Retro Game of the Day! Mega Man X

Retro Game of the Day! Mega Man X

Mega Man X by Capcom, released early 1994 in USA (slightly earlier in Japan). The groundbreaking 8-Bit series is taken appropriately to the next level on the 16-Bit Super Nintendo by the developer.

It had been growing a bit stale at this point, but the popular platformer - featuring "choose your mission path"stage selection, with each level being run by a Robot Master who must be defeated and his special weapon utilized - was upgraded significantly for the newer console. The game layout had been fairly well figured out by this point (after more than a few iterations) - there was little doubt that Capcom would know what they were doing when they assembled this, and it would be nice to see a fresh coat of paint applied to the aging series. And they did exactly that.

In these games, you usually faced off against a series of different themed bosses - "Air Man, Ice Man," et cetera. For the new X series, they decided to go with an elegant animal theme (where's Spearmint Rhino Man, they seem to have left him out?)

Each level is beautifully and lovinly rendered on the SNES, and aurally the game sounded fantastic. They put their A-Game to work here in the looks, sounds, and design, and it showed.

If there's a beef to be had with this game, it is this - Megaman games typically are a bit of a battle, and at this stage they decided to ease down on the difficulty. Perhaps too much so - MMX feels like a walk in the park compared to its (often frustrating) predecessors. Still, it's an enjoyable quest overall, with plenty of "gee whiz" moments along the way (climbing into a cybernetic exosuit feels very cool, and lots of giant minibosses add plenty of punch to te overall formula).

The game appeared some years later in a GameBoy Color port, which is an interesting side-note - they had to cut back it's tech significantly, but it was nice to see a decent effort showing up on the portable scene.
Overall, aging MILFs love Mega Man X - you should too! It still holds up to this day, the game looks and sounds and plays great. Give Mom a break and bust out Mega Man X.