Customer Reviews

Mega Man X6

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

[I want to apologize for making this review so long, but I felt as though this game needed to be explained thoroughly.]
Mega Man X6(2001). Part six of seven.

After the somewhat disappointing X5, another sequel appeared less than a year later. How is this possible? According to another reviewer, apparently both X5 and X6 were created at the same time by two different teams under Capcom. For the most part, X6 is a combination of X5's style and X3's complexity. It contains the same graphics and classic gameplay as the previous two X games, but there are several features to this game that set it apart from the others. Here's the breakdown:

PROS:
-THANKFULLY, THERE ARE NO MORE MANDATORY ALIA MESSAGES! Capcom realized this mistake from X5 and made this feature optional. A small "!" appears in the corner when you reach key points in the stage and if you ever need them (true MM junkies don't) just press select. Finally, we get completely uninterrupted gameplay!
-The difficulty has been Vamped up drastically. This can be a good thing and a bad thing (more on the bad later). The good thing is that the game is no longer a cake-walk to beat like X4 and X5. The enemies will definitely give the player something to keep busy with.
-Perhaps the most non-linear X game in the series. By that I mean all the levels are vast, containing two different exits, and large arena-rooms to explore. Plus, the secret items are all cleverly scattered. You have to do more thinking than ever before to obtain some of them.
-The sound effects are slightly different than before. Now the explosions really let out a BANG! Also, some of the stage tunes are a return to X4's techno hardrock style, namely the Heatnix, Wolfgang, Mijinion, and Shark stages.
-Rescuing the 128 different reploids. This adds even more depth to X6 and allows the player to gain enhancements by rescuing them.
-X can now use the Z-saber! While it is not very good as a rapid attack weapon, it does help to reflect projectiles in the heat of combat.

CONS
-Okay, now the bad thing about the difficulty: SOME AREAS IN THE GAME LEAD TO POINTLESS FRUSTERATION. When I say that enemies come in endless waves, I mean that they throw everything and the kitchen sink at you. It comes to the point where even a veteran MM gamer cannot make it through each stage without losing lives. THE NIGHTMARE SYSTEM DOES NOT HELP THIS. Often times annoyances like meteors, fireflies, blackouts, and impassible silver blocks will take more effort to get through than normal stage enemies, which is nonsense. AND ITS ALL RANDOMLY GENERATED.
-THERE ARE TOO MANY NIGHTMARE ENEMIES. In some stages like the museum, most every enemy you face will be one of those. A little more variety in the bestiary would have benefited.
-Besides the four tracks I mentioned, the rest of the music is dull, boring, popish, and often annoying. I personally cannot stand the museum stage tune. AND WHAT'S WITH THE GRUNGE INTRO TRACK? This does not even fit with the X universe!
-LEVELS ARE NOT RANDOMLY GENERATED LIKE THE BOX CLAIMS. Okay Capcom, I don't care if the levels were actually random or not, but it's a really bad move to make a boast about a feature that's not there.
-Once again, the bosses are rather easy to beat. This is a bit of a letdown after how incredibly hard some of the stages are. Contrary to this though, the mini-boss High Max, seems almost too difficult to beat.
-Like the whale stage in X5, THE REPEATING JUNK-BALL MINI BOSS IN HEATNIX'S STAGE GETS TEDIOUS AFTER GOING THROUGH THE STAGE MORE THAN TWICE. It hurts the most when you're going back to rescue just one reploid.
-The story pretty much shot down the drain with this game. The cutscenes, though voice-acted in Japanese, drag on for a looooooong time. Like I said with X5, BRING BACK THE ANIME CUTSCENES! Zero should either be here to stay or gone for good. None of this "dramatic death and resurrection" junk. One other thing, STOP RESURRECTING SIGMA! Play X6 for the gameplay itself, not the story.
-Once a reploid gets caught by a nightmare, he can never be rescued again. In order to get him back, you have to reload the game. This can get annoying with some reploids.
-X can obtain two excellent pairs of armor (Blade, and Shadow), BUT GETTING THEM REQUIRES YOU TO ENDURE THE RANDOM NIGHTMARE SYSTEM UNTIL THE RIGHT HAZARD COMES ALONG IN A PARTICULAR STAGE. You can't acquire anything else without them.

