Mega Man X8
by Capcom
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Product Summary
Brand: CapcomRelease Date: 2006-08-07
Platform: PlayStation2
Model: 26037
Publisher: Capcom
Product features:
- Three playable characters with varying strengths and special abilities. Mega Man X - Equipped with his trusty charge shot, Zero - A master of short range attacks with the ability to double jump and Axl - Armed with a spread shot weapon and hovering skills.
- Enhanced tag team action. Switch between two characters at any time to effectively defeat enemies. --Rescue change - Standby character can provide backup support when the main character is caught in enemy clutches.--Double attack - Attack enemies to fill up a special gauge and unleash a powerful two-player simultaneous attack!--Recovery gauge - Health gauges for standby characters refill according to how well the main character performs in battle.--Combo counter - Recovery items are only
- Three Navigator types - Pick a Navigator at the beginning of a stage; each offers a stage strategy, an enemy strategy or story supplements.
- Collect "metal" from defeated enemies - Use as building blocks for valuable power-up chips.
- Ability to use weapons obtained from defeated bosses.
Video Game Reviews of Mega Man X8
Customer Review: The revival of the franchise? A step in the right direction, but not quite there.
Summary: 4 Stars
Keiji Inafune himself said in a 2005 gamespy interview that he was only involved in the X series until X4, claiming that afterward "Other people took direction of the series." I seem to recall hearing something about some of the team members who worked on X1-X4 coming back for X8, an occasion would not be the least bit surprising. Labeled by some as the revival of the franchise, Mega Man X8 is undoubtedly a huge upgrade from X5-X7 that should be well received by most fans. Unfortunately, it also comes away short in some areas that just barely manage to keep it from being on par with the first four games.
X8 keeps the two-man tag team that was used in X7, and this time thankfully X is available from the start; no more waiting to rescue sixty-four reploids to get him. X8 does however make changes from X5 through X7 that are quite evident while playing. Obviously the 2D gameplay has returned after X7's experiment, and the result is close to a Mega Man version of Contra Shattered Soldier that is extremely nice to view. To speak more on the note of no longer having to rescue sixty-four reploids in order to unlock X, it's worth noting that no more reploids will be rescued, period. The rescuing reploids system that plagued X6 and X7 has been completely eliminated, and there is FINALLY an option to completely turn off Alia and the other navigators. Why it took them until X8 to figure out that that would be a good idea I do not know, but late is better than never. The sad thing is that if not for the baggage of X5-X7, I might actually consider Alia and all the other helpers cool.
An area in which Mega Man X8 really shines is the bosses. It's obvious that they're better even before they appear in the game. How so? Open up the manual and look at their names; no more Dark Dizzy, no more Infinity Mijinion, no more Commander Yammark, etcetera. The horrible translation that plagued X5-X7 is gone, so finally there are once again decipherable names such as Optic Sunflower, Dark Mantis, and even an interesting play on words in the name Bamboo "Pandamonium" for a panda bear boss. The only name that's a little off is Gravity Antonion, a name for a surprisingly interesting ant boss. Anyhow, once the bosses do appear in X8, it is evident that many of them were made with a higher level of effort and creativity than nearly anything seen in X5-X7. Many put up decent fights, and when a boss's life meter is depleted to a certain point, he unleashes a super attack and the music changes, adding to an increased intensification never before seen in the series. If the game is on the Hard difficulty setting, some bosses will even use special attacks that they do not possess on Normal or Easy, and they will use their super attacks even earlier in the fight. These are truly praiseworthy initiatives. As for each boss's individual attack patterns, I can say that at least five or six of the bosses have interesting attacks and techniques that stand out for creativity and newness. Even Gigabolt Man-O-War, a terribly voiced boss who from the neck up resembles X6's Infinity Mijinion and from the waste down appears to be wearing pink and rainbow pajama pants with flowers for feet, is no pushover without the right weapon and a high life meter. The boss' weapons aren't too shabby either. Zero's techniques are extremely fun to use, and he even picks up other special weapons hidden in stages aside from the regular ones he obtains from defeated bosses. Some of these give him longer reach and other interesting attacks certainly worth a look. X even gets a few neat weapons as well. Thunder Dancer particularly excels if used in the right circumstances, and nearly all of them are visually impressive.
