In the summer of 2004, CAPCOM’s
Mega Man Anniversary Collection (MMAC) brought a tear to the eyes of many a
gamer who reveled in the innovation and tight gameplay the Blue Bomber has
brought to us since the earlier days of the NES. Not only did the compilation give us all
eight games in the original series, but it added a bunch of extras such as
segments of the animated series, extra artwork and bonus games. Now after much delay and speculation, the
futuristic Mega Man X finds itself thrown into the collection treatment and the
result is mediocre at best.
Originally,
CAPCOM had no plans to release a collection based off the X series, but after
much demand, we now have the first six Mega Man X games on one disc. The rush to put the game on the market
results in extremely bland menus to navigate - while it’s straightforward and
quick to use, it lacks the substance and flash the interactive menus from MMAC
featured. There was so little emphasis put
on the menus, it seems the programmers forgot to add 2006 to the title screen
instead of 2005, based on the original November release date.
Yeah, that’s
mighty critical of me, but why did I notice this you ask? Because I sat staring at the title screen for
about two minutes waiting for something to happen. No special intro video, no clever teasers
into the game, nothing, and that’s the premise of this disc. Mega Man X Collection is nothing more than a
collection - you get the six X games and pretty much nothing else. While most of the X series can hang on its
own, the lack of any sort of shiny, decorative wrapping paper serves up as a
real bummer to the tried-and-true fans who will be expecting an entire world of
extras. Sure, you have the average-at-best,
Rockman Battle and Chase, but aside from that, all you have is a bunch of
artwork and no real incentives to unlock everything.
The
emulation is handled extremely well as the X games have been shoveled over from
the 16-bit and 32-bit originals in pixel-perfect form. Even Mega Man X2's C4 chip was faithfully
rendered in, providing the wire framing and rotation effects shown throughout
the game. As an added bonus, CAPCOM
opted to go with the 32-bit version of X3, released at the advent of the Playstation
and Saturn, which added anime cut scenes and cd-quality music to the
series. The sound is just as spot-on and
the extra power in the current-generation systems essentially cuts out all the
slowdown experienced in the cartridge versions of the game and load times are
virtually non-existent.
Since the
collection depends on the games themselves, the dilemma of whether or not Mega
Man X Collection is worth thirty dollars arises. At seven total games on the disc, after
paying tax, the bottom line is you’re paying about five bucks a game, which
isn’t half bad. But on the same token it
isn’t half good either as, much like the original Mega Man series, the longer
the series drags on, the stinkier it gets.
The storylines become more and more incoherent as the series goes on and
by X4, I swear the developers started getting robot master names by throwing
darts at random pages in the dictionary - in fact, I hear Anorexic Anteater and
Flammable Toaster just missed the cut in the series. Having X-X6 on the same disc gives us the
good (X, X2, X3), the alright (X4, X5) and the “wtf?” (X6).
CAPCOM
patched up the nagging control issues of MMAC for the Nintendo Gamecube by
switching the default jump and shoot controls to their natural order. However, the options menus in the game will
accommodate whatever control scheme you wish to implement. The extra options, while they are commonplace
in just about any game, really fix the major fault of the previous
collection. Being able to switch around
the control scheme may come in handy as having the default jump, shoot and dash
spread across three buttons on the same plane on the controller may provide to
be a thumb-stretcher for some players.
Basically,
what Mega Man X Collection comes down to is how much you enjoyed the X
series. The collection gives players a
faithful re-creation of the original six games, but not much else. It seems this disc was a means for CAPCOM to
give yammering X fans a reason to quiet down, as not much effort was put into
the collection aside from porting X’s first six adventures to the current-gen
systems. The addition of the Battle and
Chase game adds a little charm to the title, but not enough to make it shine
like Anniversary Collection did. While X
collection shows how great the series kicked off, it unfortunately also shows
how stale the series has become.
Providing a mix of good and bad, Mega Man X Collection will serve the
true X-heads and collectors alike, but casual gamers may find the absurd plot
lines and progressively difficult game play a little detouring.
Gemubaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5
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