4.5/5 ★ – BlueSorcerer's review of Mega Man X.

Revisiting Mega Man X, I was reminded of how well thought out and executed this game's ideas were. Taking place approximately 100 years after the Classic Mega Man series, Mega Man X shifts the narrative by literally... well, putting more emphasis on the narrative. In a future world with war raging between peace-keeping robots called Reploids and those who rebel labeled Mavericks, X is the first successor to the original Mega Man built by Dr. Light and the first of his kind to act and evolve like a living being. X's potential is also thematically the greatest among all of the Reploids in his time, despite his robo bottom getting wrecked by one of the main—and f*cking relentless—antagonist's strongest henchmen, Vile. X is one of the central assets of the Maverick Hunters, a group of Reploids tasked with eliminating any other Reploids that have been labeled as Mavericks. Mavericks were once peace-keeping robots like X that have been affected by some type of influence, causing them to go insane or berserk. While there is no clear cause for a Reploid going Maverick, the process is often associated with technical flaws or system rewiring. This unclear influence is very much apparent for the main antagonist of the series named Sigma, who was the main leader of the Maverick Hunters. After Sigma becomes evil, the ongoing war increases in intensity and it’s up to X and his trusty—often several times to the grave—comrade, Zero, to put a stop to Sigma’s reign in hopes of de-escalating and ending the war altogether. I hope that plot sounds remotely interesting to you, because believe me you’ll have to get used to it. That’s not a dig at the story by any means—at least not with this game—but it does get old pretty fast overall. Right off the bat, Mega Man X starts you in a level that feels reminiscent of the feel of Classic Mega Man and it’s a great way to ease the player into the game. But as soon as you get the leg upgrade in Chill Penguin’s level, it’s time to up the pace. And I love the leg upgrade! The sense of speed that you can get by just dashing through the levels, shooting everything in your path with this rocking soundtrack in the background: Oh I love it. The music is such a joy to listen to. My favorite tracks include Central Highway, Zero’s theme, the password theme, Chill Penguin, Flame Mammoth, Boomer Kuwanger, Storm Eagle, Armored Armadillo, the boss theme, Sigma Stage 2, Sigma’s 2nd phase, Dr. Light’s theme, the ending theme, cast roll theme, staff roll theme; do you think I like enough of this game’s soundtrack? Say no, you won’t. In terms of the levels themselves, all of them are pretty much solid across the board. Storm Eagle’s level is probably my favorite of the main eight. All of the bosses are solid too and arguably a good balance of difficulty. Even the final boss against Sigma isn’t bad by any means. And the special weapons are so much fun to use. If I’m being honest, there’s next to nothing that I find wrong with this game. I guess if anything I’m not the biggest fan of the Sigma Stage bosses and some of the mini bosses like in Spark Mandrill’s stage, and the game can be a little cheap with difficulty in a few points such as with the flying insects also in Spark Mandrill’s stage. But that’s really it. Mega Man X does so much well to make itself stand out plus flesh itself and then some. It’s a great introductory game to the Mega Man X series and a great Mega Man game in its entirety.