X6 as a whole is a fun, challenging, and more often than not, a frusterating game. However I only recommend this one to experienced gamers, as this is one of the hardest MM titles to date. With a bit more work, this game could have easily been a classic. Despite all the shortcomings, it succeeds in retaining the classic 2D gameplay that makes Mega Man games what they are. I'm only being so critical on this game because I am an incredibly big MM fan who cares about the series. The story is the weakest part of X6, but give the game a chance. It's at least worth playing through one time. Get equipped with bubble lead all over again and go give it a shot.

I am a long time fan of Capcom's Mega Man X series, owning almost all of them, excluding the rare X3, which I only rented, and the new PSX2 Mega Man X7. Mega Man X-X3 on the SNES where just great, and Mega Man X4 was "mind-blowing" great.

However, a strange thing started to happen, and it happened when X5 came out. X5 was decent, but the storyline became too far-fetched and anyone with a brain could tear holes in it. This is even way more apparent in X6.

Now we have X6, and I'm just gonna flat out and say it is probably (well, actually) the worst in the series, no doubt. It is easy to tell this game was doomed from the beginning...

Here are my basic arguments:

#1. No English voice actors for cut scenes or battle cries! - this is just SO unforgivable, Mega Man is as much a US game icon as a Japanese icon, this a royal slap in the face compared to the awesome cut scenes in X4. Capcom obviously didn't want to spend the money - lazy, pure laziness.

#2. The whole "Zero's missing/return" thing was so dumb. Capcom built this scenario up so much in X5 and X6 and failed to deliver any kind of interesting and credible reason for his return. I could write a better storyline, man!

#3. Zero's new sword is just way too powerful, it shreds anything in seconds, like his crescent weapon in X5. Basically, he has no need to use the weapons he acquired at all, you're gonna kick butt with practically no effort at all, meaning no actual challenge.

#4. Ok, I know some people are sick of Sigma, and yeah, it's unimaginative to put him in again, after building up the whole "Dr. Wily" thing in X5, but Gate was ten times worse. Gate and Isoc were lame enemies. You never even get to fight Isoc either!

#5. The way you have to defeat High Max was so annoying and over complicated.

#6. The so called "nightmare system" is really a nightmare. When I read about it, it sounded cool, but really doesn't add any challenge as it does controller-throwing frustration.

#7. Zero's control scheme is now so screwed up; it leads to many "accidental" deaths, because the buttons have more than one command assigned to some of them.

#8. The English translation (or attempted translation) is horrid, the worst I've seen since Breath of Fire II. How do misspell the hero's name Zerrrrrrrrrrro! as Zelllllllllo!

#9. X6 easily has the worst selection of Mavericks (this time called "investigators") Come on! When you have a "dung beetle" as a boss, you know you have run out of ideas and a beating a dead horse! Some investigators are pathetically easy, others are insanely hard. And I though X5's Guns and Roses theme was bad.

#10. Overall, the stages lack anykind of imagination. Some are way too short (the Weapon Lab), some are way too intense (Weapon Lab, Magma Area), and some are just annoying to no end (Central Museum and Laser Institute).

#11. They butchered the animation for Zero's victory pose - no more thumbs up.

#12. When I first heard that X would be able to access Zero's saber as a weapon I was a getty as a school girl, until I played and found out he can't wield it even half as fast as Zero could; let alone combo with it, making it almost completely worthless.

In the end, Capcom did do a few things right. Some of the tunes are cool, especially the two they remixed from X and X2 (although some are really terrible, ex. Central Museum), and some of the new armors are cool (I loved the Ninja Armor!).

It's a sad day for X fans, I never though I have to bash a Mega Man game this harshly. But what do you expect when they slapped it together so quickly ...

I wasn't really impressed with X6. While infinitely better than X5 (a stupid game, especially with Alia's constant "advising"), this one doesn't really do anything to expand on the Mega Man X franchise. It's a shame that the X series is going downhill (although I do recommend checking out Mega Man Zero for the Game Boy Advanced, that's worth it), and the plotline continues to be even more confusing. I know that when it comes to games you're supposed to play the game and probably ignore the story, but a solid storyline really enhances the game. Capcom was on a good road with X4 with its inclusion of anime scenes and impressive arcade-like gameplay, but now they've chosen to downgrade themselves. Check out the first four X games, they're fantastic... but you will be disappointed with this one (and more so with X5).

