Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3

Introduction

The SNES trilogy of Mega Man X1, X2 and X3 was a big part of my childhood, and because of that I fully admit that I may look at them through nostalgic glasses.

Such is not the case with Mega Man X4, the first X game to not be on the Super Nintendo, but the original Playstation.

Released in 1997, the game came after my Mega Man X craze, and since I never owned the original Playstation as a kid, I missed the game entirely. Japan also got a Sega Saturn release, but we're going to be focusing on the Playstation version since that's the one we got in Europe.

It was only later on that I played with my friend who had the Playstation that I got to experience X4. And then later on I got the Playstation 2, and X4 was a part of the Mega Man X Collection.

But there's no nostalgia here, so how does the game stack up against the SNES trilogy in my opinion?

There's always been a lot of debate over which is the best X game, X1 or X4. Those two are definitely considered to be the two peaks of the X series, with the drastic downfall starting right after X4.

Gameplay

As with previosus X titles, the gameplay is the most important aspect. The tight controls from the SNES trilogy do return in the first Playstation version, which is a big relief. X and Zero control just as smoothly as on the SNES, the game is never unfair and never will you feel not in control of what's happening.

And speaking of Zero, this time around he is a fully playable character, and this is one of the biggest additions to X4.

No longer will you only be able to play as Zero during parts of levels, and be forced to play as X during boss fights, Zero now comes in with his very own campaign.

Upon beginning a new game, you will select either X or Zero, and will play as that character for the duration of the playthrough.

The great thing is that X and Zero are vastly different; X will use his trusty X Buster to shoot enemies from a long distance, whereas Zero will only use his Z Sabre, meaning that in order to combat enemies, the player has to master melee combat.

The two different approaches completely change the way the player approaches situations, and while Zero is the "hard mode" of the game, whichever is truly "better" comes down to personal taste.

Personally, I enjoyed playing as Zero for the added difficulty level.

The levels are designed really well to complement the fact that the player has two different characters to choose from. Enemy placement never feels unbalanced, and both characters always have a way to complete a level with the character's own playstyle.

Mastering Zero's Z Sabre techniques feels satisfying, moreso than mastering X, who the players at this point had already mastered for three whole games. Especially in the boss fights the two differing strategies come to play, and the bosses are noticeably more challenging as Zero. And I mean that in the best way possible.

On the topic of boss fights, the boss arenas now have more variance to them, sort of like in X2. They are no longer solely simply the square shaped battle arenas from X1. This does a lot in making some of the individual boss fights feel unique.

Zero can't collect any of X's armor upgrades, and must rely on the new techniques collected by beating the bosses. This also adds to difficulty level of playing as Zero. I'm fine with the game being more challenging as Zero, since playing as Zero is optional, and it works, as I said above, as a difficulty level option.

The level design is top notch, perhaps the best in the series yet. So far, X3 has had my favorite level design, but X4 takes the cake as of the writing of this review.

There's so much variance from the now almost mandatory ice physics level, to a tropical jungle, to a military train, to a volcano and to a marine base. The levels have their own gimmicks, and none feel similar to one another. You need to master a very particular set of skills with each level. This is exactly how a sidescrolling run and shoot should work. As in X1, going through the levels never feels monotonous.

The marine base level is often used as a knock against X4 due to its unfair difficulty. The level requires the player to drive a hover bike throughout the level, dodging enemies and obstacles.

I agree that the level can feel unfair, and it takes a ton of trial and error to get through. Eventual, however, I was able to get through it, and I could do it on subsequent tries, so once you nail it, you nail. It's possible to get the level down on muscle memory, and to be fair to the level, trial and error were a big part of old school gaming. So, no, I don't feel it's a knock against the game. Can it be frustrating? Yes. But kids today have it too easy with modern games that hold your hand from start to finish. Back in my day, we had to get angry, frustrated and mad - and then feel gratifying calmness of finally making it through a difficult part.

