After playing Mega Man 1-6 last summer, I finally got around to picking up Mega Man X and beating it for my first time. Yes, my first time!

I think I'm in love.

The game takes the strong and memorable gameplay of the Mega Man games before it and makes it super for the Super NES. The gameplay continues to be superb. X feels tight and controlled in my hand. It's a blast to jump and shoot - and even more a blast as one begins to integrate the dash game into play. Sure, it led to several deaths, but I couldn't stop dashing. I loved dashing, wall jumping, and learning to out manuever my enemies.

The heart of the gameplay is improvement, and that's what makes this one memorable. Not only do you attain new weapons and armor that make your character stronger, but you as a player actually improve as you play. I felt myself improve in my ability to control X, and the enemies felt less of a threat - I kept coming back for more.

I won't write on the visuals and sound - I'm sure there are many others who have done justice to writing about this aspect of the game. But man. The sprites still hold up. X just feels badass. And the music makes him that much more badass. I'm addicted to [Storm Eagle's stage music][1]. It's been on repeat all week at work.

I finished the game last week, and I keep wanting to go back and play it. I think I will. The drive to improve is just too great. I want to get better at the game - and want to learn to complete it faster.

Gosh, Mega Man. You've won me over.

[1]:

This is a fantastic game! I played it on RetroArch on my Switch Lite. By the way, the Lite is a perfect little monster machine for the ones wishing to revisit or to meet new games from those good old times. I had contact with this game during childhood, but it did not catch me too much. I was used to play JRPGs like Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger and also those marvelous strategy games by KOEI such as Aerobiz Supersonic or Uncharted Waters 2.

There is a Brazilian youtuber who speaks about games and he concluded almost 3.000 games and a lot of retro games. He has a spreadsheet (amazing one, try this link to check it, you will not be able to copy, but just take inspiration and recreate on Excel it: Cogumelando's Spreadsheet (Portuguese)). Because of him, I decided to try again and started this Mega Man X on SNES.

Shortly I can only bless the descendants of save state creator, because without it this journey could be much worse. I am a slow person and I usually like slow games, so it was a challenge. Although after sometime we can predict the enemy movement, the difficulty is there and is unforgiving in my opinion. I don't feel much fun or pleasure with such games, even more now at my age (32 y.o.).

The last boss is a nightmare. It has 3 phases with one "easy", another "intermediate" and the last one is "very hard". If you die in any of them, you will need to restart everything.

Another thing really necessary is to get old guides from players. You can find a lot of them on Game Faqs and they are really necessary, because there are some upgrades hidden at stages of this game and there is an ideal order for conquering the enemies in order to obtain the resources for getting all upgrades.

Well, the graphics and the rest of the game is amazing. It is so beautiful that seems was launched yesterday. Some SNES games are stunning and amazing with beatiful animations and sprites. On the Lite 5,5" LCD screen they shine in full glory and beauty. I loved how they put a good effort for the colors that Mega Man X receives (let's say you receive some weapons during the game and the character changes his colors to sinalize to you that he is using a special weapon. When you finish a stage previously concluded, where was the stage boss is empty, so X just teleports himself upward. Depending the color of the selected weapon, the teleportation animation follows the proper color. I found this detail very nice.

So, it is not my kind of game, but I could not give less than 4 stars to it. I also chose it for the youtuber saying it was "easy" and quick. He finished the game in 2h but it took me 6h. ^^'

Mega Man X was a kind of a confusing experience for me. The game undoubtedly looks and sounds good and has (mostly) good controls so props for that. However, getting into Mega Man X was a pretty damn frustrating.

The game lets you choose what level to play. The levels, though, have a sort of a hidden play order that makes the game a lot easier to play. This is because after beating a boss, you gain a new skill, and bosses have clear weaknesses for specific skills. The order of levels is not told anywhere, so it is your job to painstakingly figure it out. And figuring it out is not exactly a good time. Without the correct powerups, the bosses can be brutal. Die enough times, and you need to repeat the whole level. Luckily, the levels themselves are weirdly easy and short when compared to bosses, but it still feels like a chore.

