Mega Man X5
by Capcom
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Platform: PlayStationPublisher: Capcom
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Video Game Reviews of Mega Man X5
Customer Review: DO NOT BUY THIS TERRIBLE GAME
Summary: 1 Stars
The first thing that comes to mind when a reviewer claims a game is terrible is probably "oh yeah mister smarty pants, you better be able to back up why you think Mega Man X5 is such a bad game". I will try my best. :)
First of all, the gameplay. Being a Mega Man fan since 1993, I grew up with the original Dr. Wily *and* the X series. I love both. People constantly pick which one they think is better, but in the end, I always found shooting robots incredibly fun and I still find it rewarding and addicting to play through a Mega Man game over and over searching for the very best way to blast through a stage and eliminate the enemies, along with finding the best way to defeat the boss at the end of the stage. Mega Man is mainly supposed to be a side-scroller shooter. THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING (sorry, big words make it easier to get my point across).
What does Mega Man X5 do? It mostly abandons the need to really use your X-blaster for anything important, except for the stage bosses. It makes me absolutely SICK TO MY STOMACH (sorry, the big words need to return) that Capcom chose to make at least half of the stages almost completely empty. I don't know the name of the stage, but the forest level has almost NOTHING TO SHOOT. You basically spend the entire time in this level just dash-jumping your way through, until you arrive to the end boss. Oh okay, there are a couple things to shoot. Lazily-designed and completely unmemorable bad guys are featured inside this forest stage (did I mention the backgrounds are bland-looking?) When you arrive to these enemies (I think one of them is some kind of robotic plant, but I may be wrong) you actually have to wait a few seconds for them to shoot something uncreative and boring at you (which incidentally does very little damage). Why am I WAITING for a slow-poke enemy to shoot something at me? And in a MEGA MAN game, where speed and avoiding attacks is supposed to be the key to completing the game? BORING! Anyone who tries defending the stage enemies in this game is going to have an extremely tough time.
I wish that forest stage was the only problem with Mega Man X5, but sadly it's just the beginning. I can't stand this game. I can't stand the fact that Capcom removed *every single thing* I love about the Mega Man series. It's like the company has something personal against me.
What to talk about next... okay, everybody hates the fact that the stage bosses are named after Guns 'N Roses band members. This doesn't really bother me (even though I passionately hate Guns 'N Roses and think they are nothing but a sorry Aerosmith imitator rock band with a whiny, overrated lead singer). I hate the fact that every stage boss can be defeated with *just* your X-buster. Remember how important it was in past games to find the right weapon to successfully destroy the end boss? Not now. Each stage boss has ugly and lazy animations, and they move across the screen so slowly that it's very easy to just continue shooting at them with the X-buster while avoiding their lazy, slow attacks. Believe it or not, all eight stage bosses can be defeated this way. So much for strategy. What a worthless game.
Whenever Capcom tries to make a Mega Man game tell a good story, the gameplay suffers as a result. This game is the biggest offender. The worst part is that they removed the cutscenes you were introduced to in Mega Man X4. Now you have to scroll through boring text as the characters have their boring conversations, building no suspense whatsoever during critical moments. Lengthy and frequent text-scrolling is what X5 is all about.
Oh, and let's not forget that Capcom just threw in a bunch of new friends to help guide Mega Man through the game. I highly doubt anyone cares about these characters because Capcom just PUT them in the game and expected us to care about them without any kind of interesting history or connections to other Mega Man games. Doesn't work that way. Even if they were returning characters from the Wily series it wouldn't have bothered me. The fact is, these new characters are a bunch of nobodys and even when you beat the game, they will remain nobodys.
Speaking of characters guiding you through the game, your female friend Alia INSULTS YOUR INTELLIGENCE numerous times throughout the game. While you dash and shoot your way through each of the eight unmemorable stages (that is, when you actually arrive to something worth shooting) she will CONSTANTLY appear on screen to bug you and tell you *exactly* what it is you have to do. This means more inconvenient text-scrolling. Sometimes she interferes with your progress so often that you just wish there was a way to shoot and kill her. It's incredibly annoying. After finding out how disappointing X5 turned out to be, the LAST thing you want to do is put up with someone like Alia basically calling you a moron.
Alia insults your intelligence by telling you to do VERY simple things that anyone with ANY past experience with a Mega Man game would be able to understand without needing any pointless instructions. She actually has the nerve to say things like "jump over that wall". I THINK we already knew that. Why? BECAUSE WE'VE HAD TO DO THE SAME THING *MANY TIMES* IN THE PREVIOUS FOUR X GAMES AND *MANY TIMES* IN THE WILY GAMES. WE'RE NOT DUMB!!!
