A great remake of Mega Man X that any fan old or new should play
Story: The story of Mega Man Maverick Hunter X pretty much follows the original story of Mega Man X with some more fleshed out story on X's side, basically, Dr. Cain, a scientist in the future stumbles upon the ruins of Dr. Light's old lab and in the process discovers X, who's a new type of robot. Before Dr. Cain can wake up X, Dr. Light's computers play a message to him, warning him of the danger that X possess. He's a robot that can think and act on his own and Dr. Light was afraid that if X was let out into the Earth too early he could have destroyed it, so basically he sealed X away for 30 plus years to test his reliant and once X is out of the capsule, Dr. Cain is amazed by how advanced X is and being a scientist Dr. Cain tries to copy X's design and succeeds, but unfortunately he wasn't as brilliant as Dr. Light and the robots he built ended up going Maverick and attacked humans, so Dr. Cain builds a newer robot Sigma who will lead the Maverick Hunters, who fight against the mavericks to protect the humans, somehow Sigma, the leader of the Maverick Hunters ends up going maverick himself and launches an attack against the humans, X who had helped the Hunters from sidelines, decides that he's seen enough of Sigma's destruction and decides to help out the current leader of the Hunters Zero, in finally putting an end to Sigma's rebellion against the humans. That's pretty much the story and Maverick Hunter X also includes an OVA which helps to explain Sigma's actions before the game which helps out the story a lot. No complaints here.
Graphics: For an early PSP game, Maverick Hunter X showed what the PSP was capable of at the time, yet there are other games out there that look much better of course, but at the time seeing an actual 3D render of X was pretty cool. The stages themselves seem a lot more updated from the original SNES version and there's a lot more going on in the background too which helps add to the overall presentation of the game, but unfortunately even though the graphics are great there are a few dents in an otherwise good looking game. First of all, I can't tell you how much this game lags when there are so many enemies on screen, I mean it doesn't get in the way of the game, but it's rather annoying when you're trying to hit enemies and there's a delayed react to the fire button and I've even heard rumors that on certain stages the game will freeze up entirely, forcing you to restart your PSP, granted I never experienced that problem myself, but I though I'd just point that out, otherwise the graphics work pretty well for the game.
Sound: Now this is where a lot of fans including myself are split on Maverick Hunter X, being a remake, Capcom of course was going to change the game around and include new versions of the very familiar and catchy music of the original, overall I think the new remixed tracks in the game don't take away from the game, but I would have liked to see an option to replace the remixed music with the original music so Capcom could make both old and new fans happy, but myself I think the remixed tracks were actually pretty good and overall helped the game. One thing that was definitely an improvement in Maverick Hunter X was the addition of voice acting, the original had the scrolling text which sometimes got annoying, but hearing X talk, who is voiced by Mark Gatha, who does a fine job of voicing X might I add, he's probably the best voice of X so far. It helps to make you feel like you're their and the other voice actors do an excellent job of voicing their characters, although I do wish X would shut up when he's using a special weapon, he has the tendency to shout out the special weapon he is using which does get annoying after a while, otherwise sound is quite good.
Game play: Game play in Maverick Hunter X is quite simple and is pretty much like most other Mega Man games, you pick a stage and battle your way through it until you get to the end where the boss is, you defeat him and get his weapon which can be used against the other bosses and like most Mega Man games each boss has a weakness to each weapon, so experiment with each too find their weaknesses. The good thing about Maverick Hunter X is the fact that the game play isn't changed which is a good thing, so old school gamers will have no problem getting right into the game although there are a few minor annoyances like changed stages and different locations of the capsules, but that's just my old school gamer nagging because of that, but one thing I have noticed is the slight decrease in difficulty of the game, on normal the game is fairly easy and even on hard which emulates what the original game's difficulty is almost too easy, even the final battle against Sigma is easy, but once again that's just my opinion, for newer gamers and fans, it's just right and doesn't take away from the game.
Control: The controls in Maverick Hunter X are quite simple and emulate how the controls were on the SNES version, you can pretty much customize the controls to your pleasure and this scores some major points for me since I found the default control scheme to be a little annoying, but a few button adjustments later I was back to kicking Maverick butt, overall the controls are well suited to the PSP and the ability to customize the controls to suit your playing earn this game some major points overall.
Overall: Mega Man Maverick Hunter X is a mixed bag for sure, most old school gamers will be able to breeze through it in an afternoon, but thanks to some more unlockable content, like playing as Vile and unlocking an OVA help to increase the overall re-playability of the game, but the decrease in difficulty like I said will put off some gamers, but for gamers looking for a great action platformer and old school gamers hungering for some old school game play, this is your game. Overall I give Mega Man Maverick Hunter X an 8.5 for being a solid game remake of an excellent game.