Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 Game Review

Reviewed by Max C. on Aug 26, 2018

Rating:

The classic Mega Man X series comes to current generation consoles! Check out Kidzworlds review of the Mega Man X Legacy Collection.

By: Max Cannon

The Mega Man X Legacy Collection is a pack of the entire Mega Man X series split into two different parts. The original games go from the Super Nintendo and across the original PlayStation but now they're available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4 (which is what we reviewed it on.) Check out our review of some of the best Mega Man X games of all time in the first of these collections.

The classic look of the SNES games still holds up today.Courtesy of Destructoid

The Best of the Blue Bomber

Of all the Mega Man X games, the standouts of the series come from the first half of games. Mega Man X, X 2, X 3, and X 4 are all quality titles with catchy tunes, tight platforming, and a hearty challenge. While the prime Mega Man series has a simple story to motivate players to take down the game's Robot Masters, the Mega Man X games add in new characters to beef up the plot. The X games are certainly no Uncharted but considering the SNES/PS1 era these games initially came from it's quite the advancement from the NES originals. Beyond the story, the fact that these games are still fun nearly 15 years later is a testament to the timeless gameplay.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 Announce Trailer | PS4

The gameplay is certainly based on those simpler Mega Man games. 8 bosses are at the end of unique levels and offer up a special power to Mega Man when defeated but each of those bosses also has their own weakness to a specific attack. So the first boss you take down will have to be defeated with the iconic and chargeable X Buster but from there you could map out your plan of attack. For example, taking out Chill Penguin first (one of the first game's easier bosses) will give you the Shotgun Ice which can easily take down Spark Mandrill who will give you Electric Spark that can take down Armored Armadillo and so on. On top of using special powers to defeat bosses in the first X game, finishing certain stages will impact other stages down the road. So taking down Storm Eagle will cool off the lava in Flame Mammoth's stage and make completing the stage a breeze by comparison.

The Collection's filters let you tailor the game to your favorite visual style.Courtesy of Capcom

The Extras

If you're a long time fan of Mega Man X or jumping into the series now, you'll find some interesting stuff in the extras section. Plenty of art showing off the designs of the game's various enemies and heroes is awesome but the inclusion of the game's tough challenge mode is a highlight. This new mode combines boss fights from across the series for some tough battles only the best of players can hope to hang on here. The extras are a little underwhelming at times but that new mode is a welcomed new way to play. There is a bit of another issue that plagues this collection, there's some noticeable slowdown throughout many of these games, nowhere near as bad or consistent as the originals but still obnoxious considering the power of our modern consoles.

The collection is filled with art to comb through.Courtesy of Capcom

Final Thoughts

The original SNES Mega Man X games -- and PlayStation 1's Mega Man X 4 -- are some top-tier action platformers. You'll have a tough time finding such awesome games from back then that still hold up today and Mega Man X is some of the best we had to offer from the 16-bit era. I'd like the emulation to offer up a bit better performance and a few more extras, but any excuse to replay these stellar games is a welcome one.