New Games on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg en-us Mega Man X8 (Rockman X8 in Japan) is the eighth and most recent game in the Mega Man X video game series, released in PlayStation 2 and PC. After fan complaints over Mega Man X7's foray into 3-D, Capcom went back to 2-D linear progression through stages, although there are two 3-D rail-shooter stages in the game. Also, an unlockable demo of X8 was featured in the PlayStation 2 version of Mega Man X Command Mission.

It is the year 21XX. X, Axl, and Zero are sent on a mission near the Jakob Tower to investigate a unique crab-like Mechaniloid. They manage to defeat it, but are then interrupted by a hail of missiles from Vile, who has apparently been resurrected from his earlier defeat in Mega Man X3. Vile has kidnapped the Jakob Tower project leader, Lumine, for unknown reasons and it becomes the Maverick Hunters' mission to rescue him.

However, what the Hunters do not know is that Sigma has returned once again, this time with his most ambitious plot yet. In Mega Man X7, it was revealed that Axl is the first of his kind, a prototype next-generation Reploid that has the ability to copy other reploids' DNA via a copy chip. In addition, they have subroutines built in to prevent them from going Maverick.

]]> 03 Mar 2007 12:21:07 Mega Man X7 is the seventh main game in the Mega Man X series, and the first to have 3D gameplay.

The Red Alert Syndicate is a new group of Reploids, similar to the Repliforce, only consisting more of vigilantes. They claim to hunt Mavericks, like the Maverick Hunters, but apparently they do far more than that. One of their members, Axl, decides he's had enough of their "murdering" and so he tries to leave the group. Unfortunately, the group's leader, Red, doesn't take very kindly to this and goes on a mad tear to get Axl back.

When Axl finds his way to the Maverick Hunter base after stumbling across Zero, Red decides this means war and issues a challenge to the Hunters--he will release some Mavericks that Red Alert has in captivity, and whichever group can defeat the Mavericks first will win Axl.

]]> 03 Mar 2007 12:05:49 Mega Man X6 is the sixth main game in the Mega Man X series by Capcom, and is the first to not be directed by series creator Keiji Inafune. It was released in 2001 for the PlayStation. The game was released for the PC in 2003 as well, but only in Asia. The game was re-released on January 10th, 2006 as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

The story begins three weeks after the Eurasia Incident - with Zero missing, presumed dead, and the Earth's surface rendered uninhabitable - when a Reploid researcher named Gate, curious about the state of the world, stumbles across the Eurasia colony crash site, where finds what he thinks is a piece of debris and takes it back to his lab to analyze it. A week later, Gate is revealed to have gained tremendous power, and as a result becomes Maverick and begins plotting against the Maverick Hunters.

The gameplay is very similar to Mega Man X5. The player can select X with the option to outfit him with different armors offering unique abilities (most of which have to be downloaded, as always, through Dr. Light's hidden capsules.) Zero can be unlocked after finding and defeating the Zero Nightmare, bringing his own weapons and techniques to the fold, including a refined Z-Saber fighting style. Both characters can be equipped with various items earned after rescuing Reploids throughout every level, boosting their abilities further.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 11:49:31 Mega Man X5 is the fifth main game in the Mega Man X series by Capcom. It was released in 2000 for the PlayStation, three years after Mega Man X4, and in 2002 for PC. This was re-released on January 10, 2006 as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

An indeterminate amount of time after the events of Mega Man X4, a new plot to destroy the Maverick Hunters is hatched by Sigma, who has been revived again (as in X4, it is unknown who revived him or how). Sigma, after conducting research on the origin and design of Zero, decides to discover how to unlock Zero's true power, hopefully destroying X in the process. Sigma attacks the Maverick Hunters directly, intending to lose. When he does, he spreads a Maverick virus across the Earth, throwing it into chaos. Meanwhile, a Reploid mercenary named Dynamo is hired by Sigma to make the Space Colony Eurasia collide with Earth. The Hunters have only 16 hours to avoid collision.

X5 was developed by a different team than X4, and this is very evident in the style of gameplay. The most prominent difference in this iteration is the time limit of 16 hours, until the space station Eurasia crashes into Earth. If the crash is not prevented, this does not end the game - it merely changes the course of the story. Every time the player enters a stage, one hour is expended. Due to the nature of the storyline, there are multiple endings to the game. Which ending is seen depends on such factors as whether or not the crash of Eurasia is prevented, and whether X or Zero is used to defeat the last boss.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 11:24:21 Mega Man X4 is the fourth game in the Mega Man X series. This game was originally released on July 31st, 1997 for the Sega Saturn in North America. Both the Sega Saturn and PlayStation versions were soon released simultaneously on August 1st, 1997 in Japan. The PC version was released in January 1st, 1998, and runs in operating systems after and including Windows 95. It was part of the Mega Man X Collection for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Following the third defeat of Sigma, Cain Labs issues an initiative to create a supplementary military force to complement the Maverick Hunters. The army, called the Repliforce, is a strict military regime led by General and his second-in-command, Colonel.

Six months following the inception of the group, Cain Labs finds its methods to be ineffective, questionable, and potentially dangerous in the Maverick defense. To make matters worse, behind the scenes, General has been meeting with a mysterious figure who plots the Hunters' demise, insinuating that they are a "significant threat" to the Repliforce's jurisdiction.

