Mega Man X7

"The X Series is reborn"

When I first played Mega Man X4,it blew me away! The graphics and everything were insane! At that moment, I practically fell in love with the series, thus I spent some time trying to look for older titles to try to build my collection. When I heard about Mega Man X5, I had great anticipations for it. But it flopped. The game wasn't too much different and it was missing some of the good stuff that X4 had. I awaited X6, but it also didn't meet my expectations. I was starting to think that Capcom doesn't care anymore. But when Mega Man X7 came out, I bought the game right away because i wanted to see if Capcom really was trying. Yep, this time, Capcom has finally come to their senses and brought back the X series to its former splendor that was years ago. Now, onward to the review

Story (6/10)

This is interesting, well sort of.. One of the key points here is that X has quit being a Maverick Hunter to search for more peaceful ways of achieving world peace. Non-violence resistence maybe, I don't think that'll work, but that's X.
Now about Red Alert. At first I thought, so now they're dealing with thugs and gangster reploids instead of Mavericks? What next? Islamic reploids who wanna lead a jihad against the Hunters? LOL! Ok ok, now back to the review. X's retirement crippled the Hunters. But when Red Alert, a illegal group of bounty hunters, filled the vaccuum. One day, a key member of Red Alert, decided to leave the group and ends up meeting the Hunters. This retiree, whos also a big fan of X and Zero, is the new kid of the series named Axl.
As you play more along in the game, the game reveals more and more about Axl and what that getaway was all about.
Now for the problem here. Wasn't Zero supposed to be in the capsule for 100 years to awaken in the Zero series? I mean C'mon! They threw the storyline out the window! (Well sorta) Oh well..

Gameplay (7/10)

Alright! 2D and 3D and the game makes full use of it too! Enemies will attack from all sides but at least you can shoot with the auto-lock feature and switch targets using the R2 button! The game's more in 3D in 2D because almost all the Mega Man games were in 2D! 2D's been used to death and its already stale. If the game was still 2D, then this will bring its score down because it will lose its orginality.
The game plays much like its predescors. Breeze through the intro stage, experience some of the plot, beat 8 bosses in 8 different stages (They're animiliod in this series, by going this far, I think Capcom must have a animal encyclopedia to use for their boss ideas..LOL) rescuing some repliods along the way and acquiring parts for X if you unlokced him by ummmm.. I can't spoil this to you readers, but heres a hint: ''You need not beat 4 of them but rescue 64 of the others first.'' The bosses keep getting more interesting each game. From a little kangaroo kid who rides in his kangaroo armor too a psycho hyena who yells out BURN TO THE GROUND and BURN every 0.001 seconds. Better mute your TV when fighting that psycho.
THe only things that could piss you off is getting knocked down. This hurts as it takes ages to get back up. The other bad thing is that why do enemies still heart upon touching them? I think Capcom should kinda take that feature away because todays games don't use that crap anymore. The Last flaw, is that the speed has been toned down. Big mistake indeed. Somehow, I feel someone should help correct these people.

Sound (8/10)

YES!! X finally sounds like a guy! For so many years, why didn't Capcom do this in the first place? For goodness sakes making him sound like a girl is an insult! They also bought back the FMV! Now Capcom, really, you might need some better staff workers because taking away what the fans like deeply hurts the game as FMV sequences are better than reading crappy text and pressing the X button all day to speed through and other crap like that. Zero's voice is too deep, and Signas's both too deep and monotone. Axl's voice needs to be a little bit more masculine, but not that much, understanding that he's a kid you know.
The music is all about techno and rock. They weren't all that memorable, but at least they give so more life to the game.
The sound FX is all realistic but some of the explosions were kinda weak though.

Graphics (9/10)

Yes! Cell-shading rules! The enemies and characters look nice and the animations are fluid and nearly flawless. Most of this stuff you usually find in a game is in a game that normally isn't very high in game play quality. THe background texturing was also a splendid effort.

Control (7/10)

This is probaly the first Mega Man game to use a analong stick. Well I recommend you use it for 3D and the D-pad for 2D. Right Analog stick is to move, and moving the left, left or right, changes your weapons. The other controls are much the same as its PSX predesscors. And you can configure them to your liking if the default controls are unsatifying (Most left hand people do this all the time).
The flaws? The camera control is a big mistake here. I know you can move it, but its too loose and it might need a little more work on it. Thats the only flaw here, but its still kind of serious.

Capcom has finally got back up after countless fans who were insulted by the seeming unforgiveable mistakes they had made in the previous PSX games had lost hope that Capcom would ever make another good Mega Man game. This game is hard, but not aggravating like Mega Man X6 was so I don't really recommend you newbies to video games or the series should get this unless your a person who loves a challenge. If your a fan, GET IT! Your missing out if you don't have it you know. Mega Man X7 is a great game overall and it doesn't have any cursing or vulgarity which is why its rated E. Well, what are you waiting for? Buy the game if your so eager to get it right now!!! If you don't like it, then please, keep your opinions to yourself ok?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/04