Mega Man World Reviews

Despite having written extensively about the Mega Man series at this point, I have rarely talked about the Game Boy entries in the series, also known as Mega Man World. I have played these games, and I have a lot of to say about them, but I just never got around to properly reviewing them. And since I've been revisiting Mega Man games to review them in more depth, I thought this was as good a time as any. I won't be doing a full deep dive this time since most of them borrow bosses and stage concepts from the NES games, but I'll try to be as comprehensive as I can regardless.

Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge

So, the first four Mega Man World games are basically handheld conversions of two Mega Man games, so Dr Wily's Revenge primarily borrows from Mega Man 1 & 2. However, unlike its sequels, Dr Wily's Revenge feels less like a strict conversion and more like a weird reinterpretation. It takes a lot more liberties with the source material which I think helps it stand out quite well.

For its first half, I'd say Dr Wily's Revenge is actually a pretty damn solid Mega Man game, especially considering it's the first entry in the series made by Minakuchi Engineering, who'd become mainstay developers for the rest of the World games. The level design for the four Robot Master stages is surprisingly solid, each focused on fleshing out and combining a few gameplay mechanics. However, these stages aren't just slightly altered versions of the ones from MM1, they're all kind of entirely new. Cut Man's stage for example takes place in a factory this time with conveyor belts and spinning sawblades, while Ice Man's stage has falling icicles and melting ice blocks to hop across. Even the music feels new, taking the main melodies of the original MM1 soundtrack and taking them in a new direction. You can tell Minakuchi was using the experience Capcom gained through making Mega Man 1-3 to help make this game, and there's even a fair amount of QoL improvements. Fire Man's AI has been fixed, the Magnet Beam has been removed, and the Thunder Beam has less weapon ammo so it's not as broken. In general, I think Dr Wily's Revenge does a really good job at making better use of MM1's weapons, like how there are a lot more Sniper Joes to use the Ice Slasher on, and how the game tosses in MM2's bird enemies to give Fire Storm's shield capabilities more of a use. 

However, even with all this positivity, there are a few niggling issues early on. The physics feel somewhat floaty compared to the tight control of the NES games. It's nothing awful, but it is noticeable. There's also a fair amount of do-or-die segments with an abundance of insta-kill pits, and I found that enemies deal a surprising amount of damage. And while screen crunch isn't an issue most of the time, certain bosses do feel a bit harder due to the lack of space to avoid their attacks. But despite these gripes, I think Dr Wily's Revenge has a strong first half. Sadly, the level design starts to fall off a bit with the brutal Wily stages, particularly the first one which has several trial-and-error drops with little time to react due to the screen size, a tediously long hallway filled with those Metal Man drills stopping you every step of the way, and awful Big Eye placement. This stage also has a boss rush where you fight bosses from MM2 and even get their weapons, which is a fun twist that I'd say is way better than fighting the same bosses again. However, it does feel lacking since later World games would replace this boss rush with a second stage select. I also found that most of the MM2 weapons feel quite shafted compared to the MM1 weapons, with the exception of the Atomic Fire which gets blocks it can easily destroy at a full charge.

That being said, I think Dr Wily's Revenge still manages to end on a reasonably strong note. Enker is introduced as the first of the Mega Man Killers, and he's probably still my favorite. His main attack pattern revolves around him sucking in your buster shots and shooting them back at you, which adds a nice level of risk and reward. Will you damage him quickly in exchange for having to fend against more powerful attacks, or take it slow so he can't harm you as much? The second Wily stage, while quite lengthy, is also quite a bit more fun and does a good job at taking advantage of most of your weapons, including Enker's weapon, a Mirror Shield that can block projectiles. The final boss even makes fantastic use of the Mirror Shield, requiring you to react fast to block Wily's lasers. So overall, I think Dr Wily's Revenge is alright. Its willingness to take liberties and change things from Mega Man 1 helps it stand out among the World games, and dare I say, it even manages to make improvements in some areas. However, the difficulty spikes pretty hard in the Wily Castle and its short length and lack of polish compared to several of its successors leave it as a fairly mid-tier entry in the series.

3/5 Stars

Mega Man II

Mega Man II is the most interesting game in the World subseries, being the only one not developed by Minakuchi. Instead, this game was outsourced to Japan System House, a company that was a lot less familiar with Mega Man and had a lot less time to work on the game. And it shows in its unpolished presentation and infamously botched soundtrack, which makes it an easy target for fans and Capcom developers alike. However, I never hated Mega Man II. In fact, I always thought the game had some serious potential, especially its soundtrack which was entirely composed of original tunes rather than remixes. So when I found out that the game was getting a mod with a complete visual overhaul including GBC color support along with a remixed soundtrack that fixes the original's technical issues, I just knew I had to give this game another shot. Will it be enough to redeem one of the most hated games in the series?

First off, let's get the mod's improvements out of the way. Mega Man World II GBC Edition primarily focuses on overhauling the graphics and music, the gameplay has been left almost entirely untouched so I can still judge the game by those merits. As far as colorizations go, Mega Man World II is incredibly thorough, perfectly capturing the color schemes of the original NES versions of each of the stages, adding much more shading and texture compared to the monochrome Game Boy version, and even fixing some visual bugs and inconsistencies. The music is easily the star of the show, though. The original soundtrack had some really strong compositions but suffered from a rendering error making the entire OST super high pitched. This redone version of the soundtrack manages to fully realize its potential, and you can even switch to the original OST if you're just that crazy. As for the OST itself, it's got some really catchy tunes like Crash Man and Metal Man, and I love the melancholic aura it has. My one big issue in terms of composition is just how leitmotif-heavy it is, which isn't inherently bad but feels really strange compared to the other Mega Man games. But overall, this mod is really great and fixes most of my issues with the game's presentation. But how's the gameplay?

Mega Man II's movement is mostly on par with that of Dr Wily's Revenge. I think it actually feels a tad tighter but I can't really say for sure. Being partially based on Mega Man 3, this game introduces both Rush and the slide, which is pretty great. That being said, Rush being based on his MM3 version means that he is once again a gargantuan game-breaker, and the slide while still fun can't be jumped out of. If you choose to slide, you're gonna have to commit. This isn't the only game to have this issue (just wait for my MM6 review), but with less screen real estate, it feels like more of an issue here. There are also certain animations that feel a bit awkward, projectiles in particular often feel like they're just floating through the air weightlessly. Speaking of projectiles, the weapon roster is sadly a big step down from the previous game. The weapons are left mostly untouched from the NES originals rather than being properly built around the game, and since one of those weapons just happens to be the Metal Blade... Yeah, say goodbye to good weapon balancing. Thankfully, the game generally lacks the resource management issue that its counterpart had... but as I'll talk about later, that is a real double-edged sword.

The level design in Mega Man II is a bit strange. You can tell Japan System House were trying to play things a bit safer here, there are barely any original level mechanics like there were in the previous game. Hell, I'd even argue many of MMII's stages kinda just feel like the NES versions ripped verbatim with certain assets shrunken to fit the Game Boy, which I think helps create that uncanny valley feel a lot of people have with the game. That being said, due to the addition of the slide, the game does toss in a fair amount of original slide-centric platforming setpieces and they tend to be some of the strongest parts of the game. Metal Man for example has a brief bit where you have to slide around while dodging shots from Mets you can't reach which was actually really fun. In general, I think MMII is at its best when it's combining elements from 2 and 3, like how Wood Man's stage gets a neat Rush Marine shortcut. However, while the level design is rarely ever bad, it's rarely ever remarkable either. I wouldn't say Mega Man II is an especially easy game like many fans say, but it's definitely lacking for challenge between the abundance of E-Tanks, the Metal Blade, the Rush Jet, and the slide. For some, it's this low difficulty that kills the game, but honestly, I'd rather take a bad Mega Man game that's too easy over a bad Mega Man game that's too hard because I can at least enjoy an easy game without wanting to pull my hair out.

As I alluded to earlier, Mega Man II's best addition is how it expands on the boss rush formula of the previous game. Once again, you get to face off against four bosses from Mega Man 3, but instead of only fighting the bosses, you have to go through their stages as well. So now you also have four recreations of Mega Man 3 stages, and they're pretty much the same. Mostly unremarkable handheld conversions with a few neat tweaks every once in a while, like how you can use the Leaf Shield against the bees in Hard Man's stage now, or how Needle Man expands upon that one ceiling spikes room from the original. The Top Spin seems to be a lot less buggy too, though it's also a lot less game-breaking. However, one weird thing is that weapon energy isn't refilled after beating each MM3 stage? The game floods you with resources so it's no big deal but... why? Once you beat the "boss rush", Mega Man II starts to get really interesting.

Mega Man II introduces the second and worst Mega Man Killer, Quint, who's a doppelganger of Mega Man with sunglasses. That's a cool idea in concept, but his fight is comically pitiful. His weapon of choice is a jackhammer called Sakugarne which he uses by... drilling in place and jumping occassionally. You can take Quint out in seconds, and he barely even tries to attack you, what a loser. Thankfully, the actual final level is probably the best part about Mega Man II, a Dali-inspired time station with clocks everywhere and a hodgepodge of hazards from previous stages. Apparently this game had a story about time travel, but aside from this final level, it's sadly rarely ever explored. The final boss isn't great, though, it's a three-phase fight whose weakness is the Sakugarne, a poor weapon with barely any ammo that's so close-range that you're bound to take multiple hits while using it.

I believe Japan System House had the potential to make a genuinely great Mega Man game for the Game Boy. There are some legitimate signs of brilliance here. The original soundtrack has some stellar compositions, the time travel concept is really cool and shows its potential in the fun final stage, and some of Mega Man 3's new mechanics like the slide and Rush Marine get explored much more thoroughly here. If Japan System House had the time to take more risks, develop their original ideas, and not rely on the source material so much, I think Mega Man II could've been really good. But as it is now, Mega Man II is less bad and more mediocre. Most of my big issues with it are the deliberate level design and severe lack of polish, but it never outright frustrated me like some of my other least favorite Mega Man games, and it's nowhere near as unplayable as something like X7.