Mayhem breaks out when the Sky Lagoon, a massive floating city, is sent crashing down onto the city below it, killing millions of civilians, humans and Reploids alike. The game begins here where either X or Zero is dispatched to investigate possible causes of the disaster only to become entangled, once again, in a struggle against Sigma to save the world.

At the beginning of the game, the player chooses to play either as X or Zero. Though both of them go through the same stages, they operate differently, and get different challenges from the terrain. They must avoid obstacles like falling debris and spikes, and destroy enemy robots to reach the end of the stages.

X wields a plasma cannon on his arm (X-Buster) that he uses to attack from a distance. It can be charged to fire stronger shots. He can dash to go beneath enemy shots, or also to jump twice as far as he usually can, letting him get to hard-to-reach places. When he defeats one of the eight bosses, he will gain a new weapon for his Buster, which fires an attack similar to one of the boss'. They have limited ammo, however, which is shown by an energy bar next to his health bar. In some stages, X will find capsules that contain upgrades that greatly enhance his capabilities.

Zero is more melee-oriented, and must get up close and personal with his foes. Though he is more prone to being damaged than X, his Z-Saber's power and accuracy compensate. Not all of his moves are weapon-based, so he learns different skills from the bosses, such as ones that increase his movement skills (such as double-jumping and air-dashing). From other bosses, he gains battle techniques, performed with combinations of a button and a direction on the control pad.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 10:58:31 X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse is a 1994 Super Nintendo fighting game by Capcom in which the X-Men must rescue mutants from captivity in the Genosha island complex. Each X-Man has a specific mission he or she must accomplish. Professor X issues an order which the X-Men must complete to finish their missions, but the levels may be played in any order. After that, Apocalypse (and later, Magneto) appears with the intention of destroying Genosha. In this case, the missions are shared by all characters (not specific) and the player can choose which X-Man suits better for the current mission.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 04:46:34 Mega Man X3 was released in 1995 by Capcom. It was the third game in the Mega Man X sub-franchise and the last to appear on the Super Nintendo. An enhanced version was also released on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and PC in Japan and Europe in 1996, and the PC version arrived in North America in 1998; the enhanced version included remixed music and anime-style cutscenes. It is currently available in the anthology collection Mega Man X Collection, which includes the first six Mega Man X games and Mega Man Battle & Chase. The PlayStation version of X3, not the SNES version, appears in the X collection. Mega Man X Collection was released for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 on January 10th, 2006.

Like its predecessor, Mega Man X2, Capcom included the C4 chip to allow for some limited 3D graphics and transparency effects. Mega Man X3 was the first game in which Zero is a playable character in addition to X.

Mega Man X3 is an action game where the player is given a selection screen of stages to begin. When selected, the player uses Mega Man X to blast various enemies throughout the level and reach the boss character, where defeating it wins the stage and earns a new weapon for the player to utilize.

The story of Mega Man X3 revolves around a Reploid scientist named Dr. Doppler. In the year 21XX, the threat of the Mavericks had been neutralized thanks to Doppler's technology, which prevented the Mavericks from going berserk. The reformed Reploids had formed an utopia near their new mentor called Doppler Town. It seemed that all was well, until the former Maverick Reploids suddenly reverted and once again began causing trouble. Dr. Doppler was held accountable, and X and Zero were sent out to contain the new threat. They were soon after called back to Maverick HQ, which was under attack by Doppler's forces.

However, the two did not realize that while Doppler was indeed behind the new Maverick threat, someone else was pulling his strings. As if that wasn't bad enough, one of X and Zero's old enemies is back from the dead, ready to take them down.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 02:48:09 Mega Man X2 was released in 1994 by Capcom and is the second game in the Mega Man X sub-franchise. It used the same graphics engine from the first installment of the series, but Capcom included an in-cartridge enhancement known as the C4 chip to improve semitransparencies and allow for some 3D graphics in the game. Mega Man X3 was the only other game to ever use this chip. Like the first game, it's praised for having an excellent soundtrack.

Mega Man X2 is an action game, where the player is given a selection screen of stages to begin, When selected, the player uses Mega Man X to blast various enemies throughout the level and reach the boss character, where defeating it wins the stage and earns a new weapon to utilize for the player.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 02:30:06 Mega Man X, released in 1993 by Capcom, is the first game in the Mega Man X series. The first subseries of the popular Mega Man series, it was made primarily as a stepping stone between the NES and SNES incarnations of the original series. In Japan, it is titled Rock Man X. It was released on the SNES first, then ported to the PC in 1995. The game was remade in 2006 as Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (Irregular Hunter X in Japan), for the PlayStation Portable.

The Mega Man series has always been an action game that focuses on "run-and-gun" gameplay. The player takes control of Mega Man X ("X" for short), a Maverick Hunter who seeks to stop Sigma's rebellion against humans. After an introductory stage, the player is presented with a stage selection screen that depicts eight Maverick boss characters.

After the player selects a Maverick to battle, X is teleported into the Maverick's base of operations. The player must dodge obstacles, destroy enemies and other hazards, and keep their life bar as high as possible. Defeating a stage and its boss Maverick rewards X with the boss's weapon, which can be used in a rock-paper-scissors fashion to defeat other boss characters. This mechanic is carried over from the Mega Man Classic series; Capcom maintained the tradition throughout the new series, with a few twists. In the X series, completing a stage may affect the environment of other stages, possibly making them easier or more hazardous.

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