Mega Man Xtreme

"Better than some of the rehashed ports for the Gameboy..."

Behold Megaman Xtreme: another port for the Gameboy Color that follows along the path of Donkey Kong Country, and other ports from your beloved systems shrunken down to something worse than what you remember it.

I saw Megaman Xtreme in the store and was thinking about buying it. Some words on the back of the box caught my interest: 'two new bosses and new characters'. I led to believe that this was a brand new game on the Gameboy Color so I went and got it at the closeout sale from Toys R Us.

The major disappointment was that it was Megaman X 1 and 2 in a much crappier form, and I was expecting a brand new game.

Story:(8)
The Story is actually brand new! Capcom actually got off their butts to actually make this port something that people would actually buy again, instead of like Nintendo just copying the entire Donkey Kong Country and shrinking it down in size to a much junkier form.

The whole story is that some evil hackers have hacked into the main computer that keeps the future city that Megaman X lives in safe. This hack has caused many of X's former enemies that you have killed in Megaman X and X2 to come back in their EXACT SAME levels with minor differences (such as new locations of certain upgrades). X goes out through his past to put an end to these past enemies and stop the hackers from taking over the world.

At least its something new instead of using Megaman X's story again.

Gameplay:(7)
This is another area that goes downhill. Remember how tight the controls were in Megaman X, and how you could use everything very effectively? Well, it seems to have been toned down with the loss of buttons on the Gameboy. Capcom fortunately made wall jumping automatically equiped with a dash jump instead of having you press the start+direction+jump button all at the same time, but that's only a small improvement over the loose controls. Hit detection is REALLY BAD in this game compared to the SNES version, where you would jump back a bit and flash. On the GBC, you still jump back and flash, but you rarely see what even hit you and you don't get a sound to indecate that you were hit (and if there is one, then it is a bit too quiet for me to hear it).

Another problem is the GBC having a dark screen. In one stage of this game, i was constantly jumping off cliffs because I couldn't see the floor below me, and cost me my lives very quickly. And if i did see the floor, I would get hit by the enemies that were on the floor I needed to get to because I couldn't see the ground I needed to jump to in time to avoid the attack! It was terrible.

On the plus side, Capcom has brought in a new device: the weapons menu. This isn't the menu which you get to use the bosses attacks, but a separate menu to determine how you will fire your Xbuster: either using Rapid Fire, Auto Charging, or both at the same time. This does remove the problem of having to press the B button a few dozen times to kill something fast and you won't have to hold it in to charge up either. Unfortunately, the charging feature might get on your nerves as you may fire it a bit too early instead of your usual releasing the button to fire.

Graphics:(6)
What do you get when reducing sweet 16 bit graphics down to 8bit? Crap. Now if they actually started Megaman X out as an 8bit game, this would look a heck of alot better instead of the blurry stuff you get now. The graphics actually make the bosses that used to be taller than you about the same size, and making most of the easier to see enemies from Megaman X harder to see and even harder to kill.

The graphics also make the backgrounds bad too, and they were some cool looking backgrounds on the SNES...

Music:(6)
The same combination from converting 16bit graphics down to 8bit also affects the music. Remember how cool those soundtracks in Megaman X sounded? Now try to imagine them toned down to an 8bit game? Screechy, with more of a chance to skip a beat than the SNES. I enjoyed the tunes from the SNES version, but since I've played this game, I need to play Megaman X again JUST to remember how they were supposed to sound.

Replay it?
Capcom starts you out with only four bosses from Megaman X and X2, but if you manage to sit through the game long enough, you will unlock more stuff, including 4 more bosses from X and X2. There may be some more stuff too, but I haven't gone that far though.

Buy or Rent?
Go get X and X2 for your SNES instead of getting this rehash. I don't care if you can play it in the car, I'd rather have my smooth controls on the SNES. Good thing I wasn't the one who bought this game, otherwise I'd be stuck with it since the Toys R Us went out of business a week after we got the thing.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/03/03, Updated 02/03/03