This game continues the Mega Man Retrospective but to move forward, we must go back to where the X series began. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X is a PSP title that completely remakes MMX for the ground up on the PSP; new visuals, fleshed out story, playable Vile and even an extra animated OVA.
It is a big remake, but how does it fare to the original? Lets find out. This will be one of my shorter Retrospectives, so I hope you all don't mind that.
History:
The game started development in 2004 and Capcom wanted to support Sonys upcoming handheld. They saw great success with the PS2, so they jumped right on board with a number of titles like Power Stone Collection, Ultimate Ghosts & Goblins, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max and two Mega Man titles. What where they though? Of course, full out remakes of Mega Man 1 and Mega Man X.
Capcom wanted to do a whole line of remakes of the Classic and X series starting with these games but they didnt sell enough to push that fact forward. Hence, the updated story of this game kinda got dropped. Anyway, it released in 2005 and got good reviews. Many loved the remixed music and faithfulness to the original 16-Bit classic.
Story:
It is the same plot of the original Mega Man X, but done a bit differently. For starters, one of the main characters that we see in X2, Dr. Cian, is dead after events before this game even starts. So, things are bit different and we have fully voiced cut-scenes. The basic plot is X and Zero have to take out a now evil Sigma but first have to take out 8 loose Mavericks causing havoc in the world. X takes them out, heads to Sigmas tower and the game ends with X taking him out.
What I love here is that X has a voice this time out and the story completely changes if we play as a new character, Vile. He has a vendetta against X, so he tries to take him out. It has a tragic end for him, but it is great to see how his final set of stages are completely different compared to X and how different he is gameplay wise, but we will get to that soon enough.
Overall, liked the story here and hopeful this reboot-cannon is explored in the future.
Gameplay:
Okay, this is where things stay the same, but completely change at the same time. A lot of what I said about the original Mega Man X applies for X, so will just put a link to that Retrospective here. End point, its fun to play as X and the game still is a pure classic through and through. The only real difference for X is that the Light Armor Capsules have different spots this time out, so it might throw you off if you mastered the original.
But where things change a lot? Vile. You can play as that guy now after you beat the game as X and man, he does things quite differently. He does not collect armor parts but he still collects heart and sub tanks.
The big difference is how his weapons work in the game, as unlike X, you have three different guns; mounted cannon, shot gun-like blaster, and lower angled shot. These can be mixed and matched as you defeat other Mavericks.
What does that mean? You could have Chill Penguins attack on your shoulder cannon, Spark Mandrills attack on your arm shot and Flame Mammoths attack for your lower shot. This changes how you fight foes completely, as your shoulder cannon is the strongest attack while your base buster is quite weak unless you use a Maverick power. One thing to note is that weapon energy isnt used for Vile; he does have that but it recharges over time instead of you collecting items to increase it.
Level design for him is largely the same, but he does have a completely different set of Sigma stages compared to X and you even fight the heroic duo of X & Zero as the final boss for Viles run of the game.
One cool thing for Vile though? You can ride in his iconic ride armor whenever you find it in stages and it ROCKS. You have powerful attacks and it is so much fun riding the thing that game X so much trouble in the past.
He was a unexpected addition to this remake, so it was a nice surprise unlocking him after playing it as X.
Presentation:
You know, its impressive how Capcom can capture the look and style of an older game for 3D remakes. We see that with other remakes they did like Bionic Commando Rearmed on PS3/360 and MM: Powered Up (which we will cover later on) for the PSP.
So, they do that again with Maverick Hunter X and the game looks great on PSP.
Character models are detailed and animate well, the voice acting and voice samples are solid and the still images used for events in the story look really nice. Playing this on a Vita 1000 with the OLED screen is a treat, as everything just pops.
Musically, this is Mega Man X, one of the best soundtracks in gaming. You have to try hard to mess things up but Capcom gives us some great remixes of great tracks. Everything is rock focused I mean, take a hint why that is the case. Anyway, the new remixes are great and the original tracks composed for Viles run are okay but repetitive. Overall strong soundtrack and really love some tracks like the Highway Remix.
Central Highway Remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6GU9kuQDa4&list=PL391663356BADADAD&index=5
Boomer Kuwanger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3W4p-CPf8Y&list=PL391663356BADADAD&index=20
Spark Mandrill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Sxn7zIHIo&list=PL391663356BADADAD&index=21
Sting Chameleon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfB7FN9YkBM&list=PL391663356BADADAD&index=22
Sigma 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZBblNr5Y6A&list=PL391663356BADADAD&index=31
Overall:
I really love Mega Man X and I fell it is one of the strongest games in the Mega Man series a s whole. So this remake had a lot to live up to for me. But, I really enjoyed it and the game being so faithful to the original with its level designs being 1-to-1 like the SNES title was really nice.
The new elements like the expanded story, remixed soundtrack and playable Vile just make this an even greater package. Give this a go on your PSPs or PS Vitas if you have the time, as you will be treated to a solid remake of an iconic classic.
