Mega Man X5

"A Mega Man game with a real plot...go figure."

I looked forward to this game,and for the most part it did not let me down.I did think that a few things that were new to the series in this game could have been better though.

Story
The planet has been at peace for some time,and has developed space colonies in Earth's orbit.The game starts out with one of these colonies being set to fall on the Earth thereby causing massive damage.As X and Zero,it is up to you to collect parts for devices to destroy the colony before it crashes.

The story itself seems rather straight forward,but has many small twists to it.To me this game relies on the plot more then previous Mega Man/Mega Man X games.

Graphics 10/10
The graphics for the game are as good as any I've seen for a 2-D side-scroller on the Playstation.While the game has no animation scenes (like the ones in Mega Man X4 and Mega Man 8) it does have story cut scenes to take their place(which also means we do not have to put up with bad voice acting).The cut scenes are well drawn and even have some computer touch ups here and there.

Sound 7/10
The music is pretty nice (and even has a couple of redone ones from other Mega Man and Mega Man X games) and the sound effects are also pretty nice.Nothing really outstanding though.

Control 9/10
Both X and Zero control very well normally.While X still controls well in his different armors,Zero's special moves he learns from Maverick boss's after beating them can be a hassle to use sometimes.

Gameplay 9/10
Here is where things get a little interesting.While the game has the classic Mega Man style of selecting what Maverick boss you want to fight in what order so that you get that Maverick boss's weapon,you also get a couple of different types of parts.

First,you get a part for either one of two types of devices to shoot the colony down with.Since you are on a timer (not real time,the timer goes down every time you enter a level) to shoot down the colony,you want to at least complete one device to shoot it down as fast as you can...or so they at least claim.I found my efforts on when the colony gets shot down to be random.This is one of the new things I did not like.To reward me for my effort is one thing,to give me random results for doing what they said would work seems to me to be kind of cruel.

The second type of part is an upgrade.When you beat a Maverick boss of a certain level (that is correct,they have their own levels as marked under their life bar) you will get to choose either a life bar extension or a weapon bar extension.When you beat even higher level Maverick bosses you will also get a part that will help out the gameplay (the parts will do things like make you jump higher or faster or will make your weapons do more damage,and so on).You can only use these parts if your characters armor has the space for them though.

You start off as either X or Zero.While you control both through the same game,picking which character you start with will determine some of your starting items.Each character has at least two different types of armor (though some you have to find,mostly a piece at a time) with certain amounts of space for upgrade parts and each armor also has special abilliteis.You also get a different endings depending on who you beat the game with.

This game goes out of it's way to provide a challenge for you,but still be easy for those new to the series.It has a few different types of difficulty levels to choose from.The bosses (like mentioned before) have levels under their life bar that determine how much life they have (they levels go up the farther you are in the game).It even gives you a rank,so you can see just how well you are really playing the game.

One thing that was put in this game to help new people to the series is a character (Alia) that gives you tips on what to do.This might sound nice,but she mainly tries to guide you in the middle of the game!When she pops up with advise both you and the enemies freeze.This has caused me to be in bad spots when the game continues.At the very least I would have liked to have had the option of playing without her ''help'',but no such luck.

The last thing that you should be aware of is that as the main objective of the game starts out with the colony,once that's out of the way you are free to go to the end levels when you choose.This means you can actually go to the end levels without facing the Maverick bosses.

All in All
I think this game is good for veterans as well as new people to the series (though the new people to the series might be lost in some of the story line).

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/01, Updated 08/22/01