2.5/5 ★ – BlueSorcerer's review of Mega Man X6.

Oh God. To make a play on words using the opening vocal theme titled “The Answer”, you’re on the wire and I’m in the fire. No, I will not switch the lyrics back. Alright let’s get this out of the way before diving in: Mega Man X6’s soundtrack is a caliber above the rest. It captures its vibes seamlessly. I enjoy the Japanese opening vocal theme titled “Moonlight”, the Crash Site Ruins, the stage select theme, Commander Yammark, Shield Sheldon, Rainy Turtloid, The Final Countdown– I mean Infinity Mijinion, Metal Shark Player, Dr. Light’s theme, the boss theme, Zero Returns, Mission Report, Alia and Gate, Sonic Boom Act 3– I mean High Max’s theme, both of Sigma’s themes, the ending theme, and the Japanese ending vocal theme titled “I.D.E.A.”. And that’s a majority of the soundtrack, mind you. The other songs aren’t necessarily bad; these are just what I would consider to be my personal favorites. The music is still nothing short of great. But the rest of the game… oh man. Now the story itself isn’t terrible; in fact, I like the ideas it introduces. However, in execution, the story doesn’t take a lot of liberties. X6 follows the best ending of X5 where most of the Eurasia colony is destroyed and Zero perishes, however debris from the colony still crashed on the planet. Three weeks have passed and the Sigma Virus still runs rampant, forcing humans to move underground while Reploids work on the surface in the effort to bring life back to the planet. One divergent Reploid by the name of Gate is investigating the crash site of the colony when he discovers a piece of debris that… basically drives him mad and causes him to develop an unyielding lust for power. Soon, he desires to create a world for “perfect and the strongest Reploids” as a series of Maverick outbreaks occur, causing the Maverick Hunters to dispatch X into action. But after X defeats a mechaniloid at the crash site, he encounters a purple phantom that shares an uncanny likeness with Zero and quickly disappears. Afterward, a Reploid named High Max appears in search of the Zero Nightmare which he refuses to elaborate on for X. But when they engage in combat, X is unable to damage High Max and he lets X off with a warning before departing. Soon after, a scientist named Isoc announces that the Zero Nightmare is a ghost of Zero causing the sudden Maverick outbreaks and requests for Reploid volunteers to assist High Max and the eight main investigators in investigating infected areas while stopping the Zero Nightmare altogether. X proceeds to the areas of investigation with the intent of researching the Zero Nightmare, saving the Reploid volunteers, and stopping the investigators. And that’s pretty much how the story is established and it’s traditional Mega Man X from here. But oh it also so isn’t. Ok let’s just get into this. So Commander Yammark’s and Shield Sheldon’s stages are honestly not too bad. Or more accurately, they are the most tolerable. As for the other six stages, they are the most agonizing, f*cked levels I have ever played in a Mega Man game. There is so much s*it going on in these levels that you have to be a top-tier gamer to just avoid. They are overpopulated with enemies more so than X3 and X5 combined, full of obstacles almost impossible to maneuver around, and have these Nightmare Virus creatures that I just want to pin to a punching bag and pound the everlasting f*cking s*it out of. Rainy Turtloid’s level spams too many f*cking enemies often in areas of acid rain that already drain your health, Blizzard Wolfang’s level is packed with falling meteors that are next to f*cking impossible to avoid, Metal Shark Player’s level overstays its f*cking welcome, Infinity Mijinion’s level is f*cking insane with how many threats there are, Ground Scaravich’s level is a f*cking maze and a half, and Blaze Heatnix’s level can’t stop having you fight the same mini-boss for more than 30 f*cking seconds! But then there’s the Nightmare effects that can do stuff like straight up limit visibility and obstruct your path with metal beams, making it even more of a f*cking chore to get through these already chock-full levels. Holy f*cking s*it! Calm the f*ck down, game! Why can’t I breathe?! *Insert biggest inhale and exhale here* Ok… No more. I’m actually exhausted. Anyway, I’m sure most—if not all—of those reactions were nothing new regarding this game’s perception. But man, this game is so much more ruthless than it needs to be. Yet at the same time, with so much better programming and handling, I feel like there’s some potential with these levels. That might be a subjective take, but I feel like levels such as Rainy Turtloid and Metal Shark Player have the potential to be decent levels if they weren't so crowded with threats and underwent some revisions in their designs. The idea of acid rain that drains your health in Rainy Turtloid’s level is very unique and could blend well with the floating cores that you need to destroy to wipe out a generator at the end of a path that stops the rainfall. And Metal Shark Player’s level mostly taking place under giant garbage compactors is also unique and could make for some interesting segments that involve patience as well as fair trial and error. However, a lot of these potential ideas are overshadowed by just how overpopulated these levels are. A couple levels like Infinity Mijinion aren’t as long, but that shouldn’t permit the game designers to absolutely litter them with enemies and threats that are next to impossible to avoid. This game stands out for the wrong reasons even though underneath its many, many design flaws, there’s some potential here with the right application. But as it stands, I can’t and won’t talk positively about these levels in their entirety. Only two of the eight main levels have sections that are decent, and even then that’s as positive as I can regard them. But how are the bosses themselves? Surprisingly, they aren’t that bad—for me anyway. I like to start with Commander Yammark because his level is the least frustrating, but his boss is also a decent one altogether. Shield Sheldon is also a decent boss that is readable for the most part. Rainy Turtloid, Blizzard Wolfang, Blaze Heatnix, Metal Shark Player, and Ground Scaravich are perfectly fine as well. The least favorite for me is Infinity Mijinion just because he constantly duplicates himself as the fight goes on and this can cause a lot of projectiles to be on screen, however it’s honestly a little exhilarating to maneuver around his projectiles and see how I can manage to get