2.5/5 Stars

Mega Man III

Mega Man III is probably the biggest reason why I'm so generous towards II. I kept saying that I'd rather a game be too easy than too hard, and III is easily the biggest example as to why. And it's a real shame too because Mega Man III does make a ton of improvements over the previous two games, with Minakuchi even returning. It looks so much nicer and more detailed, and it sounds way nicer too. The music isn't quite as original as in the previous two entries, but the remixes sound pretty great and far less tinny than many of the earlier Game Boy games. Mega Man's movement is the best it's ever been in the World games, and they added the Charge Shot to really put it in line with the later NES games. The level design feels a lot more derivative than the levels in Wily's Revenge once again, but at least the ones based on MM3 are pretty solid conversions, and the bosses in particular hold up quite well, even if some can feel a bit more cramped on such a smaller screen. On the surface, Mega Man III seems pretty great, but it starts to really fall apart once you hold it up to scrutiny.

Right when you start playing MMIII, something feels off. It took me a bit to put my finger on it, but then it really hit me, why are these enemies taking so long to defeat? Early on, Capcom often struggled to figure out how to balance the Charge Shot properly, and III is very much a product of that time, it even uses the dinky looking shot from MM4. While the NES games made the Charge Shot so powerful that it was able to easily one-shot every enemy, I feel like III instead went the route of beefing up the enemy health-bars, and this kills the pacing in a series usually known for fantastic pacing. Mega Man has never been a series where you slow down to take on every tanky enemy you come across, it has this flow to it where if you keep perfectly lining up your shots, you don't stop moving. But in III, sometimes a single Charge Shot isn't even enough for some of these foes, and don't even think of trying to use the standard buster, or even the weapons! Despite having some good options like the Shadow Blade and Drill Bomb, the weapons in this game feel so nerfed that they're just not worth using compared to the Charge Shot, in case you thought Mega Man 5 was bad. Couple this with the game's tendency to fill rooms with enemies and you get a game that often feels tedious and overwhelming to play, it's like every enemy is a miniboss! It's especially uncanny in the levels based on Mega Man 3, a game that didn't have the Buster Shot so all the enemy health values feel completely borked.

And then there's the level design. As I mentioned, I think the levels for the Mega Man 3 stages are fine enough. They do feel pretty watered-down in places and can have some iffy bits, but generally manage to capture the appeal of the original stages. They also introduced the Blizzard Man bomb hazards before MM6 even came out, somehow? Snake Man's stage, one of my favorites in the original MM3, is a good example of how these earlier stages are. The visual design in the MMIII version is on par with the NES version and many of the memorable setpieces have been translated quite well, but this version also removes the cloud-hopping bit, repeats the same room designs a bunch, and occasionally tosses a weirdly wide jump at you. They don't ruin these stages, but the cracks are starting to show. Even the intermission stage at Wily's Castle is fine, if really short, and the boss fight against a Giant Suzy is admittedly really funny. But then, you get to the Mega Man 4 stages, and it just all falls apart.

First off, they picked the worst stages in the original game. Dive Man? Skull Man? Seriously?! But more importantly, this is where all of the tiny issues that the previous stages had really become common issues. Ultra-wide jumps, tanky enemies in awkward positions, frustrating gimmicks, lengthy level runtimes with poor checkpoint placement, sheer claustrophobia, janky hitboxes, MMIII's second half has pretty much every issue in the book. Drill Man's stage now has those boulders explode into often unavoidable shrapnel, Skull Man's stage while the best of the bunch still has you deal with enemies and ricocheting projectiles in tight hallways, and those are the better ones. I'd actually say Dive Man's stage looks better than the original as it now takes place inside a submarine, but unfortunately all that good will is quickly lost once it starts asking you to make absurdly precise jumps underwater around spikes (and of course, there's no Rush Marine this time). And then there's Dust Man's stage. Oh, there is a special place in hell for Dust Man's stage in this game. Several pixel perfect jumps, Up N Downs everywhere, Jumbigs in the worst spots possible, horrible checkpoint placement (right before the dust crusher part so you have to do that again every time you die), and a five-block spike pit that's so ungodly difficult to get around that it's better to just damage boost through it. This might actually be the worst Classic Mega Man stage, either that or Dive Man's stage.

And in case you think things couldn't get even worse, then there's the Wily Castle. Well, okay, credit where it's due, I like the new Mega Man Killer, Punk. He's got a cool design, a cool theme, a pretty fun fight, and his weapon is the only one that actually feels useful. But excluding that, this final stage blows. Among the many highlights include lots of Up N Downs, fighting a beefy enemy on one of those collapsing platforms from MM3, a blackout section with spikes, a dust crusher with spikes, long jumps under low ceilings, the return of the Drill Man boulders, more annoying Jumbig placement, and a boss rematch in the middle. It's not as bad as Dust Man's stage, maybe not even Dive Man's stage either, but it's a grueling finale to an already difficult game. At least the final boss is pretty easy, if a bit annoying since its projectiles can block yours.

I've been asked a few times why I have such fondness for X6 and not Mega Man & Bass, and ultimately, it's because the bad design in X6 feels like it's counterbalanced by how utterly broken the player is. That game has some of the most overpowered weapons in the series, cheat codes that give you Ultimate Armors right off the bat, upgrades that are shared between X and Zero, it doesn't redeem the game but makes X6 enjoyable for me despite its many issues. And hell, even & Bass has its fair share of powerful weapons and upgrades. But Mega Man III is a far more limiting experience. There often aren't any ways out of an especially tough segment, the weapons are often useless, the Rush Jet is hidden behind Dust Man's stage, and as I mentioned, the Rush Marine isn't even in this one. You have to beat these stages the way the developers intended, regardless of how unfun, frustrating, tedious, or unfair it is. I'm able to defend games like Shadow The Hedgehog and Mega Man X6 because I think there's still fun to be had in their bad design elements, but like with X7, I find it hard to find the fun in III. The poor level design and balancing issues are just so oppressive, especially in the latter half, that it pretty much kills any of the goodwill I had towards the game's better elements like the presentation. Despite being more polished than MMII, it's just not as fun for me.

2/5 Stars

Mega Man IV

Mega Man IV is such a massive jump in quality not just from III, but from all the Game Boy entries before it. With this game, it feels like Minakuchi has not only mastered the craft of making a good Mega Man game, but has developed the confidence to expand and iterate on the formula as well. This is still a game mostly comprised of returning stages, but they're fleshed-out, modified, and expanded upon far more compared to their NES counterparts. And Minakuchi even took the liberty of introducing some legitimately new additions to the series, some of which would even be carried over to the mainline entries. As a result, not only would I say that Mega Man IV is one of the better-made Mega Man games, but I'd easily take it over the actual Mega Man 4 any day of the week.

Mechanically, Mega Man IV continues to refine the fundamentals. Mega Man's movement in this game is pretty much perfect, you have full precision, and you can jump out of a slide unlike in MM6 which came out the same year. On top of that, enemy healthbars are back to normal, they are nowhere near as tanky as they were in III. The Charge Shot is now more like the one in MM5, and the Beat Letters are here as well, though they are a bit different. The letters in the first four stages unlock Beat, and the letters in the second four stages are mandatory to open the Wily Castle, but either way, it's still the game encouraging you to explore. And as mentioned, a decent amount of new stuff was added. The Charge Shot now has a recoil which didn't really affect the gameplay much for me, but it's a cute little addition that encourages you to be a bit more careful while using it. There's also a new collectible called the P-chips which can be used in a shop to buy refill tanks and a few other upgrades like the returning Energy Balancer, which I love because it encourages you to explore levels more. And you can tell Capcom liked it too because from MM7 onward, we'd have shop systems exactly like this in the mainline games. Finally, if you die a lot, you can even get an upgraded Mega Buster, making this the first Mega Man game with some sort of Easy Mode. In general, this is some of the best core Mega Man gameplay to date.

The level design is where Mega Man IV really shines, and you can tell this almost immediately. Each Robot Master stage in IV takes the concept of a stage from MM4 or MM5, but it proceeds to really flesh them out. Let's run through the initial four MM4 stages as an example, which funnily enough mostly ranked among my favorites in the original game. Toad Man's stage in 4 had a jarringly tough first exterior room, but Toad Man's stage in IV has a more gradual difficulty curve, alternates between interior sewer areas and exterior rain areas to keep things varied, and fleshes out the waterfall mechanic more by having them drop on you unsuspectingly. Bright Man's stage, in a stroke of genius, carries over the light switches from Drill Man's stage and has you actively choose to turn them off to make platforms appear. Pharaoh Man's stage sadly removed the cool balloon platforms, but it adds some neat puzzles around sliding across falling rocks and is way longer than the original version. And Ring Man's stage just fixed the minibosses because the rest of it was already perfect. It really feels like Minakuchi looked at the original stages and made a conscious effort to improve and expand on them.

That being said, I do have some small gripes. First off, the slowdown is definitely the worst it's been in one of these Game Boy entries so far. I'm not really surprised, this game pushes the hell out of the hardware, but it is a bit of a shame. It's also a shame that, despite how vastly improved the levels are, the bosses and weapons are left mostly unchanged (except for the Ring Boomerang being able to pick stuff up which is very cool). This is a problem because Mega Man 4's bosses (Toad Man) and Mega Man 5's weapons (Power Stone) are both pretty bad, so both the boss roster and the weapon lineup end up pretty lopsided in this one. And finally, while Mega Man IV certainly has some great music especially some of the original tracks, a decent chunk of the remixes like those for Pharaoh Man and Ring Man just sound like slowed-down versions of the originals for some strange reason. None of these issues are nearly as glaring as the problems the previous games had though, they're basically nitpicks by comparison.

Like the previous games, Mega Man IV has an intermission and it's easily the coolest one so far. You get a sick cutscene of Mega Man shooting at a giant Wily cannon, followed by a boss fight against said cannon, and then your first encounter with this game's Mega Man Killer, Ballade. This is the first time you meet one of those guys before the final castle, and it really helps to drum up anticipation. The music during both the intermission and Wily Castle are completely original and they're absolutely fantastic too. The succeeding MM5 stages step things up over the MM4 ones, as it seems Minakuchi borrowed stages they knew needed a bit more work rather than the fan favorites like Gravity, Star, or Wave Man. These stages are far more open than most Mega Man stages have ever been, full of fun side rooms to discover, and repurpose existing mechanics in increasingly clever ways, from using shielded enemies as platforms to slide on, to using Rain Flush to extinguish fires. They even tossed in a bunch of chase sequences that weren't in the original, and I'm not complaining, they're very fun and frantic. The high point is definitely Napalm Man, which is rightful praised as a massive improvement over the fairly unremarkable original and one of the best classic Mega Man stages period.

