There aren’t many games that I’ve come to hate as much as Mega Man X7. I really love this series and to see what that game did to its sterling reputation was sad. Mega Man X7 wasn’t bad, it was incompetent, with bizarre design decisions left and right. Mega Man X8 manages to right almost all of that game’s wrongs and redeem the series. It still has its frustrating moments but overall this is a pretty good adventure.
With no end in sight to the maverick problem mankind instead turns to the stars to avoid it. An orbital elevator to the moon is constructed to assist in its colonization. Dubbed the Jakob Project a new generation of reploids is created to oversee the ladder’s construction. These reploids are equipped with a copy chip that allows them to change their form according to the task and as a bonus are immune to going maverick. Everything is going smoothly until Vile returns and captures Lumine, the leader of the project. His purpose is unknown but it is up to the maverick hunters to rescue Lumine.
This is probably the most story heavy installment in the series, even more so than Mega Man X5. Obviously it won’t thrill you with its twists and turns but does remain entertaining up until its conclusion. It also breaks a few series conventions and doesn’t end the way you would expect.
Mega Man X8 is a victim of circumstance. The terrible reception of the series’ seventh installment I’m sure made everyone ignore it. I’ll admit I was part of that crowd at first. That’s how bad Mega Man X7 was. But sometime after its release I decided to take a chance on it based on its solid reviews. I’m happy to say that this is a legitimately great game, one that puts the series back on track and a great buy for action game fans.
For as much as Capcom have tried to make a clean break from the prior game X8 continues many of the system’s established of that title. The partner system returns with a few changes. Switching between characters allows the inactive member to recover a small part of their health. The recovery gauge will also revive a downed party member after a certain amount of time. There are various items that affect the gauge allowing some customization. New to the game is the double attack, a combination move that deals high damage. While cool I forgot about it up until the game’s conclusion.
Rather than rescuing random reploids to earn possible upgrades Mega Man X8 introduces a currency system. Chips are dropped from enemies and can be spent on parts for all three characters as well as group loot. It’s similar to Otto’s shop in Mega Man 7. The most lucrative are the rare chips that allow you to create powerful parts for each character. Zero sees the most use from these as there are numerous special weapons you can create in addition to his Z-Saber. Rare chips are extremely well hidden; sometimes too well in my opinion. Some of this stuff ventures into strategy guide territory which I’ve never been a fan of. The Navigator helps find some secrets but you would never find some a lot of the rare chips unless someone showed you beforehand.
Mega Man X8 takes a back to basics approach in its design. Rather than the ill-fated mish mash of 2d and 3d stages this is a 2.5 adventure like Klonoa. By and large you’ll spend most of your time on a side scrolling plane with the occasional over the shoulder perspective. With the camera problems eliminated the game is able to focus on the kinds of tight platforming that made Mega Man so beloved.
The level design is all around excellent, full of variety and hidden items. Nearly every Maverick stage has some mechanic to spice up the action and most of these are done extremely well. The Prime Rose stage plays around with gravity in a way that X7 absolutely failed in. Here it is very easy to end up crushed to death through your own actions. Troia Base is actually a series of training scenarios with your performance determining your path to the exit. Dark Mantis’s Pitch Black level is a stealth mission. Normally I roll my eyes at stealth levels in games not based around it but it implementation here is solid and actually fun.
For the most part the game knocks it out of the park but when it fails it fails hard. Chasing Gigabit Man-O-War through the city skies on Ride Armor should be thrilling. Instead it is a confusing mess, filled with cheap hits and instant death. The icy plains of Avalanche Yeti’s stage suffer similarly. These levels don’t fail because they are vehicle based; prior games featured the same mechanic and were fun. I simply think the levels aren’t well designed. I can appreciate the attempt at adding variety but the rest of the game already does that. The game would be so much better if these were normal levels.
Speaking of mavericks, goofy names aside these boss battles are incredibly memorable. Each is aggressive but has a consistent pattern to follow. They are all armed with a large range of attacks that keep the fights exciting and as a bonus aren’t bullet sponges like the previous game. I’m not a fan of the Hyper Mode mechanic as the damage boost they gain often equals instant death. That is just incredibly cheap in a game that already puts up a decent challenge.
The visual style has undergone a makeover like the gameplay. Mega Man X8 loses the hard cel shaded look in favor of normal texture mapping. While it isn’t as stylized it looks leagues better. The 2.5 look doesn’t present as many sweeping vistas as in similar titles like Viewtiful Joe or Klonoa but still looks pretty cool in spots. The lankier character models are more in line with Capcom’s official artwork but I’m not sure if I like them overall. The soundtrack is one of the best in the series and the game has competent voice acting. It’s far from their best work on the system but they’ve done a decent job here overall.
In Closing
Capcom had a tall task in righting the ship after the failings of Mega Man X6 & 7. In my opinion they have succeeded. Mega Man X8 doesn’t reach the heights of the PlayStation or SNES games but is pretty great and worth seeking out.
