by MattB - January 13, 2005

Mega Man X8 is a back to basics game retaining the classic plat former feel that we�ve all come to love and get frustrated at. The new generation of reploids are all the rage in the year 21XX. Although the attacks from sigma has left the planet Earth rather inhospitable to live in for the human race, they continue to live there lives, and to expand to space with the help of these new generation reploids. An outbreak has caused from the new generation reploids, and it seems Sigma has found a way to control them� possibly through there new Copy Chips that allow them to copy other robots DNA? Mega man X, Zero, and their new ally Axl are about to find out!

Coming into Mega Man X 8 I thought it was going to be utter crap like it�s predecessor (Mega Man X7) was. Luckily, Capcom came back to their senses and brought the series back where it belongs in the 2-d kingdom of game playing.

Ahh here we go back to basics.

Gameplay has always been the hook in the Mega Man series and this is no exception. The controls are very responsive and really easy to get into. Mega Man games are known for their difficulty, but this one is actually quite a bit easier to get the hang of with a really easy learning curve and heck an easy mode! But as difficulties go on I don�t think you�ll see a massive difference except for one particular stage which is brutal to even the most hardened players. Overall the back to basics 2-d platforming approach went quite well for the game. The new tag-team system that they introduced in X7 was nicely refined and it worked incredibly smooth for the game where you can just switch back and forth between two characters (although having two life bars kind of simplified things and made the game easier). Also, finding secrets in the game has become quite easier because now you have navigators to help point you out in the right direction such as boss weaknesses or secret locations to enter while your in the stage. Oh and just to let you know the story will confuse you quite a bit if your not a hardcore fan of the series but then again it doesn't make sense to the hardcore fans so just be quiet and play.

Blocky graphics that nobody cares about.

Capcom really decided to slack off in the graphical department. The in game graphics look somewhat lame and blocky but overall there was never any slow down. There was nothing that ever stood out but at least the environments look like they should such as the ice age. The character models are the biggest disappointment because they just didn�t look like how they should have from the previous games, but at least not as bad as Mega Man X7.

The cinematics aren�t a prize either. I found them really disappointing as they just weren�t all that great. I mean they were smooth and such but it just didn�t appeal to me.

Well... it wasn't classical.

Once again nothing special just some nice rock tunes here and there but I did like the weapon acquirement music though. The voices were well acted and nothing too corny (although one of the male bosses sounded A LOT like a girl). Nothing extraordinary but I didn�t have the urge to turn off the music either.

If by fun you mean blowing countless enemies to bits then absolutely!

Very fun in general. The challenge that the whole Mega Man series really does appeal to gamers and it�s a blast going through stages wiping out enemies finding secrets and getting to use boss weapons to quickly obliterate bosses. I had only one problem and that was with the spiky areas of the game in particular there was one �mini-boss� area on hard mode which is almost impossible to conquer and that would be a spike puzzle. Go figure, but it turned me off when I was in hard mode just because it seemed so impossible to beat. But you�ll still have a blast going through normal mode which should provide an average gamer with enough challenge to have a good time. The life span was rather dim though but whenever your in that Mega Busting mood this will defiantly be a title that will come to your mind.

Armor that lets me shoot a gigantic laser beam? You know it.

I love all the extra�s in this game. From collecting all the armor parts for Mega Man X or grabbing Zeros new weapons ranging from his fists to a lance that swipes about 1 half of the screen. All the extra power ups were also fun little things to find as some of them were quite tricky but rewarding when found. I also am just a fan of all the bosses they�re just interesting to learn their attack pattern learning how to avoid them and taking them on (it�s even better when you have to take them on multiple times because they�re so tough.) Overall I love all the goodies this game has to offer and there is even 3 mirror copies of your original three characters as secret characters so you can have 2 zero attack styles or 2 X attack styles (heh heh Mega busting anyone?)

Time to stop the busting for awhile.

Overall I had a much better experience playing Mega Man X8 then the last game because it went back to the basics that everyone loves in a Mega Man game. This is a solid title but it�s also a number one rental choice because the life span is rather short no matter how you look at it, regardless this will defiantly be a good pick up and go title for any gamer hardcore to casual.