The final stretch of Mega Man IV keeps up the quality as well. Like the previous final stage, we have the Mega Man Killer fight followed by a long final stage. Ballade's second fight is as great as the last one, and it even ends with yet another fun chase sequence, but it's that lengthy final gauntlet that really steals the show. A fantastic test of all your abilities with multiple fun boss fights scattered throughout and stellar music to boot, though unlike III's final stage, it's also incredibly fair. The only downgrade is the fact that we now have a proper boss rush again, how sad. At least they were generous enough to give you a huge energy refill afterwards. Thankfully, the final boss more than makes up for this. It's a genuinely tough three-phase fight against a giant Wily robot, basically doing what Mega Man 3's final boss should've done. Mega Man IV ends with one last fantastic cutscene, where a broken Ballade sacrifices himself to help Mega Man escape the exploding station. It's not like some heartwrenching tearjerker or anything, but it's a surprisingly somber moment in a series that has been quite light on story so far. 

Overall, Mega Man IV is genuinely fantastic. I'd even rank as one of the better Classic Mega Man games overall, even above games like 6 and 11. From a level design perspective, it has some of the most expansive, engaging, and fully-realized stages in the entire series, along with a stellar final stretch that just feels like the icing on the cake. While it is held back a bit too much by having to take from previous games in the series, Mega Man IV makes the most with what it's given and stands out as one of the most overlooked entries in the entire franchise.

4/5 Stars

Mega Man V

And here we are, the game that this entire subseries was building up to. Minakuchi took everything they've learned from their previous work and got to make their first original Mega Man project, and it's easily their magnum opus. Mega Man V isn't only the best Mega Man World entry, it ranks among my favorite Classic Mega Man games, right up there with 5, 7, and 9. It's bold, creative, consistently fun, and pushes the hardware to its absolute limits.

On a story level, Mega Man V isn't quite as strong as its predecessor. Nothing really hits on the same level as Ballade's arc, but it makes up for that by being incredibly epic and large in scale. The game starts with Earth being invaded by a group of Stardroids, with their leader Terra being impossible for Mega Man to defeat in his current state, a very cool twist as Mega Man never lost to a villain like this before. So Dr Light gives Mega Man a bunch of upgrades and sends him off into space to save the planet. If you think this premise sounds somewhat familiar, that's because it is! The Mega Man goes to space plotline was already done in Mega Man 3, but infamously, the game's rushed development prevented it from actually exploring this premise. So seeing Mega Man V actually run with the space theming, having each Stardroid stage be set on one of the other Milky Way bodies (not saying planet since Pluto was included here), and even having sequences where Mega Man gets to use Rush as a spaceship is really refreshing.

Speaking of refreshing, Mega Man V actually makes a bunch of interesting mechanical changes that are exclusive to this game. The biggest change is that the Mega Buster has been replaced with the Mega Arm. It functions mostly the same way, but instead of shooting a big charge shot, Mega Man shoots out a rocket fist that returns to him. It may seem a bit weird at first, but it's surprisingly versatile when you get used to it. Since it basically functions as a boomerang, you can finagle your Mega Arm to hit enemies on the way back or at an angle. On top of that, MMV expands on the shop from the previous game by letting you actually buy upgrades for the Mega Arm which allows it to cling onto and repeatedly grab enemies, and retrieve powerups like the Ring Boomerang could in IV. It all adds up to making the Mega Arm a genuine upgrade on the Buster and it kinda kills me it never returned. On the other hand, MMV also adds in a new pet named Tango who you can use to aggressively attack enemies. Despite how much I love his design though, I found Tango pretty useless, to the point where I pretty much forgot he existed by the second half of the game. Still, I appreciate the attempt, and it's a shame Tango never showed up again.

The level design is definitely the standout here, as being able to have original level themes allowed Minakuchi to really go wild with the settings here. Mercury's stage is a factory with conveyor belts and falling blocks to dodge, Neptune's stage has you fight across the roof of a ship before going inside, Uranus's stage is a pyramid with a ton of booby traps and shifting platforms, Pluto's stage has you dodge falling girders while working your way through a construction site, Jupiter's stage brings back the low gravity from Star Man's stage in MM5, and Saturn's stage has you contend with a bunch of gravity fields of varying intensity. The Stardroid stages are all fantastic, not a single weak one in the bunch. While the first half of stages are fairly linear and straight-forward, the second half brings back the explorative elements that helped IV stand out, with secret areas hidden behind special weapon use and hidden crystals that will unlock an upgrade that decreases your special weapon consumption. I will say I think this is a bit of a tougher game than IV overall, but it still manages to be pretty fair and isn't anywhere near as bad as Wily's Revenge or III. 

The bosses are also quite solid too, with the highlights as far as the Stardroids go being Pluto, who feels almost like a proto-Slash Man, and Uranus, who shifts around the arena's terrain to try and squash you. I especially like how the bosses are designed to be countered by their weaknesses. Jupiter has a jetpack and can fly around, so of course, you'll use the vertical Bubble Bomb. Venus jumps when you shoot, so you should use the Photon Missile since it has a delay before it zooms forward. It reminds me a lot of Mega Man 9's approach to boss design, how you can figure out what they're weak to just by watching how they fight. The intermission segment probably has the best boss fight out of the World series too, being a fun Yellow Devil encounter that can actually be hit multiple times in a single cycle if you're fast enough so it doesn't drag on as long as other fights of its kind.

Sadly, as good as the bosses are, the weapons are pretty weak, one of the weaker lineups along with 5 and 10 for me. There are a few standouts, siphoning pickups from Grab Buster is satisfying despite its unassuming presentation, Electric Shock is a decent short range option, and Proton Missile is a solid reinterpretation of the Hard Knuckle. And as usual, the weapon you get from this game's Mega Man Killer, Terra, is very good, a fast homing laser that can hit multiple times with a single ammo use. However, there's also a lot of duds here. Bubble Bomb is basically the Bubble Lead but it floats upwards and actually landing a hit with it is tough. Salt Water is just Crystal Eye again and it takes way too much ammo for how little damage it does. Break Dash is like the Charge Kick and while the addition of i-frames is a plus, it takes too long to charge. And the Deep Digger is just the Super Arm which automatically renders it fairly situational. Like with its console counterpart, I think Mega Man V's weak weapon lineup is the one thing that truly holds it back.

The final act is also a bit of a mixed bag, though that's mostly because IV's ending was so strong. The level design of the Wily Star falls into the same issue that Mega Man 6's castle stages had where there's so many split paths that it feels like you're skipping a lot of the challenges, and as mentioned, nothing really hits as hard as Ballade's sacrifice in terms of storytelling. However, where Mega Man V's finale shines is in the bosses and setpieces. Before you even enter the Wily-looking Death Star, you get a full-on shmup section with Rush that ends on an impressive zoomed-out fight against the giant base itself. The main stage is peppered with rematches with all the Mega Man Killers that really makes this game feel like the finale of the series, and they even managed to make Quint's fight somewhat challenging this time? Like, he actually jumps around and shoots rubble at you. And then there's the final boss. As usual, you fight Dr Wily in a giant mech and it's as solid a fight as ever, but then, Dr Wily wakes up a powerful robot named Sunstar who proceeds to betray Wily and take over as the final boss. This is a rare case where Dr Wily isn't the final boss, but ironically enough, Sunstar ended up being my favorite Classic Mega Man final boss period. This dude is fast, he's got a ton of different attacks, blows up the floor from underneath you occassionally, has a rocking boss theme, and boasts an impressive three phases. It's a fantastic way to end off the series.

And speaking of the music, it's really good too. Not among the absolute best the franchise has to offer, but it's definitely my favorite out of the Mega Man World soundtracks, going for a somewhat somber tone while still packing in a lot of catchy Mega Man-sounding tunes. And as I mentioned, Sunstar's boss theme is a soaring highlight as far as the Game Boy goes, it's an incredibly fast-paced and rocking track that pushes the console's sound capabilities as far as they will go. Overall, Mega Man V is awesome. It's a strong ending to this strange little subseries of Classic Mega Man, bringing together all the best aspects of the previous entries while adding in a ton of new ideas of its own that could've pushed the series forward. From how the fresh space premise informs the incredibly inventive level design, to the fascinating new mechanics like the Mega Arm, to the epic finale filled with exciting boss encounters both old and new, Mega Man V easily deserves a spot among the best games in the franchise.

5/5 Stars

Mega Man 11

It took a while, but I finally got to play Mega Man 11, thereby completing my Mega Man marathon once and for all. After all this waiting, did it live up to my expectations? Well, let's see.

In theory, Mega Man 11 should be exactly what I wanted from a new Mega Man game. I adored MM9 but I was always firmly in the camp of Inti Creates' time with the series being a step back for removing mechanics like the slide and Charge Shot. Mega Man 11 finally brings those mechanics back, and they feel better than ever. Even more, the additions of a story and voice acting really makes MM11 feel like the true sequel to Mega Man 8 (or I guess MM&B). However, in their further attempts to modernize the Mega Man formula, Capcom also introduced a new gameplay mechanic called the Double Gear system. From the start of the game, you can activate boosts to your attack power and speed, but you have to manage those boosts to prevent Mega Man from overheating. I'm going to be blunt here, I'm not a fan of this mechanic, and rarely ever felt the motivation to use it a lot of the time. Brutally hard platformers thrive on their simplicity. Using a simple control scheme makes every challenge, no matter how hard, feel achievable. And this isn't just a Mega Man thing, it applies to the X games, to Super Meat Boy, to Celeste, to I Wanna Be The Guy, to N++, and pretty much every other platformer of this style. The Double Gear system just overcomplicates the control scheme and gives you way too many things to worry about in an already tough game. I really hope it doesn't return for a hypothetical Mega Man 12. The quality of life improvements generally fare a lot better, though. I love that the Rush abilities is tied to their own buttons now, that you can stagger shielded enemies with a Charge Shot, and that you can select an ability with the right joystick. Permanent upgrades in the shop return from Mega Man & Bass, and the addition of challenges and achievements do a way better job at giving the game replay value than pretty much every prior attempt. There are still a few archaic elements though. The lack of auto-saving is a travesty, especially in a game this hard where someone could potentially rage quit (not that it happened to me, thankfully), infinite lives being locked to the easiest difficulty setting only is disappointing, and how the hell is the knockback worse than in the other games?! I'm not even exaggerating, Capcom made the knockback worse and then gave you an upgrade to make it slightly less worse. That's Secret Rings levels of BS.