Every game has some problems. This game had a lot of them. However, that's what they get for working on two games simultaniously. Yes, you heard right. Mega Man X5 and X6 were produced by two different teams, almost at the same time. Work for these games started about a year and a half after X4's release, about the time Legends 1 made its debut. Then Legends 2 went into production, and Capcom came up with ways to tie Legends and X in together. So, with 3 Mega Man games in production at (close to, not exactly!) the same time, the plot has more holes in it than a car being gunned down by the Mafia. The biggest one is the obvious misinterpretation of the 3 years/3 weeks anomaly. In actuality the time span between X5 and X6 is three weeks.

What's interesting about the last two games though is that they tie in to the Legends series. I don't remember exactly what game it's in, but X does indeed comment at the end that one of his ambitions is to build a new space colony that he calls Elysium, which is exactly what the space colony in Legends 2 was called.

Although the two games are similar in style and all, the contrasts between the two are vast. X5 was unbelievably unbalanced and easy, and could more than easily be beaten in one day given the time. X6 is difficult - probably one of the most difficult Mega Man games yet. Not only does it bombard you with enemies, but those Nightmare creatures can be a real pain in the arse. There's also a flaw in this game which no other Mega Man game has - the ability to get stuck. Yep, literally stuck! In most of these cases, the only way out of these screwy areas is to kill yourself and start over again.

A very noteable feature on this game is the Japanese voice acting. Personally, I liked it. Some people think it was Capcom being lazy this time around. Well that may very well have been the case, but hey it's better than those crappy American voices, right?? At least we're hearing the voices as they should be....

Overall, I liked this game. It's definitely lacking in terms of polish and last minute checks, but it's still an entertaining game, providing you've played Mega Man before. DON'T let this or X5 be your first time playing Mega Man! Chances are that you'll be scarred to play any others.

Start with X4, and if you like that one, RENT the other two first, and then make buying decisions.

It seems to me that as time goes by, Capcom puts less and less effort into making Mega Man games. Though to give them credit, they did put in some new material giving the X series a new breath of life, they need to seriously fire their entire translation and sound departments. They didn't even bother to translate the Japanese. They just added some bad captions to supplement the game for us english speaking people. The music in X6 is good, but sound effects are a little dull. The game is the best of the three Playstation titles in terms of sheer fun to play, but was ported over very badly. If Capcom wants to continue to support the Mega Man series, they need to pay more attention to what is going on in the game. I have been a Mega Man fan since the first one, but now I am starting to wonder if I even want to try a new one.

The fans screamed for a more difficult X game, and they certainly received it. Megaman X6 is the newest addition to the popular side-scrolling series.

In the year 21XX, Reploids live alongside the human race. Reploids are highly advanced android robots that are capable of making decisions for themselves. However, this technology is very dangerous. When a Reploid decides to turn against a human, he/she becomes a Maverick. An organization called the Maverick Hunters was assembled to neutralize the Mavericks. Megaman X and Zero are the two best Maverick Hunters.

A former leader of the Maverick Hunters, named Sigma, through mysterious circumstances defected and began a revolt against the humans. In the fifth X game, Sigma hired a Reploid mercenary, named Dynamo, to bring down a space colony called Eurasia. Zero gave his life to prevent the colony from destroying the Earth. He was only partially successful, as sections of the planet were decimated by the Eurasia impact.

Reploids descended on ground zero since humans, who retreated underground, are unable to enter the wasteland. There, a scientist Reploid named Gate finds a devious relic. It is not long before Maverick activity appears in the wasteland, and the lone X is sent to investigate. And, so begins Megaman X6.

GRAPHICS:
Megaman X6 pushes the 2-D limits of the PSX hardware with fluid sprite animation and beautiful computer-generated backgrounds. The boss animation has improved since X5. While there is only one real movie sequence in the game, most of the story is moved forward by awesome hand-drawn static artwork.

SOUND:
Megaman X6 sports revised sound effects from X5. Explosion sounds have that little extra 'oomph' to make them quite satisfying. The music is something of a mixed bag on the other hand. While none of it is particularly bad, some of it is not very characteristic of an X game.