The challenge in each stage ranges from very easy to incredibly difficult, which is quite surprising to me because the challenge in past X games was a lot more consistent. The already mentioned forest stage is worthlessly boring, but more specifically, a cakewalk. However, the flipside to that are really frustrating stages that require excellent, fast-moving timing in order to complete. So throughout the game you will go from incredibly simple stages where you don't even have to shoot at anything, to incredibly difficult stages where you are sure to die many times until you get it perfectly right. I LIKE FUN MEGA MAN GAMES. Not this inconsistent mess.
The game becomes almost excruciatingly difficult when you arrive to the very first stage in Sigma's castle. The stage is ripped off completely from the Flash Man stage in Mega Man 2. Remember jumping down and avoiding those laser beams? Same thing. In this game, trying to complete this task is MUCH harder.
At least three stage themes are pretty good. That's it. That's the only thing Mega Man X5 has going for it. Oh, and speaking of music, the theme in one stage is just an updated version of the water stage theme from Mega Man X2. I especially hate this stage because it's one of those stages where the screen pushes you to the right, and you have no control over it. You are forced to go with the flow while avoiding shots from a giant underwater robot. So much for fast-pace shooting/dashing action. I hate this underwater stage more than the previously mentioned forest stage. At least with the forest stage I can go "duh" and daydream my way through the empty thing. Stare at the ceiling while you play through the forest stage. I bet you can make it to the end boss!
Look, I love Capcom and think they're a wonderful company that does a fantastic job with action games, but they really screwed up with Mega Man X5. Please avoid. I can't be angry at a company that gave us so many good games, but when a game is rushed to the market and I believe no creativity or effort whatsoever was involved during the process of creating the game, it HAS to be mentioned. That's what I did just now. Told you why Mega Man X5 is so freakin' awful. A lazy and unremarkable experience. The game has no life.
Every company has their bad games, and this is clearly "the bad game" from Capcom. Just pick up Mega Man X4 to find out what a really good action game should be like. I can only imagine what X6 must be like.
Description of Mega Man X5
Mega Man's exploits have been taking place on a variety of different platforms for more than a decade, but recent attempts to bring old Mega Man into 3-D have largely been missteps. That's why we were chomping at the bit to play Mega Man X5, because it marks a long-overdue return to MM's 2-D roots.Unfortunately, the game plays more like a rushed overcorrection than a nostalgic, side-scrolling romp. For example, you can now choose between three playable characters: Zero, X, and Fourth. It's a good idea, but the problem is that the characters are so different that this option actually destroys the fluidity of the gaming experience. In the original Mega Man X titles, you couldn't progress until you found a weapon that could be used to destroy a particular boss. In X5, bosses can be put out of their misery with the Z-Saber and the X-Buster.
But the game's biggest problem is its difficulty. The first law of game design is that a game should provide gradual, continual challenge. X5 just keeps getting easier and easier due to the endless number of checkpoints and unlimited continues. The result is Mega Man with training wheels.
By Mega Man standards, this game is truly a disappointment. On the bright side, if you are new to the gaming scene and are looking for a simple game that will help you improve your skills, this game might be your cup of tea. For most gamers, though, X5 is way too easy! --Todd Mowatt
Pros:
- Mega Man returns to his 2-D platform roots
- This game is way too easy, with too many checkpoints and unlimited continues
- Text-driven cut scenes and massive slowdown problems bog this game down
Mega Man's exploits have been taking place on a variety of different platforms for more than a decade, but recent attempts to bring old Mega Man into 3-D have largely been missteps. That's why we were chomping at the bit to play Mega Man X5, because it marks a long-overdue return to MM's 2-D roots.
Unfortunately, the game plays more like a rushed overcorrection than a nostalgic, side-scrolling romp. For example, you can now choose between three playable characters: Zero, X, and Fourth. It's a good idea, but the problem is that the characters are so different that this option actually destroys the fluidity of the gaming experience. In the original Mega Man X titles, you couldn't progress until you found a weapon that could be used to destroy a particular boss. In X5, bosses can be put out of their misery with the Z-Saber and the X-Buster.
But the game's biggest problem is its difficulty. The first law of game design is that a game should provide gradual, continual challenge. X5 just keeps getting easier and easier due to the endless number of checkpoints and unlimited continues. The result is Mega Man with training wheels.
By Mega Man standards, this game is truly a disappointment. On the bright side, if you are new to the gaming scene and are looking for a simple game that will help you improve your skills, this game might be your cup of tea. For most gamers, though, X5 is way too easy! --Todd Mowatt
Pros:
- Mega Man returns to his 2-D platform roots
- This game is way too easy, with too many checkpoints and unlimited continues
- Text-driven cut scenes and massive slowdown problems bog this game down
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