Mega Man X (SNES) Review

Although Capcom’s Mega Man series was still receiving constantly receiving new entries on the NES, it would take three years until Mega Man would come to the SNES. This new version of Mega Man drastically changed many of classic Mega Man‘s traditions. The reviewer will judge the game on its own merits, avoiding comparisons to the original Mega Man series of games on the NES.

Mega Man X expands on the original Mega Man series in a variety of ways. The new protagonist X can wall jump, charge his shot, and do many other new or upgraded moves with the various upgrades X picks up throughout the game. X controls consistently and his various new moves compared to the original Mega Man series dramatically speeds up the game. The level design is thoughtfully crafted, with many secrets to be discovered, and never felt unfair or lazy during the reviewer’s time with the game. The boss battles are well designed, though a bit easy if the player takes on the bosses in the easiest order and uses the bosses’ weaknesses to deal more damage. The controls are about as good as one could ask for when using the SNES controller, and they are highly remappable too.

Graphically Mega Man X looks rather good, but is nothing spectacular for a SNES game. It runs at the standard 60 FPS and the same resolution one would expect from the SNES. The sprites are highly detailed and well made. The art style is pleasing to the eye and fits the capabilities of the SNES well. However no obvious graphical features of the SNES that impressed at the time were present in the game. There is some slowdown present when too many enemies are on screen but this is the case with many SNES games so it is hard to fault Mega Man X for this. The game also annoyingly uses the password system instead of allowing the player to save to the game directly, but the games short length and the benefits of being able to type in any password arguably balance this problem out.

The music in Mega Man X is of the same quality one would expect from any other Mega Man game. Many of its songs are among the most popular video game songs of all time. The sound effects are also quality and sound about like what one would expect from the games visuals too. There is no voice acting as is the case with the majority of SNES games.

The plot in Mega Man X is simplistic and hardly a focus of the developers, as is true with most SNES games. The player controls X, the new protagonist who is not the Mega Man from the NES games despite looking very similar, as they upgrade through defeating the games’ various challenges that eventually lead to a battle against the main antagonist, Sigma.

Mega Man X is not a very long game, but it makes up for that in many areas. Mega Man X lets the player take on the main eight bosses in any order, as is Mega Man tradition. Because each boss stage gives X different abilities and upgrades, multiple runs of the game that challenge the bosses in new orders are worth playing. Mega Man X’s mechanics also promote playing quickly, which also incentivizes playing multiple runs trying to achieve a better time. Because Mega Man X is now considered a retro game it is hard to not get one’s money’s worth from any of Mega Man X’s various rereleases. Mega Man X is a classic game and one that any fan of action games, fan of platformer games, or lover of video games as a whole should experience.

Overall the reviewer would give the game a 9.5 out of 10

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