GAMEPLAY:
As usual, you have eight different bosses and their respective stages. This time, you match wits against: Commander Yammark (Dragonfly), Rainy Turtloid (Turtle), Shield Shelldon (Shellfish), Blizzard Wolfang (Wolf), Blaze Heatnix (Phoenix), Infinity Mijinion (Flea), Metal Shark Player (Hammerhead shark) and Ground Scaravich (Scarab beetle). After making your way through a stage, you face off against the boss. Upon defeating the boss, you gain the ability to use his weapon for yourself. Play control is tight as usual, and there are two new Armors to find. In fact, there are plenty of secrets and side-quests in this game to keep you occupied for hours. As mentioned before, the game is quite challenging - maybe even frustrating at times. But, in general, you will have a lot of fun with this title.

OVERALL:
If you're a fan of the Megaman games, you're probably going to get this no matter what. But, any gamer starving for a good, old-fashioned side scroller should be impressed by X6. Recommended.

As Mega Man X you fulfill your journey by finding out what is causing illusional events, and during your quest you are searching for your lost best friend, Zero. Zero has been mis-judged by all reploids, and it's all because of a Maverick named Gate. What is this guy up to? What did X and Zero ever do to him? Find out when your play the game, Mega Man X6!

Short Review:
The graphics are better than X4 and X5, there are still the 2D graphics that anyone would expect from Capcom, which I think is great! I love all side-scrolling games and most of the Mega Man games are them.

The music and sound (I personally think) couldn't be better! The music in Mega Man X6 will have you dancing on your feet in no time, and the sound has changed, for the better. The sounds you'll encounter in X6 are more realistic than in X4 and X5.

The control is similar to X4 and X5, only you get a variety of moves and weapons with X and Zero. Like in X5, you start off with Armor.

The cut-sequences (movie sequences and voice acting) are what make this game lack in quality. I'm sorry to say this but the cut-scenes are identical to what you see in X5. And the voice acting was never redone in English. Although there are English sub-titles the characters do not speak in English, they speak Japanese. You can toggle the voice acting On or Off if you want to. The characters faces do not move when they speak either. That's just so you know.

The replay value is really great! There are lots of things you can do, you can save reploids to get more parts, collect all the hearts, get both sub-tanks, get all 4 armors for X and 1 for Zero (black), and more!

Overall I think that you should buy this game, it's a great Xperience! I would have given this game a 5 star rating only if it contained English voiceovers and Anime cut-scenes as seen in X4. But don't let that stop you, get this game NOW!

ok, first things first, CAPCOM has some of the best games out there, and the Megaman Series (original and X) was, is and will always be revolutionary, unique, and exciting to the end, no matter how many outings they unleash. I mean you don't get much more original than a little blue bot defeating bigger bots, taking there powers to use on other bots, all to save the world, I mean, CAPCOM started it.

Now as far the series goes, this is (of the X games, being I haven't played 7 or 8) the best...hands down. I love how they made finding Zero a goal, and an interesting one at that. It's so rewarding to finally get him back. And unlike x5 where I found myself prefering MM in the Ultimate Armor over Zero (red or black), Zero regained dominance as top hunter and player in my book. His moves get cooler with every game. MM is still cool, but Zero takes the cake as far as playability and excitement (he never gets old!!)

The bosses I thought were interesting (and tough as the broad side of Sigma's Last Form). Yes, a dung beetle is quite unthreatening in real life, but a suitable and worthy foe when in maverick mode. I mean come on people, they have to use DIFFERENT animals, and I give CAPCOM an "A" for both effort and expression. They keep coming out with great MMX games, despite vague, babyish and unrealistic expectations of so-called "hard-core gamers."

Over all the controls are fine, the levels are very cool. I LOVE the nightmare system! so what if the level changes??? BIG DEAL???
If you love games, then you should invite a challenge. This game does that, I mean Metal Shark PLayer's level is certifiably frustrating, but that is the driving force to get better at it, no one should have to get through the level w/out continuing at least once. Sure, Gate was crazy hard, but practice makes perfect.

A worthwhile game and a worthy addition to the X Series. Over all I give it a 10, though it only goes up to 5 stars!

Its so hard not to vent, when I know millions of gamers are missing out b/c they think they could program a better MMX game from their basement. This is a great story and the evolution and rolling out of events really pulls you in (despite imagining what the cut scenes would've been had they included them, which they didn't for reasons other than "CAPCOM's gone cheap"-which they haven't).

