Mega Man X5

"What happen? someone set up us the failure."

ARGH! I had been warned by a few good friends that this game would not be a very enjoyable one, but i decided I'd rent it anyway. I quickly understood what exactly they were complaining about. Here it does.

Gameplay: 5/10
Like the game's number in the series, it's just 5, average. It's pretty much the same as MMX4 with only a few differences.
First of all would be the ''level'' system that the game adopts. This is some minimalist effort to make the game difficult by making bosses have more ''Health'' as the game goes on. You see, the game increments by hours. When you go into a stage and defeat a boss, an hour passes (in real life time it'll probably just be a mindnumbingly boring 5 minutes.) As time goes on, the levels of bosses goes up. But as I said, the only noticeable difference in the levels is that they have a bit more health, and that's it.

Another good thing in this game is the ability to choose between X and Zero whenever you like at the stage select screen. However, you'll want to stick with Zero, because X is completely worthless without any bosses weapons. Zero, on the other hand, has a wide variety of attacks that are somewhat effective and can do serious damage. Sadly, Zero's greatness makes the game too easy. So your choices are either:
1. Pure frustration with pathetic X
2. Much too easy game with Zero
Additionally, instead of X having one set of upgraded armor like in all other MMX games, There are a few sets that offer some interesting, but still pathetic armor sets. You start the game with the ''Fourth Armor'' which is similar to the upgrades you could get in MMX4. However, if you can choose this for free, why would you want to choose pathetic ''armorless'' X at all? The only reason to use armorless X is to get more upgrades, and dying because he can't do anything well.

Story: 2/10
Worse that average. The only thing good about the ''story'' is that it reveals some more info about Zero's connections with Wily. This time, the story has the ''Sigma Virus'' going aroudn infecting robots and humans and causing chaos. It's up to X and Zero (of course) to do boring things to stop it. First they decide to destroy the source of the Virus. However, to do this, they need parts for the weapon. They need to get these parts from the bosses. This is where the boss introductions come in. When you get into a boss' room, there is a short dialogue that goes on between your character and the boss. These conversations are boring, and usually consist of ''Give me the part!'' and ''No! Die you egotistical Maverick Hunter!!'' Additionally, Capcom must have been too afraid to use the word ''kill'' or ''die'', so they make them say things like ''You will expire!'' or ''I will retire you!''. Very pathetic and unthreatening.
Next on the agenda is to make Zero sacrifice himself by flying a spaceship into some target, which can kill him pretty easily in the explosion. To take off, the space ship needs MORE PARTS! However, instead of wasting more time, you can play it like I did, I launched the shuttle with none of the parts and the game still went on as if I did well.

Possibly the only good thing about the final stages is the fact that, if you play as Zero, you get to fight X. but X is as pathetic as he is when he's in your control, so I don't think you need to worry about difficulty.

Control: 8/10
The control scheme for the X games have always been good enough.

Sound: 5/10
Most sounds are copied off the other X games. There is less voice acting, almost none. But luckily, X no longer sounds like a little girl.

Graphics: 5/10
Character sprites are copied from X4, which is not surprising. the quality of graphics isnt' any better than X4 either. The stages are bland and typical. FMV scenes are no longer existant, but you do get treated to many still-shots of events with text at the bottom of the screen. Dull, boring, ugh. Capcom obviously was one some sort of low budget when making this game.

Replayability: Once you play and finish it as Zero, there's little reason to play anymore. The character you choose at the begginning will alter the ending slightly, too.

Writing this review was more fun that playing the game. Rent at your own risk, Buy if you are a sado masochist.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/01, Updated 06/19/01