So with improved bosses, decent weapons, the elimination of Alia's nagging, and the return of comprehensible boss names, what holds X8 back from being on par with X1-X4? I'd tell readers of this review a multitude of things, some small, others huge. Maybe some fans really like Axl, but I still don't buy into him. Yes it should be said that he is much improved from his girly X7 self, both in voice and techniques, and his morphing ability is needed to acquire a few rare metals. His weapons are mostly rapid fire guns that are certainly fun to use at times, but I would happily relinquish them if Axl did not exist. The game could have easily been tweaked to make the few rare metals for which he is needed accessible to X and Zero. Axl is also still basically the baby of the group, and what I really wonder is why, WHY X at one point has to hold him with both arms the way a man typically holds a bride/woman. Geez X, you're descending a wide elevator, everyone is safe, and there is more than enough space to put him down. You DO NOT have to hold him like a baby. Someone like Axl is fine in Command Mission, but for the real games why can't they just stick with X and Zero? Another nagging element from X8 is the capsule system; it is still short of satisfactory. If X7 could do it right and go back to the system in X1-X4, why couldn't X8? X8 once again has eight capsules and two different armors, the Icarus Armor and Hermes Armor. While this is somewhat disappointing, at least X8's version of two armors is done better than X5's and X6's. Capsule parts in X8 are immediately available for usage after obtained. It is no longer necessary to wait until finding all four parts before using any, but eight capsules nonetheless is still extremely unnecessary. I can't speak for all players, but I only found the Icarus Armor parts useful. The laser gun for the Icarus Armor helps much more than the split shot in the Hermes Armor. The Icarus Gun even improves X's normal shots whereas the Hermes gun does not. It is much more fun and useful to jump high with X in the Icarus boots than it is to do anything in the Hermes Boots, which supposedly make X move faster and make him invincible while dashing. Now why would X need a capsule part to make him move faster? Isn't the normal dash for that? I also could not help but to wonder if "invincible" should have been replaced with "invisible." I only saw X invisible while dashing in the Hermes boots, during which I also saw him take damage. I'd also really like to know if ANYONE would pass up halved damage for invincibility to little hits. That's what the Hermes Armor does. I don't know about other players, but I'm taking the halved damage with the Icarus Armor, depleted recovery gauge or not. The helmet for the Icarus Armor is also better than the helmet for the Hermes Armor. The Hermes helmet makes X charge faster, but faster charging in a way already occurs with the Icarus gun. Since with the Icarus gun the full charge fires the laser, the previous fully charged shot comes at an earlier stage in the charging phase. The Icarus Helmet on the other hand is basically an upgrade of the helmet back from the first X game. It can break certain ceilings, but this time it can also damage enemies. Due to these reasons, I fully believe that the Icarus Armor parts are superior and do not see why there could not have been just four capsules, each giving an ability of the Icarus Armor. With eight capsules, some also tend to be found in ridiculous places. Oh sure a small light blast will destroy huge layers of ice cubes. It would have been SO much better if X8 just had the four capsules with Icarus Armor powers. It also would have been great if the armor looked better. At times X could be almost indistinguishable from Zero if equipped with the Icarus Armor, and I found nearly all of X's previous armors to be cooler looking than the armor shape in X8, which happens to be the same regardless of whatever mix of armor with which X happens to be equipped.
As mentioned before, the rescuing reploids system is not in X8. In its place is a system in which special powers and abilities can be purchased in between stages at the R&D Lab. Defeated enemies drop metals that get used for currency. In X1-X4 every stage had a heart tank, and sub tanks were scattered in different stages. In X8 no heart tanks or sub tanks are to be found in the stages. Each character can purchase three life upgrades, and sub tanks are also purchased instead of found. In place of heart tanks and sub tanks to be found in stages, there are, in addition to capsules in all stages except Dynasty, rare metals. Rare metals are different from regular metals because instead of serving as money, they allow new power-ups to be purchased at the R&D Lab that were previously inaccessible. This system is much better designed for playing the game with multiple characters, and is clearly built around buying upgrades for all three characters. The system should be praised because it encourages killing more enemies, and purchasing everything for each character unlocks special features. It used to be infuriating in X5 and X6 if for instance X would pick up a heart tank, it would be gone for good and that would be one less for Zero. Zero could not even reach a good deal of heart tanks in X5, so buying life upgrades for each character is certainly better than splitting up a mere eight heart tanks between two characters, or what would have been in X8's case, three characters. However, as a purist, while this is an extremely convenient system for the way X8 is set up, I still say that the ideal setup for item acquisition is not X8's, but X1-X4's. Ideally Axl would not exist, there would be four capsules, eight heart tanks, and the rare metals for Zero's special weapons would allow immediate access to their usage. I would have kept the tag team with X and Zero, and if one got a heart tank, the other would also get it so X and Zero would always have the same maximum life. Some of the abilities that the rare metals unlock are unnecessary, and I feel that eight heart tanks, four capsules, 2-4 sub tanks, and four or five rare metals for Zero's weapons, and maybe something else would have still been enough to keep players busy hunting for things in stages.