Do yourself a favor, buy this game, if you have no PS of any kind, find an original PS console for real cheap, get this game and a controller and knock yourself out. You'll thank me for it!

+PROS: I love the Megaman games! I've been playing them since I was a kid. The X series is my favorite but it started to decline with Megaman X5. This game is a little better than X5 because you aren't forced to listen to Alia's messages that frequently halted the flow of Megaman X5's gameplay, and I really like the Shadow armor which finally lets Megaman conquer his greatest foe of all: SPIKES!

-CONS: Unfortunately there still are no anime cutscenes like the ones in the outstanding Megaman X4, and the storyline is weak. There's so much more that could be done with this series, but they're just not putting the effort into it anymore. I don't think Capcom really knows where they're going with the story. What we need is a serious game with a decent budget and some freash ideas. All the bosses don't have to be animals (or plants) and Sigma doesn't have to always be the final boss. I'm sick to death of Sigma! They need to finally reveal EVERYTHING about the origins of X and Zero and whatever ties they may have to the original Megaman series and perhaps the Legends/Dash series, then they should conclude the story. Unfortunately Megaman X7 jumps even further off track with the storyline but I'll stick with the series till they get it right again.

Megaman X6 is an O.K. game but if you're just getting into Megaman I'd reccomend the Megaman Collection coming out in May and Megaman X4 first. This one's just for Megaman X loyalists.

I know I have one review praising this game but now I've a second view on this game. It really isn't that much better than X5 if at all. You'd actually think Capcom would LEARN from their mistakes that X5 had. Well they didn't they only made the game worse.

Mega Man X6 was a surprise to me. Being that there wasn't even a year wait from X5 to X6. This is good for those hard-core "It doesn't matter if it's good" type Mega Man gamers but for the gamers who actually want a COMPLETE game this one is rather rushed for it's release, and because of that Capcom didn't take the time to take out what was wrong with X5. X4 was a great Mega Man game and the ones before were brilliant. This one is merely subpar.

First the gameplay. There are no cutscenes at all but rather still animated scenes in Japanese voices that carry the story along. What's worse? The handwriting isn't quite legible with the letter "f" commonly looking like a "t".

The worst part of the gameplay is how levels are never the same twice. You MUST do levels in a certain order to get all the armor pieces. This is bad because you need ALL pieces of an armor before you can actually use it. Well the whole random level thing would be nice if it would actually LET ME GET THE FRIGGIN' CAPSULE! How am I supposed to get to a capsule when this huge gray block is in the way? You don't, once that "random" effect happens it stays thus making you start a new game.

The other bad thing is that Zero really isn't the best in this one. Unlike X4 you'll need X to get nearly all his power ups for him. It takes the fun of playing as Zero. What does this do exactly? Well, it means that if X must get Zero's powerups it means that X has to go through the level in which X get's the heart and the bonus at the end of the stage. Something that Zero could get.

The music is okay at times but get's annoying. Unlike X4 and before it doesn't set any sort of action mood that suits the stage. X can use Zero's Z-Sabre but you'd have to be desperate not to just select Zero because X battles much too slowly with it (stick to the X-Buster).

As I mentioned you must grab all four pieces of an armor before you can actually put it on. This really brings up the decline in the X-Series. Since in the Pre-X5 era we were all used to the part being added to X's armor right on the spot. It was fun looking for all those capsules. This element is lost as well. It's no fun looking for the capsules especially when you need one armor to get another one.

The game actually does present a bit of a challenge though. But what I really didn't like was that the final boss is the SAME DAMN FINAL BOSS WE'VE BEEN FIGHTING SINCE MEGA MAN X1! I'm so tired of Sigma. The game fools you by making you think the final boss is this guy named "Gate" when at the end you only end up fighting Sigma all over again! This wouldn't be such a bother if Sigma wasn't always the final boss! Thus meaning Sigma's role in this game is pretty meaningless for a LONG time. He at least DID stuff in X4 and X5. But in this they taunt you by making you think it's "Gate".

Sorry but this is a bad Mega Man game to get. Go back to X4 and before because those were Mega Man X games to remember. I hear Mega Man X7 is different though...which could ultimately be a bad thing.