cool. The bottom floor is dingy and brown, the middle section is a striking bright red, and the very top of the tower is a cool blue. I also love how Boomer Kuwanger's boss room is its own area hanging off the side of the tower.
- Design wise, there's also a lot to love. The first section is a fun and fast-paced stealth section where you have to dash around lasers to avoid getting shot at, then there's a frantic elevator ride where you're constantly dodging spikes, and then you get to climb up the outside of the tower.
- And then, of course, there's the infamous Heart Tank. Its placement is simple, it's perched right up onto a leg, anyone can see it. But it's getting to that ledge that's the question. The intended solution is to beat Boomer Kuwanger, get his weapon, and use it to snag the Heart from behind a wall but who'd want to play the same level twice? So you could also beat Chill Penguin and get the Arms upgrade, use the supercharged Shotgun Ice to create a sliding platform, and jump off of it just as it flies off the ledge. But what if you wanted to get even crazier? Well, you could also just beat Chill Penguin, get the dash, and use a perfectly-timed precise wall jump to get onto the ledge without needing to use any of the weapons.
- The actual fight against Boomer Kuwanger is sadly not quite as special. He's pretty fast, but his only attacks being the boomerangs and a suplex move feels pretty lame compare to some of the crazier fights.
- His weapon, on the other hand, is quite solid. It's a standard boomerang that you can use to pick up items and upgrades, but its charged version is a super powerful borderline screen clear that feels really good to use.
Spark Mandrill
- Spark Mandrill's stage has my favorite of the environmental shifts, where defeating Storm Eagle first causes it to crash into the plant and take out all the electrical hazards. It's not only a cool visual, but you're likely to encounter both versions of the stage at some point since Storm Eagle can be defeated at pretty much any time.
- But as for the stage itself, it's fine. It's a blackout stage which isn't a trope I'm especially fond of, but the combat encounters throughout are generally pretty fun, especially with your full arsenal of weapons. Otherwise though, it's probably the stage I have the least to say about.
- The same applies to Spark Mandrill's fight. Obviously, it's known for how easily you can cheese it with his weakness, but when going Buster only, it's pretty fun and manageable. The fact that he can shake you off a wall adds a neat twist to the fight, and figuring out his pattern is quite satisfying.
- Electric Spark is a pretty basic electricity weapon on the surface, but the charged version is where the real appeal comes from, creating this electric field that runs across the screen. It's pretty powerful and feels very satisfying to use.
Armored Armadillo
- Saving the best for last, Armored Armadillo has my favorite Maverick stage in X1. It's incredibly fast-paced and all of its mechanics are designed with the intent of keeping the momentum going.
- The highlight is obviously the minecart bits. You don't even do much on them, but it's just so exhilarating to watch X barrel through enemies that I don't really care. I even love how much the game slows down in these bits, it really sells the excitement in this case.
- The other major mechanic are these bulldozer chases that actually test you on speedy platforming. The first chase has the bulldozer chase after you, while the second has you race to destroy the bulldozer before it erases your path to a Heart Tank.
- I should probably mention the Hadouken secret too. It's a really cool easter egg, but compared to some of the later secret upgrades, I find this one to be too tedious to get so I usually skip out on it. That being said, it's another way the X games manage to make the boss rushes feel a bit more breezy. If you're willing to get the Hadouken, you can one shot pretty much every boss rematch and that's really cool.
- The fight against Armored Armadillo is the one fight that I think most agree you need the weakness for. You need the Electric Spark to destroy his armor otherwise he'll be a pretty massive damage sponge, which is a pretty neat concept, but it means I need to break my own rule and use his weakness at least this once.
- The Rolling Shield is a pretty unassuming weapon as it just rolls along the ground, but it deals an impressive amount of damage on its own. However, its charged variation is just a shield. It can kill weak enemies which is cool but it's too similar to Chameleon Sting's invincibility to really stand out.
Sigma Stage
- More than in any other Mega Man game so far, the Sigma Stages in X1 really feel like a big difficulty spike and a worthy final challenge. Sigma Stage 1 in particular might just be the hardest stage in the game, containing a particularly brutal early sequence where you climb up moving platforms while dealing with enemies that home in on you, hallways with tons of respawning enemies, and the brutal Bosspider boss.
