Mega Man Xtreme

"Not the same Megaman X that I once knew..."

X HAS FINALLY REACHED THE GAME BOY!
After seeing five episodes of the original Blue Bomber on the Game Boy Classic, Capcom has finally gone into the future and has brought us Megaman X to our little Game Boy Color systems. Unfortunately, something just didn't feel right about it...

A NEW ERA OF GB MEGAMAN
Just as in the classic GB Megaman games, Megaman Xtreme takes four bosses from the first game (Chill Penguin, Spark Mandrill, Armored Armadillo, Storm Eagle), another four from the second (Wheel Gator, Magna Centipede, Morph Moth, Flame Stag), and a few new faces (Geemel and Zain), and weaves them together into one giant plot. This time around, someone has tampered with a computer system and our hero X has to enter the system and eliminate bosses that were recreated from the computer's data. It's no big surprise that Sigma is behind it but you also have two mini-bosses thrown in to add to the mix. All of this plus Zero as an added ''assist'' character and this should really make up for a grand
party but it just doesn't work somehow...

THIS WAS MEGAMAN X???
Having played both Megaman X and X2, I don't ever remember each of the stages being so short. While recreating each of the stages is perfectly fine, there's something about each of the stages that make them seem so much shorter than I last remembered.

It was then that I brought out my SNES and replayed both games to take a look and I was right. Many stages seem considerably shorter than they once were. My only guess is that it was done in order to fit the GB cartridge's limited memory size or processing power (strange as it may seem, the game surprisingly suffers from slowdown whenever I play the game on a Super Game Boy).

Another problem that I saw was in the color schemes. While the colors are mostly decent, some characters look terrible. Storm Eagle looks like as though he just came out a paintball field. This won't bother you too much but knowing that the GBC can handle up to 56 colors onscreen at once really makes you wonder how much effort Capcom had put into the graphics.

POOR STORYLINE
The storyline itself is poorly done. While X is dishing out the Mavericks, there are new faces that are suppose to add to the story but don't serve much a purpose if any at all. The two new Mavericks Geemel and Zain are there just to harass X at certain points in the game but serve no other purpose. Just blast them and go. Then you have the robotic brothers Middy and Techno, one trying to help you while the other is doing the opposite. Like Geemel and Zain, they don't add to the story and the one event that involves them (It's a spoiler so I'm not telling you) near the end of the game doesn't help it. Even Zero didn't serve much of a purpose to the story. Sure you almost never see him during your adventures but at least he has a purpose in each episode. For example, his famous death* in X1 added to the emotion and would later help the plot in X2 when you have to get back his body parts from some Mavericks. The most Zero really does in Xtreme is serve as an ''assist'' character the same way you have assist characters in Marvel vs. Capcom. You find program parts placed in four stages and each one contains an attack for Zero. There are four altogether, each one draining energy from one single bar. While this isn't a complete waste of a key character, you'll rarely have to use his costly attacks despite their impressive looks.

GRAPHICS 7/10
For a SNES-to-GBC translation, it's not too bad though you'd expect better color schematics. Each of the characters seem to translate fairly well but are often ruined by sloppy colors. This shouldn't be much of a bother but as long as the bullets remain a pale white, it's hard to see where your pellet shots are going. Stages and backgrounds are nicely done and aren't too bad.

SOUND 7/10
Sounds effects are not much in this game. Gunshots are soft and muffled so don't expect to get much noise from your X-Buster. Just imagine that you have a $9000 muffler installed in your gun. Of course, that muffler won't save you from the sound that the X-Buster makes when you charge it. The Buster-charging sound is agonizingly annoying and you know how often you have to charge that gun.
As for music, the music consists of the tunes from the original X1 and X2. They don't sound bad for a Game Boy Color but they all sound as though the creator was tapping on musical metal pipes. If you've ever heard the music in Needle Man's stage from Megaman 3, you'll get the idea.

CONTROL 8/10
Since the game was meant to be played using the SNES controller, it's hard to see how the game would work out on a 2-button system but surprisingly, it's not too bad. The control schemes seem to mimic the SNES controls fairly well but trying to do a Dash Jump off a wall is just impossible. Thank goodness that the leg enhancement allows you to Dash Jump off walls easily. Also, for all of you Megaman fans who have adjusted to the L and R buttons for switching weapons, you're going to have to get used to the classic system in which you need to access the menu in order to switch weapons. Other than that, there aren't too many problems with the controls.

GAMEPLAY 7/10
The game isn't too bad and has plenty of fun to enjoy but you have to be new to Megaman X in order to really enjoy it. The problem is that if you've played Megaman X1 and X2 already, you'll probably already know where most of the secrets are. Energy tanks, heart tanks, and other enhancements come back to your memory. You'll probably also remember each boss's attack patterns and the stage layouts themselves, which really takes even more fun out of the game. Even though you do have two never-before-seen sub-bosses to fight, you're only going to fight them once or twice and then it's over.

OVERALL 7/10
The idea of bringing Megaman X to the Game Boy world had high hopes but was crippled in the end by its watered-down quality when compared to the original SNES games. Perhaps a player who hasn't played X1 and X2 yet will find fun in the game but veterans will find no fun at all.

BUY OR RENT
Die-hard Megaman fans should consider giving this one a buy but for anyone else, it's pretty much a rent. In fact, you might even finish the game with all secrets uncovered in one night.

*Since Zero's death in X1 was a really big part of Megaman X2's plot, I don't consider mentioning it a spoiler at all. Because hey, if it's your job to look for his body parts, then you know that he didn't quite make it in the first game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/01, Updated 07/06/01