Ever since the first Mega Man X game, stages have had to be revisited, but some of X8's revisits are simply annoying and imply poor placing of items. I find it annoying when there is something in a stage for which the weapon of that stage's boss is required to obtain it. It happened in X2 with Bubble Crab (also in X5 but who cares about X5), and it happens again X8's Metal Valley stage. There is also another similar instance in another stage. One of Zero's special weapons is needed to break a floor in the Inferno stage. Zero's special weapons are coincidentally also unlocked by rare metals in stages, but the metals themselves do not give immediate access to Zero's weapons. The weapons must be purchased at the R&D Lab in between stages. Now isn't it interesting that the rare metal found for this particular weapon is in no stage other than Inferno where the weapon is needed? So the only way to get everything in the Inferno stage is to get the rare metal for Zero's weapon, exit the stage and buy the weapon, then go back and use the weapon to uncover the other rare metal for which the weapon was needed. Just another example of poor placing and poor planning that caused another annoying visit. I do not wish to convey that I hate revisiting stages altogether. When there's a strategy of doing things one way or another and having to revisit one stage or another, that's fine, but the types of instances that I have mentioned above are simply annoying.
Aside from what some may call the trifles that I have mentioned, there is still one thing that kills X8 more than anything else. I honestly wouldn't care as much about Axl, the armor, or the item acquisition system if this huge problem were not an issue. This huge problem is that not enough of X8's stages are fun enough to garner perpetual appeal. It just feels as if not enough of them simply allow free play. The good stages though are some of the best in the series. Noah's Park (intro stage), Primrose (Gravity Antonion's stage), and Booster Forest (Bamboo Pandamonium's stage) are the high points of the game. These three stages are long enough and provide enough fluid entertainment to please fans. Noteworthy is Booster Forest for offering the best experience with mech armors the series has had since X4. In X6 there was a total of about ten seconds the game allowed in a mech armor at the beginning of the Recycle Lab stage, so it was great to see nearly all of a stage use one in X8. All of the other stages apart from these three have problems that cause them to be not as fun in one way or another, usually by being too restrictive or too short. For example, most of Inferno (Burn Rooster's stage) consists of trying to beat vertical automatic screen scrolling. Falling behind the pace obviously results in death. The screen scrolling itself is not a negative element, but in this case there was not enough moderation with free roaming. Metal Valley (Earthrock Trilobyte's stage) is also somewhat restrictive. As soon as the stage starts a huge robot immediately begins pursuit forcing a forever right direction upon start. After a certain point the process reverses, forcing a forever left shift in which players will be following the robot back EXACTLY to the beginning of the stage where it first appeared. Afterward the left direction continues inside a building, the huge robot appears again, and the boss comes right after defeating the huge robot. Where is the freedom in that setup? The stage is also WAY too short!! I really liked its background and would have liked to see it be more immersive, but it was too short and restrictive to accomplish that. A memo: stages that do nothing but chase the players the whole time or do not allow exploration and free roaming are NOT FUN.
