Month: August 2017

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Starting another series of posts that we want to grow with Replay Games are people posting their reviews and thoughts on games they have been playing. To kick it off, here is one from the owner of Replay Games, Cassidy Schnase. Recently he finished Mega Man X2, and here are his thoughts.

Mega Man X is one of all time favorite games and franchises, so naturally I was excited to take a stab at Mega Man X2. I am a bit ashamed to admit that I have only ever beaten the first Mega Man X, and only played bits and pieces of a few others in the series. Long story short, as a kid we had very little information about video game releases in addition to Mom and Dad’s ability to buy me new game prevented me from owning more games in this series.

After completing Mega Man X2 with 100% completion, even getting Zero’s missing parts to rebuild him for the alternate cut scene, I was left a little disappointed with the game. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the game, and had quite a bit of fun with it. But, compared to the first Mega Man X game, I didn’t feel as though this game “stepped it up.”

One of the most interesting aspects about MMX2 is the use of Capcom’s Cx4 enhancement chip. It wasn’t nearly as strong as the Super FX chip, but it provided Capcom the ability to scale and rotate wire frame objects. Which the developers were asked to use at every possible moment. An interesting personal speculation was that I think Capcom wanted to use the Cx4 chip over the Super FX chip to save on costs. The Cx4 chip was released with MMX2 in December 1994, whereas the Super FX was first available with Star Fox released in February 1993.

The story was probably what I enjoyed the most, or rather, the potential of the story. Like many games of the era, you learn a portion of the story from the player’s manual. The MMX2 manual has significantly less information than MMX1, but I’m pretty sure there was more dialogue and text in MMX2. There was more information portrayed to the player as they progressed through the game. Every few stages would result in extra information about what was going on.

The overall story of MMX2 takes place after MMX where X is now the leader of the Maverick Hunters. Seeking out and destroying any remaining reploids who have gone maverick. During his search, he comes across an abandoned manufacturing plant that recently starting producing mavericks. After shutting the factory down, X learns of eight more maverick leaders and sets out to destroy them.

As you fight your way through whichever boss order you prefer, you’ll come across three “X Hunters.” This is where I got hooked. These X Hunters declare that they have Zero’s parts, and intend on rebuilding him. It is then that X can meet each of these X Hunters in special sections of any stage that still has an undefeated maverick leader. Collecting all of Zero’s parts results in an alternate scene later in the game.

I really wish they would have played more on the importance of this knowledge. Zero had sacrificed himself in the first game, so rebuilding him could have created a lot more story and drama. Collecting his parts results in the real Zero coming back, where as if the X Hunters are able to rebuild him, Zero becomes a difficult boss near the end of the game.

Regardless of your decision, you’ll eventually come face to face with Sigma, who also has been rebuilt. He then shows off his Zero replica, and it is here you’ll fight Zero, or the real Zero will come in and destroy the replica. From there you’ll go on to face Sigma. Again, with either scenario of how the Zero scene plays out, I really wish they would have expanded more on Zero here. Oh well, once Sigma is defeated the two heroes sit at the beach watching the sunset.

The level design was decent. I felt that the secret items were hidden in a way that really encouraged exploration, however, I felt that it was a little too easy to find most of the items. There were two subtanks that were difficult for me to find, one of which that I had to look up on the internet to find. However, it was at first difficult to understand why certain sections of a level were “locked.” They were the secret rooms to fight the X Hunters to recover the Zero parts. They were only accessible if an X Hunter was present, portrayed by the X Hunter showing itself at the selected location from the stage select screen.

Where I am the most critical of the game is in regards to elements from MMX1, as well as other Mega Man games. I really wish the save system was “smarter.” I spent a few hours a night playing this game, and before I finished playing on one of the nights, I spent some time to fill up all my subtanks and get to the max life count of 9. I saved the game, and checked to make sure it saved, and sure enough it had not. This also occurred in the first MMX.

In addition, I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to video games as of late. It was disappointing that I couldn’t save my progress between “Sigma Stages.” You have to get through the whole works in one go. Between stages if you got a game over, you would be rewarded with being able to repeat the stage, but if you turn the game off/on, or went back to the title screen, you would have to start from the first stage.

Lastly, the secret item Shoryuken could not be “saved” with your game. Similar to the above with the Sigma Stages, you would have to collect the Shoryuken each time you turned the console off/on, or if you returned to the title screen for any other reason.

