Mega Man Maverick Hunter X Reviews

I have played the original Mega Man X games and its sequels quite a lot, yet I never get tired of them at all (at least, of most games). They remain ageless and will never tire me out. You could say that the games don't even need a remake, yet here we are with Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. Despite not needing a remake, Capcom did an excellent job at making this remake not one that replaces the original, but compliments it very well alongside new additions to make this a must-play for Mega Man fans, or fans planning to get into the franchise to begin with. The core Mega Man X gameplay still functions very well, and the stages have mostly been a one-on-one translation with the exception of the Sigma Stages. Power-ups may also appear in different places which left me paranoid at first, because the dash upgrade was not in Chill Penguin's stage but instead in Flame Mammoth's, in a place I'd normally not visit because I need another upgrade in the original to get there. Near the fourth stage I was getting afraid because all I could find was 1-ups and an occasional heart tank. But at the same time, I don't dislike this change because it encouraged me to check out stages all over again and possibly in a different order than I do normally. There's not much else to say about the main game because like I said, it's pretty much a direct copy from the original with minor changes. I can also proudly say that they kept a very secret power-up for X in the game, and I'm very happy with that. But aside from an already great main game, we get introduced to a playable Vile for the first (and only) time ever! It did catch me off-guard as I never really cared for Vile that much, but after playing through it I ended up very satisfied. Not only does the game give more exposure to who Vile is and what his goals are (though they can literally be summed up in one word: jealousy), but also to how fun it is to play as him. He's very different from that characters that we were able to play as previously, being armed with a total of 45 (!) weapons of which you can choose three at the start of each stage. Most weapons fall into one of nine weapon categories which are the same with small differences like power or reach, but the game encourages you to experiment with them to finetune Vile to your liking. It did take some getting used to, but once I got the ball rolling, it wouldn't stop and I just continued playing with him until I reached a satisfying ending. There were minor differences in the stages as well, and now I also know why the upgrades were switched around in stages when playing as X, because most of Vile's upgrades could be found in the remaining spots. Aside from Vile mode, there is a thirty-minute animated short serving as a prequel to the game (though I do sometimes question how canon it is), a lot of Quality of Life updates like voiced cutscenes and more. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X is an almost perfect homage to the original game, and one that should be played by all fans who fell in love with the original. It is not just simply a remake; it is a tribute to a legacy.

In 1983, Def Leppard released the classic rock song “Too Late for Love.” Despite how perfectly that song describes my current feelings towards the dismal fate that awaited the conclusion of the Mega Man X series, I know that singer Joe Elliott couldn't have been singing about Capcom's failings given the series first brick wouldn't be laid until a decade later. So, that said, when we get right down to it, is Maverick Hunter X a nice remake? Definitely, I couldn't imagine telling anyone anything otherwise. Still, nothing short of a case of amnesia can make me forget that Mega Man X5 was mediocre, X6 was cash-in garbage, X7's 3D wrote a check it’s tush couldn't cash and that X8 stuck out in bottom of the ninth in the storyline department. Indeed, it is too late for love and the curtain has definitely fallen.

However, such painful chapters aside, Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X is yet another in a long line of solid remakes for the PSP. I'm not as under whelmed as that last sentence makes me out to be but there really isn't that much to say. If you liked the original, you'll be right at home here. I love how even subtle changes (mainly the rearrangement of the capsules) changes the true and tired path I've relied on for years to get through the original, and it's nice to see that some of the bosses (like Storm Eagle and Armored Armadillo) have been made a bit more challenging. Unfortunately, that last part that doesn't always hold true. There are several occasions where the game is actually easier than the original when set on normal difficulty. Why would you make a boss like Spark Mandrill an even bigger pushover, allowing him to be frozen with every shot of the Shotgun Ice? Same goes for the last boss who’s been even given a new (and insanely pointless) attack, and don’t even get me started on how deadly the overdone knock-back from enemy attacks can be.

As small as such follies are everything eventually comes back to the storyline and the unlockable “The Day of Sigma” video. Given that the only back-story the original had to go on was passages from Dr. Cain's journal in the instruction manual, The Day of Sigma offers a treasure-trove of information on how the conflict between the mavericks and humans started. It's great to have some more narrative to chew on, but adding to the vast list of inconsistencies that plague the series canon at this point is unwise. On another, somewhat related note, why are some the in-game animations almost comical in nature? X's running animation, Launch Octopus' hit animation and Bospider's landing animations make me think twice about the X series being more serious in nature than original series.

If all the above wasn't enough, the biggest question Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X raises is why did Capcom feel a remake was necessary in the first place? I recently replayed Mega Man X on the SNES late last year and – to no surprise – it's held up extremely well over the years, much more than its two immediate successors. Unlike Lunar: Silver Star Harmony where another whirl helped change my opinion about the underlying product to a certain degree, this take does little to enhance or dilute my thoughts on the experience at its core. In other words, the time spent updating this classic could have been spent doing something much more productive. Then again, given the state of creativeness in the world of video games today maybe not.

Despite the contempt I hold for some things Mega Man, I know I can't hold Maverick Hunter X responsible for the sins of its successors, which are technically its forbearers in this case. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – this doesn't change the fact it really didn't need to be remade, nor do any of its sequels. The game is worth nabbing and adding to your collection if you can get a good deal on it, just be aware that it's still a shallow product despite being an enhanced version of a SNES classic.