An excellent remake of the Capcom SNES classic Mega Man X, this enjoyable, well put together run and gun side scroller stays faithful to it's source material while still having just enough new content to allow it to stand on it's own. If you've played a regular Mega Man game before, you know what to expect. After the intro stage, you are given a menu of 8 levels to play through, and you can choose which one to play or go to next in any order, and this alone extends the replay value. In levels, your goal is to get from beginning to end of each level, all while blasting apart enemies and navigating hazardous environments, and at the end of each level confronting it's respective boss and defeating it, which also allows you to claim to their weapon for your own use.
Your hero, Mega Man X, or just X, starts off with a mere pea-shooter, but as i said before you get many more fun, beneficial weapons as time goes on. Each of them are creative and useful, although my personal favorite is the Storm Tornado, which can mow down even the strongest of foes in your path-not to mention it looks pretty cool. Aside from the weapons, in each level there are capsules which contain armor upgrades-5 total, but only one of them (the Dash upgrade) is truly needed to complete the game. There are also heart tanks and sub-tanks which are also optional but make the game a bit easier to get through by increasing your life bar and keeping reserved health, respectively. Each one helps make X's quest easier in a different way, but without compromising the games difficulty altogether, which i like. The levels are well designed and generally aren't cheap, and offer a few surprises every now and again.
The graphics are good for an early PSP game, but closer inspection shows the character models are rather rough looking, but never do they look like something you would find in a first generation 3-D game. The remixed music is great, the sound effects are nice and the new voice acting is actually pretty good. There are now two difficulty settings (Normal and hard) and a brand new Vile mode, which allows you to play as X's rival in the game in a new mode with customizable weapon arrangements, rearranged levels, and a slightly different story. This game even includes an over 20 minute long animated OVA which can be unlocked by beating the game, which serves as a prequel to the events before this games story took place. The animation is good, the voice acting is good, and the story is okay but predictable. This game also includes a free demo of Mega Man: Powered Up, another underrated PSP game, right off the bat.
While some of the changes made to the game from the original (which includes the placement of a few of the capsules and the completely revamped final levels, and some other changes) will annoy long time Mega Man X fans, and the lack of autosave is rather annoying, i would honestly recommend this great side scroller to any PSP owner. However, while the game was well received by critics, it and Powered Up flopped in sales, so it might be kind of tricky to find this game in the wild, but if you can find this for a bargain bin price, get it and i am sure you won't regret it.
Grade: B+
Upcoming Reviews: Mega Man Powered Up, Mega Man Anniversary Collection (Gamecube), Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Xbox 360), Midway Arcade Treasures Vol. 1 (Gamecube)
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