Another element to look at involved the bosses: their naming scheme and the weapons they rewarded X with:

MMX1                                                                                         MMX2

Chill Penguin: Shotgun Ice                                  Overdrive Ostrich: Sonic Slicer
Spark Mandrill: Electric Spark                              Wire Sponge: Strike Chain
Armored Armadillo: Rolling Shield                    Wheel Gator: Spin Wheel
Launch Octopus: Homing Torpedo                Bubble Crab: Bubble Splash
Boomer Kuwanger: Boomerang Cutter         Flame Stag: Speed Burner
Sting Chameleon: Chameleon Sting                   Morph Moth: Silk Shot
Store Eagle: Storm Tornado                             Magna Centipede: Magnet Mine
Flame Mammoth: Fire Wave                                Crystal Snail: Crystal Hunter

It could be that it is just how it translated to English, but I really am bewildered by MMX2’s naming scheme. However, I have a feeling that they would have resolved that in later installments of the franchise, such as the reimagined / new take with Mega Man Xtreme for the Gameboy Color if these naming conventions were an issue.

MMX2 uses a lot of the same sound effects from the first game, adding in new ones to increase the game’s audible complexity. Unfortunately, they didn’t do the same to the musical score. While Yuki Iwai was the chief composer, it was evident that some of the composers from MMX1 were not involved with MMX2. Listening to the OST’s for both games for comparison, it became evident that MMX2 has a lot of “flatness” to its music. MMX1 for instance features a lot of background instrumentation that gives it a lot of depth and complexity. But, that is missing from the majority of MMX2.

I would have liked it more if MMX2 reused some of the songs from MMX1, such as the password screen, or the title screen. MMX1’s title screen really helped separate the X series from the original Mega Man series. Whereas MMX2 makes it feel as though it belonged to original Mega Man series. As I mentioned before, this game could have played a lot more on the emphasis of bringing Zero back to life, and they could have added to that with his musical theme. The theme for Zero is used both for if you saved Zero, or when you fight Zero. I think the issue I have with it is how it is used for either scenario.

Looking at MMX1, you are about to be destroyed by Vile, and all music is cut. Complete silence. Except for a blaster charging up and firing, blowing the arm off of Vile’s mech armor. Enter Zero, and his heavy metal theme starts right as Zero comes into view. It was such a bad ass entrance. However, the cut with Zero in MMX2 doesn’t have a nice transition that MMX1 had. The soundtrack is less “heavy” metal, and you don’t get quite the same feeling you did from the first time you met him. I’m probably just being picky, but Zero is one of my favorite video game characters.

One of the biggest things you look forward to when playing a Mega Man X title is the armor upgrades. Nothing makes you feel stronger than a Terminator than running around as Mega Man X wearing fully upgraded armor. Especially in MMX1 where you unlock the X-Buster that shoots similar to Zero’s Buster. You can even find a unique easter egg that allows you to fire a Street Fighter Hadouken! In MMX2, I love that they continued this theme with a Shoryuken. It is pretty much just as poweful as the Hadouken was if performed and aimed correctly. A pretty cool extra convention that is removed in later entries to the series.

The rest of the armor upgrades are hit or miss. The armor increases your durability resulting in taking less damage, as well as giving you a unique ability to store a special type of energy when you take damage. This energy can be released once full for “devastating damage.” I was extremely disappointed that it only took a single pip of health off one of the X Hunters when I tested it. “Whoopdie doo.” The boots give you the ability to perform an air dash, which caused me more issues than it did help.

Similarly, the buster upgrade give you a double charged shot, the 2^nd one being significantly stronger than a normal charged shot. However, it was a little tricky to get a hang of how to effectively utilize the double shot. Then 2^nd shot could be stored, and when you fired again you would release the 2^nd shot. I was so used to firing a charged shot, and immediately begin charging again as I did in MMX1, that I often fired the 2^nd charged shot off the screen. Lastly, the helmet upgrade gave you the ability to “search” for secret areas, which made finding the hidden items too easy to find. But it is definitely rewarding to see the fully upgraded armor rather than the regular blue Mega Man you start the game with.

I feel like I have really ripped MMX2 apart with this review. I enjoyed the game. I had fun. However, it did not capitalize on what MMX1 started. I feel that it did not live up to expectations following the first game. It did some cool stuff, had some cheesy extra stuff, such as the wire frame stuff I talked about. But really, it did not take Mega Man X to the next level that a sequel should do for a franchise.

Mega Man X2 on Wikipedia

Gameplay by World of Longplays