Mega Man X

It's no secret we like Mega Man. There's nothign special about that. It's a classic series of extremely dependable games made on a solid formula. Our favorites are the original series, but the X games just have that way of coming into the conversation constantly. Our take on them is, consistently, that we don't like them as much as the original series but they're fine and we don't hate the "bad" ones that much. Since we've replayed the original today, it's a good time to start digging into that.

We say pretty constantly that the key to a good original MM is the weapon selection. The more we can use them in effective and inventive ways, the better. MMX has always turned that on its head, but in the right way: they added a bunch of movement tech that happens to be unique, iconic, and fun to engage with. Kicking your way up a wall rules, no question. It's not automatically good (as all the games in the subseries that are hated can attest) but like it's COOL. It's SICK AS HELL. But there are still boss weapons, so its important to look at what your options are in each game. Let's break it down:

Storm Tornado A straight show, but a cool one, since it's flashy as hell and very powerful. In a lot of ways, the charged version that hits above and below is more interesting, but it's a bit too slow for us to want to use it all the time.

Fire Wave Also a forward shot, but the high power and low range make it interesting. The charged version could have been a basic weapon on its own, but as a slow charge shot it's not really something we want to use.

Shotgun Ice Other games with Spark Mandril usually eliminate the stunlock on him, making this weapon more interesting. As it is, it's another straight shot without much power or utility that can't be exceeded by a number of other weapons. The charged version is great though, giving you a sliding platform to stand on. Imagine if it was the default function!

Electric Spark Pretty dull in both modes. Technically has some unique properties but they just aren't much.

Rolling Shield This one goes downwards, which is used to great affect on its weakness bosses but it isn't especially exciting in the levels. The charged version is a classic shield-type weapon and it would have been nice if that could have been the default function here. It would have added a lot of variety to things.

Homing Torpedo A simple homing shot. Useful for a lot of flying enemies, even if its not the only shot which works well there. The charged version is just more missiles, not adding much utility.

Boomerang Cutter As the name suggests, something of a repeat of the old Rolling Cutter. This has utility for grabbing some items and its trajectory is used to make its weakness bosses easier. It even has unique effects on a couple of bosses, which aren't super useful but are fun. This isn't a Metal Blade or anything, but it more than clears the bar. Charge is just more coverage, which is eh.

Chameleon Sting Now here's a nice one. The spread shot lets you hit aerial enemies nicely and the charge shot makes you temporarily invincible. As close as we get to overpowered, but not like, Metal Blade levels or anything.

So overall, that's not our top-ranked weapon set in the series, but it's definitely solid. The charge function is a little tricky since you have to find it, but it adds a lot to your arsenal. Most good choices feel like a weapon that happens to be effective at the moment rather than a tool you're using properly as it does in some of our faves, and the majority of the action has to be solved through jumping, dashing, and shooting. The way Zero ends up playing from X4 onward, specifically the way his boss powers work, feels like the full realization of this change in direction, but that hasn't happened yet and wouldn't for a few years and an entire console.

Another thing MMX did was really jack up the collectibles. It's not Banjo Kazooie or anything but each level has at least one secret to find, and there can be two or three. Since you need certain weapons and abilities to get some secrets, there's likely to be some backtracking to get everything. Sometimes, this can feel a little annoying in these games. MMX is probably less ridiculous in this respect than, say MM7, though. The half damage armor is probably load-bearing but we didn't feel like we'd lose without having every single powerup at the end on this playthrough. That said, we did have them all. Truthfully, we're familiar enough with all the secrets in this one that it's very difficult to decide how we'd feel about things coming in fresh. It's easiest just to say that the collection process didn't bog us down with our current level of knowledge.

But all of this is barely more than window-dressing on the actual experience of playing the game, right? But what makes the original our favorite MMX (at least right now) is just how little crap there is to get in the way. The length and complexity of the levels and bosses are in line with where the NES games were at. The boss refights are kinda spread out over the fortress like in MM1, but just them being SHORT fights is so important for pacing over what happens later on. There's not any heavy-duty puzzles or anything of that sort. It's just a breezy game compared to later entries in the series, which we're actually inclined to defend more than most but they aren't as good and this feels like part of why. We just got tired of all the slow stuff. The final boss ended up not being as much of a difficulty spike this time as we expected, and that felt good too. It's just good. It's solid. They built this foundation into a LOT of games and while not all of them were fantastic, a bunch of them were. It's enough to make us commit to playing more of the series and trying to keep piecing out our current feelings on it.