Mega Man X4

"Prepare to become space dust!"

Mega Man is one of the most common characters in video game history. His games that were made for the original NES are some of the best ever created, with Mega Man 2 & 3 leading the pack. Once Nintendo moved the Mega Man series to the SNES, they decided to rework the Mega Man series. Mega Man X was that creation. It was basically a more "evolved" and grown-up version of the Mega Man series from the NES. After three successful games on the SNES, the series moved to the Playstation. Mega Man X4 is a decent game, but I still liked X1 and X2 better.

The gameplay in Mega Man X4 is pretty simple. After the title screen, you will come to the stage select screen. It is hear that you can pick any of the 8 Reploids that you wish to start with. After you make your selection, you will have to battle your way threw a stage until you get to the Reploid. If you defeat him you clear the stage, and also take that Reploids weapon as well. This weapon is very affective against another specific Reploid. If you use this weapon, it is sometimes easy to defeat another robot master in as little as three or four hits. That is something that Capcom pushed when it came to Mega Man, a sort of rock, paper, scissors type of gameplay.

All those who are familiar with the NES Mega Man games will feel right at home. Mega Man jumps, shoots, and now can even climb walls. While many of you will feel that this element was put into the game simply as an added feature can think again. Many of the boss battles are made to be very difficult, and climbing walls will become vital to your success. That brings up another point. I must say that the Mega Man X games are often considered to be much harder than the Classic series. I agree will this, but it really becomes evident during the final boss battles against Sigma. Of course this can be off set by collecting the upgrades for X in each game. Now those expecting the Reploid battles to be easy are wrong. They are much harder than the NES Robot Master battles. They are actually on par with the Robot Master's from Mega Man 8. They still aren't that difficult to defeat and the stages are really easy as well. The final boss battles can be tricky, but all have a specific pattern including Sigma. In all the game isn't as hard as people made it out to be. WARNING: The final battle against Sigma is in my opinion the hardest Sigma battle. You need to defeat a Sigma head with a ray gun and also an ugly alien Sigma head as well. By the way, both of these Sigma heads each have a separate life meter! Good luck and try and not pull your hair out.

The graphics in Mega Man X4 are very nice. All of the environments have such exceptional detail, Mega Man controls very well, and there are no noticeable glitches in the game. Although there are a lot of people that think that the graphics aren't as good anymore, they are wrong. Each environment has crisp detail and wonderful 3D backgrounds. The music is very good, and is on par with Mega Man 2 and 3, plus Mega Man X.

The story is pretty simple. A group of Reploids known as the Repliforce, led by both the Colonel and the General, desires freedom from the humans that made them. Unlike Sigma, they're not Mavericks. Eventually a war breaks out between the Repliforce and the Mavericks. Of course, behind the scenes is a familiar character with a sinister laugh, who is cloaked. Don't know who it is? I'll give you a simple quote as a clue. "You have won a temporary victory, X! What you destroyed was only a temporary body -- my spirit remains intact. In time I will find other bodies strong enough to do my bidding and I will return. I shall see you soon, X. Very soon..."

In all, Mega Man X4 is a decent game. However, nothing is less enjoyable than to get threw an entire game, only to be tripped up by the final boss, something that has happened to most people when talking about the final form of Sigma. Luckily, I was able to learn Sigma's attack pattern and beat him. Mega Man X4 is still a good game and should be played if you like the X series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/06, Updated 01/02/07