Mega Man X4

"My favorite game of the Megaman X series..."

Well...this review comes a bit late, but, still legitimate, none the less. I have played all of the Megaman X games (MMX - MMX6, X-cluding [Tee hee!] MMX3) And, I have to say, MMX4 may be the best one of all of them. Anyways, let's go...

Graphics - 8/10: This game got a big upgrade from the series jump from the SNES to the PSX. First of all, the sprites are a lot better looking. No more, squatty, deformed looking weird things here. The sprites are bigger, more vibrantly colored, and just flat out easier to see. Some of the bosses are GIGANTIC! You'll feel quite intimidated fighting bosses that take up almost the entire screen. The backgrounds and levels are very well designed, much more detailed, and lots more color than the SNES games...It's a great looking game. It has a charming cartoon look to it, which, in my opinion, makes it feel more appropriate.

Story - 6.5/10: Ehhh...since when did Megaman games have a plot besides 'Eight robots have appeared, clear their levels and defeat them to proceed?' Well...that formula holds up here. If you've never played a Megaman game, and you want a game with a strong plot, look elsewhere. Luckily, you can play through this game as either Megaman X OR his buddy, Zero! That's right. You can play through the entire game as Zero now.

Control - 9/10: Easily the best part of the game. X and Zero control pretty similar, and are both quite easy to handle, at that. You simply move them back and forth along a side scrolling 2-D world, which is a good thing, because it stay true to the original Megaman formula. Also, you don't have things to worry about like weird camera angles, or anything of that sort. One of the only problems I had was switching between X's weapons in the heat of battle. Yeah, you can fire pretty easily, but when you have 8 weapons to cycle through, pressing the R1 button, while an enemy pounds away at you isn't exactly easy... Also, X is much easier to control than Zero...Er, let me explain. What I mean is, if you haven't played any Megaman games before, you should start with X, since he has longer ranged attacks, and seems to have an easier time hitting enemies. Zero, on the other hand, attacks with his Z-sabre (Sword) meaning you have to get right up in an enemy's face to attack them. Which is good, because the difficulty of the game increases slightly when you play through as Zero.

Battles - 8/10: Well, like previous MM games, enemies simply appear in front of you and you just shoot them to death. Of course, you may want to charge that X-buster of yours before you run right into that powerful enemy up ahead... Bosses are either incredibly easy, or insanely difficult. Each boss has a week point to a certain weapon and, keeping with the tradition of all the other MM games, once X defeats a boss, he obtains a new weapon. What this means, for example, after you kill the boss, 'Frost Walrus,' you can use his weapon on a boss named 'Jet Stingray' and he will be weak against that weapon. Well, maybe it sounds complicated, but, once you find out what enemies are weak against what, you can exploit them and therefore, remove pretty much any difficulty that was in the boss battles to begin with...

Music - 7/10: Some pretty cool music, definitely fits the flow of the game. The tracks sound right in each level, and the boss music is pretty cool. I don't know. Not bad, but for some reason it could have been better.

Replay - 7/10: Well...like I said, you can play though this game as either X or Zero, this time around, but, after you beat it with both of them, I don't really know how much you'd want to go through this game again, unless you missed some items, health units, or armor upgrades...It's a pretty short game, and once you get good at it, you can probably beat it in a couple hours, so, you might want to play through it a few times just for fun. Nothing extra really opens up or anything...

Overall - 8/10: A pretty strong MMX game--or Megaman game, in general. If you're a fan of the series, you'll want to pick it up (Of course, if you're a fan of the series, you probably already got it years ago when it came out, right??) Or even if you aren't a fan of the series, check it out. My friend and I rented this game quite a while back, and never got around to beating it, so later I bought it. Nowadays, you can find it in the bargain bin for probably $15 or $20, simply because it's an old game. If you haven't played this Megaman X game I strongly encourage you to do so. It's a fun game, and you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/02, Updated 11/02/02