"Comprehensive Mega Man Maverick Hunter X Review"

I love Mega Man, and I'm not afraid to admit that. From his first outing on the Super Nintendo (excluding Mega Man 7), to his most recent remake of his debut on the SNES, I've played a significant amount of his titles. The first time Mega Man appeared was on the Nintendo (6 game in total), where he was portrayed as a little, cutesy robot that thwarted the plans of countless evil robots. Then, along came the beloved, and considered to be the best 2D system ever created, Super Nintendo, which spawned off a new series for Mega Man called: Mega Man X. In the game, you played as X, or Mega Man X, whichever makes you happy. With this new series brought incredible level design, character models, a somewhat decent plot, and fine-tuned controls, making it become an instant classic to both Mega Man fans, and casual gamers; a true symbol of 2D gaming. 13 years later, Capcom decides to remake this classic with all new graphics, rearranged capsule placements, a new unlockable player, and a 24-minute anime movie all for the PSP, inevitably making Mega Man Maverick Hunter X bring new light on an old classic.

You take control of X, a Reploid (or ‘Good' Robot) who defends the Planet from other robots who go maverick, thus becoming ‘Mavericks.' Sigma, a used-to-be Reploid, was once the leader of a group of Reploids, but decided he wanted to rule the world. Mysteriously, all the other Reploids, besides X or Zero (X's sword-wielding buddy), went Maverick as well. This becomes the worst part of the game; you fight eight Mavericks, but you don't know why they changed their ways. It's a shame that none of them are described much because they all have such great and varying personalities. For hardcore fans though, the 24-minute anime movie is a prologue of the events leading up to Sigma's desire for power. While the movie is well acted and animated, it leaves you asking more questions, instead of acquiring more answers; a huge disappointment to almost anyone. And where the hell is the action?!

What gamers must understand about Mega Man X is that its primary focus is on intense and addicting gameplay, and this remake doesn't mess around with the formula that made the original such a classic. X still only has his basic ‘Buster' arm, which shoots off blasts of energy that can also be charged to do more damage to enemies. Capcom also didn't take out the mechanic that made the original Mega Man so much fun: the ability to use bosses attributes. When you beat a boss, you will acquire a new attack from him that is unique to the boss; these new abilities increase your arsenal of weapons, and are also weaknesses to other bosses. So technically, there is an order to which bosses you can be fought that makes the game easier due to this weakness system, but you don't need their weakness to beat them. But without their weakness, boss fights become much more challenging, and require you to be evasive and focused; they will cue you in different ways so you can predict what action they're going to perform. These fights are always fun, occasionally frustrating, but never dull.

What has been changed is where you obtain ‘Dr. Light' capsules and Sub Tanks. The capsules contain new armor, which are each designed to make the game less hard on you, but I won't say it makes it easy. Sub Tanks are items you can fill up with health, so when you have full health and pick up health capsule, it will be stored in the Sub Tank. Also, some of the later levels are changed around a bit, but nothing that will irritate hardcore Mega Man fans. While these three things have changed slightly, the ‘Hearts' (or max health-ups) are all in the same exact locations. These changes will never be realized by newcomers to the series, and MMX fans shouldn't be worried because it adds some variety to a rather rote experience.

Upon first starting a new file, you'll instantly realize that the series has been seriously revamped with awesome 3D graphics, which show off everything the original did, but even more so. Every enemy is fully rendered in 3D with super-slick animations that make these once generic baddies come to life. The bosses look especially awesome, and give them personality that the original barely touched upon, and their animations fit their animal-based look perfectly. And even the environments are completely revamped with awesome textures, and ranging from average to top-notch sceneries and backdrops (the Forest level looks especially amazing).

Much like the graphical upgrade, all of the music for each level has been remixed, not completely new themes, and thankfully so. Some of the most memorable video game music was from Mega Man X, and the remixes of the original classics sound better than the originals. Instead of some slight overlapping of multiple 16 bit melodies, Maverick Hunter has multiple layers of vivid techno beats with awesome effects to rejuvenate them; none of them sound bad nor do they stray far from the original basic melodies. When using headphones, you will realize the addition of surround sound; this helps during some boss fights where he occasionally goes off-screen, but you'll hear where he's coming from. All the sound effects sound dead-on, but if you want me to be picky, the explosions don't have enough oomph to them. Lastly, the voice acting is surprisingly good coming from both a Capcom game and a Mega Man game. Most noticeably are the little things such as the different levels of enthusiasm X puts into the different levels of charge his buster is suppressing. It's obvious that a lot of care went into this remake when everything adds to the experience and never detracts.

It's a shame when you play such a fun and intense game, only to realize it only takes a few short hours to beat it. I'm sure every Mega Man fan knows what I'm talking about: this game is short, only taking a mere 3 hours to beat. This will most likely turn off a lot of gamers expecting a meaty and lengthy game. What you are failing to realize is that there are 2 difficulty modes (which also gives bosses an extra attack), and upon beating the game once, you can play as Mega Man's rival, Vile. Trust me, you'll want to play as Vile. His play style is completely different from X's, due to his large arsenal of weapons. He always has three types of weapons handy, being a basic machine gun, arm canon, and ground explosive. When you beat a level with him, his total amount of ‘points' will increase, and more weapons will be unlocked. Every weapon takes up a certain amount of points: the better the weapon, the more points it'll cost you. This system is incredibly intuitive, and makes you approach every scenario differently than you would with X. Why? You can't dash with Vile, making Vile less maneuverable than X. If you haven't realized, playing as Vile is tough, yet immensely engrossing.

Recently, the Mega Man franchise has been doing (except for the Zero series on the GBA) poorly, mainly due to one thing: the reluctance to stay true to the originals. Also, this is a remake, so for almost every Mega Man fan, this isn't a brand new game. It's just an extensively spruced up remake of a classic. After playing this game thoroughly, it begs the question as to why they remade the original Mega Man X instead of making an entirely new game that also stayed true to the original. Honestly though, it's hard to complain about a game that can be played three times and still not lose any value. As far as remakes go, Mega Man Maverick Hunter X stays true to the original, and even improves upon it in most areas.

Fun-Factor- 9.0:
While this is mostly familiar territory, there are enough additions to replay this remake of an old classic. Playing as Vile increases your playtime by hours.

Presentation- 9.2:
Awesome 3D character models and levels make it seem like a brand new game, even though it isn't. Fans will be extremely pleased with the remixed themes; they rock!

Addictiveness- 8.8:
With a new difficulty level, a new playable character, and with a 24-minute (yet rather disappointing) anime prologue, Maverick Hunter X won't get old too soon.

Overall- 9.0:
If you were to ask any Mega Man fan which game is the best in the series, most will say Mega Man X; I honestly think that will change to Mega Man Maverick Hunter X very soon.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/06