A fan from Megaman 1 will truly appreciate this game, and any other will still enjoy its strong points.
Another great aspect of the game is that the storyline is not as “Black and White” as it used to be (You know, Sigma comes around and tried to destroy the maverick hunters) but has a highly anticipated story base. Sigma isn’t the true evil, and the entire scheme wasn’t even his idea. I won’t tell you who it really is, so as not to spoil your fun (If you ever get your hands on a copy). Instead of Sigma controlling the mavericks (8, as usual) like puppets, they all seem to “be” him. They are new generation reploids whose copy chips are designed and made up from many old reploids’ data. Is this somehow linked to sigma? Nobody would understand until the very end.
Now let’s focus on the actual mavericks themselves (If nobody knows what these are, they are end-of-stage bosses. Maverick means rebel). There are, in fact, eight (so original) mavericks with respective levels. Now if you’re playing normal or hard mode (so this doesn’t apply to the rookies whose skill levels are “Easy”) then you will notice while you’re fighting a maverick, that when you lower their life down to a certain amount, they will form a sort of gravity ball around them, flash white (Invincibility) and initiate a few deadly and powerful moves. So you’d better watch your back, because some of these are extremely difficult to avoid. The invincibility is inevitable and you’ll have to wait for the range of powerful moves to end. Remember, this process cannot be avoided. But at least, at the end of the stage, you will receive a nice metal (We’ll talk about it soon) and the old-school weapon for each of the three, X, Zero and Axl, so you still get all their weapons, no matter who you choose.
Another great intuition of the game is, instead of collecting weapons throughout levels, you instead collect things called “metals” and after the stage you are allowed to buy various items. Just to let you know, the irritating task, of saving stranded maverick hunters like yourself before those converters turn them into mavericks, is finally abolished. Metals come in many forms. Blue metals grant you one metal. Yellow metals grant you five. Orange metals grant you fifty and purple metals grant you five hundred, so look out for the purple metals. You can also spend your metals to buy a metal generater that generates forty or so metals every nine or ten steps you take. There is also a special metal when you destroy any boss. This metal is granted upon you immediately. This grants you 1000 metals, so use them wisely because these cannot be located throughout levels, but only at the end (provided there still is a boss to fight). Throughout the levels you can locate large capsule-type items. There are six of them in the eight levels and these are Zero’s different weapons. Another step in the evolution of Choice: There are six different weapons Zero can choose from. The only expensive one is the Sigma blade, where Zero actually uses a blade like the one Sigma possesses. The power is indeed almighty. The “Rare metals”, located throughout the stage, are bright white, and hard to miss (If you are looking for them). They are hidden throughout the levels. These metals grant you the ability to learn new abilities.
Besides all these aspects, if you have beaten the game in Easy, Normal or Hard Mode, then you can actually buy chips (Items you buy with metals that grants you different abilities) of Palette, Layer and Alia. They cost 36 000 metals each, so think before you spend. If you have bought all three, you are free to use them. Another great evolution of Choice. Remember these only are available according to which navigator you choose (So if you have the Palette chip already, start using Alia, and so on).
Finally, we arrive at the graphics inspection. Personally I think Capcom have done a splendid job with the graphics, and it’s always a joy to see your old heroes in top-notch 3-D GFX. The graphics are definitely used to their full potential, as in two levels, you are in a vehicle in first-person mode. This allows for interactive gameplay and an entire new insight to any MegaManX game. So, all in all, if you get a thrill out of old-school machine versus machine style gameplay with stereotype level bosses, although also seek out stunning graphics and interactive 3-D databases, and most of all, have a passion for Choice, then this is definitely the game for you, and you won’t regret buying it.
Thanks for reading
Silph Creator.