Mega Man X

aka: Rockman X
Moby ID: 1334
SNES Specs
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Description official descriptions

Mega Man X is a robot designed by Dr. Light to choose his own path in life. Years after he is created, Dr. Cain finds X and mimics his design to create a race of such robots called reploids. When the sigma virus infects these reploids, causing them to commit acts of evil, it is up to Mega Man X and his partner Zero (who is quite powerful, contrary to what his name implies) to stop it.

Spellings

  • ロックマンX - Japanese spelling
  • 洛克人X - Chinese spelling (simplified)

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Credits (SNES version)

37 People (36 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

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Object Designers
Scroll Designers
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 115 ratings with 6 reviews)

Must-have game

The Good
Personally, I liked just about everything. The controls are nice, the graphics are good and the sound is awesome.

The Bad
Probably Sigma's first form; it's too hard. I bet Sigma's final form will be SUPER HARD, but I like the other boss battles and all the stages (levels) in the game.

The Bottom Line
This is my favorite game Capcom has ever given. If you like Mega Man, go get this one right away.

SNES · by Dylan Heyne (1) · 2006

Mega Man gets a futuristic upgrade in this PC port of the SNES Classic

The Good
Mega Man X is a very good port of the SNES game which it originally was created for. The graphics and gameplay are reproduced almost identical to the SNES version. The thing that I've always liked about Mega Man X is how unique it is however. Before this game came out, most Mega Man games were essentially the same. Fight some bosses, collect their powers, and beat Dr. Wily. But this game took a whole new spin on the series.

The fact that it is set in the future is interesting in itself (which is actually further in the future, since the original games were also in the future), but the game adds a lot of unique features. One of the best features is the inclusion of body enhancements. These add on to Mega Man X's suit, and give him new abilities, such as being able to dash, or taking less damage from enemies. Also, the fact that there are many secrets to be found in the game add to the replayablity. Many items are hidden and require certain weapons or skills to find. Some even require you to beat a certain stage first, which in turn effects another stage (for example, beating Chill Pengiun's stage will freeze the lava in Flame Mammoth's stage, allowing you to collect a heart tank). The inclusion of the Capcom Pad with the game ensures that you won't have to worry about ackward keyboard controls, and actually helps to make the game feel more like the original SNES title.

The Bad
Although the graphics were ported well, they seem less impressive on the computer screen than they do on the SNES. Perhaps Capcom should have enhanced them a bit more, making the game more unique (and feel less like you are playing an emulation of the SNES version). Also, the music isn't of as high quality as the SNES version. The quality seems to have deminished when they ported the game over, which is a shame, because many of the tunes are very good, and really help to add to the mood of the game.

The Bottom Line
Despite a few minor flaws in the graphics and music department, Mega Man X is a lot of fun to play. I would recommend it, especially if you have never had the chance to try the SNES version. The gameplay is great, and with all of the secret items hidden throughout the game, you will find yourself playing for a long time.

DOS · by Warlock (291) · 2000

Wh-why must I continue to fight? *Sob*A-boo hoo hoo.

The Good
Aw yes, Mega Man is back, and now he’s on the Super Nintendo and more X-treme than ever. That’s what the X stands for, I’d imagine. I’d like to clarify that the X isn’t a roman numeral in this instance and it doesn’t mean ten, which seems to be a common misconception. Mega Man X distinguishes itself as its own series by setting itself a hundred years in the future of the original Mega Man titles. Yes indeed, instead of the year 20XX, we find ourselves joining a brand new blue bomber in the year 21XX! Also, instead of playing as a robot child wearing his robo-undies outside his jumpsuit, we get to play as a robot teenager wearing his robo-undies outside his jumpsuit! How much more X-treme can you get?

On the surface, Mega Man X’s gameplay is roughly the same as the original series’. However, the things that have been added change the experience quite a bit. In the original series, Mega Man only obtained power-ups by defeating bosses, while in X, health and armor upgrades as well as sub-tanks (which essentially replace the E-tanks found in the original Mega Mans series) are hidden throughout the stages. This makes exploring the levels extremely satisfying. As soon as I found my first piece of armor, I was hooked.

The biggest, and most game changing addition to Mega Man X is the wall jump. This is no ordinary Super Metroid style wall jump, either, oh no. Not only can Mega Man leap back and forth between walls Batman style, but he can also ascend a single wall simply by repeatedly humping it. This makes vertical exploration a cinch, and also provides you a way to survive a slightly misjudged leap. Another interesting addition is an armor upgrade that gives you the ability to dash forward which can be coupled with a jump to clear larger distances. This makes boss battles more exciting and allows you to get around faster than in classic Mega Man games.

The bosses are a hell of a lot more fun to fight. The robot masters are all new, and now they follow a different naming scheme than the one found in the original Mega Man titles. Instead of merely being robot men, the X series masters are robot animals. The result is even more interesting boss battles. What you wind up with are bosses like Chill Penguin and Storm Eagle. Yeah, that’s way cooler than Dust Man and Plant Man. Plus, there’s a lot more variety to their attacks. Their battles feel a lot more action packed and frantic and there’s a lot less emphasis on having the right weapon at the right time.

Mega Man X benefits from the generation jump to the SNES quite a bit. Everything in the game absolutely pops. The stages are colourful, the music rocks, more enemies are packed on screen and the characters are detailed. The graphics are tremendously clean and cartoony and the animations are actually quite detailed. It still retains the charm that the original Mega Man series had, but everything is amped up. It’s faster, more exciting, and more action packed. It truly feels like an upgrade to the old formula.