While the level design is top notch, the same can't be said about the bosses, unfortunately. Now don't get me wrong, as X without using the weapons they're weak against, as well as Zero, the bosses are a lot of fun and a good challenge. But it boggles my mind that, after getting it right in X2, they returned to the X1 style in X3 and X4, where the bosses are a joke when using whatever weapon they're weak against.

X2 struck a nice balance in the bosses having a weakness, but still managing to offer a challenge even when using the special weapon. Then X3 and X4 have the majority of the bosses suffer from what is called the Spark Mandrill syndrome again.

Why this is the case after getting it right once, I have no idea.

If you want a good challenge, take the bosses on without their weakness. Otherwise, six out of the eight bosses are simply no fun.

Zero is the winner here, as well, since even though Zero can use techniques that the bosses are weak against, mastering those techniques takes skill and timing, so it balances itself out that way. It could be that since X is considered the esy mode and Zero the hard mode, this was intentional.

Still a bummer, since X is the main protagonist, and some people still want to play as X.

On a positive note, however, stuff like needing Spark Mandrill's weapon to even stand a chance against Armored Armadillo in X1 for a first time player is gone in X4. All of the bosses are manageable as first choices even for casual players. So that's a big positive.

What is not a big positive, or a positive at all, is the fact that even though the last bosses are fine and beatable and challenging in a good way, the boss rush, unlike in the SNES games, is now a part of final boss.

This means that if you die at last boss, you go through the eight bosses every single time just to get another try at the last boss.

This is ridiculous.

It's made even more ridiculous by the fact that in order to fill up your energy tanks, you need to go through the absolutely soul crushing waste of time of farming for energy, which takes away even more of your time.

This, I'd say, is the biggest knock against X4.

This is weird since bullshit design, in general, is very much absent in X4. But somehow this made its way through playtesting. I guess there was a logic behind it, at the time, but it is one that I can't quite see. This is not challenging, it's just tedious and mind numbing. The very opposite of fun.

Moving on.

X4 returns to its X1 roots in the sense that the additional armor upgrades and ride armors introduced in X3 are gone. You collect eight heart tanks and four armor upgrades, and that's it. I can see some people seeing this as a positive, since sometimes less is more, and the creators clearly wanted to simplify the game, but I see it as somewhat of a negative, since I liked the fact that X3 had much more stuff to do in it.

The game is now less confusing, and granted the additional armor upgrades in X3 received flack for their implementation, but the correct way to go would have been to fix the implementation - not getting rid of them altogether.

As is tradition, the leg upgrade once again grants X a bit more mobility, since now in addition to the air dash introduced in X2, as well as the upwards dash introducing X3, X can now hover in the air at the desired height for a little while. This is a great addition, and once again adds new ways and possibilities to tackle levels and obstacles.

It's not as earth shattering as the air dash was in X2, but still a nice thing to have, and a thing that differentiates X4 from the SNES trilogy that came before it.

The helmet upgrade gives X unlimited weapon energy for uncharged shots, the body armor reduces damage by 50% and charges up Nova Strike, an ability for X to fly through enemies as pure fire for a limited time, and finally X can choose from two different arm parts.

The Stock Charge Shot allows X to charge up four charged shots at once.

The Plasma Charge Shot upgrades X's charged shots to the Plasma Shot, which is more powerful than the standard blast, and will leave up to three orbs of plasma generated and causes continuous damage.

Both arm upgrades have their use, and I like tat you can only choose one, because it adds to the replay value. I also like that they are selectable in the same area, as the game can give you all the details you need in order to make up your mind.

Unlike in X3, where the optional parts were scattered throughout different levels, and you could find one part without knowing that they all do, so you would have to find all of them before making up your mind.

The secets are hidden in very good places, I really like the secret placement in X4, probably my favorite in the series thus far.

Finding the secrets takes some puzzle solving and out of the box thinking, and therefore it feels rewarding to be able to find them. I found all secrets without looking them up online, but they were still not too easy. X4 strikes a very good balance here.

