Mega Man X Collection

"A scarred but excellent compilation"

I've been a several-year fan of the Megaman X series (since I was bout 10, which would be six years). Unfortunately, by the time I found myself interested in the excellent game formula and fast pace of the games, the SNES was on the decline and I didn't like the newest games, so I had to rely on PC emulation (shh don't tell) and hopeful poking around on eBay to get myMegaman X fix. SO when I heard of this compilations of EVERY Megaman X game other than the lame-looking PS2 games, I was extatic. I moseyed on over to Amazon and immediately ordered a copy. 25 bucks seemed like a great deal for getting the entirety of one of my favorite series all at once. Unfortunately, this compilation of otherwise excellent games is marred by numerous flaws (many of which came straight from the creator himself).

GRAPHICS 10/10

So smooth, so retro, so Megaman. One thing the Megaman X games share in common are awesome graphics. Although sprite-based graphics are more artifacts of the past by now, they look great and the games ooze personality. From the badass Zero to the legions of cannon-fodder littering the levels, everything looks and animates great. The PSX games introduce an unneeded but still welcome facelift, bringing the games into 32 bit. All in all the graphics will evoke enormous nostalgia, and are almost enough to buy the game on their own. No complaints here.

SOUND 5/10

It feels like a crime to give the sound a 5. The first four games boast awesome music, and all of them have great, if a little corny, sound effects. Unfortunately the sound compression has made the music much to quiet, and the sound effects much too loud, and sadly the games' music do not loop as smoothly as they did in the originals. And worst of all, there is no way to tweak the sound/music balance to make it more natural. Megaman X 3, 5, and 6 in particular get the worst of it, but none of the other games escape unscathed either. This low rating is more for technical problems than actual sound quality, but nevertheless the game's sound problems are self evident throughout.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

If this collection had the first 4 games only, this would be a 10, or even a 12. All of the games follow the established formula of "one intro level, then 8 bosses in any order, then 3 or 4 final stages with a screen filling end boss." This formula works great, and the player's ability to choose the order of the levels makes all of the games much more interesting. Should you so choose, you can defeat the extremely hard bosses first, to get them out of the way, or defeat all the easy ones and use their powers to defeat the rest. Or, pick one boss, and then follow the chain of weaknesses to the end. The bosses are all completely different in appearance and form of attack, and the levels are all unique as well. Not counting the beginning and final level bosses, there are 48 Mavericks to defeat, and all of them are a blast.

Unfortunately, the problem with this collection is that Megaman X 5 and 6 suck something awful. The level design declines dramatically in quality, and the bosses get lamer and lamer (theres even one boss in X6 called "Metal Shark Player!") Despite these last two games, the collection overall is totally classic. Several days worth of fun await you if you play nonstop.

REPLAY 9/10

48 Mavericks to defeat, plus a bunch of nasty ending bosses, plus the ability to play as X or Zero in 4, 5, and 6, PLUS a bunch of collectible powerups you will probably miss the first time through. Unless you're a major Megaman X fanatic, it's doubtful you will run out of stuff to do. A Retro gamer like me need look no further for a sustained fix.

OVERALL 8/10

A retro-loving gamer will love this collection, despite its flaws in sound quality and the comparably weak X 5 and 6. Nevertheless, a gamer who has never tried Mega Man X before will want to borrow a friend's SNES or PSX to try out one of the games first, as I can't really warrant a 25 dollar purchase for a game with this many problems. A great collection overall, despite its huge flaws and unkept promises.

RENT OR BUY

Buy. You physically cannot complete all the games in this collection without buying it, unless you know everything about the games beforehand. I have never beaten any of these games, and am currently stuck on the last boss in the first four. I had played X 1, 2, 3, 4, and a small bit of 5 when I bought the collection, and having all these great games at my fingertips is definately nice. These games are utter classics, and you will find yourself booting up the games long after you've beaten them to give those pesky Mavericks yet another thrashing.

Now all I need are the Fire Emblem Collection, Metroid Collection, and Metal Slug Collection, heh heh.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/06