Mega Man Xtreme

"Carry X wherever you go!"

My first ever review, and the game I pick for it is Mega Man X's first adventure on a handheld gaming console. Doesn't that automatically make it sucky? No, not at all.

Story: 6/10
The Mega Man games can't really brag about having great storylines, but is it necessary? Nah.
It pretty much goes like this: Someone has broken into the mother computer at Hunter Base, and X has to be transformed into computer data and get inserted into the computer's cyberspace to defeat the past data of Mavericks X previously defeated.
I know, it's not much, but at least it explains in a good way why X has to battle bosses he's already defeated in other games (X and X2). That's more than Capcom did on the Game Boy Mega Man games.

Graphics: 7/10
I didn't like the graphics here as much as I'd like. The characters all look a bit 'flat', if you get my drift. The backgrounds and level scenery is all right, though, and it makes good use of the colors. It also gives me the 'old-school feeling', which is good, and the fact that you can play it on a regular Game Boy system as well without any severe quality drop is a nice plus.

Sound: 9/10
The music tracks are great ports of the SNES originals, and they're all catchy. The sound effects could be a bit better, but they're still great.

Control: 8/10
The controls are, shortly put, NICE. X responds good on your movements, the wall kick is excellent, everything runs smoothly.
The controls are actually easier than in the SNES games, although the Game Boy has two buttons less. You can now pull out the Dash move by pressing Down and A (same button Mega Man uses to slide in the Mega Man games). You can also set the controls so you can Dash simply by pressing START.
Which brings me to another subject... You now bring up the Sub Screen by pushing SELECT instead of START. WHY?? What was the point in changing that? Ah well, you do get used to it, though.
The best thing, though, is that through the Options screen, you can set Auto-Charge and Rapid Fire on. Auto-Charge basically means that X charges up the X-Buster automatically when you don't fire. Saves you a lot of time and stress, your first shot will always be a super shot!
Rapid Fire is even better. When turned on, X will fire as long as you hold down the B button. You won't have to amputate your thumb!

Gameplay: 9/10
The feeling of the game is better than I thought it to be, it has actually conservated the old-school feeling from the original SNES games. And, well, platform gaming doesn't get better than the Mega Man games.
The Zero Scrambles and Armor Upgrades add a lot to the gaming experience, and you still gain the weapon of the boss you defeat, of course.

Replay Value: 7/10
This game comes with three difficulty modes, and they're all extremely different. You can play on the next difficulty when you've completed the previous one, and as the difficulty modes feature different bosses, you could play this game over and over again. There are also a lot of stuff to collect; Sub Tanks, Heart Tanks, Armor Upgrades and a SECRET ATTACK. However, the game is pretty straight-forward and will get boring with time.

Overall: 8/10
This... is a great game. Although it doesn't quite stand the race against its SNES counterparts, it's still a great game, and well worth the money.
It's also a revolutionary game: No more passwords to write down. That's right, Xtreme uses a battery in the game pak to actually SAVE your game progress! Lots of fun!
Bottom line: If you like Mega Man X, you'll like Xtreme.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/02, Updated 12/30/02