The Video Game Revue

Mega Man X Collection

As to the issue of what game is likely to draw me in next, the recently released Mega Man X Collection has stepped up to become a forerunner. It's been a long time since I did a proper playthrough of Mega Man X, one of my all-time favourite SNES games; so long, in fact, that when I reached Sigma's fortress, I hardly recognized the place. I remembered where all of X's upgrades were (the X-Buster upgrade, jump boots, armor, and helmet) although I couldn't remember how to activate the easter egg to get Ryu's hadouken, and I only found two energy tanks and five life containers. I'm sure there's more than that--I'll have to do some more digging around and see if I can't find those elusive nooks containing more precious power-ups.

I did take a serious run at Sigma's fortress, though. The first level initially smacked me down hard, but after a bit of practice, I regained some more of my Mega Man groove and was able to topple it. The other two levels of Sigma's fortress are not as difficult as the first, and I was able to beat them without much fuss. Sigma himself was a different story.

Now I probably could have beaten Sigma with a couple more tries, but after so much Mega Man X action in one evening, I was simply worn out. Even knowing that I would have to start Sigma's fortress over from scratch, I decided that it would be best to sleep on the matter and make a fresh run later (tonight, I hope). I have every intention of finishing Mega Man X and moving on to the sequel. It'll be mildly interesting to see how far I make it before stalling out; for instance, when I got the original Mega Man Collection, I managed to play through some of the original Mega Man (not enough to finish it--it's pretty tough!), and finish Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3. I started on Mega Man 4 but didn't make it very far before giving up--in retrospect, maybe I should have just skipped on to 5... but I do still feel that I should go back, put my nose to the grindstone, and finish Mega Man 4. It would be sweet to work through the entire series once and for all.

I did take a little bit of time to play the first little bit of Mega Man X-3 before going to bed, though. The only other Mega Man X game for PlayStation that I'd played any of before was X-6, and I had to satisfy my curiosity a bit. I'm impressed with what I saw, and I can imagine that if nothing else, I'll manage to get through Mega Man X-2 and X-3 before tiring of the series. As with the original Mega Man Collection, it would be nice to get through all of Mega Man X. It's a worthwhile endeavour.

Then again, I could be spending my time on Castlevania series games instead. Hmm... that's a tempting thought. :)

I've always kind of wondered what the real story behind the creation of Mega Man X is, anyway. It's impressive that the developers decided to make a spin-off "alternate universe" of Mega Man, that they actually went through with it, and most of all that they made it work so well. I wonder if there was ever a feeling of stagnantion surrounding the original Mega Man series that made some of the creative minds behind it feel like they needed to explore something new. I wonder what kind of influences lead to the different style of Mega Man X--if there was any particular manga or anime that it is based off of.

Whatever the real story is, I'm definitely happy with the Mega Man X Collection. Mega Man X always has, and always will kick a lot of ass. The original Mega Man 3 remains my favourite Mega Man game of all, though.

posted by Parappa @ 10:40 AM