The Bad
Mega Man X’s storyline works quite well. It’s barely there and doesn’t get in the way of gameplay. Plus it provides an interesting link to the original Mega Man titles. However, I think I hate every character in the game. I understand that most of them were created in the image of teenagers, but do they have to act that way? There’s so much eye-roll inducing angst in many of the cut-scenes. How am I supposed to feel like a bad-ass when X acts like such a pussy in every scene? Why can’t a character die without first giving a speech about how they can’t believe they were defeated? I also don’t like Zero, but I’m not sure why. I think it’s the pony-tail. For the longest time I thought he was a woman until a friend very angrily informed me I was mistaken. I think the only character who promotes empathy is the long-deceased Doctor Light.

The gameplay’s change in focus from precision platforming to combat seems to have had a detrimental effect on the game’s difficulty. Mega Man X is a lot easier than its NES counterparts. It’s quite simple to complete a stage without dying, and even all the robot masters can be defeated with nothing but the X-buster. Spikes still kill you in a single hit, but they’re a lot less common than in the original series, and they’re easier to clear with help from the dash jump. That’s not to say the game is completely without challenge, quite the contrary. However, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Mega Man games on the NES. Well, actually Mega Man 6 was pretty easy, so it’s a close call.

Either the level designs just don’t seem to take the dash jump into account, or the developers couldn’t find a good way to deal with it. X can practically jump an entire screen’s length, what can you do to add pitfalls that don’t result in leaps of faith? It also doesn’t help that you can usually climb your way out of bottomless pits if you don’t make a jump. To the game’s credit, the wall hopping and dash jumps are crazy fun, but the levels just feel unchallenging. Still, I think it’s a fine trade-off. Perhaps they should have used more moving hazards that require you to use your agility to outrun them.

Powering up can be a pain in the butt. Mega Man X is a lot less elegant with its power-ups than later games in the series. Like any Mega Man game, you can choose the order in that you play the levels in. In Mega Man X, however, one level stands out as the level you must start with. It’s the level that contains the dash boots. Although later games in the X series start you out with the dash boots, they are shameless placed right in your path on a particular level and since they’re so important, you’d be dumb not to start there.

Finally, I have one more small complaint. For some reason, the HUD is positioned directly over top of where the walls are during a boss encounter. It’s not a huge problem but it does obscure the action quite a bit. You use the walls to climb and dodge and not being able to see them is a problem. Yes, you can always assume that there’s a wall behind your health bar and no, there isn’t going to be anything hiding behind your energy gauge, but they do get right in the way. Even if the HUD was slightly transparent, that would be a huge improvement.

The Bottom Line
I sometimes get a certain craving for a game that only the Mega Man X series (on the SNES) can fill. They’re fast paced, they control extremely well, and I can complete them in one sitting. Frankly, I can’t imagine my video game collection NOT having Mega Man X. Okay, so I’m probably a bit biased. You could call me a fanboy of Mega Man and the X series, although that fandom ends for me right after X3 when the series left the SNES and started to take itself way too seriously. Still, Mega Man X is a gem on the SNES that I wasn’t able to play back in the system’s heyday.

Is Mega Man X better than the original NES classics? Um, sort of, but in a different way. While the classic Mega Man titles were great because they were well tuned and challenging, Mega Man X is great because it’s so slick and satisfying. The first Mega Man X is the easiest to find in the SNES trilogy, and it was also released on DOS, included in the Mega Man X Collection, and remade on the PSP. If you’re a fan of Mega Man, give this game a try. If you’re not, you should still give this game a try. Mega Man X is an OUTSTANDING game.

SNES · by Adzuken (836) · 2010

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

Apparently, the character Zero was meant to be Mega Man X and replace Mega Man as the protagonist. However, Keiji Inafune was concerned that players would find it hard to relate to a protagonist who was so different from the original Mega Man that X was created as a separate character and Zero was made his sidekick. Nine years later, Zero finally received his own series.

Ending

After beating the game, when the game freezes on the "Thanks for Playing" screen, wait about a minute or so, and the face of Sigma will pop up and he will say you some subliminal message claiming you didn't actually beat him, and that you should meet again soon.

Extras

The game came packaged with a free Capcom Pad, a 6-button Gamepad made by Capcom to use with this game, as well as other games.

References

The snake robots in Launch Octopus' stage are called Utuboros, which are obviously a reference to Oroborus, an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle, symbolizing the ideas of cyclicality and primordial unity.

Sales

According to publisher Capcom, Mega Man X has sold 1.16 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).

Version differences

  • In the original console version Ryu's (from the street fighter series) hadoken was included as a secret weapon which once found had to be triggered by the familiar down-forward-fire movement in order to fire. For the PC version, they scraped the "secret" part of it, and gave it to you from the get-go, just hold down the fire button and let go (as seen in the screenshots section), however its nowhere near as powerful as originally intended.
  • The original Super Nintendo version uses passwords, the PC version has a save system.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • January 1994 (issue 54) - Game of the Month
    • 1995 Buyer's Guide - Console Trick of the Year - Fireball Trick

Information also contributed by Bregalad, CaptainCanuck, Itay Brenner, Mark Ennis and Zovni.

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  • MobyGames ID: 1334
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sam Tinianow.

DOS added by Corn Popper. Wii U added by ResidentHazard. New Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. Wii added by yenruoj_tsegnol_eht (!!ihsoy). Android added by firefang9212. iPhone, iPad added by Sciere. DoJa added by Kabushi. SNES added by Satoshi Kunsai. Browser added by glik.

Additional contributors: Warlock, Satoshi Kunsai, Unicorn Lynx, Alaka, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, yenruoj_tsegnol_eht (!!ihsoy), A.J. Maciejewski.

Game added April 13, 2000. Last modified January 18, 2024.