Review
Release Date: 12.07.2004
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Capcom Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Capcom USA, Inc.Reviewed by
Ash Paulsen on 1.26.2005
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 7.29/10 |
Oh, how the mighty fall… and then rise from the ashes of mediocrity years later. Believe it or not, but it’s true: Mega Man, in all of his incarnations, used to be a name that gamers everywhere held in high regard. The games were consistently good, the stories consistently fun and interesting, and one could always count on the fact that new games in all the series would be of consistently above average quality.
But this has changed in recent years, at least with one Mega Man series: my personal favorite, the
Mega Man X series.
Mega Man X4, released way back in 1997, was the last chapter that really stood out in terms of quality, and is remembered fondly by fans for being the series’ final truly quality experience.
Mega Man X5 actually wasn’t too bad, either, but it was there that Keiji Inafune’s original vision of the story ended, and it was also there that the series was supposed to come to a close. But money speaks louder than artistic vision most of the time, and Capcom was banking quite nicely on the series at that point, so they forced the story and the series along with what I consider to be one of the most awful games ever made,
Mega Man X6, and the “next-gen” exercise in mediocrity we know as
Mega Man X7, which tried (unsuccessfully) to bring the series into the third dimension. At this point, the story hadn’t really gone anywhere for two whole chapters, the gameplay had lost any of the original, classic charm it once had, and even the diehard series fan that still remained (like me) couldn’t help but admit that, yes, their beloved series had fallen from greatness and respectability into mediocrity and… well, just mediocrity.
Which is why it’s such a surprise to me that the latest chapter in the saga of Mega Man X,
Mega Man X8, is so… brimming with quality and high production values. I’ve come to expect mediocrity and disappointment from this series, and now Capcom throws me a curveball with a game that is not only a wonderful surprise for its fans, but legitimately great in its own right for people who are just looking for a quality platformer. In other words, I’m glad to report that
Mega Man X8 has finally performed the seemingly impossible task of reminding gamers why it used to be so great in the first place.
Let me start with the story, which is immediately one of the most impressively interesting parts of the game. First off, it’s the first chapter since
X5 to really advance the story along beyond introducing a rather bland new playable character and make things happen. A beloved villain is brought back from the mists of history to taunt our heroes again (and I’m not talking about Sigma), we meet an enigmatic new character who may or may not prove to be hiding something sinister, and important developments happen to all of the main characters (and, incredibly, newcomer Axl is made not only cool, but even likeable and important to the story). Events from past chapters in the series (as far back as
Mega Man X3!) are referenced in-game, and the characters are all fleshed out and stand out independently of one another more than ever. Titular character X, particularly, has had the most development out of anyone right from the start, and his fans will be glad to know that he has advanced from the reluctant, over-pacifistic fighter he was in
Mega Man X7 (he didn’t become playable until the story’s conflict had reached a certain level of destruction) to a warrior who’s still unsure about violence being the only way to solve conflicts, but totally sure of himself, his ideals, and the fact that he is the only one powerful and experienced enough to truly end the Maverick Wars and bring peace to humans and Reploids, no matter how long it takes. It still pains him to fight, but damn it, he’ll destroy as many Mavericks as it takes to attain the ideal world peace that he works for so tirelessly. (Oh, he’s also playable from the start, which is a big plus.)
Lending more power and emotional credibility to the story and its characters is some of the finest voice acting this series has ever seen, and though it doesn’t seem as that’s saying much, the acting here is legitimately good and only a few notches below the quality one would see in something like
Metal Gear Solid. X has finally been perfectly nailed as an experienced, and weary, yet determined warrior; Zero has never sounded cooler (or cockier) and finally has just enough emotion in his voice; and Axl has had a little time to hit puberty, meaning his voice is not that awful kid’s voice from
Mega Man X7, but now that of a young teenager and much more bearable. Other main characters Sigma (yes, of course he’s here) and Alia are really quite nicely done as well, and even the secondary characters all sound unique and were not left out of the quality loop. Overacting and underacting are evident in some cases, but it’s not common and overall, the voice acting here really is truly well done and serves to bring an interesting chapter in a long-running story to life even more.
Also helping the story along is the best localization this series has seen since, well… the first
Mega Man X. Even the classic games had their translation issues and errors, but I’m being totally honest when I say I was hard-pressed to find more than one or two instances of misspelling or stilted dialogue in the entire game, and even those instances were very minor. Remember Capcom’s promise about doing a better job localizing their games? It looks like they came through; I don’t think we have to worry about any more pre-NES-era translation debacles like
Mega Man X6 anymore.
Suitably, the other area where
Mega Man X8 shows such an incredible amount of improvement in quality from recent chapters in the series is in gameplay. The awfully-designed, fill-the-screen-with-obstacles-to-create-artificial-difficulty stages of
Mega Man X6 are gone, as are the awkward 3D stages and segments of stages of
Mega Man X7 (well, mostly). In terms of gameplay,
Mega Man X8 is a return to form and tradition, with classically well-designed stages and fast, frantic, and responsive
two-dimensional platforming.
