Mega Man X4

"Better than the SNES games??? No."

Mega Man has always been one of my favorite seires. And when i heard that the beloved X series was coming to Playstation I was pretty excited. Although i think right when i put the cd in it felt different. This game was just bound for disappointment with how great its preceeding games were, but it still managed to be pretty good.

Story: This is not the strong point of mega man game. This is because it is so based on pure action. This game had more of a story than the others, with some actual plot twists! (Although there more than predictable.) Still not bad. I would rather see a mega man game without a plot than with one anyway. (9/10)

Graphics: Bringing the series to the Playstation game console immediately makes you think of how good the graphics will be. And they were. One of the biggest things was that there was not much slowdown which would have completely ruined this game. The boss design was OK but not as good as it was in previous games. Enemy design is just all right too. And you may like them, but i cannot STAND the anime cutscenes in this game. They are a bore to watch that take away from the gameplay. There is only one pretty good one in the whole game, and i would rather not have had any at all. But thats my opinion. (8/10)

Sound and Music: I think that any fan of these games has come to expect nothing short of great sound from this series. I didn't really like the voice acting in this game, but they weren't nearly as bad as mega man 8's... The music is not as good as in past games either, but still very good action music that will keep you playing quick and uptempo. Pretty good. (8/10)

Control: The control of the X games has always, and one would expect will always be great. And this game is no exception. Fully used the Playstation control and provided you with complete control of X or Zero. Having good control makes this game very good and easy to get into. It is never frustrating to do something simple like climbing or jumping, its just all as smooth as can be. Another great job from capcom in the control department. (10/10)

Gameplay: This is supposed to be the strongest point of any mega man game. With eight stages to explore and lots to do you would figure that nothing could go wrong right? Wrong. The biggest change is the fact that you can only carry 2 E tanks now, and you can now carry a W tank as well. Also all the numerous secrets that were in X3 are not found in this game. There are significantly less secrets in this game than in X3, and this makes the gameplay worse. This does get better however when you find out that you can be zero. No he can't get capsules, but its still fun to play as him through the whole game. However this was not enough to help for the lack of things to do. Also, now that it is one the Playstation the levels are split in two. This is certainly not a good thing. You will be going along smoothly until, BAM ''X is now rushing to section 2'' And the worst part is where he leaves off is not always where he will resume in section 2. Damn load times. Needed some more work. (7/10)

Fun: Am I going to have fun playing this game? If you are a fan of the series or not I would most likely say so. You might be a little disappointed, but its a solid game nonetheless. This game is fun to play, but overall just not as good as the previous 3 games in the series. Just missing some things. (8/10)

Other Stuff:
1 Player
Difficulty: Slightly Below average. There are less things to do and the game itself isn't all that tough. Still a good game though.
Replay Value: Below Average. There is just not enough to do in this game, having changed some things that made it great before.
Buy or Rent? I would Rent. Unless your a diehard and need it.

Score:

Story 9/10
Graphics 8/10
Sound 8/10
Control 10/10
Gameplay 7/10
Fun Factor 8/10

Total: 50/60

Final: 8.3

Bottom Line: A good game, but if you want a real X game, go looking for the older ones for SNES.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/23/02, Updated 09/23/02