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Megaman X

Platform: SNES

Genre: Platformer/Shooter

Publisher/Developer: Capcom

*This is a review for the original Megaman X on SNES, not Maverick Hunter X on PSP or any other versions of Megaman X

Megaman X is one of my all time favorite games from my childhood. When it came out it was near 16-bit perfection. The graphics were sleek and stylish, the music was AWESOME, and the gameplay was so great that it stands the test of time entirely.

In the game you play as X, a Maverick Hunter who...well, Hunts Mavericks, robots that are being used by the evil Sigma to rule the world! X does this with his trusty pal Zero, a fellow and more powerful Hunter.

You see Zero later in the iconic and excellent first stage where you are immediately set into a city environment where chaos is being unleashed. You get an awesome song to accompany you as you traverse. X starts out relatively weak but over time, you collect power ups like armor, health boosts, and of course the new powers that you get from defeating each of the game's bosses, the Mavericks. The gameplay feels similar to the other Megaman games, you run, you shoot, and keep going. However, as the game progresses, you get more abilities to help you traverse, such as a dash. These add far more maneuverability to X than his original counterparts and it's one of the reasons that the gameplay is so sweet. Plus, you can traverse up walls with a sort of mini wall climb, adding great verticality to the gameplay as well.

Once you complete the first stage and meet the almighty Zero, you are then given the freedom to choose from 8 different stages, (Hey, this is just like Megaman!) each one designed for the themes of the different bosses. Chill Penguin for example, has a 'cool' ice and snowy themed level. Each level has their own secrets and even difficulty, some are harder than others. Each stage also has their own wonderful 16-bit music track and they are some of the best of the 16-bit era by far. This is when Capcom cared.

Upon defeating a boss, in classic Megaman fashion, you gain their ability. These abilities are better than ever as they each have their own awesome attributes, though all of them are almost strictly for combat here, for the most part. What is really neat is that each of the bosses have a weakness to a specific power. For example, Chill Penguin's Ice Shot power is incredibly effective against the Maverick 'Spark Mandrill', as it freezes him. Each boss has a weakness like this and it is fun to experiment and see what does what. Even the final bosses much later in the game have some kind of weakness, so experimentation is key.

Another really cool aspect of the game is how completing certain levels in certain orders will affect the other stages. If you complete some stages before others, you may change certain aspects of another level, potentially making it a lot easier. This again adds a level of experimentation and replay-ability but doing so creatively rather than just on sheer difficulty.

Each power up you gain over time makes you feel significantly stronger. By the end of the game, you are world's stronger than how you started and that feeling of progression is done incredibly well for a sidescroller like this. Not many games like this could pull that off well, from what I remember. It gives the game a sense of adventure. This game and Super Mario World were two of the first games to ever give me that feeling.

If I had any complaints at all, it might be the string of final bosses that I felt were a bit tacked on as they don't offer much in terms of levels, just a difficult boss fight. It feels a little bit like padding. This obviously isn't much of a gripe though when the game is this good.

Final Verdict:

Thank you for reading this week's Turbo Review!

Until next week,

Turbo out!