Mega Man X7

"This Game had potential, but..."

After the train wreck known as Mega Man X6 came out and X7 was announced, I was hoping that Capcom would look at what they did and make a better quality game. However, this hasn't happened and X7 is just another reason why the X series needs to stop.

Gameplay - Holy sluggish gameplay Batman! Now the gameplay in Mega Man X7 is a tiny step up from X6 as in the controls are not glitch heavy. Your characters will jump, shoot, slash and dash when you press the corresponding button. However, everything seems to be horrifically slowed down. another lovely feature this game has is that Mega Man X (the main character mind you) isn't even available from the start! You can only use Zero and the new guy Axl. Normally I wouldn't mind using the blond haired warrior, but good ole' Zero, once a super fast character whose speed offset his short-range only abilities, is now slow as tar. His saber combo is exceedingly slow and he can barely move faster than a slug. Plus, a new feature has been foolishly added: your characters now fall down when hit hard enough and Zero takes forever to get up! The only upside to him is that his saber can knock back laser shots and the collision detection is actually pretty good.
Axl and X both use long range weapons, but in the new 3-D sections, they are as worthless as Zero's buster in X5. The new auto-target system is worthless as it only works if your enemy is about half a foot in front of you and is stationary. Heaven help you if you try to actually take advantage of a long range attack because the auto target either won't work, or will turn on for a second and then disappear, along with the health you'll lose while trying to slowly dodge and shoot at the same time.
Axl is the new guy and unfortunately he is pretty worthless. First of all his handgun does practically no damage and can't rapid fire automatically, you have to cram on the button. Personally I would like to just hold on the button and use it, but that's just common sense talking and Capcom did away with that a long time ago. Axl has a small hover ability, but it's pretty worthless as it lasts for a very short time. Axl does have the ability to transform into different enemies, and it does add some variety, but it doesn't help the fact that Axl is a pretty worthless new character who I really think should have been nixed to let the programmers pay more attention to the rest of the game.
This is the first Mega Man X game to be in 3-D, Capcom really pushed this feature in the previews and it sounded really good, however it ended up being a big letdown. In the 3-D sections the camera zooms in extremely close and you can barely see anything but your character. You can control the camera with the shoulder buttons but I'd rather it be more zoomed out and you control it with the right analog stick. The one upside I found was that you once again get X's armor piece by piece (X1-4), instead of in a set like in X5 and X6. Personally I hated the Armor set system and I loved the original's return. Overall, the gameplay is poorly done and is downright sluggish and boring.

Graphics - Awful, just plain awful. The cut-scene graphics are poorly drawn and X himself looks downright dorky. The other characters also look pretty lame and the in-game graphics aren't much better. Zero is the worst, he is very un-detailed and his hair looked better and more detailed in Mega Man X3 for the SNES. It used to have spiky strands and color differences, but now it looks like a big yellow blob. However, his saber does look cool. Axl looks horrid and really lame compared to the artwork on the box cover. Overall, the graphics seem to have gotten worse which is odd considering the game is on the PS2.

Sound - Horrible English voice acting, a sub-par soundtrack and repetitive sound effects don't help this game at all. Axl, even though looks like a hardened warrior, sounds like a little kid who got kicked...well you know where. Zero's voice is incredibly deep and the person doing the voice can't act to save his life. X sounds like Steve Urkel...just listen to his first line in the game, you'll see what I mean. Mega Man X6 may have been horrid, but at least it had an awesome soundtrack, this game doesn't and the music is lame and very forgettable(However the first Sigma fight theme is good).

Replay - If you can stand playing through this wreck of a game once, you get a New Game + mode that gives you everything from the start, including X! But most likely you'll either beat the game once or just play through some of it and trade it in for something better.

Buy or Rent: Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't even look at it, ignore the fact that this horrible game exists.

Overall Mega Man X7 is another reason that the X series has reached its end and that Capcom needs to really look at their quality control for games. If you really want a new Mega Man game, get Zero 2 for GBA, it's much better than this poor excuse for a game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/03, Updated 12/26/03