- I'm honestly not a huge fan of Sigma 1 for this reason, it tends to be the stage I dread the most. However, the one saving grace is that Zero's death is a really well-executed story beat, managing to do a lot with only a few bits of dialogue and simplistic animations. The actual fight against Vile on his own is really easy, but it's still a pretty effective moment all around.
- I also really like how the boss rush is executed here, with the boss rematches being scattered across the first three Sigma levels. I've always preferred this approach to the boss room and it's a shame only 1, X, and & Bass tried this.
- Another quality of life improvement of note is that X1 boots you back to the stage select between Sigma Stages so you don't have to conserve your weapon ammo across the entire gauntlet or do it in one sitting, thank goodness.
- Sigma Stage 2, as a sheer contrast, is easily one of my favorite levels in the game. It's got pretty much everything. Horizontal and vertical platforming, interior and exterior sections, the final Ride Armor sequence, and some incredibly climactic music.
- I also forgot how enjoyable I find Rangda Bangda as a boss. He's got a wide array of attacks, lining up the Chameleon Sting while not falling into the spikes is a solid challenge, and the fact that he has multiple weak points to destroy is a new change of pace for a Mega Man boss.
- Sigma Stage 3 is basically the dedicated boss rematch level, containing five of the eight Mavericks. It's solid, the hallways in between each boss fight is fun and I like how it tries to hint at you which boss in next. There's also a decent amount of pickups hidden behind abilities like the Boomerang Cutter and Chameleon Sting.
- The fortress boss here is D-Rex who's also a pretty engaging fight. You have to constantly be thinking about your position in relation to D-Rex's two segments, which can be pretty tough and overwhelming.
- Sigma Stage 4 is really just a vertical climb up to the final boss, but it sure is a great final boss. Probably the best in the series to date, even. The Velguarder fight is fast both in length and pace, but his attacks are simple enough to get to grips with. The lightsaber Sigma fight is the one I find the toughest because of how fast he moves combined with its large hitbox but it still feels fair, and the final phase is large-scale and purely skill-based as you can hang around on his hand and keep pelting him with Rolling Shields as long as you don't let yourself get zapped off.
- The game ends with X staring off a cliff reflecting on whether or not the war will end and why he has to fight. If you've played a lot of action games from this era, this should sound immensely familiar, but to give credit to Capcom, X's pacifism does end up becoming a pretty big aspect of his character later down the line (for better or worse).
Improvement Patch
- I think X1 is generally a really good game, but you can tell that I've been very critical about the way the Dash Boots were handled. Not only does having to collect them make the first 10 minutes of the game drag a bit, but it also means there's no strategy to picking your first stage, Flame Mammoth's stage will never be experienced as intended, and there's no way to beat the game with zero backtracks.
- Thankfully, one cool thing about being a Mega Man X fan is that almost every game in the series has some sort of improvement patch that fixes most of its glaring issues. So yes, there is a patch that fixes this issue. The Air Dash/Wall Jump QoL patch makes three major changes. First off, you start with the Dash Boots. Second, you get the Air Dash from the Leg upgrade in Chill Penguin's stage. And third, dash wall jumping works the way it does in X2 onward.
- Honestly, this patch feels like the way Mega Man X was meant to be experienced. Starting with the ability to dash actually allows you to beat this game with zero backtracks, but the backtracking order is now a lot more complex than before. You'll actually have to beat Flame Mammoth's stage without it being frozen over, and damage boost through the lava to get its Heart Tank early. Doing the precise wall jump for that Heart Tank in Boomer Kuwanger's stage is a lot easier with the improved wall jump. You might even need to beat Launch Octopus as your first boss which is just the kind of absurd difficulty that makes these runs fun.
- If you want a new way to experience MMX, I highly recommend checking out this improvement patch, it's so good.
Conclusion
That being said, dash boots gripe aside, Mega Man X is a nearly perfect game. It takes advantage of the newer hardware compared to the NES games and adds so many cool new mechanics and extra bits of detail to really help it feel like a next gen Mega Man game. From the complex item game, to the chargable weapons, to the addition of the dash and wall jump, to the way levels can affect each other through environmental hazards, to the way your own weapons can individually impact certain bosses and areas.
On top of that, the level design is just super dynamic and well-paced throughout, the boss fights are generally fun, the story is simple but effective, and the soundtrack absolutely rocks. It's an extremely replayable game from start to finish and stands out as one of the crowning achievements of the Mega Man franchise.
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