Mega Man X6

The Good
This is where it gets hard...Mega Man X4, to me, stands as the high point in the X series. Capcom really nailed it down right with X4. Along comes Mega Man X5, and while X5 does give us a few little improvements here and there, it messed up in other areas. For me, X5 was great and disappointing at the same time. Now along comes Mega Man X6. Do you think Capcom finally got everything right and delivered to us the ultimate X game?

If you say yes, I'll whack you over the head with a wet tuna. Mega Man X6 is NOT the ultimate X game; in fact, it hardly even comes close to the awesome X4 at all. Let's take a look at this game and see just how Capcom fowled up.

Okay, first let's handle the whole story. The earth hardly escaped destruction when the Eurasia Space Colony (see Mega Man X5) crashed landed into it. Zero had taken matters into his own hands and attempted to destroy the space colony. While he did succeed, the explosion and debris seriously damaged the Earth. Zero had also gone missing after he crash landed. Now, an outcast Reploid scientist named Gate is out surveying the damage caused by the space colony when he discovers a strange piece of debris in the ruins. He takes it to his lab, and begins to go insane. Immediately, he sends out 8 Reploid creations of his own to investigate what he called the "Nightmare Crisis", and along with another scientist named Isaac, plans to take control of what remains of Earth and all of the Reploid race. Of course, he would've won, if he hadn't counted on X heading out to stop him...

So that's the whole premise. X has to stop the Nightmares, stop the Investigators, find Gate, and put him out of his misery. To do that, X now has Zero's Beam Sabre with him, which he can swing at will to destroy certain enemies and walls. However, X is definitely no Zero at handling the Sabre: his swipes are very slow and he can't move at all when he swings (except when falling). The basic gameplay is the same as every other X game, so I'm not gonna bother covering that. Let's just keep on going with this review.

When X begins the game, he'll have the Falcon Armor from X5 equipped. However, the Falcon Armor lost a LOT of its power from X5. X can't fly anymore with it equipped, and its Giga Attack is a lot weaker than before. During the course of the game, X can find and build up the Blade Armor, which allows X to use the Sabre with more effectively, and allows X to Mach Dash. The Mach Dash, at least, is easy to use: jump, then hit jump again when you're at the height you want to jump at, then hit the Dash Button, and X takes off in an invincible air dash. X can also get another new armor: the wickedly cool Shadow Armor. Besides making X look like some sort of Reploid ninja, the Shadow Armor allows X to use the Beam Sabre like a real pro, and it's POWERFUL as hell when he swings it. But there's a major drawback: the Shadow Armor, like the Gaia Armor from X5, can't use Maverick Weapons, and can't air dash at all. But it's a lot faster, and is immune to spikes. Also changed is Alia's hint system: she won't talk to you until a "!" flashes in the corner of the screen, at which point you just hit Select to have her talk to you. There's also one other new thing here: taking a cue from X5, there are Reploids that you have to rescue during the course of the game, 128 in all. Finding and saving Reploids allows you to gain Parts that can enhance your power and abilities.But at the same time, rescueable Reploids are under constant threat from the Nightmares. You'll know a Nightmare when you see them: they're a yellow-black octopus-like robot with waving blue and red tentacles, and if you're near one of them and a Reploid, they'll head right for the Reploid and attempt to reprogram it, basically "killing" them. Destroying Nightmares yields blue orbs called "Souls", which X can grab to increase his Hunter Rank. The Hunter Rank isn't much: the higher it is, the more Parts you can obtain. That's about it.

Now, onto graphics, sounds, and music. The graphics in this game are generally pretty good, despite what a lot of people say. Some stages, like Rainy Turtloid's and Ground Scaravich's, have some pretty nice scenery in them, while others like Shield Sheldon's look kinda "bleh". A lot of the sound effects in this game are overhauled versions of X5's sounds. The "WARNING" logo sounds louder and more alarm-like (it even appears differently too), and the explosions are now REALLY loud, and almost to the point of room-shaking. As for music...that's a mixed bag. I loved the opening themes from Showtaro, "Moonlight" and "The Answer", bar none. I also quite liked the music in Rainy Turtloid's stage (a nice jazzy-sounding piece that fits quite well with the scenery), Infinity Mijinion's stage (definitely one of the best stage themes in the game), and most of the boss battle themes, and finally, the ending theme by RoST, "I.D.E.A.", simply kicks ass. It's the perfect ending theme for the game.

The Bad
I wish I didn't have to do this, but I've gotta.

Capcom rushed this game, and you can tell. The stage layouts are an absolute nightmare. Sometimes rescueable Reploids are hovering over huge pits, and there's a Nightmare floating right behind them, meaning that if you jump and are just a millimeter short of the Reploid, you die and the Nightmare will kill it. What's worse...you don't know what Reploid is carrying a Part for you or not, so if one gets killed you may very well lose an extremely important Part for later. Plus, who's bright idea was it to have the Nightmare system start throwing in annoying crap like spotlights in some stages, fireballs in an ice cavern that just fly at you for no reason, and spotty control that does everything but what you want it to do? Why, may I ask, do dashes come out of hitting the Special Weapon button and not hitting the Dash button? Why the hell do Zero's Sabre attacks have to be impossible to control? WHY!? Was Capcom smoking something heavy when they were making this game?

To make things worse, some of the graphics look so cheesy and badly detailed that they shouldn't be on the 32-bit PlayStation...they belong on the 16-bit Super NES! Some enemies are badly animated and look even more badly drawn, and the Mavericks themselves are a little devoid of detail and attack moves.

Lastly, whoever wrote the music for Ground Scaravich's stage is going to have his head boiled in acid. If you insist on playing his stage, mute the TV...FAST.

The Bottom Line
Mega Man X6 is definitely not the ultimate X game people wanted it to be. It's very disappointing, very unrewarding, and for those of you who have to play the U.S. or European versions, get ready for one of the worst translations ever seen...it's like the mid-80s era of NES games all over again.

Now, HOPEFULLY Capcom will get it absolutely straight with Mega Man X7...