But ultimately, while I'm mixed on the gameplay itself, Mega Man 11's levels are the real stars of the show. They're pretty long this time around, and do a great job of slowly fleshing out, mixing-and-matching, and fully utilizing the gameplay mechanics that they introduce, while mostly being pretty fair. There wasn't a single Robot Master stage I disliked, and the best ones like Torch Man and Blast Man ranked as some of the series' finest. However, while I mostly like the increased stage length, it means the "Normal" difficulty setting's mere three lives and 2-3 checkpoints is way too punishing and strict even by Mega Man standards. I actually think the difficulty settings are generally better implemented than the ones in MM10, but Capcom probably should've changed the naming a bit. I've heard people call this game's Wily Fortress a bit disappointing, and... really? Like, I get the castles in MM9 and MM10 are a high bar, but most Wily and Sigma Castles have four stages, and the first two Gear Fortress stages are so long and climactic that I found it to be a perfectly solid ending to the game. And besides, given how long Wily Castles would drag on in the NES era, I'm perfectly fine with a slightly shorter one here. As for the bosses, they're mostly solid too. Every boss boasts a lot of attacks, multiple phases where they use a Double Gear, and even i-frames preventing you from stunlocking them. At their best, they're some of the most thrilling and fleshed-out fights in the series, but at their worst, you get the overwhelming chaos of Block Man and Impact Man. The weapons are really great, though. As usual, some are more effective than others, but I didn't find a single one to be a dud. Block Stopper is the definite highlight, a top-notch all-arounder, but I also liked Bounce Ball for being a better version of MM5's Crystal Eye, Tundra Storm for being easily the best screen clearer in the series, and Scramble Thunder for buffing MM9's Plug Ball to a ridiculous degree. The weapons also come with easily my favorite utilization of the Double Gear system, which is that the Power Gear comes with superpowered versions of each of the weapons. Think the charged weapons in MMX but cranked up to eleven.

As far as the general presentation goes, Mega Man 11 is kind of a mixed bag, unfortunately. It's not a bad-looking game visually, the character designs look clean, the backgrounds can look genuinely super nice (especially in Bounce Man and Blast Man's stages), and there are plenty of cute hidden details scattered around. However, when compared to the spritework of MM7 and MM8, the 3D visuals just look a bit more lifeless. The characters are less expressive, the world feels less vibrant, and the environments feel more like static platforming stages than actual locations. Look, I'm not a genwunner who thinks classic Mega Man should only be 8-bit, but there's definitely something lost in the transition to 3D and Mega Man 11 just doesn't do enough to make up for that. MM11 also brings in voice acting, as mentioned prior, and honestly, I thought it was pretty solid. It's great to finally get to hear the classic Mega Man cast with proper, fitting voices, and some of the voice actors really got to have fun with the Robot Masters. Bounce Man was a definite highlight though, his cutesy voice contrasted with the other Robot Masters in the absolute best way. As for the music, easily the most divisive aspect of Mega Man 11, I'd actually argue it's one of my favorites? Mega Man's musical styles having always been based on either rock, synth, or both. An EDM Mega Man soundtrack filled with rave music may not have the iconic 8-bit rock of MM2, but it's by no means unfitting for the series and boasts some of my favorite themes in the whole series. With the eurobeat-esque Fuse Man theme, the somber Tundra Man theme, the energetic Blast Man theme, and of course one of the best Wily Caste Themes in the series, MM11's soundtrack isn't anywhere near being one of the weaker ones to me.

Overall, I liked Mega Man 11. It has its issues with the Double Gear System, uneven visuals, and wild difficulty spikes, but it absolutely nails the level design, boss design, and weapon design in a way several other classic entries don't even come close to reaching.

4/5 Stars

If you're wondering where I'd rank Mega Man 11 compared to the other classic games, here's my list:

1. Mega Man 3
2. Mega Man 7
3. Mega Man 9
4. Mega Man 5
5. Mega Man 8
6. Mega Man 11
7. Mega Man 6
8. Mega Man 4
9. Mega Man 10
10. Mega Man
11. Mega Man 2
12. Mega Man & Bass

Mega Man X1-X8 Reviews

I know this is a bit of a strange order, but with the classic and Zero series done, I wanted to finally tackle the Mega Man X series. I've only ever played the first one, which I did really like, but otherwise I'm going into this series fairly blind. I'm excited to see how I end up enjoying them:

Mega Man X: As someone who got into video games during the Gamecube/DS/Wii era, I don't really tend to look a lot of those "untouchable classics" with the same kind of reverence that so many others do. Ocarina Of Time is my least favorite 3D Zelda, I think Super Metroid is great but its controls make it hard to go back to, and I find Super Mario Bros 3's difficulty curve is way too all over for the place. Hell, even in this very series, Mega Man 2 is in the lower echelon of Mega Man games for me despite its iconic status. Mega Man X, though? That game holds up incredibly well. It is still a fantastic action-platformer. It's still one of the best games on the SNES. And it's still one of the best Mega Man games ever made. 

Being the first 16-bit entry of the series, Mega Man X wanted to establish itself as a newer generation of Mega Man, and thus made a lot of really cool changes from the original formula. X can still jump, shoot, and even do a very well-balanced charge shot, but now, he's able to wall-jump. It's a nice addition to the moveset that controls very well and allows for more verticality in stages. X can also get upgrades to his armor, hidden away in a bunch of the stages, and some of these upgrades add even more depth to the gameplay. For example, one upgrade can let X charge all of his boss weapons, a very great addition that gives each weapon a slightly bigger moveset and makes the boss rush a bit more interesting depending on how soon you get the upgrade. But the best one of the bunch is the Leg Upgrade, which lets X do a dash move. I love a good dash, it lets X traverse stages faster, quickly dodge out of danger, and you can even chain it with a wall jump to leap off of walls. That last move, however, is a bit clunky to use here. In later games and the Zero series, you can hold the dash button and wall jump, but here, you need to press dash and jump at the same time which just doesn't feel as intuitive. Outside of that minor gripe, though, X's control is incredibly fluid and he just feels great to play as.

The level design in Mega Man X is absolutely fantastic, starting with that iconic opening stage. While I've never fully completed MMX prior to now, I have played that opening stage several times and it will always be one of the best tutorials in any game ever. But what no one really seems to talk about is just how much fun the standard Maverick stages are as well. Every level is filled to the brim with memorable setpieces and the way the game constantly tosses out new ideas just leads to absolutely perfect pacing. There's the Ride Armor sequences, the elevator in Boomer Kuwanger's stage, the falling rocks in Sting Chameleon's stage, and best of all, the minecarts in Armored Armadillo's stage. But even more, as much as I loved the classic games, there's not a single one that doesn't have some sort of frustrating BS somewhere in its level design. That's not the case in Mega Man X. Every stage is intuitive while still being challenging and each death felt like my own fault. 

I also just adore the way Mega Man X's stages encourage replaying the game in a variety of ways. I praised Mega Man 7's hidden collectibles, but the way you get some of the collectibles in MMX is really cool, like destroying a boat and having it lead you to a robotic sea-dragon that holds a Heart Tank, destroying a watchtower to get a Sub Tank, frantically trying to wreck a drill before it destroys your path to a Heart Tank, and of course, the crazy sequence of events that nets you a hadouken. Even more, there's the fact that beating a certain stage could impact another stage, that certain upgrades can help you pass certain sections, and that bosses have multiple weaknesses that affect them in different ways, all helping to make you want to replay Mega Man X in different orders to see what you missed. Speaking of which, the bosses are pretty solid too, with each having varied attack patterns that are mostly (except Launch Octopus) fun to dodge. However, just like with its SNES successor Mega Man 7, it's pretty easy to stunlock them. I also really liked the lineup of weapons since every single one of them is useful, but I couldn't help but feel they're a bit less varied than the lineups you'd get from the classic series, they're all just different shot types. Still, that's not inherently a bad thing since this consistency means we don't get any duds like Power Stone, Thunder Wool, or Spark Shock here.

Just like with any classic Mega Man game, the X series also makes sure to have some lengthy endgames where you storm the final boss's (usually Sigma) castle. Sigma's Fortress in this game is pretty good, amping up the challenge even more while still not feeling unfair. I don't think it quite reaches the heights of the best classic Wily Castles in terms of its level design, but between the fantastic story beats, great music and visuals, fun boss fights, and high difficulty, Sigma's Fortress feels really climactic here. In addition, I really like the way Mega Man X does its boss rush. It sprinkles out bosses like in MM1 and MM&Bass but it does so thoughtfully without leaving you without health pickups for too long like in MM1 or stretching out a stage like in MM&Bass. And between the charge upgrade and Hadouken, there's a lot of novelty to being able to refight the bosses. I also found the final boss to be incredibly fun, far beyond pretty much any of Wily fights, with multiple unique fights, a fast pace, and a high difficulty that doesn't end up becoming overwhelming like that infamous Wily Capsule in Mega Man 7.