X8 also includes two vehicle stages, but they are vehicle stages gone horribly wrong. Do not expect a Wave Man or Jet Stingray type of stage in X8. One of these two stages, Dynasty (Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage), unless gone through very quickly, is quite possibly worse than the worst of the X6 stages. How a game can have some of the best X stages ever and some of the worst is baffling. Dynasty is just purely and simply trash. I don't know what they were smoking when they threw it on the board, but whatever it was it must have been really interesting stuff if it made them think that it was a good idea. Geez where do I even begin to start in saying what a pile of garbage this stage is? It simply should not exist, period. To readers who have not played the stage, find screenshots or play it to experience lameness that can not be put into words. The other vehicle stage, Central White (Avalanche Yeti's stage), is not as bad. It's mildly fun while it lasts, but it does not leave a lasting impression. It seems to fit more as a bonus stage, and even its boss, Avalanche Yeti, doesn't seem worthy of being one of the eight mavericks. In fact, he looks a lot like the yeti enemies from the first part of Frost Walrus's Snow Base stage back in X4. If there were going to be a vehicle stage, it should have been a 2D one like Jet Stingray's or Wave Man's. Central White should not have been anything more than an intermission stage, and speaking of the bonus intermission stages in X8, why, WHY was it that the number of DEATHS determined when they would appear?? Wouldn't it make more sense to unlock them by doing something good? Maybe kill a certain number of reploids? Maybe use a weapon or capsule part to find a secret path? Wouldn't that give players more of a sense of accomplishment? Guess they thought that only players who suck and die often are worthy of bonus rounds.
The last two stages that don't fall into the vehicle or scrolling category are Pitch Black (Dark Mantis's) and Troia Base (Optic Sunflower's). Pitch Black was an ideal Central Computer Stage killer (Magna Centipede's stage from X2). In Magna Centipede's stage, setting off the alarms had relatively little consequence after the heart tank was found, but Pitch Black actually necessitates avoiding them. Running into an alarm will make walls rise causing entrapment in a small, confined space in which hordes of robots attack mercilessly without end. Exiting from these confinements is not possible until the right enemy is destroyed. I really liked that Pitch Black necessitated careful play in that section with the alarms. The problem with Pitch Black is that it was way too short. After the section with the alarms, it's basically over. Just a couple of drops and that's pretty much all. There is no motive to play the rest of it carefully. Even more bothersome is that the only way to obtain everything in the stage is by turning on the lights right in the middle of the part with the alarms. Doing so not only removes the alarms but also takes away the identity of the stage at its height! I would not mind this if it happened near the end of the stage, but it happens WAY too early! Why couldn't the stage have been longer with this trick closer to the end?? Shameful these shortcomings are, but the problems that plague Troia Base (Optic Sunflower's stage) are right there as well. Certain parts of Troia Base have quite possibly the most beautiful background on which I have ever gazed in a 2D game. Unfortunately, due to the poor planning of how the stage plays, it was wasted. If any stage in the game extremely lacks fluid gameplay, it is Troia Base. The stage starts in a cyberspace-like area and begins a mundane pattern of walking through a brief cyberspace area, entering a chamber, being transported to a different setting in which often only one or two enemies must be destroyed as quickly as possible, reemerging in the chamber after the enemies are destroyed, exiting the chamber and entering another cyberspace room, and repeating the whole pattern again various times until the stage ends. I found this just maddening. Many of the places where the transporters lead would be better off in other stages. Half of them look as though they belong on the elevator level, and the last one on top of a train would have been absolutely perfect in Metal Valley. How do the makers not see these things? It also does not help that the cyberspace-like parts have NOTHING TO SHOOT and can be gone through in literally seconds. The stage just offered NO FLUID GAMEPLAY. How they wasted such a beautiful-looking stage with such poor planning is beyond me.
The last anyone likely heard about Mega Man X9 is that Keiji Inafune refuses to make one since X8 did not generate enough sales. If indeed X8 is the last game for the foreseeable future, at least the series went out better than it would have if X6 or X7 had been the last. X8 was painfully close to being the best game of the series, and if some of the problems I have mentioned in the game were fixed, I feel X8 would definitely be the best of the series. Mega Man X9? I want to see Mega Man X8 fixed more at this point, but hopefully if X9 ever is made, Keiji Inafune will be personally involved.
Description of Mega Man X8
The evil Sigma had started a war of fury on Earth in an attempt to annihilate the human race. Mega Man X8 begins after the fall out of this battle, which left the planet in shambles, and forced humans to look for a new home. In an effort to rebuild, a new generation of robot Reploids was built by the earths people in order to ready the moon for colonization. This new group possessed advanced capabilities, including the ability to copy other Reploids. Unfortunately, Sigma had corrupted tAll Games
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