Mega Man X5

"The Beginning Of The End."

When a series' number of games begins to grow into the twenties, it's expectable that a few of them won't be on par with the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the Mega Man franchise has had quite a few ups and downs, a few too many for my liking. In the original series, the later additions started becoming stale, so Capcom decided to get ahead of things by trying to revamp the Mega Man X series while it still had it's good name. And while there are a few interesting new additions, the cons outweigh the pros drastically.

Besides the usual “Reploids going Maverick” thing going on, there's quite a bit else happening. After Sigma attacks the Maverick Hunter's base, either X or Zero – depending on which character you started with – destroys him; covering the entire planet with the Sigma Virus. Not only does this cause almost all of the Reploids to go Maverick, but it also disrupts the mechanisms that control the gravitational pull between Earth and Eurasia, a space colony; sending it on a crash course to Earth. The only way to save the planet is to blow up the colony, either by collecting parts for an ancient laser or by building a space shuttle and sending it on a kamikaze flight to crash into Eurasia.

Yes, I'm well aware that the plot seems to be a lot more interesting than some of the previous titles, but everything is just mixed up and it doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time; either the game doesn't tell you everything or becomes too dry. Although I appreciated their attempt at a compelling storyline, I'd have preferred something a little more basic.

Unlike Mega Man X4, you can play as either X or Zero at any one time, instead of being confined to one character throughout the game. If you begin the game as X, he starts out with his Ultimate Armor from X4, while beginning as Zero, besides increasing the difficulty, allows Zero to use his Z-Buster, although it isn't very powerful. This also means that X doesn't have his armor, which means that you have to play as Zero until you can collect armor for X to use.

After a short intro stage, you're presented with eight Mavericks, although you only need to beat four of them to continue to Sigma's Fortress. While a few of the levels are designed fairly well, some of them are hideous, although the enemy/obstacle relationship hasn't been altered very much. And the jumping puzzles that have infested the later Mega Man games like a bad case of herpes have returned, and they're just as pointless as ever. Ducking, a new ability, plays a large role throughout the game and makes boss fights, particularly the Black Devil, a piece of cake. Unfortunately, your character can only begin a new animation once their current animation is complete; meaning that even if Zero's hair is still moving you need to wait for it to stop before being able to jump or duck.

If you're lucky enough to have picked one of the stages that are designed well, you're in for one hell of a disappointment with the boss battle. You may have noticed right after the stage select screen that the Maverick has an odd name; and an astute Gun N' Roses fan might have even caught a reference to one of the bands members. No, it isn't a coincidence, the bosses' names are all derived from the members of Gun N' Roses. Even more peculiar is the fact that the Japanese names are still used in the manual, which are as pathetic as the North American ones, and these don't even have band references. It's hard to choose between which names to use throughout the game, it's too embarrassing either way. Honestly, if I was a robot and someone named me Shining Hotarunicus or Izzy Glow, I think I'd have to commit suicide.

But the fun doesn't stop there, for not only are the boss' names horrible, but their attacks are repetitive and boring. I know that most Mega Man games follow a similar trend, but it's even more obvious because the Mavericks are way too easy to defeat. At first, the Maverick uses a set of one or two moves until you take about half of their life away, and then they use a different, more powerful, set of attacks until you defeat it.

And if the bosses weren't easy enough, Capcom went completely insane with the save feature; the game automatically saves at certain spots, including right before a boss fight. So even if you're killed by a boss and get game over, you begin right at the door before the Maverick. One of the reasons I always enjoyed the Mega Man series was because of the challenge, but the auto-save feature completely ruined the entire game for me.

Unlike the mediocre gameplay, the visuals in X5 are actually above average; they're very similar to those of Mega Man X4. Although the perspectives are a bit odd, some of the backgrounds are drastically overhead, which looks awkward. True, there are a few levels that are above average and even memorable, but others are just too over done. This pertains mostly to the backgrounds in Sigma's Fortress; they're just a little too psychedelic for my tastes. Honestly, if I want to see visuals like that, I'll light up a joint and raid the Pepperidge Farm store down the street.

The soundtrack in X5 is a mixed bunch, but for the most part the songs are pretty lame. Even if there are a surprisingly large amount of classic Mega Man tunes, most of them have been remixed into a techno nightmare. While I did like a scattering of the levels' songs, there just aren't enough of them to keep me from turning the volume off. But for one positive, X finally has a male sounding voice during the many cutscenes in the game.

In short, I really did think that Mega Man X5 would end up being a great game; all of those new innovations they were putting in sounded like a sure-fire way to keep the series from becoming bland. Unfortunately, the many flaws easily outweigh the positive ideas, and almost none of the new things are ever explained, which leaves you scratching your head wondering what the hell is going on. The epitome of this is the ending; having three different endings in a game that just started what seems to be a new, detailed story was not the best idea. Combine all of this with the animation problems, below-average music, jumping puzzles, and reused boss strategies, and the end result is the first, but certainly not the last, disappointment in the Mega Man X series.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/03, Updated 08/19/04