Graphics

With the jump from 16 bit to 32 bit, the graphics get an obvious overhaul. X4 was panned by critics upon release due to the fact that it stuck to its 2D sprite based guns, instead of following the industry standard at the time by making the jump to 3D, but I, for one, am happy X4 stuck to those guns. Or should I say X Busters.

The Playstation era, to me, is the ugliest era in gaming, post Atari days. 3D was such a new thing at the time, a lot of game developers didn't really know how to work with it, and the end result was often a hideous mess of polygons and blocks. Remember Metal Gear Solid, released a year later?

And I love me some Metal Gear Solid, but that thing was ugly even when it came out. It made up for that fact in other ways, but still. Anyways, this is not a Metal Gear Solid review.

I really like how X4 looks. I never had a problem with X1, X2, or X3, to begin with, and X4 is an update that looks fresh, but familiar. And that's the way I like it.

The stages have 3D elements with the backgrounds, and certain things placed "in front" of the levels, things feel alive and vibrant, which continues the pleasant trend started in X3.

With the stage variety mentioned earlier in the review, the graphics department had a lot of great stuff to work with.

Easily the best looking X game yet, and I have very little, if anything, to complain about. The sprites did weird me out for a few minutes, having been used to the ones present in the SNES titles, but as I got used to them, I learned to love them.

It's never a drag to go back to the SNES games after playing X4, but X4 always feels awesome on the eyes when playing.

I also very much enjoy the boss design this time around. The bosses look dangerous and cool, which is what I want from my Mega Man X villains, since they need to be different than the cartoony ones in the classic Mega Man series.

It's not fair to compare 32 bit graphics to 16 bit graphics, per say, but it needs to be said that, of course, X4 is the best looking X game at this point in the series.

I like how the developers didn't go out of their way to make things too flashy and drastically different simply due to the advanced hardware, so things still look like Mega Man X.

Music

As much as I liked the graphics, the same can't be said about the music department of X4.

The music is not bad, at all. It fits the levels, it fits the bosses. It's fine. But X1 it ain't, and it's not even X3. As far as music goes, X4 is more like X2 in that it's not bad, but after the bar was set so high in X1, and after X3 found some of its former glory after X2, X4 once again feels a bit... meh.

While the compositions themselves are adequeate, some are even good, they're mostly not quite what I would want in an X game.

It's calm, sedated and atmospheric, as opposed to being grinding rock music that pumps up your adrenaline and riles you up to wreck some robot ass.

The music is, by far, my biggest disappointment with X4.

It could be just that X1 set the standard as so high that it's hard to replicate, but after X3 did such a fine job, X4 once again feels like a downgrade. And that's a shame.

There really aren't tracks on the X4 soundtrack that I'd see myself listening to outside of the game.

Overall

So, how does X4 rank against the SNES trilogy? Without nostalgia glasses on, like I said.

Very well.

The level design is the best in the series yet, the ability to play the entire game as Zero is great and adds to the replay value, the secrets are hidden well, the armor upgrades are fun, the graphics are great, and overall most of what you want to work well works well.

But the music, some of the boss design, and the fact that the boss rush is a part of final boss drag it down from being a perfect X game. That is still X1.

X4 does certain things better than X1, namely the fact that the bosses are possible to defeat as first time choices for casual players, and Zero adds to the game a lot, but the absence of a great soundtrack, which was one of X1's defining features, is a big bummer.

After giving it though, I might rank it behind X1, to a joint second place with X3.

It's impossible for me to remove nostalgia completely, seeing as how X1 was such a big part of my childhood, but it still remains golden.

The levels are longer in X4, so there's definitely more to play, and I might even recommend X4 as the first X game for a newcomer. X4 is something of a reboot of the series, since it returns to the X1 roots in a lot of ways. So that also makes it a worthy first pick for someone looking to get into the X series.

Sadly, X4 was the last really good X game, with X5 being something of a disappointment, followed by the abomination that is X6.

I will review both games, but those will be undertakings since there's so much to say about what is wrong with them.

But I will get to them eventually.