Picking up new upgrades is important for newcomers, but it's still designed that you generally don't need to rely on them to succeed - in fact, one of the most important armor pieces, which unlocks the dash ability, isn't even required until a certain spot near the end, at which point you'll be forced to get the upgrade by then anyway.

Everything is slick, fluid, and exhilarating, as you're able to move about at such a quick pace that it feels incredible when pulling off tight maneuvers.Īlthough completing some stages may feel like a rough task at first, this has several upgrades scattered around, from maximum health boosts, to containers that can store extra health when HP refills are picked up while at max health, and special armor pieces that offer entirely new abilities, such as being able to charge up all weapons even further. While the original Mega Man series offers fairly limited mobility, in the X series there's some shiny new moves to use, like being able to wall jump or unlock the ability to dash. What makes this so satisfying, along with its brilliant stage design that constantly keeps things fresh and unique with new mechanics, is how it controls. After finishing the regular eight stages, there will be a giant gauntlet that tests all your skills to finish things off. Defeating a boss unlocks their weapon, which can be taken and used for the rest of the game, and these weapons also lead to an easier time fighting other bosses, since each boss is vulnerable to a specific one from a different fight. As it is the beginning of the series, getting into it is simple after finishing a short intro stage as the robot protagonist X, there will be eight levels that you can platform and shoot your way through in any order, each ending with a boss fight. With that out of the way, it's time to move onto the games themselves, starting with the first entry, Mega Man X.

Beyond that, though, the ports play fine, although it's worth noting that it does emulate the slowdown present in the original releases of each installment. There's also a high-resolution filter that can be applied, but it unfortunately ends up putting this weird smear affect over the pixel art that causes the art to lose a lot of nuance, and the fact that it's the default option when playing is frankly unnecessary. There's a decent number of available settings, from choosing which regional version of each entry you'd like to play (although Mega Man X4's opening song from the original Japanese release is nowhere to be found here, even if the region is set to the Japanese version, no doubt due to licensing issues), various screen sizes, and even a new, easier difficulty setting called Rookie Hunter Mode. Before the actual games are discussed, it's worth talking about the quality of the ports themselves first.

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