If I had to succinctly describe my relationship with Mega Man X, it would be “casual acquaintances”. We met through a mutual friend (the original Mega Man series), we hung out a little back in the day (as I’d only ever really played X through X3) but lost touch after that, and every once in a while I’ll see something about it on Facebook. Sounds like a lot of adult friendships, right?

It’s all true, though. For some reason Mega Man X never quite held the same sway over me that the original series did. Part of it may have been timing, as the original series were part of my formative gaming memories – Mega Man 5 being the second video game I ever played in my LIFE, for instance – whereas Mega Man X would come along much later and kind of just be “Mega Man again, but better this time”. To that point, while I owned (and very much enjoyed) Mega Man 8 for PSX, I never bothered with the X series after 3. I had vague memories of renting one of them and not being very impressed, and otherwise I was just sort of aware of the later games by reputation. Not a good reputation, mind.

It was with that reputation in mind that I bought the Mega Man X Legacy Collection for my Switch. Having purchased the original Mega Man Legacy Collection on no less than three platforms because I’m a giant sucker (and partly out of a desire to support Frank Cifaldi), I figured this was a good chance for me to actually play and finish one of those Mega Man X games I never bothered with. Despite my disappointment at learning the initial hideous translation that resulted in everyone having Guns ‘n Roses and/or anime-pun themed names (literally, I want to meet whoever thought of the name “The Skiver” and just ask them why) I knew Mega Man X5 was considered one of the better ones, and since it was at one point positioned to be the final game in the series, I figured that was the safest one to go with.

And you know what? It was fine! Not…great, but fine.

We all know how Mega Man works – selectable bosses, everyone has a weakness to someone else’s weapon, sometimes there’s blocks that disappear, catchy music for each stage – and Mega Man X5 is no different in that regard so I probably don’t need to go too far into it.

Indeed, every one of the various Mega Man sequels (except maybe Legends since there’s only two of those total) lives and dies on what they do to the formula and/or the quality with which they approach the smaller things like boss fights and level design. In that regard I can say I was pretty impressed with X5, at least right out of the gate.

The biggest initial difference, at least to me as someone who barely remembers any of the X games except the first, is that you get the option to pick either X or Zero for any given mission, as opposed to how Zero would just kind of tag in as an extra life in X3, and they both play differently enough (…okay, look, it’s because one of them has a sword) that it’s fun to try and play as either of them depending on the level to see how they can each handle the various challenges and how they react to each boss’ ability. I know this wasn’t exactly groundbreaking (since he’s also apparently available for use in X4, a game I’m…probably not gonna play) but considering my long hiatus from the X series in general I kinda liked seeing that I had that option.

I do need to follow up that last paragraph by saying that I pretty much spent the entire time playing as X in the Fourth Armor, because I had no idea I’d get the option to actually use a version of X where he kept all of his goddamn armor, and it made the game way easier. I wasn’t here to challenge myself, I was here to finish this goddamn game so I could talk about it on the internet. That’s how it works these days, right?

Getting into the meat of the game itself, I found it to be pretty pleasant in all the ways that games are usually judged. Graphically it looked really nice, especially in hindsight since I’m sure I overlooked it at the time since I was deep in the thrall of 3D’s early, hideous development (while it’s a tired point, most PSX games look like absolute ass these days) although it does do that hilarious Castlevania thing where some of the sprites are clearly cribbed from older games, leading to a lot of inconsistent details and shading across various enemies and environmental objects, extending to X in the Fourth Armor which I have to assume was directly lifted from the previous game. It doesn’t look bad, it’s just funny to see.

I think honestly my biggest beef with this game (and really the only one worth mentioning aside from the typical minute-to-minute headaches you get in any game) is the inconsistent difficulty, specifically stemming from some odd level design choices. The better moments in Mega Man level design all revolve around an oft-discussed idea of “fair challenge” (my words, not theirs) that provide difficulty without it seeming to blindside you. Instead of wringing challenge out of technical limitations the way games like Ninja Gaiden did with seemingly undodgeable birds or whatever, the better Mega Man games always gave you ample warning about the obstacles to come and allows you to react to them in kind, even if the surprise is still present. (More succinctly, there’s no weird gotcha moments that lead to excess loss of life.)

X5 does this…sometimes. For every one or two levels where it seems like everything is where it’s supposed to be and I just have to deal with it as it comes, there’s always one level set on the back of a speeding truck or has some ill-advised conceit to stop you from seeing what’s in front of you, resulting in a lot of frustration and death. This partially stems from a lot of the levels having some kind of central gimmick, but in a lot of cases was probably just an attempt to keep the series challenging and engaging for old-school fans. In a lot of cases they remind me of some of the decisions Inti Creates would make with the later Mega Man ZX titles, and if I found out there was as lot of team overlap between the two I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Otherwise, I liked it fine enough. The end levels were frustrating but the final fight with Sigma is really satisfying, the plot has all the bullshit anime melodrama I could have asked for out of a Japanese-made PSX action game, and it was kind of nice to see all the weird late-90s-Japanese-title signifiers like blaring techno music and an oddly-designed menu that you just don’t get anymore.

Am I glad I played it? Yes. Am I ever going to play it again? No. For that matter, am I going to bother playing the other Mega Man X games I never got around to, or am I going to just keep replying Mega Man 2, 5, and 6 like always? It’s the second thing.

(Ironically, while playing this, I dredged up some ancient memory that maybe this one was the X game I rented for PSX and wasn’t too impressed by, so in hindsight I should have stuck with it a little more, but at least it’s over now.)

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