This Week In Retro: Mega Man X (Patreon)

December 17, 1993: X, the Everything Robot

by Diamond Feit

Stating "video games are for everyone" shouldn't come across as controversial given the breadth of the modern gaming industry, but for those of us who grew up alongside the rise of consoles in the 1980s, we might retain some bitterness around this issue. For many years, distributors and advertisers pushed video games as toys—pointedly for boys—and this caused visible growing pains when the medium expanded in the 90s. As the audience grew older and technology grew more sophisticated, the "games are kids' playthings" ethos no longer fit.

Different companies responded to this evolution in different ways. Some developers relished the opportunity to feature graphic violence in their projects. Nintendo saw this trend and tried to double-down on its family friendly image, at least until the company realized that expurgating the blood from Mortal Kombat cost them millions in sales. Others took the perceived market climate as license to make larger, more complicated titles for home consoles; the vast difference between Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV serves as a perfect example.

Capcom, as is their wont, did things a little differently. Initially focusing on porting successful arcade games to the Super Nintendo in the early 90s, the company didn't release an exclusive title for the console until its third year on the market, and even then, their first offering was a Disney-licensed Mickey Mouse game. Only in 1993 did Capcom dare to test the waters with wholly-original 16-bit fare, specifically Breath of Fire, a JRPG which fell outside the company's traditional wheelhouse of action games.

By year's end Capcom placed their biggest bet yet on the SNES by bringing over one of their most heralded franchises, Mega Man. An 8-bit mainstay since 1987, Mega Man games sold well on the NES and Game Boy, and the character had already crossed over into animation and other merchandise. For his 16-bit debut though, Capcom didn't just want an iterative sequel, since the company already had plans to continue the main series on the NES. Instead, the proposed "Super Mega Man" would expand the story in a new direction with a new protagonist simply named X. The end result, rebranded as Mega Man X, is an edgier take on the formula that arrived right on time for 90s teens like me.

To explain the radical alterations Mega Man X makes to the Mega Man formula, let us begin with the ways in which the two appear identical. Both games star a bluish android tasked with fighting for peace in a future where malevolent robots run rampant. Both feature eight individual stages which can be played in any order, each one ending with a boss battle against the master of that stage. In victory, our hero gains a new weapon based upon the foe he defeats. After clearing all eight challenges, the path to the last area opens, itself a multi-stage gauntlet of new and returning bosses all guarding a final showdown against an evil mastermind.

Mega Man X opens with a dedicated prologue stage, one designed around introducing both X and the world he seeks to protect. This prelude holds no secrets nor requires any exploration; instead, players must run and gun their way to the right. This straight-action scenario also introduces Zero, a more experienced combat droid, and the evil Vile. Initially X takes on Vile alone but there's no way to win; in a scripted sequence, Zero appears once Vile gains the upper hand and blasts his arm off, convincing him to flee.

Along the way we learn that X can slide down vertical surfaces and use them to jump in the opposite direction. He can even scale walls by hopping and kicking repeatedly, a handy skill that allows for more vertical level design in the game as a whole. In a 1994 developer diary, longtime Mega Man steward Keiji Inafune jokingly suggested he came up with the wall kick after literally kicking a wall in frustration as he struggled to brainstorm for new ideas. As translated by Shmuplations, Inafune discovered "When you get pissed you can just kick the wall over and over!"

Besides the usual flow of gaining new weapons from defeating bosses, X can discover other means of growth hidden throughout the game. Every stage contains a heart-shaped container that extends his life bar, while select upgrades in hard-to-reach places enhance his mobility and durability. This method of player progression can't compare to the scope of a Metroid-style experience, but it does offer a worthy reward to anyone willing to invest more time in the game instead of rushing for the exit.

Speaking of upgrades, Mega Man X does its best to tell a story with more drama and gravitas than any previous entry in the series. The original Mega Man games kept things light, pitting our hero against the same mad scientist over and over. Even when the opening suggested a different antagonist at work, Mega Man's quest would always end inside a skull-shaped castle with a showdown against Dr. Wily.

