series. It's a bit more mature and darker than the original Mega Man games, where as Mega Man invokes a "Saturday Morning Cartoons" type of atmosphere, Mega Man X is closer to the likes of say, Terminator in terms of content and tone. Mega Man needed a shift as it was starting to dry up in the NES generation. The heart of this series revolves around two, then later three characters.Mega Man X - The last creation of Dr. Light; he is the most advanced robot ever made. He is able to think and make rational choices like a human, and is the closest thing to an actual person ever made. He also has the potential to be extremely dangerous, so Dr. Light sealed him away to test his compassion and selflessness to make sure he would never become a weapon to wage evil. Of course, if Dr. Light hadn't armed him to the teeth he'd probably be considerably less dangerous...
Zero - Zero was found sealed away in a mysterious ruined lab where he was discovered, and was insanely hostile, and incredibly dangerous. Built with the exact purpose of being the ultimate weapon, Zero was unlike that of any robot built before him. Luckily he was subdued and reprogrammed to aid humanity, instead of destroy it. Zero would befriend X, and join him in protecting the world, but as the series unfolded, Zero's mysterious past would come to forefront, and eventually an unavoidable confrontation would come to pass between X and Zero. I don't want to spoil things right away, but the Mega Man X series makes this plot arc the primary focus for half the series.
Axl - Axl would become the tritagonist of the series in Mega Man X7. He looked up to Zero and X as heroes, and wanted to follow in their foot steps. Axl is a new type of robot with many new capabilities X and Zero simply didn't possess, but he lacks the experience and patience of his two comrades.
On the enemies side we have Sigma. Sigma would bring about what would be called the Maverick Wars, and most of the games deal with directly stopping him. I'm saving most of the story for the first game review where more of this will make sense.
Mega Man X would come to feature new ways to play, including sliding off of walls and dashing on the ground and in the air. Items and Armor upgrades were hidden through out the levels to give the player reasons to explore every nook and cranny. The formula of Mega Man stayed the same, defeating 8 Robot Masters and then the final levels, but these new directions opened up the doors in all kinds of ways for new game play approaches.
While the X series does have some major flops in it, it also has some of the best games in the franchise. Get ready for a new way to play.
Games in the series:
I am so excited to play these games again after hitting some of the low spots of the classic series!
No comments:
Post a Comment