Those last three words are important because that’s what this series should stick to: the second dimension. Nothing makes that more apparent than this game, only because the two stages in the game that do feature 3D gameplay are so unbelievably awful compared to the rest of the game and serve as the gameplay’s only real down point. Yes, unfortunately, Capcom wanted to try and make the 3D thing work for this series just one more time; all I can say is, thank the gods they limited their efforts to two stages. While Avalanche Yeti’s snowcraft-riding stage isn’t too terribly bad in its own right, it’s still incredibly bland compared to the rest of the game’s 2D gameplay… but nothing can atone for the gameplay anomaly that is Gigavolt Man-O-War’s stage. This awkward, awful-looking and worse-controlling stage has you piloting a hovercraft, on-rails, in pursuit of the boss, who you must hit enough times with your craft’s very slow energy bolts to take him down so that you can fight him in a proper battle. These two stages will have you screaming “WHY, CAPCOM?!,” but at least it’s only because the rest of the game is so damn solid… and 2D.
The three starring Maverick Hunters have never been fleshed so well, either. All three Hunters have clearly defined strengths and weaknesses, and are balanced off of each other incredibly well; but all of them are versatile enough to where you can safely have a favorite and be able to use him effectively in every stage if you so wish (such as the case with me and X).
X is still the all-around character who eventually becomes the most powerful with his armor upgrades, and is the choicest Hunter for long-range battles. Zero, of course, still plays the role of the up-close-and-personal melee warrior who dishes out a lot of damage at close range with his Z-Saber (and, now, other weapons such as a javelin, a hammer, and a pair of fans), and Axl is Mr. Versatility: not especially powerful, but he can rapid-fire in eight directions, hover, transform into various enemies and make use of their abilities, and the weapons he gains from the various Maverick Bosses are entirely different guns in themselves (such as a grenade launcher and flamethrower) and never run out of weapon energy. It goes farther than that, though: the three Hunters also have different running speeds, dash speeds, dash lengths, aerial versatility, and other small stuff like that. It really makes you think twice about who you choose in that attempt to get that hard-to-reach special item, or cross that really nasty spike pit.
Of course, all three characters can be upgraded throughout the course of the game as well, and Capcom has implemented a few changes into the classic
Mega Man X power-up formula that I think are for the better, but not without their faults. Nearly all upgrades are to be purchased through the Hunter Base’s Research and Development room. The game’s “currency” is the Metals that enemies and bosses give up upon destruction, and you will be collecting
a whole lot of these if you want to upgrade all three Hunters fully (possibly too many, but more on that in a second). In fact, really the only upgrades that you won’t be “buying” are X’s armor upgrades, which are (thankfully) still classically found in Dr. Light Capsules dispersed throughout the stages. (And even those in themselves have been tweaked a little; as in
Mega Man X5 and
X6, there are two sets of armor parts for X to make use of this time, but unlike any other game in the series, you can now mix and match the parts from both armors to suit your personal taste. Or you can opt to use all the matching parts from one armor to make that armor a little more powerful… it’s up to you, and it’s a great idea and one that I hope Capcom continues to use.) Everything else you have to either buy, or find the appropriate “Rare Metal” for and then buy once it’s been converted into the actual item.
Now, this has its ups and downs. For example, the removal of hidden Heart Tanks from the game’s stages may seem like sacrilege to most, but with this game’s three-character system, it’s much wiser to be able to buy the same amount of life upgrades for all three Hunters than divide a finite number of life upgrades among three characters, as in
Mega Man X7. However, too many of the game’s upgrades have to be purchased. Instead of having to find a hidden Rare Metal, have it converted into a Sub-Tank, and THEN actually buy the Sub-Tank, why not just hide the freakin’ tank itself in the stage, the way it used to be? This process makes a little more sense for some of the other upgrade items like Zero’s extra weapons and some of the other character-specific items, but there’s just too much finding, converting and then buying for my tastes. And besides the fact that some of the Rare Metals are ridiculously hidden, a lot of the items they’re converted into cost
far, far too many Metals to actually buy, which makes all the effort seem a little fruitless. As I said earlier, if you want to upgrade all three Hunters fully, expect to be replaying a lot of stages for Metals and playing a lot of cleared games (I’d say it would take around four or five normal playthroughs, without replaying stages, to afford everything). And… that’s just too much. Next time around I’d like to actually be finding a few more of this stuff in the stages themselves, and not having to buy it all. Capcom has the right idea, but they need to work out these kinks if they opt to go with it again for the (hopefully) inevitable next chapter.
