Mega Man X8

The Good
First off, let me say that I am a huge Mega Man fan. I played most of the games from the Classic and X series (I don't really care about the other MM series to be honest) and liked most of them. So when X7 came out, everyone was excited about the jump to 3D due to the switch to the Playstation 2 hardware. However the game ended up being a huge letdown because of poorly programmed 3D game sections, at times unlistenable voice acting and lack of good ideas for some section. I am of the idea X7 would have been a good game if either it had stayed true to its 2D roots, or if the 3D parts were actually TESTED before the game was released (jeez, would it have been so difficult to make the game physics similar to those of ratchet & clank?). As Gamespot put it, "X7's new 3D look and corresponding gameplay mechanics seem like another attempt by Capcom to draw in a broader audience. The problem is that the game still tries to appeal to core Mega Man fans with its referential storyline and high level of difficulty. What you end up with is a game that will draw a lukewarm response at best from either crowd. ".

So, when X8 was announced, Capcom decided to go back to its 2D roots to avoid further problems. Fortunately, not only they decided to go back to the 2D roots, but they also fixed other problems seen in X7, like the voice acting (which is a lot better in X8) and the graphics (that look way more colorful and are much more well animated). So, what is the result? The result is the 3D Mega Man games a lot of fans were waiting for a long time, and while it isn't perfect, it is still a great game that any action fan should be able to enjoy. Let's get into detail:

Story/Setting: It may just be me, but I am actually a big fan of the storyline of the X series and its characters. While most don't consider the storyline to be anything special, I think it's a lot better than all of that RPG nonsense everyone is so excited about. So let's see how Mega Man X and his friends got into this mess.

Following the Red Alert incident of X7 and the entrance of Axl to the Maverick Hunters, Earth is now again at peace. Fearing the constant Maverick uprisings, humans began transferring their settlements on the moon, and built the Jakob Orbital Elevator to transfer resources to the moon in order to construct cities. For this reason, a new line of New Generation Reploids is enstablished, Reploids with high power and resistance to all known variants of the Maverick Virus known at the time. It is revealed that Axl is in fact a prototype of these new generation Reploids, as they posses the same Copy Chip as Axl, and it's in fact this Copy Chip that protects these new Reploids from the Maverick Virus.

One day, Mega Man X, Zero and Axl were sent to investigate a weird Crab-like mechaniloid that was spreading chaos in Naoh's Park. After bringing it down, the Hunters confront a resurrected Vile (who was has not been seen in the series since his death at the hands of X in Mega Man X3) who kidnaps Lumine, the director of the Jakob project and leader of the New Generation Reploids. Vile then reveals that the Elevator is now under control of the Mavericks, and suddendly the Hunters begin picking various Maverick riot signals from allover the Earth. What's worse is that it appears that these Mavericks are in fact New Generation Reploids. So, the Hunters need to confront Vile and stop the uprisings and find out what's causing these new Reploids to go Maverick. You'll find out the rest of the story by yourself.

Gameplay: The game plays pretty much like other X games such as Mega Man X6, which is a good thing since the controls are well thought out. There are 3 playable characters, each with their own characteristics and different weapons. Mega Man X is the main character of the series and is modeled after the original Mega Man from the classic. He is able to shoot with the X-Buster and charge up his weapons to release even more powerful attacks, and the character is generally ideal for newcomers. Then there's Zero, who is able to double jump and perform powerful slashes with his Z-Saber, making him primarly a melee type of fighter. Then there's the new character Axl, who is a good addition to the series and features a new voice actor who is a lot better than the childish voice used in X7. Axl is armed with his "Axl Bullets" and can fire in all directions, although he isn't able to charge. He also has the Copy Shot which allows him to transform into some of the defeated enemies, granting him some special abilities. Most of the stages are pretty fun and diverse, with a lot of typical Mega Man action thrown in but also many puzzles, as evident when playing Gravity Antonion or Dark Mantis' stages. There are very few 3D sections such as Avalanche Yeti's stage, but most of them are actually pretty nice, and there are almost no problems with the camera. Most of the game is a 2D platformer with 3D graphics.

The graphics for the game are, surprisingly, really good and almost everything looks great in 3D, if maybe a little more "cartoony" than the playstation games that took a very serious note, but if anything this servers to make X8 closer to the SNES titles. All the characters are well rendered, although maybe they could have used a few more animations, but there's nothing bad to see here.

The Bad
This game generally has the same weaknesses of any other Mega Man title. I think the controls are just a little harder to get used to (the characters move faster than the playstation 1 games) but they aren't bad. And a few levels felt like they could have been way better (Earthrock Trilobyte's stage should have been twice as big and Gigavolt Man-o-War's stage is a decent idea gone wrong, and ends up being a bad stage (fortunately its also the only stage of its kind.)

I think the level design is at times a little more frustrating than the playstation games, because sometimes enemies are harder to dodge and it's a little easier to fall into spike traps, but if you're a Mega Man veteran, you shouldn't have too many problems getting through this one.

The Bottom Line
To sum it up, Mega Man X8 is a great Mega Man game AND a great 3D action game. If you like action games and especially if you're a Mega Man fan, you can't go wrong with this one.