Mega Man X8

"The best Megaman game in a long, long time."

I rented this game as something of a lark. Megaman X6 had been pretty poor, and X7 was downright awful. So it came as a surprise to myself (and many others apparently, check the reviews!) at how good this game was.

Basics -

For those of you who have been blindfolded, living under a rock in a Martian cave for their whole lives, the Megaman X series is a (mostly) 2d action series following the story of Megaman X, Zero, and many others. You go through eight stages, fighting the boss at the end, getting his special ability, and using it on another boss that is weak against that ability. Then you do a string of end missions, which always includes the part where you fight all the bosses again, but this time you have all the upgrades and abilities. Now that we've got that out of the way, let me explain just why this game is so much better than preivous MMX games.

No 3d-

It's not that there is anything wrong with 3d parts in games, it's just that Capcom really dropped the ball in MMX7 with the 3d elements. Control was twitchy and gameplay was sluggish. But not here - this game is 2d only, for better or worse. In my opinion, this was a good move.

Great controls-

Press X to jump. Press circle to dash. Press square to attack. Press triangle to execute a special move. Unlike many games, however, your character actually does exactly what you tell him to, exactly when you tell him to do it. This is such a simple improvement over many games, but it really does matter.

Axl is great now-

In MMX7, Axl was the newcomer to the team. He hardly pulled his own weight, either - to many, he seemed to be a carbon coy of X with hoverjets. In this game, however, he works differently enough to actually include him as a character. For each boss you defeat, you get a new gun for Axl. These are unlike X's special weapons in that Axl has unlimited ammo. By the time I beat most of the bosses, I -always- brought Axl along with me, he was just so incredibly useful. Why? All of his guns work significantly differently, so he's like a giant, sentient Swiss-army knife. Pesky bats dodging your shots? Use the shadow gun. Need to get a really high combo? Ice Gattling! A bunch of enemies in a row that need killing? Use the magnum or the laser. Too lazy to actually aim? Shadow gun again.

Zero is even better than before-

He still gets roughly the same set of moves, but they're much more practical now with the tighter controls and expanded array of weapons. Zero armed with the D-Glaive or even the Sigma Blade can kill just about anything even remotely close to him!

The story is *gasp* better-

I can't really say too much without giving it away... So I'd better not say anything other than that the story is improved. The same can be said for the ending, or at least one particular scene.

Good music-

Sometimes. Which is more than I can say for a lot of games. My particular favorites are the music that plays during the first of the missions you get after you beat the 8 bosses, the music that plays during most of the mission after that, and the last boss music.

Summary

So basically, if you've ever liked any Megaman X game, you will most likely enjoy this one as well, and if you haven't played any, this would be a great place to pick up.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05