hits in. Maybe it’s a hot take overall, but I didn’t mind the bosses as much as I did the process of getting to them. I can’t really say the same for the other bosses though. Do you remember the part of Mega Man 4 where some alternate paths were introduced? Well Mega Man X6 incorporates something similar to those but they house their own set of bosses. At first it’s Nightmare Zero who you can take down with the Z-Saber. But after you defeat Nightmare Zero, the real Zero suddenly reappears. For no rhyme or reason, Zero is just suddenly back and is ready to jump back into action with X and the Maverick Hunters. Apparently, his explanation for his survival was that he secluded and repaired himself after putting an end to Sigma. And wow, as much as I like Zero, in what way does that statement make sense when he had nothing but a torso and an arm left of him? I mean I’m pretty sure it’s implied that Dr. Light had a hand in fixing Zero, but it’s not 100% specified. And taking this at face value, I don’t know how to feel about this. But you know what, his Z-Buster got buffed considerably to the point that it’s one of his best options against bosses. That and this weird dash-cancel glitch that allows Zero to strike with his Z-Saber while I believe skipping frames, which causes him to inflict so much damage quickly. Zero is a force to be reckoned with in this game, so I’ll give his return that as abrupt as it is. But after Nightmare Zero is defeated, High Max becomes the boss of the alternate routes and is impossible to damage without a special weapon. This can be a punishment for curiosity if you were to go through the alternate paths first without killing any of the eight main Mavericks. High Max himself is an alright boss, but be ready to move around a good deal because he loves his projectiles and shields. But defeating High Max will actually provide a shortcut to the final stages, yet you can still revisit the alternate routes as much as you wouldn’t like and fight Dynamo because he’s got nothing better to do other than waste your time. But it’s a good way to farm Nightmare Souls which increases X’s and Zero’s Hunter Ranks. However, you probably shouldn’t be tempted by the shortcut given how the first stage starts. So after getting to this point in the story in one of two ways, Gate presents himself to the Maverick Hunters inviting them to stop him. But interestingly, Alia actually has a connection to Gate as he was originally a scientist that collaborated with her. And all of the Maverick investigators that were just defeated were experiments of Gate that he revitalized. I honestly like the idea of Alia and Gate having a connection such as this. Not much dialogue is exchanged between the two which is kind of unfortunate, but we do see Alia go more into their relationship when having a conversation with X. Gate felt unappreciated and yearned for his work to be recognized, but that wasn't something he got and the Zero Nightmare is his vengeance. I would have liked to learn more about their history working together and what led Gate to his current path from Gate’s point of view too, but I was still interested by parts of what we got. But anyway, the fight is taken to Gate’s Fortress and I’m not even going to sugarcoat it: all of the stages here suck. The first stage starts with a vertical climb full of spikes that if you don’t have the means to jump beyond, you will die instantly. Throughout the eight main levels, there are various Reploid volunteers which you can save that can hold parts you can augment to X or Zero. One of those parts increases your jump height, which in conjunction with Blizzard’s Wolfang special weapon is a necessity to get over each wall of spikes. However, with the right positioning, it is also possible to make these jumps with Zero’s double jump or X with the Blade Armor in conjunction with Blizzard Wolfang’s special weapon. The latter method was the one I exercised and I managed to overcome the spikes in time, but still this design choice is so unfair for X because you could easily miss this part or not have unlocked the ability to play as Zero. The room with the rising lava is also the biggest slap in the wrist because the game baits you into thinking that you don’t have control over X when the lava suddenly rises and kills you. But the worst offense of these stages is the plethora of enemies, the Nightmare Mother boss, and Gate himself. These stages are flooded with enemies and obstacles making them an even worse chore to avoid, the Nightmare Mother boss will have you constantly on the move with little time to breathe and get hits in, and the boss against Gate is a waiting game where he will either shoot projectiles that you need to attack to throw back at him or move around the boss room destroying the blocks that you are standing on. The entirety of Gate’s Fortress is a literal nightmare and nothing more than one problem after another. It’s probably the worst set of final levels I have played in a Mega Man game. But after Gate is defeated, it is revealed that he brought Sigma back from the dead—because of f*cking course—and Sigma makes quick work of Gate, effectively killing him. This also causes Isoc to die in the process, who is believed to contain the sentience of Dr. Wily from the Classic series similar to Serges from Mega Man X2. Finally, in typical Mega Man X fashion, X and Zero take the final fight to Sigma who is very much occupying an incomplete body. So much so that Zero’s Z-Buster puts his first phase down really quickly. But then there’s the second phase which is also less stressful compared to the challenges preceding it. Sure you only have half of the screen to work with, but it’s a breather after the hell that was Gate’s Fortress. But when that’s done, X recovers Gate’s body reflecting on the bouts while Zero in a later cutscene is shown being put into a deep sleep that will last for 100 years. This likely acts as a transition into the Mega Man Zero series, however this is not the most clear. But, there’s still more to come. All in all, Mega Man X6 is just a headache and a half. I love the soundtrack and I can appreciate some of the ideas presented in the story and gameplay, but in execution these liberties aren’t taken well. And in the case of the gameplay, it’s just a dumpster fire. It’s still fundamentally an X game at the end of the day, but how I judge it is how I choose to judge it. I think that this game had potential, but as it stands it did not take enough liberties or did not take them in an effective way. Get ready to damage-boost all said and done.