Further adding some new spice to the gameplay is the new dual-character system. Yes, you brought two characters into
Mega Man X7’s stages as well, but the idea has really been fully realized now and has gotten a lot more interesting. First off, not only can you switch between Hunters at any time, but their energy meters have now taken on a
Street Fighter-esque feature: when damage is taken, some of the lost energy is displayed in red notches instead the usual green, and those notches of energy can be recovered by switching the active Hunter out of battle for awhile. If you’re not following me, think
Marvel VS Capcom 2 and you’ll get what I mean. It’s a very well-executed gameplay feature and adds what could be legitimately called strategy to the game’s tough stages and boss fights, as you’re forced to budget your Hunters’ energy meters for some of the tougher, longer fights (especially the final boss battle on Hard mode… hoo boy).
In another smaller but still cool update, two active Hunters can now activate a super-powerful, screen-filling Double Attack when the attack meter is full (which is done by attacking and destroying enemies, and taking damage). This flashy,
Matrix-ish attack fills the screen with a bunch of cool effects and takes out every enemy on the screen, and deals considerable damage to bosses. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s nice to have.
Expect to be challenged by this game. It certainly isn’t cheap, but this one is made for the hardcore platforming fans. What’s beautiful about it, though, is that while the odds your up against are often great and the boss patterns and attacks hard to dodge, you’ve got more than enough firepower at your disposal to deal with it and you never feel like it’s too much. It’s challenging and it keeps you on your toes, to be sure – especially some of the game’s later white-knuckle platforming segments – but you never feel like the difficulty is artifical, and getting through a particularly tough section feels rewarding in an old-school way. And if you think you’re a badass and the game’s too easy for you, try taking on Hard mode for a very old-school challenge (massive boss meters, unforgiving damage from enemy attacks, and limited retries, oh my!).
Mega Man X8 sports a rockin’, above-average soundtrack that is a little limited in scope but satisfactory in execution. The music here is less-traditional
Mega Man fare than it is rock with a lot of focus on guitar-riffs, which gets a bit repetitive after awhile but is balanced out by enough traditional and emotional stuff to keep the ears happy. If you want a direct comparison, I’d say the soundtrack conjures up a lot of memories of
Mega Man X5: a whole lot more rock than most other games in the series, but still enough traditionally melodic
Mega Man tunes and appropriately softer, emotional pieces for the more dramatic scenes to reach a good balance. The sound effects are definitely ramped up from
Mega Man X7 (but then, what isn’t?) and the game just sounds very good. But here’s a curious question: why do the Hunters’ footsteps and jumps sound a lot like Mega Man Trigger’s (from the
Mega Man Legends series) running and jumping?
This game looks leagues better than its PS2 predecessor, and no longer are we forced to watch awkwardly cel-shaded and poorly animated characters running around drab, bland stages. The game’s character models look superb (with the only possible cop-out being Zero’s one thick stand of hair), and even their head crystals project a soft glow that leaves a trail when the characters run or jump. The energy shots and weapons all look very nice as well, most especially Zero’s various weapons, which leave light trails wherever he swings them. The game’s stages don’t just look good; they look superb, and this is exactly how a next-generation
Mega Man X game truly should look. Vibrant colors, crisp textures, nice lighting effects, and surprisingly attractive graphical effects are littered throughout the game’s stages, and the only time the game ever drops into the realm of mediocrity in terms of graphics is in the two 3D stages, but that’s not really any surprise. The game’s anime cutscenes, which are in full swing and much more liberal use than in
Mega Man X7, are all gorgeous and show off the series’ new character designs and art style (which I believe to the the series’ best so far) superbly. It constantly surprises me even now, but even this aspect of the game speaks of high production values.
And if all of this weren’t enough proof that Capcom is ready to actually put some effort into this series again, there is a veritable truckload of extras in the game that only the most dedicated and intrepid players will find. Most of them require a clear game to access, but it’s worth it: even putting aside a secret armor each for X, Zero and Axl that gives them totally new abilities, there are three secret playable characters (!) to unlock, all of them fully upgradeable as well. Add in some special, end-game cutscenes you only get to see if you’re playing on Hard mode, one extra ending cutscene for each Hunter (depending on who you use to land the killing blow on the final boss with), different dialogue trees depending on who you’re using when you get to key story events, and even
postscripts to the story after the credits roll, it’s absolutely mystifying and even scary to consider how much time Capcom spent putting more and more into this game to make it complete.
And that is why, ultimately, I’m giving the game a 9. This may seem high for a new-school
Mega Man game, and it is as far as recent examples are concerned, but Capcom has really gut-punched us with a game that is not only the most complete of the recent chapters in the series, but maybe all of them. It’s not necessarily the best, and it has a few irritating faults, but the good far outweights the bad here, and that’s before you even consider the extras that really make this chapter feel complete, and like a labor of love. In a genre that is today predominantly ruled by the decidedly traditional Game Boy Advance, it really is a treat to see a two-dimensional platformer get such a kick-ass treatment on one of the next-generation systems. In my eyes, Capcom has finally redeemed
Mega Man X.