After you know what to do, the game is actually pretty straightforward... up until the final boss that is just plain hard. Beating it feels rewarding though, but that could be said of many tough bosses and games.

In some ways, I feel the first playthrough of Mega Man X is bound to be the worst one. After knowing which levels to tackle and what powerup works for what, the game is most likely a really fun game to play through here and there. But for the first go at the game, things weren't really appreciative of my time and attention.

Let's settle for 3 stars. Not quite there but based on the little that I've already played of the sequel, I feel like the moment I properly like a Mega Man game is close by anyway.

Decided to give Mega Man X a try. For the SNES, this is definitely impressive. Not in terms of visuals, as I think Disney games and Earthworm Jim are more impressive. But the first level takes place on a bridge, and crusher enemies destroy that bridge. Terrain manipulation in a 2D platformer from ’93 is mind-blowing.

Regarding boss difficulty, I found Chill Penguin to be extremely easy. You stick to the top of the wall and shoot him in the face until he dies. One issue, solved in later games, is that X doesn’t automatically shoot away from the wall. It doesn’t make any sense, I know.

Also, Dash is a special move in the first game, which you need to acquire. Luckily, it’s impossible to miss if you pick the right stage.

Storm Eagle is also surprisingly easy. You can literally smash him in the face with regular shots; no need to charge them.

A feature I don’t think any other game implemented is that killing one boss makes another stage easier. I thought this was insignificant at first, but then the electric floor at Spark Mandrill's stage was so infuriating that I went to pay Storm Eagle a visit first. Before:

After:

Strangely, the midboss of Spark Mandrill’s stage, Thunder Slimer, gave me much more trouble than Spark Mandrill himself. It’s hard to avoid due to its sticky slime, and it still kills X in a couple of hits.

Unlike the previous three bosses, Armored Armadillo is no pushover. He’s a “bouncy” boss, but unlike the second phase of Sigma in Mega Man X4, I couldn’t find a clear pattern, so I had to brawl it out with the cyborg marsupial.

Flame Mammoth is very easy if you fought Chill Penguin and Storm Eagle first to freeze the stage and get the Storm Tornado. Launch Octopus, though, is tough. First, his stage is beautiful, with an impressive water effect for the SNES, but it has one of the worst mini-bosses in the game, which sucks you into spikes that are a one-hit kill. What’s also cool about Launch Octopus’s stage is that I didn’t destroy the submarine and fought a mostly harmless eel instead. It turns out if you do destroy the submarine, you have to fight it in a spiky arena. Not sure why someone would prefer that, though.

Then there’s the X-Buster upgrade on Flame Mammoth’s stage… What can I say? The reason I don’t think I’ll replay this game is that impossible jump you need to perform.

What surprised me after Mega Man X4 is that, although you need to fight the bosses again, it’s not a gauntlet. Instead, they are spread organically through multiple stages, and you also have unique bosses to fight along the way. The spider boss is difficult but fair, once you understand its gimmick: it can only reach you if it has a path on the “ladder.” The “sleepy face” boss that throws its eyes at you is less fun, as it has a one-hit-kill spikes mechanic, and the “nose” has a bounce mechanic.

By the “D-Rex” boss, I’d run out of most of my ammo, so I was just throwing anything I had at it.

Sigma’s fight has three stages, but at least you start with full health and energy tanks. The first phase is the dog, Velguarder, which is easy. The second phase is Sigma jumping on walls, which is tiring because you need to be very precise and constantly wall-jump. The third phase is his wolf form, which is cool but also random, similar to the last form in Mega Man X4. Sometimes you just get unlucky and will be blasted by plasma balls repeatedly, which are extremely hard to dodge.

I’ve heard some complain that this game is too easy.

In my opinion, it’s reasonably hard. You still need to know what you’re doing and be very intentional about it, and some jumps are quite ridiculous, but it’s doable even with reflexes as bad as mine.

