The Gaming Mole

MegaMan Maverick Hunter X

This was one of the many "You must have this game on your PSP" titles.  At least I think it was.  I mean it's no Crisis Core FF7 but this was very much anticipated among many people. A hope that Megaman X would get a revamp in it's game to keep it alive. At this point the X series was pretty much dead. X8 and X Command Mission came out not too long before this (or was it after). This was definitely on my list of games to play.  I mean it's MegaMan.  Why not?

Coming back it now at the end of 2019. I looked bits up on this game and well...it's not as well recieved as I thought.  The main complaints I heard was that this game was too easy and that it's the same game all over again but with a new coat of paint. Wasn't this what fans wanted though?  I mean this game does enough new to not say that this isn't just a simple port or HD Remake (Well remake).


Well Maverick Hunter X does some changes but the story is the more or less the same as the original Megaman X on SNES. Difference is that you have a more clarification as to what's going on in this game.  Before this, all I knew was that Sigma went Maverick and has 8 robot masters to take over an island and it's X's job to stop him.

Now it's Sigma wants X to realize his potential cause he's special. Although in some cases it doesn't look like it. X apparently thinks on a different level than every other Reploid around. Which this game does go out of it's way to show that X is different. But really it just X more of a character so that you're not running into the future Megaman X games saying things like, "Man X is just a hypocrite. Always complaining that he has to fight. But shoots dudes anyway."

This game also gives more character to the mavericks. With the voice work and just there attitude on the boss encounter. Which I'm thankful for cause there description isn't in the manual.  I wouldn't have thought that any of these guys were once good guys. And I'll take some dialogue over a Wiki article that I'm probably not gonna read thorougly.

Side Note: I have nothing against wiki pages. I just don't really read them. I'm there more for the images and any helpful info.  I also find it rather annoying when I see LPers read word from word from the Wiki about a certain section in a game.

Music, Sound Effects, etc

It's a Megaman game.  I almost never hate the music from a megaman game.  I can't think of a song where I would just say it's mediocre or outrigtht hate it.  I mean the music is always great.

The voice work is great too. Even if this was made in the age where any voice acting in English is automatically considered horrible unless it's voiced by one of the famous voice actors.  Well if Mark Gatha isn't famous enough then I don't know who is.

Aside from Mark Gatha the voice work is great all around.  Every voice on this game fits the character and gives the personality you'd expect from them.

Gameplay

While it's not perfect. It's definitely Mega Man X gameplay. Enjoyable I can't help but stress that a lot. There's a few changes to the stages as well. Such as the locations of X's armor upgrade capsules and Heart Tanks. And a few of the stages have changed a bit in design as well. Certain weapons that used to be completely broken in SNES have been tweaked so you can't abuse them.

The game does however experience lag/slowdown at points. But this is due to the PSP. Just like the SNES when there's too many enemies on screen or too many things happening all at once the game will slowdown.  Rather annoying to deal with.

I want to address the reviews I read where the complaint was the game being too easy or it's all the same thing. I question whether or not those guys played in Hard mode. Hard mode definitely adds some difficulty to this game. Aside from the usual adding more enemies that hit harder. The bosses actually function a bit differently than there SNES counterparts. Either having a new attack that will catch you off guard if you're rooted in playing like this is a SNES game. Or the original attacks act in a way to where you have to respond differently to them.  Storm Eagle's dive attacks now flies in different directions. Chill Penguin has an attack that ricochets off the wall making it hard to dodge or prepare to counter him.

Probably what makes people say this game is too easy besides the obvious "Oh I played it a ton on the SNES" statement.  Is that bosses react to there weakness in such a way that you can almost cheese them out due to there animations.  Hitting them with there weakness can pretty much guarantee that you'll win as you'll be able to stun lock them in a repeated animation.

There's also the Hadouken. Unlike the classic SNES version you can actually save that you collected this upgrade. So one hit kills for everyone.

Vile Mode is a treat. I was honestly expecting to have a play as Zero mode.  But this is better in my opinion.  Vile apparently has his story take place before X's story or the OVA. His gameplay is completely different from X having 3 weapons that you can customize. While they have no ammo there is a charge time and rate of fire you have to deal with.  Vile can run fast but he can't do dashes like X.  So you have to make your jumps precise and use your weapons to help Vile make the proper jumps. It's almost like an old school platformer.  It's definitely harder since you don't always have a boss's weakness packed with you. Vile's weapons also has a ton of recoil. So using certain weapons can certainly get you killed. The end of Vile mode is a fight against X and Zero and avoiding there attacks is a pain.  Even there final attack which looks to have homing properties.