Outside of the game itself, Mega Man X's presentation is great. The story is simple but incredibly tight and effective, introducing X, Zero, Vile, and Sigma pretty much perfectly. The graphics are clean and detailed, really showcasing how much more the SNES could do than its predecessor. Something that you'll probably find consistent in these reviews is that I adore the art direction and aesthetic of the X series, particularly X1-X6. From the SNES era's gritty original trilogy Star Wars vibes to the PS1 era's more digital Y2K-ish look, I absolutely adore the way these games look regardless of their quality. And of course, that soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, easily one of the best on that console. So yeah, as you can tell by how freaking long this review in particular is, I think Mega Man X is really good. The gameplay improvements over classic Mega Man are game-changers, the level design is not only well-executed but immensely fun, the secrets are creatively-hidden, the replay value is nearly endless, the bosses and weapons are consistently great, the presentation is fantastic, and the pacing and difficulty curve is spot-on all the way from the beginning to its fantastic ending. Even the gripes I have with this game are purely nitpicks, it really does live up to the hype as one of the absolute best games in the series.

5/5 Stars

Mega Man X2: Something being "more of the same" doesn't really bother me if it's more of a good thing. For example, The Force Awakens is a bit of an A New Hope ripoff, but A New Hope is good and so is The Force Awakens, so I don't mind too much. Mega Man X2 may just be more of Mega Man X, but seeing how Mega Man X is an amazing game, X2 is pretty great too. It doesn't change or add too much in terms of gameplay but I generally like what X2 brings to the table. For starters, you can dash from the start which I thought was a fantastic idea. It allowed stages to have much tougher platforming that actively required you to dash. Even more, you can now do a dash wall jump just by holding down the dash button, bringing X2 in line with the Zero games I'm more used to and thus fixing the single control issue I had with the last game. We have some more pretty sick upgrades, like being able to dash in the air and shoot two charge shots at once, and the game introduces a new vehicle called the Ride Chaser that basically serves as a fast speeder X can ride on. Unfortunately, it's pretty underused and only shows up in Overdrive Ostrich's stage, but that'll get fixed in later games. X2's final big addition is the X-Hunters, three bosses who have Zero's body parts that you can track down in stages to get them back. If you don't find them or are unable to, you'll have to fight an evil rebuilt version of Zero right before the final boss, which is a decision I like. You can skip the X-Hunters at the cost of a harder endgame, or you can track them down to make things a bit easier for you. However, my one complaint here is that you don't really get a concrete reward for putting Zero together, like some special weapon or the ability to play as him. The only thing you get is an easier final boss, which is a bit on the disappointing side.

As far as the level design goes, X2 keeps up the variety and creativity from the first game's stages. While I don't think X2's stages are as thoughtfully-crafted as the ones in its predecessor, there's still a lot of cool setpieces here, from the aforementioned Ride Chaser segment, to the changing weather in Wire Sponge's stage, to avoiding spotlights in Magna Centipede's stages, to the lava chase in Flame Stag's stage. Wheel Gator's stage was especially cool, as it takes place on a giant tank bulldozing through a city. There are also just as many secrets as there were in the previous game, and they're all still hidden in some creative ways. This is also a rare Mega Man X game with a zero backtracking route which is a really cool challenge for expert players. Unfortunately, the environmental changes from the first game aren't here anymore which removes a bit of that extra detail, but between the X-Hunters and the zero backtracking route, X2 is still pretty open to replaying it. The bosses, on the other hand, are generally a pretty big improvement over in the previous game. While there are some weak fights, usually involving invincibility frames, the lineup as a whole is way more varied than in X1, with way more attacks, and some even having multiple phases. Morph Moth was the highlight here, starting off as a cocoon only to turn into a butterfly halfway through the fight and gain entirely new attacks. It also helps that their weaknesses, while still effective, don't cripple them as much as in the previous game (except for poor Flame Stag). However, that's also partly because the weapon roster in X2 is a bit weaker. While I like that there's more creativity in the weaponry without them all just being different shot-types, we're now back to the issue where there are some really good weapons (Sonic Slicer, Silk Shot) and some really bad ones as well (Magnet Mine, Crystal Hunter).

The endgame is pretty solid too, with the first two X-Hunter stages in particularly really putting X's dash to good use in some fantastic platforming segments. However, there are a few elements that put the X-Hunter Base a notch below X1's Sigma Fortress, particularly an annoying arrow platform room in the third stage and Magna Centipede's stage being reused for the final stage. Thankfully, the final boss made up for it. While not as hard as X1's finale, the fight with Sigma was still pretty fun if a bit strange graphically, and the fight with Zero was just plain awesome. As far as the presentation goes, it's pretty much the same as in X1. The story isn't as tight but I like the addition of the X-Hunters and the hunt for Zero is a solid hook. The graphics mostly look just as good, though the wireframe Cx4 showcases definitely don't look as ground-breaking as the developers thought they looked at the time. However, the soundtrack is probably my least favorite of the X games. It's not bad, it's catchy and there are plenty of strong tracks, but with short loops and less energetic guitars, it's a bit of a disappointment coming off of the previous game's fantastic score. Overall, X2 is yet another really great entry in the Mega Man X series, even if it doesn't quite reach the high bar of X1. While the weapons are weaker and certain new elements are a bit underused, the level design is still really solid, the secrets are still fun to look for, and the bosses, item routing, and core gameplay are actually improved over the first game. Mega Man X2 is more of a good thing, and I think that makes it a worthy sequel.

4.5/5 Stars

Mega Man X3: Mega Man X3 is a pretty average game. It has a lot of cool ideas, but none of it is really explored as effectively as it should have been. X3 adds a few new additions to the Mega Man X formula, but I'm not really a fan of most of it. For starters, you can finally play as Zero, and the game lets you call him in to play as him whenever you want. However, the execution here is flawed. Zero can't collect items, you can't use him in boss fights, and if you die as Zero, you lose the ability to play as him for the rest of the game, which just feels way too punishing. The novelty of getting to play as Zero in the opening is great, but it wears off pretty quickly. The next big change is how Ride Armors work. Now, most levels have pads where you can call in a Ride Armor to use in the stage, and with several different types of Ride Armors, the game has a bigger emphasis on using them to solve puzzles. Sounds like a great idea, right? I mean, it's basically Kirby Planet Robobot but made in the 90s! Unfortunately, you have to unlock Ride Armors, and since those mechs are needed to get a lot of collectibles, it just complicates the item routing and leaves X3 requiring way more backtracking than the first two games. The final big addition is the Bit, Byte, and Vile system, which essentially replaces the X-Hunters from last game. This time, if you don't beat Bit and Byte with their weaknesses, they'll reappear in the final castle making it harder. As for Vile, if you can find his stage before beating all the mavericks, you get a chance to win Zero's Saber. These are fairly cool ideas, but the game doesn't really explain how it all works and the system as a whole feels convoluted. Similarly, there's also this thing about chips that can augment your upgrades and how holding off on them can earn you a powerful Golden Armor in the castle with all the chips, but that's not explained all that well either. Mega Man X3 has a lot of good ideas, just pretty weak execution on all fronts.

The level design is also a bit mixed compared to the last few games. On one hand, there still weren't really any cheap deaths or enemy placements, so it's not like I actively hated any of the stages, but I generally found most of them to be pretty boring. X3's stages are focused more on combat, so they mainly comprise of hallways with enemies littered on them rather than the crazy setpieces of the last two games. Not to say that there aren't some neat ideas here or there, like the level turning on its side in Crush Crawfish's stage, the falling boulders in Tunnel Rhino's stage, and the awesome escape sequence in Vile's stage, but they're pretty few and far between. The simple layouts of these stages also mean X3 is easily the least difficult game so far, which means the developers felt they had to compensate by making X take ridiculous amounts of damage in the early game. However, what keeps all this from fully dragging down the game is that halfway through the game, something clicked. I realized that Mega Man X3 is less of a platformer and more of a hack-and-slash with guns... basically an early version of the Mega Man Zero games! Simple combat focused level design with an emphasis on maintaining your flow, complex enemy AI that actively tries to dodge your attacks, a difficult early game that makes way for an easier second half, lots of fun vertical wall-jumping segments, that's a Zero game alright. I still think X1 and X2 has leagues better level design but when I focused more on trying to keep up the rhythm of taking out enemy after enemy, I still had a surprisingly good time with most of X3. The bosses are definitely weak though, with many of them being very easy to stun-lock. I did really like the fights with Bit, Byte, and especially Vile though, they're probably some of my favorite fights in the series so far. And would you believe it, I actually like the weapons here! It's still not as consistently strong as X1's lineup but the best weapons are some of the best in the series so far, especially the Triad Thunder.

The endgame was, once again, pretty alright. I really liked the first stage with its many moving platforms, and I shouldn't have to say that it's great that X3 didn't reuse levels here. However, I do once again have a few gripes here. For starters, that snail wall in the second stage is incredibly boring. It's not hard, but it's requires a lot of waiting and messing up means you have to do the whole thing again. Also, I'm not a fan of the final boss. The first phase is just projectile spam, and the second phase deals a lot of damage while also having a small and inconsistent hitbox. It's basically Wily Machine 7 all over again. As for the presentation, it's mostly the same as the last two games. The story is decent if once again not as tight as the last two games', and the spritework is still pretty good. I played the PS1 version which came with some sick cutscenes before every stage, and a much, much better version of the soundtrack. The SNES version of X3 has some uncharacteristically bad music that overuses the same ear-grating MIDI guitars, but the synthy PS1 music is actually really good, even if it's a bit uncanny seeing an SNES game with CD-quality audio. Overall, Mega Man X3 is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a lot of ambition, a surprisingly strong lineup of weapons, and a great sense of combat flow, but most of its new ideas are poorly executed and it's dragged down by some pretty bland levels and weak bosses. It's a perfect middle-of-the-road Mega Man game, not bad in the slightest, but it rarely ever excels at anything.

