Mega Man X

The Good
New and improved 16 bit graphics for the first time in a Megaman title are the first signs of improvement you see on X. Character art and animation is much more detailed and streamlined, with a decidedly more animé feel to them (feeling that would eventually become fully realized on the PSX megamans), backgrounds are colorful and nicely animated, and as far as I can tell the whole game moves at the same breakneck scrolling speed while keeping everything looking nice just like in the original SNES title.

Gameplay-wise X brings some interesting twists to the already stagnant MegaMan franchise, and since this is the first one in the series it means that they are actually novel for once!! Sure, there's nothing revolutionary and the basic concept remains the same but at this point in time they were more than welcome additions. They are mostly secret items that expand Megaman's (actually Megaman X's since this is supposed to be a new Mega...) skills and grant him new powers like increasing his health, or in the way of armor upgrades (that also change his appearance) which give him the power to dash, break stuff, etc... You also have a new climbing skill from the get-go that changes the layout of the levels somewhat. In all, the new adjustments make for a definetively entertaining platform action title when coupled with the old "kill sub-bosses, get their weapons, repeat till you get to Willy... er Sigma" gameplay concept, complete with the standard soap-opera plotline with a mysterious ally/antagonist in the form of Zero (really just Protoman and Bass rolled into one with a Lightsaber thrown in) and other time-honored Megaman elements.

The Bad
Gets very repetitive after a while, and while the levels are well designed and the bosses for the most part manage to mantain some level of seriousness (instead of the "Crap-Man", "Cardboard-Man" or "Useless-Man" we had gotten used to), the whole thing ends up being to much of the same by the point you get to Sigma, quite frankly that coupled with the fact that he's insanely difficult to beat and the infamous "instant-respawning" of baddies the Megamans are known for made me just throw the game out the window. But maybe it's just me, the Megaman games are loved all over the world for some weird reason, even if after #3 they have all been pretty much worthless....

Oh, and I don't remember how the snes version sounded, but the pc version is pretty weak in that department.

The Bottom Line
Very good port of what is essentially yet another MegaMan game. Capcom added plenty of stuff to this one and managed to fine tune plenty of elements to provide the first good sequel to MegaMan in quite a while, put make no mistake. This is still a MegaMan Game, with everything good and bad that comes with it.