Mega Man X4 marks the jump of the series into the next generation, how well did it do?
What Is It? Mega Man X is back!
You know the Mega Man formula. You have an intro level to set up the story, then get your choice of eight different levels and their corresponding bosses. Progress through them to earn their weapons which can be used to make taking out other bosses much easier. Repeat until you get to the final stages which features a boss gauntlet and a terribly difficult final fight, inevitably against Sigma.
Additionally, various upgrades are scattered throughout levels, often requiring multiple plays of levels, after receiving some other upgrade or weapon, to reach. X4 does nothing to deviate from this formula.
What X4 does is give you checkpoints which last even after your lives are depleted. It also refills your ammo upon death. One of the core components of the three SNES titles which preceded X4 was trying to make it to the boss of a stage with as many lives as possible then making sure you fully understood the patterns before unloading special weapons into the boss. If you waste the majority of your ammo on a boss and die, you would have to revert to your standard blaster which often, for me anyway, meant a quick death.
X4 really doesn’t do a whole lot outside of the death changes. That is a massive change to how the game ends up playing, but does not change the core gameplay. If you want more Mega Man X, X4 is a great place to look.
The addition of Zero as a playable character is nice and adds some replay value if you want to make it through with a sword but that feels more like an additional game mode than a change to the core game.
The Best Part: Removing the needless hurdles upon death. I can’t actually tell if the gameplay of X4 is any more or less difficult than the first three games, but by removing the level restarts and by restoring used ammo when you die, the game is significantly easier in practice. This lets the gameplay shine and ensures you don’t have to spend a lot of time replaying full levels to get back to a difficult boss. This gives X4 the most streamlined experience out of any of the first four in the series.
The Worst Part: There really aren’t many new gameplay ideas here. Nothing in this game would feel out of place in the first three games. Say what you will about those, they did try new things with roaming bosses, mechs, and other additions. X4 doesn’t have any major unique gameplay additions.
The Verdict: Mega Man X4 is a very good Mega Man X game and is probably the best entry point to the series for anyone who wants a more approachable challenge. The fights are still tough, especially at the end, so the game is far from easy, but in removing the frequent full level replays X4 allows the gameplay to stand front-and-center and that makes it a great way to see if the series might be for you. For longtime fans, X4 likely won’t be your favorite in the series, but it is a good X game and that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
How to Play: PlayStation, Saturn. Legacy Collection: PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Leave a Reply