3/5 Stars

Mega Man X4: Before talking about Mega Man X4 as a game, I wanted to start by addressing the elephant in the room: The voice acting. Something I've noticed about Mega Man as a series is that Capcom really sucks as localizations. Mega Man 8, X4, X7, and ZX Advent all suffered from bad English dubs, and the games that didn't have voice acting still struggled with shoddy translations. And that's not to mention the Guns N Roses names in X5 (which I admittedly kinda like). Look, I enjoy bad voice acting, it's funny! I crack up at "WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOOOOOOORRRR?!" every single time. "Dr Wahwee" is just hysterical to me. "BURN TO THE GROUND" is an absolute classic. But it's also hard not to feel bitter that Capcom put so little effort in the dub for X4 specifically because it detracts from what is actually a pretty solid story. While X4's story does have its problems, particularly involving underused characters that you don't get to know much before they die, I think it mostly succeeds in its attempt to be a tragic story about characters with differing ideals having to collide. X and Zero struggling with the possibility that they may turn Maverick after seeing every they think they know turn against them (not to mention Zero being a creation of Dr Wily) is a really compelling conflict, and I like Sigma's role as this manipulative monster who may have been defeated but ended up leaving a lot of destruction in his wake by the end of the game. There's a lot of good elements in X4's story that got watered down or flat-out ruined in the English version, which is a shame because it had the potential to be the best story in the entire X series (albeit still not even close to touching the Zero series). If you're interested, check out the undubbed version of X4, it brings back the Japanese dub, adds subtitles, and retranslates everything, and the story comes across as a lot more clear and well-done as a result.

Part of why I put so much effort into defending X4's story is because, in pretty much every other aspect, this game is amazing! I didn't think you could top X1, but here we are. This is the first Mega Man game for the PS1, and you can tell it was made with the Mega Man 8 engine. The presentation has that same beautiful blend of smoothly-animated sprites and detailed pre-rendered backgrounds, the clean UI is nearly identical in some points, we have FMV cutscenes, and you can even dual-wield X-Buster and weapon just like in that game. And while we're on the subject of the presentation, that soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, tinged with a sense of melancholy that perfectly fits the game's tone and story. Outside of the engine change, though, Mega Man X4 doesn't actually bring too much new to the table. It mostly just polishes and streamlines the formula to near perfection, removing all of the clutter of X3. You don't have to unlock Ride Armors, theres no ridiculously convoluted item routing, no RNG elements like the X-Hunters or Bit & Byte, and no contrived poorly-explained elements like the chips. Although, I do have to point out that X gets what is hands down his best armor, so between the infinite ammo, Plasma Shot, and Nova Strike, he has never felt this utterly powerful and fun to play. Outside of that, though, the one big change that X4 makes is the ability to play as Zero in his own campaign. And not in a half-baked way like in X3, he has his own sword-combat moveset and instead of gaining weapons, gains entirely new combos to add to his roster of moves. Even as someone who started with the very fluid Mega Man Zero games, Zero controls great in X4, he's fast and fluid, and even has a pretty easy-to-learn exploit called "dash cancel" that adds a bit of extra depth. But best of all, X4 is designed around X and Zero! It doesn't feel like it's built for one character in particular, and both campaigns were fun in their own way. This is exactly what Mega Man & Bass was supposed be, with X4 even having that kind of balancing where levels are harder as X and bosses are harder as Zero. 

With not much in the way of brand new additions, Mega Man X4 truly excels in just how well-designed everything is. The level design is back to being more setpiece-heavy, and it ended up leading to some of the most creative, varied, and unpredictable stages in the whole series. Slash Beast has one of the coolest train levels in any game ever, Storm Owl has a fun airship stage, Jet Stingray's stage is an extended Ride Chaser sequence, Cyber Peacock's stage is built around speedrunning, Split Mushroom's stage is just plain bonkers, and even the more generic biomes like in Frost Walrus's and Web Spider's stages manage to get a lot of unique gimmicks squeezed out of them. While X1's stages are more meticulously designed, X4's stages are still some of the best in the series for their bombast, variety, perfect level of difficulty, and sheer fun factor. The bosses are some of my favorites so far as well, as X4 actually gives them all unique personalities and fighting styles. You can still stun-lock a lot of them as X, but when you're playing as Zero, that's a lot harder to do and you get to really see how engaging these fights are. The weapon roster is pretty solid too, and while none of them are truly anything amazing, I also don't think any of them are all that bad. Every single weapon is pretty useful while also being fun to use, and unlike the many similar shot types in X1, this game's weapons are actually incredibly inventive and unique.

As for the endgame, once again, this is probably the weakest part of X4. This game falls in the Mega Man 3 hole where all of the effort was put into the main stages so the final stages are a bit short and easy. However, the boss fights do a great job at picking up the slack, since you get some of the best fights in the game here. Colonel is a fast-paced and tough rival both times you fight him, Iris's fight may be a bit annoying but it's seeped in tragedy and emotional heft, Double's fight is fun in how ridiculously chaotic and cluttered it is, and the final battle with Sigma is probably my favorite in the whole X series. It's lengthy, climactic, and challenging but also fair, and learning how to dodge all of his attacks felt super rewarding. So even if the stages aren't anything special, X4 still does a good job at ending things on a good note. Overall, while Mega Man X is probably the better game, X4 is my favorite of the bunch. The visuals and gameplay are more slick and fluid than ever, the story is deceptively complex and dark, the soundtrack is beautiful, the levels are all unique and action-packed, the bosses are memorable, the weapon lineup is one of the best in the series, Zero's campaign is a fantastic addition to the formula, and the final boss is great. I love pretty much everything about X4, it's an easy Top 3 contender for my favorite games in all of Mega Man.

5/5 Stars

Mega Man X5: Mega Man X5 was originally intended to be the final entry in the series, and it shows. I think the game's greatest strength is its strong sense of finality, and how utterly and ridiculously bombastic it is, especially in regards to the story. As an originally intended final chapter, X5's story doesn't really work on its own merits like X4's does, but Capcom's willingness to continue upping the ante throughout the game makes it a ton of fun to follow. From the Dr Wily links, to the world-changing Eurasia crash, to the showdown between Zero and X, to the final battle with Sigma, X5's story is big and bold and I adore it. The stakes are super high, and I love the concept of the Mavericks being Hunters forcedly turned Mavericks by Sigma's virus. Seeing Squid Adler turn into a Maverick right in front of you is such a great moment that makes it clear that things got very serious. It also helps that out of the PS1 games, X5 probably fares the best in terms of its localization since there's no voice acting. The translation is probably even worse than in X4 with blatant typos aplenty (though still not bad as the next game), but I do still like the Guns N Roses Maverick names for how lovably ridiculous they are. The soundtrack also helps with that sense of finality, especially in the start and end of the game. Songs like the Title Theme, the Opening Stage themes, Zero Virus 1, X Vs Zero, and the second Sigma theme have such a great sense of gravitas to them, making for one of the more impactful soundtracks in the series even if it's not quite as consistent as X4's. The visuals are a bit more uneven, though. Mega Man X5 uses the same engine as its predecessor so there are definitely elements that look nice, but the new characters aren't quite as well-animated, and the pre-rendered backgrounds just don't blend in as well with X and Zero. It all comes to a head (pun completely intended) with the final boss, as that pre-rendered giant version of Sigma just looks off and sucks some of the tension out of the fight.

So X5 definitely feels like the final entry of the series, but does the gameplay live up to that hype? Eh... not really. I praised X4 for streamlining the formula and getting rid of all of X3's convoluted mechanics but X5 just goes right back in the opposite direction and makes things even more ridiculous. Mega Man X5 stuffs in so many half-baked and ill-conceived ideas that brings down the game as a whole. For example, instead of having two separate campaigns like in X4, you can play any stage as X or Zero. This seems like a nice quality of life feature, but it ends up causing more harm than good. For starters, X or Zero gets an exclusive upgrade depending on who you start with, but Zero's Z-Buster upgrade is so bad that no one would bother starting with him (and hearing his amazing opening music). But then there's the Enigma Cannon. So, X5 has this Majora's Mask system where you have 16 hours to beat all the Mavericks before Eurasia crashes into the Earth, and the more Mavericks you defeat, the greater the chances of stopping that. If Eurasia crashes, Zero goes Maverick and you lose him. Interesting idea, until you realize that even with all the Mavericks defeated, the cannon still doesn't have a 100% fire rate. That's right, this game's ending is entirely down to RNG. This is especially problematic since X and Zero keep whichever upgrades they get, so if you lose Zero, you lose all of those upgrades permanently. This is not good game design no matter how you slice it, and this alone drags X5 down a lot. But there's more, I didn't even mention the parts system that gives you exclusive upgrades for waiting eight days to start taking out Mavericks, Alia's annoying interruptions, Zero getting nerfed thanks to a weapon that cancels out his dash cancel exploit, and the Sigma virus mechanic that literally contributes nothing to the game as a whole. X5 is just a mess of convoluted and confusing mechanics that don't mesh well with each other in the slightest.

After all that, you might think I hate this game, right? Well, not entirely. That first hour or so I spent trying to manipulate the RNG of the Enigma Cannon was absolute torture, but once I actually started to, you know, play the game, I actually had a pretty good time. There's still a lot that this game does right. For example, X5 does introduce some cool new mechanics, like the ability to crouch and hang on ropes. This may not sound ground-breaking but both of these mechanics are utilized pretty well throughout the game, with some boss fights even being built around the crouch. In addition, this is the first game where X can get multiple armors, another really great idea. While I'm not a fan of not being able to equip any upgrades until the whole suit is complete, the idea of picking the best armor for a given situation adds a nice layer of depth. And then there's the item game, which I'm a bit split on. On one hand, the extra upgrade capsules add some extra complexity to the item routing and figuring out the most efficient route here was decently fun. On the other hand, there are some very stupid item placements that pretty much force you to play certain stages multiple times (You have to play Duff McWhalen's stage three times!), so it's not like the route you pick matters, you're going to have to replay most of the stages anyway. Finally, I wanted to praise Dynamo, who's easily my favorite of the "recurring mid-game bosses" in the X series. He's super charismatic, he has a great theme, his fights are fun, and having to fight him in between every few Mavericks was always a pleasant change of pace.