Gameplay, Story and Value:

My biggest complaint about Mega Man X is that there's a weird resolution clip between the stage select screen and the stages themselves that makes my XRGB-Mini lose connection for about a half a second. That's pretty much it.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm probably a bit too bias towards this game and the franchise in general, but not without good reason! Everything from the borderline scientifically perfect intro stage to the hidden powerups and abilities to the excellent stage design just sings with awesomeness.

At its core, Mega Man X is just like any other Mega Man game before it. You run and shoot, and have a charge shot, and the only major mechanical differences made apparent from the outside is your ability to cling to walls and the unmissable dash ability. Look past that, though, and you'll be scouring stages for heart pieces, health containers, armor augmentations and even a great little cameo ability from another Capcom staple.

Like in other games, stages can be tackled in any order, though bosses are best fought using the weapons they're weak against. Additionally, clearing one stage may have an impact on another, for instance, Flame Mammoth's level is normally flowing with lava, however clearing Chill Penguin's stage before it will freeze the ground, making it much easier to clear! You'll also need to use some of your abilities in interesting way, such as throwing boomerangs to reach normally unreachable items.

The stages themselves are all unique and fun, and X's mobility makes traversing them enjoyable regardless of how the level is oriented. Whether you're climbing towers, flying over airbases, dropping through the latter Sigma stages or shooting your way through more traditional levels it all comes together really well.

The bosses are also a lot of fun, despite the fact that some of them can be exploited pretty heavily.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

To be perfectly fair, while Mega Man X is a very good looking game it doesn't really do anything extraordinary. Sprites are all detailed and full of character and projectiles look great, lending for a cohesive art style that fits the game very nicely. There is some lag at certain points in the game which can be a little distracting, but those patches are few and far between. All in all, Mega Man X is a very good looking game.

he audio is even better. While I still prefer the tracks from the original Mega Man games on the NES to the ones from X, that doesn't make what's on offer here any less excellent. The themes from the Intro stage and Storm Eagle's stage immediately come to mind. The sound effects are also pretty great, especially when it comes to weapon and explosion effects.

Afterthoughts:

Mega Man X is another one of those games that I probably like a bit too much for my own good. I had so much fun playing through it again I actually beat it twice, just in an effort to beat my last time! This game retains a lot of the challenge from its NES counterparts while still being one of the more accessible entries in the series, which is probably for the better. This is one of those titles that I know I'll be pulling off my shelf regularly for the foreseeable future!

Review:

Playthrough:

This Capcom title is a landmark action-platformer that successfully revitalized the classic Mega Man formula for the 16-bit era, it introduced faster gameplay, wall-jumping, hidden upgrades, and a darker, more mature story set in a futuristic world of "Maverick" robots, and in my opinion, a way more superior version of the classic Mega Man. The game excels with tight controls, a memorable soundtrack, and dynamic level design that subtly changes based on the order you defeat bosses, this is one of it's most unique mechanics.

Visually, it pushed the SNES hardware with vibrant sprite work and smooth animations. I can't stress this enough when I say this video-game has one of the best OSTs in gaming history, each and every song is better than the last, this is truly one of it's main strengths, and this also sets the bar very high for the other entries in the series. Overall, Mega Man X is a masterclass in platforming and one of the most beloved entries in the series. A must-play for fans of retro action games, definitely one of the best games of all time, and one of the best of the SNES platform.

One of the most impressive aspects of this game is how naturally it encourages exploration without ever forcing it. The hidden Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks, and armor capsules reward curiosity and skill, making each stage feel layered and replayable. The armor upgrades, in particular, fundamentally change how you approach platforming and combat, turning you from a capable fighter into a powerhouse by the late game. This sense of progression is satisfying and gives the adventure a Metroidvania-like flavor while still maintaining the series’ stage-boss structure.

Another standout element is the tone and storytelling, especially for a release from its era, the introduction of Zero, Sigma, and the Maverick Hunters adds emotional weight that the classic series never fully explored. The opening highway stage alone perfectly sets the mood, teaching mechanics organically while establishing the stakes of the conflict. By the time you reach Sigma’s fortress, the challenge feels earned, and the narrative payoff enhances the intensity of the final battles. It’s this blend of tight gameplay and meaningful progression that cements this title as a timeless classic.