PSP - MegaMan: Maverick Hunter X Review

Capcom originally got yet another Mega Man franchise started in 1993 back on the Super Nintendo and it was yet another big money grab for the company. The new Mega Man X game was a amazing action/shoot em up that featured a new more futurist story line and a slightly different graphical style. Although the Mega Man X series has been nearly beaten to death with a bunch of lame sequels (ever play the crappy Mega Man X7 for the Playstation 2 before for example), Capcom is going back to what made the series great by retelling the first ever Mega Man X game in Maverick Hunter here for the PSP.

It all started when a man named Dr. Kain discovered a old robot enclosed in a capsule. It was actually a new smarter version of Mega Man robot himself code named X and he comes with the ability to think on it's own (so I guess the old Mega Man was a real dumbas$, eh?). This new level of artificial intelligence came with a warning from his creator that these robots may now become more effective workers and interact better with humans (if you know what I mean) and all that good stuff but it could also mean robots would become more rebellious or even dangerous as well. Well, you guessed it because some of these toasters and gizmos when crazy one day of course and are now being lead by a highly advance robot called Sigma.

OK, if you are a fan of Mega Man games you know the deal, if you manage to beat one of the eight selectable bosses you get to steal their weapon and some of these guns may work better on different opponents. The difference now is these 8 bosses all have a goofy animal theme to them (Flame Mammoth?) and you're tracking down this bald Sigma dude instead of Dr. Wily and that's it (real original Capcom). Fortunately that's not it for changes though. This new Mega Man here can now climb walls just by jumping on them to help him reach new areas or avoid enemies. X can also find special heart containers that increase his overall health and new armour upgrades from his decease creator Dr. Light. Some of these can be pretty tough to get so it's a good thing you can replay old levels here and another thing that increases the replay value is the ability to play as X's arch rival Vile too once he is unlocked.

Although the game play almost remains the same here, at least the graphics have gotten a nice 3D face lift. The game is still played in the traditional 2D side scrolling view (don't worry this is not another 3D experiment gone wrong like in Contra) but now all the foreground environments move more realistically. Also the game has new anime cinemas plus improved shading and lighting effects to bring this up to par with other PSP titles. Sadly there is some slowdown here and there because of the advance new look but overall the game looks great. Capcom even has some new voice acting during big confrontations so you can get more into the story of betrayal and justice. Surprisingly some of these voices are well acted and Mega Man X doesn't sound like a young girl either (seriously he sounds like a total chick in Mega Man 8). The game also has improved sound effects and background rock music over the Super Nintendo which already sounded pretty good in the first place.

Although all the shooting action here is fairly intense, the game is still on the short side with only 13 levels and these stages are not even that different from the old 1993 original either so there is a lot of recycle content here. Still if you want to see what all the fuss is about or you loved the original and you can't find an old Super Nintendo (try the dump), you'll definitely want to pick this up. The game has a much needed boost in presentation and it also has a much needed save feature as well (because writing down passwords sucks). Mega Man X Maverick Hunter is still a great non linear action game that will definitely entertain action freaks.

MEGA MAN X overall rating: 77/100

For 1 player only
Rated (E10+) for Everyone
graphics: 7/10
sound: 7/10
gameplay: 7/10
replay: 7/10

-StarSoldier1 2007
(Ryan Genno)