The level design, while not as consistently solid as in X4, is still super varied and at times very fun. Sure, Duff McWhalen's stage is absolutely horrid and Squid Adler's stage makes a bad first impression to say the least, but we also have Izzy Glow's dynamic castle stage, the fun gravity shenanigans of Dark Dizzy's stage, the frantic bomb defusing in The Skiver's stage, the lava waves in Mattrex's stage, and of course, Grizzly Slash's ridiculously fun truck stage, because levels taking place on moving vehicles are always bangers for some reason. I don't make the rules. But then there's the boss fights which are just absolutely fantastic, hands down my favorite lineup in not just the Mega Man X series but probably also the classic games too. Every single fight is unique and memorable, from Duff McWhalen attacking you with ice blocks, to The Skiver fighting you atop a moving plane, to Izzy Glow's slick teleportation. The bosses also don't get as easily stun-locked as in X4, and the ones that do may still have a desperation move to keep you on your toes. The sheer variety and creativity on show for every single one of the bosses made them easily the highlight of my playthrough. The weapon lineup is a bit mediocre, though. It's not a bad roster of weapons and they mostly have their uses, but it's not creative in the slightest and pretty much every single one feels ripped straight from another game. The Dark Hold? That's just the time freeze weapons from MM2 and MM4. Wing Spiral? Basically the Air Shooter. The Tri-Thunder? Literally just the Thunder Beam from MM1, it's even the weakness of a certain boss shared between the games, more on that in just a sec.

Then there's the endgame, which might just the greatest "final castle" in any Mega Man game ever. I keep bringing up how X5 was meant to be the last X game and it especially shows in these last few stages, which feel like they've had the most effort put into it. Stage 1 brings back Quick Man's lasers and a harder version of the Yellow Devil, both infamously tough Mega Man setpieces that I absolutely adored. Stage 2 references the first stage of X1's Sigma Fortress (though thankfully makes it slightly less frustrating) and another fun throwback boss in the harder refight with Rangda Bangda. Stage 3 hides the Ultimate Armors for X and Zero that were previously only cheat codes in X4, and it ends with the iconic fight between X and Zero. It's not a super hard fight but the drama, fast-pace, and fun attack patterns make it yet another one of my favorite bosses in the series, made even better by boasting the best music in the whole franchise. And finally, in Stage 4, there's my favorite boss rush so far. Obviously it helps that I love this game's bosses, but the thrill of seeing bosses get double the health only for you to destroy them with the Ultimate Armor is so much fun. And it all culminates in a pretty solid final battle with Sigma, pre-rendered grossness aside. It may seem like X5's final stages are overly fanservice-y, but I think the nostalgia is used in a uniquely melancholy context. Having played so many Mega Man games this past month or so, going through this final gauntlet allowed me to reflect on and be proud of how much I've managed to accomplish.

Overall, Mega Man X5 is a bit of a mixed bag, but one I ultimately enjoyed in the end. It has a lot of new mechanics, many of which are under-cooked and don't mesh with the Mega Man X formula, and the RNG gimmick is absolutely godawful design in every sense of the word. Add in the at times ugly prerendered visuals, bad translation, flawed item game, and Alia, and I'd totally get if you're just not a fan of X5. But for me, I think this game gets as much right as it does wrong, if not more. The level design is diverse and mostly fun, the story is climactic and has a strong sense of finality, the multiple armors are a great addition, the soundtrack is once again fantastic, the boss fights are some of the best in the entire franchise, and the endgame is pretty much perfect. There's just something about X5's atmosphere too. The dark tone, the nostalgic melancholy, the sheer amount of early 2000s neon green, it just hits different for me. Mega Man X5 is still not one of the best Mega Man X games, but even with its flaws, it's one of those games that I'll probably end up having a real soft spot for as time goes on. Compared to the consistently mediocre X3, Mega Man X5 has higher highs and lower lows, but wow, are those highs soaring.

3.5/5 Stars

Mega Man X6: I've had an odd fascination with Mega Man X6 for a while now. From its haphazard aesthetic, to its rushed production, to the bad translation, to the nightmare gimmicks, to all the horror stories about its difficulty, to its shockingly good soundtrack, this was a game I was oddly looking forward to playing just to see how weird it would get. And I was not disappointed, Mega Man X6 is such a mess of qualities, a genuine improvement and iteration on previous Mega Man X games and also one of the most ineptly designed games I've ever played in my life. It's almost charming in its unevenness and stupidity. A similarly bad and brutally difficult game like Mortal Kombat Mythologies (quite possibly my least favorite game ever) would elicit nothing but pure anger out of me, being screwed over by Mega Man X6's game design feels more like a "Haha! Oh, you..." moment. This is a bad game, down there with Mega Man & Bass as one of the worst of the series by a long shot... but I think it might also be a guilty pleasure for me.

But let's start with some of the things X6 does right, because it does do quite a bit right. Mega Man X6 improves on its predecessor in a lot of ways, either fixing or removing most of its bad mechanics. There's no time limit, no RNG (outside of one stage but we'll get to that), and the bizarre Sigma virus stuff is completely gone. Alia's interruptions are entirely optional, you can choose if you want to talk to her like it should've been the whole time. The item placement is (once again mostly) more sensible and less reliant on getting one of the two armors, so there's more variety to the order you want to do things again. X and Zero share weapons, upgrades and (most of the) parts, and there's no way to lose either of the characters. Even if you wait all game to get Zero, you won't have to do much work for him to catch up. And even more, Zero is back to being worth playing as here because not only is his "dash cancel" back, but it's actually easier to pull off! As a matter of fact, with X now having a Z-Saber and Zero now having an actually good Z-Buster, in addition to the many new combat exploits for the both of them, X6 actually might have some of the best combat in the whole series. Just like with the Zero series, I've seen videos of people pulling off these crazy combos in X6, it's like the Melee of Mega Man X in the way the glitches actively improve the game. You can even bring in the Ultimate Armors via cheat codes and break the game even more, it's wonderful. The two new armors are way better than the ones in X5 too, between the very useful Blade Armor and the fun ninja-esque Shadow Armor. But probably the best change is how parts are tackled. In this game, you get parts by saving certain Reploids, with 16 in a stage, and the higher your rank, the more you can equip. I actually really like this system because not only is it way easier to understand, but the concept of hiding extra perks and upgrades behind collectibles is a neat method of giving X6 more exploration and replayability. Not to mention the fact that each stage has an alternate route that usually leads to a reward or more Reploids, which just helps to give X6 so much freedom.

In terms of its presentation, Mega Man X6 isn't too different from its predecessor. The story obviously isn't as intense as in X5 but it has some intriguing ideas that were once again mangled by a horrific translation. The graphics still look alright and do a good job of capturing a post-apocalyptic atmosphere, but once again, the pre-rendered backgrounds and bosses don't look all that great. And the soundtrack is one of my favorites in the whole franchise, the blend of synth and wailing guitars does a great job at setting a melancholy mood that perfectly fits X6's tone. So yeah, Mega Man X6 has a lot going for it, but the problems start to sink in the moment you pick your first Maverick, likely Commander Yammark. It's smooth sailing at first, but then you see your first Nightmare Virus, and the game immediately plummets in quality. Because while X6 does fix a lot of X5's awful mechanics, it introduces a bunch of bad ideas of its own, some of which are arguably worse. So in Mega Man X6, you increase your rank by collecting Nightmare Orbs which are dropped by the aforementioned viruses. Not a bad idea in theory, a collectible that you get from enemies is something the classic games did really well. However, only the Nightmare Viruses drop these orbs, and they're spammed into every single level even when they don't fit just so that you can get orbs. Even worse, Nightmare Viruses can infect Reploids permanently. That's right, you can lose access to parts and collectibles for the rest of the game. Permanently missable collectibles is awful game design and almost as bad as the RNG. But then there's the Nightmare Effects, where playing a stage will cause other stages to be affected by some sort of gimmick, like dimmed lights or enemies that block your shots. X6's stages are already not the best designed, so these shoehorned-in gimmicks make them nearly unplayable at times. 

Speaking of which, then there are the levels, which range wildly in terms of quality. There are actually a few stages I liked alright, like the Opening Stage, the exploration-driven Rainy Turtloid's stage, and the fairly simple dodging challenges of Blizzard Wolfang. However, the majority of X6's levels are not just brutally difficult, they're just lazy. Blaze Heatnix's stages makes you fight the same mini boss five times in a row. Ground Scaravich's stage doesn't just have RNG rooms, the enemies feel randomly placed as well. And Infinity Mijinion's stage is just a straight line with enemy spam. Even some of the better stages feel lazy, like with Commander Yammark's mantis spam and Shield Sheldon's ridiculously short length (edit: After thinking about it for a bit, I believe this was actually on purpose because Sheldon's stage was meant to invisibly guide players to Nightmare Zero. Not bad, X6). And the endgame stages are filled to the brim with dumb design choices like segments that force you to use a specific armor, blind jumps, and a room where lava rises but the game never indicates that the lava is rising until you get hit. The bosses aren't much better, though, especially coming off of X5's phenomenal lineup. The Mavericks are pitifully easy since we're back to being able to easily stun-lock them, but even Zero is now able to completely rip them to shreds without a second thought. Even Sigma, the final boss, is an absolute wimp here! On the other hand, literally every other boss is absolute torture. High Max and Nightmare Mother are especially bad, with beefy health bars and long periods of invincibility that cause their fights to drag on, and on, and on. The weapons aren't much better, since X6 has one of the most unbalanced lineups in Mega Man history, rivaling the king of unbalanced weapons: Mega Man 2. Yammark Option is the Metal Blade equivalent here, not just the best shield weapon in Mega Man history but probably the best weapon period. It's so good that pretty much every weapon is rendered entirely null outside of boss weaknesses.

I probably should give Mega Man X6 a 1/5. With bad level design, thoughtless enemy placement, incredibly uneven boss difficulty, the awful Nightmare mechanics, odd visual style, and an unbalanced weapon roster, X6 probably deserves it. However, I just can't bring myself to do it. For starters, X6 still does do some stuff right, like the amazing soundtrack and atmosphere, great sense of freedom, collectibles, fun and breakable combat, and the many fixes of X5's issues. And especially compared to the game directly after it, this is still Mega Man X, so the gameplay is still inherently fun. But even with the stuff it fails at, Mega Man X6 fails at it so ineptly that I can't help but find it oddly charming. Ground Scaravich's, Blaze Heatnix's, and Infinity Mijinion's stages are so bad that I find it kinda funny. High Max and Nightmare Mother are such awful bosses that I'm still in disbelief about how they passed testing, if there even was testing to begin with. The bizarre pre-rendered models, the horrendously botched translation, it's all just so entertaining to me. And even with its many flaws, I was engrossed enough to keep pushing through the BS to get all the upgrades, visit most the alternate routes, and even save a large amount of the Reploids. As a comparison, I didn't even bother going for the CDs in Mega Man & Bass! Mega Man X6 is easily one of the worst Mega Man games, but it's also just such a guilty pleasure. It's a mess, but it's my mess.

