While it doesn't do anything too new, Megaman X Command Mission takes the Megaman universe in a whole new direction.
Megaman X Command Mission is by no means a bad game; in fact its game play is very fun and addicting. Unfortunately, unless you're a fan of the series in itself, there isn't much other than that.
The story is an unusual one for the X universe. Megaman (who is referred to as X), his old pal Zero, and another hunter named Shadow are investigating ruins for their boss Redips, to stop the rebellion led by a maverick named Epsilon. X and Zero are betrayed by Shadow and are defeated by the "cadres" of the rebellion army. From there X goes to Giga City to build a resistance to stop Epsilon. There's many plot twists from there, but while the plot is generic, it places X fans in the position of having to adjust to new villains and heroes for once.
The characters are of a bland RPG kind. You start off with X and Zero, who use guns and swords respectively. After losing Zero you recruit Spider who is very akin to Gambit from X-Men in the sense that he uses explosive playing cards. You then get the powerhouse Massimo and Marino and Cinnamon who are a thief and healer respectively. Then the game treads into familiar territory with Axl joining your team followed by Zero again.
The game play makes this game shine. While you have three reploids (robots) on your side of the field and any number of mavericks (villain robots) on the other side, you have a variety of options. You have two side weapons and your main weapon. Side weapons come in different sorts of missiles, bait, attack generators and other items, and use up weapon energy when you use them. Weapon energy is used for side weapons and a type of power attack that is unique to each character. For example, X's power attack is the simple holding of a button that attacks all enemies while Marino's has you playing slots for different effects and Spider's is a game of poker. These little deviations from the RPG game play keep the battles fresh.
Aside from the power attacks, each character has their own unique hyper mode. These become invaluable to the player as they can only be used a certain amount of turns before the dry up for a good while and they generally change the tide of the battle. X, Zero, and Massimo don new armor that makes their attacks more powerful, Axl and Spider turn invisible shielding them from all attacks, and Marino's speed goes up so much that she can generally attack six times in a row depending on how much hyper mode she has.
Outside the battle screen the levels are divided into chapters and are extremely linear. While this is a nice throwback to normal X games, it just doesn't work with RPG games. There's generally a few event battles and a boss battle or two per chapter, but the amount of plain walking around you have to do is ridiculous and is usually only interrupted by a battle (considering the absurd encounter rate) or a cut scene or two.
When you're not doing the main story you can find parts for broken mechaniloids (generic machines that you encounter in battles) and send them to different locations to look for items. This slightly amusing system yields quite a few bonuses including movies, artwork, music, and keys to access different areas and optional bosses.
Upon recruiting Cinnamon you can use a force metal system to give bonuses to each of your characters. This helps out in latter parts of the game but not too much during the actual story, and often ends in frustration when you see Zero and Massimo getting a virus because they can't take too much of the stuff.
The controls are well mapped and comfortable. There aren't a lot of menus and sub menus to go through so battles don't get too slow or cumbersome due to excess items.
The graphics are clean, they aren't impressive, but they're tolerable. The sound is a mixed bag in this game though. On one hand, there are some very catchy tunes, especially in a few boss battles. The themes Capcom makes for Zero are always well done. Unfortunately, the voice acting is terrible. Capcom can never stay consistent with who they hire for the job. Zero sounds like a surfer, unlike his almost shockingly low voice in X7 while Axl has grown up compared to his boyish voice from X7. To compliment the shoddy voice acting, quite a few of the sound effects are cheesy, especially when any character is transforming in hyper mode or in the story which will remind anyone of an old sci-fi movie.
Megaman has always been a mixed bag. The X series is the biggest example of this. Low production values and gimmicky stories lead the way for superb game play and awesome repeatability. Whether you're a fan or not, if you desire a good RPG experience, albeit on the short side, you can't go wrong with picking up Megaman X Command Mission.