Mega Man X takes that Saturday morning cartoon struggle and injects some Sunday morning anime into the affair, removing all humans from the scenario entirely. Instead of a mortal seeking global domination by manipulating machines, Mega Man X features a world in chaos because the machines themselves are rebelling—machines who owe their entire existence to X as their design derived from his own. This means all of X's foes in the game are his own siblings, from a certain point of view, yet he and Zero must risk everything to stop them from exterminating mankind.

Leading these cyber-revolutionaries is Sigma, a robot once designed to hunt and disable other automatons but who now sees fit to join their struggle. Unlike the withered Dr. Wily who hid behind decoys and protective domes, Sigma stands tall on his own, wielding a lightsaber in combat. The climactic confrontation tests the player's endurance as X must prevail in three full phases of combat before completing his mission—and even then, a chilling post-credits stinger reveals Sigma still lives and pledges vengeance.

The entire ending sums up why Mega Man X feels so tonally different than the 8-bit Mega Man games. In the classic series, Mega Man returns home a victor as triumphant music plays in the background. When X wins and watches Sigma's fortress explode, he remains plagued with doubt about his role in a future where his duty requires him to pursue his fellow artificial life-forms. He also laments the loss of Zero, his comrade who sacrifices himself during the late game so that X can survive and push deeper into the stronghold. Couple all that with the aforementioned Sigma surprise and players have little to celebrate after beating Mega Man X.

Alright, that last paragraph made it sound like Mega Man X is some kind of a bummer which couldn't be further from the truth. I first played it expecting a traditional Mega Man game but X's tight controls and agility gives the entire affair a heightened sense of kineticism. Part of this new speed comes from the addition of more buttons on the SNES controller, allowing for a dedicated dash command and the ability to swap special weapons without stopping the action to open a menu.

Once at full power, X can practically sprint through late stages, especially with judicious use of the enhanced Chameleon Sting which grants temporary invincibility. Likewise, a charged Rolling Shield encases X inside a barrier that automatically destroys weaker enemies on contact—extremely useful when pestered by smaller foes while navigating vertical shafts. One such space sits right outside Sigma's lair, making it a breeze to refill all of X's life and energy before the final battle.

Supplementing all these in-game improvements is Mega Man X's new aesthetic, a 90s "extreme" makeover that adds a sci-fi veneer to X and the bosses he faces. The 8-bit games necessarily relied on simpler designs, but with the added graphical capabilities of the SNES, Capcom gives us a revamped roster of characters. X starts off round and smooth like the old Mega Man, but as he improves his physique, he adds panels and epaulets to his body, transforming his facade into one of a warrior.

The major antagonists of Mega Man X, collectively dubbed Mavericks, ditch the "Man" suffix of the past and embrace animal themes instead. While a few have elemental properties like Mega Man robot masters of old, their larger, bestial appearances take priority. Most Mavericks tower over X, giving them a significant advantage in close-quarters combat only offset by X's wall-climbing maneuverability. The Maverick battles are the game's highlights, thanks to the variety of X's special weapons and the tactics his opponents use against him.

Contemplating Mega Man X three decades out from its launch, I'm struck by how radical it felt to have Mega Man decked out with power armor and engaging in a war with actual stakes. The original series kept adding friends and pets to Mega Man's entourage to the point that his victory seemed inevitable. In Mega Man X, X has only one companion—his role model Zero—but X has to watch Zero die, leaving him to mourn his sole colleague alone.

The arrival of a slightly darker Mega Man during my senior year of high school coincidentally lines up with my initial dive into the world of anime, as incredibly expensive VHS tapes of licensed material from Japan began to appear in US video stores. In the coming years, the Mega Man series would only strengthen its ties to anime, incorporating FMV cutscenes into Mega Man 8 and a living-cartoon-like presentation for Mega Man Legends.

Mega Man X would turn into a brand all its own, one of many Mega Man spin-offs now on the books. Capcom doesn't devote as much time or money to the Blue Bomber these days—focusing on bigger, flashier franchises instead—but they keep his classic games in print via Legacy Collections for modern platforms. Mega Man X hasn't had a new release in nearly 20 years at this point, but as usual, indie studios have picked up the slack with imaginative high-speed sci-fi action platformers like 20XX, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and Gravity Circuit to name a few. They can't replicate the shock of seeing Mega Man transform from an 8-bit cherub into a 16-bit badass, but if you love shooting robots with other robots, you've got options aplenty.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts about video games, films, and dessert.