From a game design perspective: 1/5 Stars

From a personal enjoyment perspective: 5/5 Stars

Overall: 3/5 Stars?

Mega Man X7: I... I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to play even more than thirty minutes of this awful, awful game. I tolerated the BS in MM&B and X6 because, at the very least, the core gameplay was still fun. The characters still had snappy movement and fluid combat that I felt confident controlling it, so even when I got stuck in what seemed like an impossible situation, I knew that I would be able to find my way out of it through skill. This does not apply to Mega Man X7. Mega Man X7 not only has the awful level design, bosses, and weapon roster from X6, but on top of all that, the gameplay isn't fun in the slightest. It's slow, plodding, irritating, and just plain dull. It's easily the worst Mega Man game, and probably one of the worst games I've ever played. Since I haven't played the whole thing, I wanted to mostly structure this particular review as a list of the things that put me off of playing it:

• The characters move so slowly, and even the presence of a dash doesn't help things since you can't build up momentum. It makes it super hard to dodge enemy attacks and frankly just makes the game less fun.
• Newcomer Axl's copy shot is utterly useless. Don't use it.
• They seriously neutered Zero. Not only is he slow but he has no reach and his attacks don't do any damage, X7 completely ruined one of the most fun gameplay styles in the whole series.
• I know this has been said ad infinitum but why isn't X playable at the start? It's a Mega Man X game, not an Axl and Zero game!
• The fixed camera in the 3D sections is absolutely horrid, it's such an awkward angle and the whole top-down perspective just doesn't work for me. 
• Enemies take way too many hits to die, it's actually way easier to just brute force your way through them. In the 3D sections, you can usually even walk around them!
• Even more, apparently Capcom decided to reduce all your damage values in half for the US version. I have no words, this is one of the dumbest design decisions I've ever heard.
• Why do attacks cause your character to stagger and fall? Why is this a mechanic in a Mega Man game?
• The lock-on is so finicky, especially in 3D. I would've actually preferred they just let you shoot manually even with all the depth perception issues.
• The weapons are borderline useless most of the time.
• Reploids don't just die to Nightmare Viruses now, they die to everything! Now they're even more hard to get!
• WHY IS THE RIDE CHASER SO SLOW?!
• The loading screens. Just... the loading screens.
• The voice acting is really bad, even outside of BURN TO THE GROUND. Everyone in the cast slowly enunciates every single word in their lines in the same monotone, it's like this is their first time voice acting.
• The cutscenes aren't much better since the characters are hardly ever animated. They just stand around, not even moving their mouths half of the time.
• Above all, on top of just being a poorly-designed game, Mega Man X7 is just boring. X6's bad elements are so hilariously inept that I find them kinda funny, but X7 just feels so dull. The gameplay isn't inherently frustrating, it's just so slow-paced that I find it boring. And the worst thing a piece of media can be, in my opinion, is boring.

I try to be as open-minded as I can when consuming pretty much any form of media. Even in this series, I praised Mega Man & Bass for its presentation, weapon roster, and the few good levels it did have. And as bad as X6 was, I found a lot to like about it and even called it a guilty pleasure. But Mega Man X7 is a game that felt nearly irredeemable to me, at least outside of the typically strong soundtrack. It's the first Mega Man game that I just couldn't bring myself to finish, it was just that painful. Everything in X7 is just so slow and boring, from the gameplay to the combat to the gimmicks to the line delivery. It amplifies everything that sucked about X6 and removes all of its redeeming factors, and makes for a game that I can confidently say is one of the worst I've ever played.

0/5 Stars

Mega Man X8: I'll be honest, I couldn't really bring myself to finish X8 either, though not for the same reasons as X7. I ended up playing a lot longer than X7, and actually bothered to at the very least try out all the Maverick stages. It's definitely an improvement in a lot of ways and a really solid platformer in its own right... but I just couldn't really get into it like I could pretty much any other Mega Man game. There's something about the direction of the series in X7 and X8 that just doesn't gel with me, so I want to figure out why while also praising X8 for the several things it did right.

So let's start with the positives. Gameplay wise, Mega Man X8 basically feels like a good version of X7 without any of the 3D sections, meaning the entire game is in 2.5D. This is awesome because I love 2.5D games, and we have plenty of twists and turns in the road as well as enemies and bosses that interact with the background. The core gameplay is way faster-paced compared to X7, and I'd actually say these are some of the smoothest controls in the whole X series. X, Zero, and Axl move and attack incredibly quickly, and these shifts allow for a much more fast-paced and frantic game. Best of all, I actually like playing as Axl this time! He has multi-directional aiming, which basically makes him like Bass from the classic series. The Copy Shot still sucks, but otherwise, this is an improvement. The team mechanic from X7 was also improved, since one teammate dying doesn't mean the other does, and you even get a Double Team Attack. X8 also improves on some elements from games prior to X7, particularly regarding Alia. Now, you have three navigators, each with different strengths, and you can even choose to not use any if you find them annoying. The general presentation is also a lot better, with the animations being a bit less janky, the visuals being a lot more polished and detailed, and the game having a very pretty mystical style to it giving X8 an identity. The voice acting is also leagues better, probably the best I've heard in a Mega Man game so far, and apparently, Sigma isn't the final boss here, which is a great twist. The soundtrack is honestly one of the weaker ones in the X series due to being a bit generic, but it still has a lot of great tracks, with Primrose in particular being one of my favorites in the series.

As you can see, in terms of its core gameplay, X8 is fantastic! This game had the groundwork to be one of my favorite entries in the series, but it's not. A big problem I have with X8 is how it deals with items and collectibles and the like. Reploids are gone again, as are the Nightmare Viruses. Now you find Rare Metals hidden in stages that you can use to create parts (now called chips) that you can equip on the characters. However, in addition to all of that, X8 also has these triangle-shaped coins you can collect either by defeating enemies or searching around the stage, and you need to use those to buy the chips. I really like this idea in theory, but in execution, there are a lot of issues. The first issue is the fact that most of the Rare Metals are hidden away just like any other upgrade from the last seven games, meaning a lot of them require that you have the right character with the right ability. This differs from the Reploids in X6 and X7 where most of them are possible to get regardless of who you're playing as and what armor or abilities you have, but that's not the case in X8, meaning you'd have to do a lot of backtracking if you want so much as a fighting chance. (It also doesn't help that unlike in X6, you need to be X if you want to get Armor pieces, making things even more inconvenient). The next issue is the fact that most of the chips cost a lot of money, meaning you'll likely have to backtrack even more and grind for money. It's like the Cyber Elf system in Mega Man Zero all over again. Oh, and speaking of Mega Man Zero, why did they bring back Retry Chips?! 

And then there are the levels, which are as much of a mixed bag as you could get. Mega Man X8 is a very gimmicky game, to the point where there isn't a single normal Maverick stage. We have two Ride Chaser stages, an entire stage based around the clunkier-than-ever Ride Armor, a minigame stage, an auto-scroller, a stealth stage, a puzzle-based stage about flipping gravity, and a level based around a mini boss chasing you (I thought we were over than in X5). And look, I'm all here for variety, and some of X8's stages are decently enjoyable. As a Super Mario Galaxy enjoyer, I'm always down for some good gravity shenanigans so I liked Gravity Antonion's stage. Some of Optic Sunflower's minigames were pretty cool too, especially that Cut Man easter egg. And I actually thought Avalanche Yeti had one of the more fun Ride Chaser segments in the series. However, these gimmicks were very hit-or-miss and it really drags down the game since we have this incredibly strong gameplay core that just isn't utilized as well as it should've been. Metal Valley was a drag, I hated controlling the Ride Armor here compared to the normal cast, and auto-scrollers and stealth stages always suck. And from what I've played, the bosses and weapons aren't all that great either, leaning more on the forgettable side.

So why did I quit X8? I think it's just because I didn't enjoy a lot of the stages, and since X8 encourages you to do a lot of backtracking and grinding, I felt less and less interested in finishing it. The game has incredibly strong gameplay, lots of great quality of life improvements, and a solid presentation, but the shop system, level design, and item game just drags it down from being one of my favorites. I also just don't think it helps that Mega Man X7 and X8 feel so disconnected from the rest of the series, not just because of Axl but because of how the entire overarching story has changed. I don't want to be the type of person who claims the X series overstayed its welcome and should've ended with X5 or X6, but I feel like at the very least, Capcom maybe should've pulled a ZX and started a whole new saga. It's a lot easier to think of X1-X6 as the Mega Man X games and X7 & X8 as the, I don't know, "Mega Man Axl" games? It sucks that I'm once again ending a Mega Man series on a bum note, so I want to restate that I loved the first six Mega Man X games, maybe even more than the classic series! I guess it's just that X7 and X8 really aren't my speed.

2.5/5 Stars

Here's my final ranking:

1. Mega Man X4
2. Mega Man X
3. Mega Man X6's personal enjoyment rating
4. Mega Man X2
5. Mega Man X5
6. Mega Man X6
7. Mega Man X3
8. Mega Man X8
9. Mega Man X6's quality rating
10. Mega Man X7

And now that I'm done with the Mega Man playthrough, here's my Top 10 entries in the series, with an honorable mention going to my guilty pleasure, X6:

1. Mega Man Zero 4
2. Mega Man X4
3. Mega Man Zero 3
4. Mega Man 3
5. Mega Man X
6. Mega Man 7
7. Mega Man 9
8. Mega Man X2
9. Mega Man 5
10. Mega Man 8

If you want to see how I'd rank all of the games, here's a tier list of sorts:

• S Tier: MM3, X1, X4, Zero 3, and Zero 4
• A Tier: MM7, MM9, MM5, and X2
• B Tier: MM6, MM8, X5, Zero 2, ZX, and ZX Advent
• C Tier: MM4, MM10, X3, X6, and Zero
• D Tier: MM1, MM2, and X8
• F Tier: MM&B, X7