Choosing from a list of special powers allows the player to tweak their battle strategy in various ways, and the boss pairs create some chances for some spectacular fights as players battle for the tiniest bit of room to dash through the pairs of attacks. This mode, alone, is arguably worth the price of entry. Players are also limited to equipping only three boss powers to bring with them across three of these match-ups, having to typically rely on the Mega Buster rather than cheese boss weaknesses. These boss pairs have been carefully chosen to work in tandem, using their abilities together to create some devious difficulty, but they’ve also been placed in arenas where their powers can really make life difficult. This will pit players in two-on-one boss battles with pairs of foes from the series, tasking them with doing things like beating Frost Walrus and Chill Penguin at the same time. More interestingly is the X Challenge Mode. Basically, achievements, these push players to try out different modes, play at higher difficulties, or try trickier battle tactics, encouraging experimentation and new ways to play. This will allow new players the opportunity to practice and gain experience with the games without the constant saving/loading that the previous collection was bad for, and also softens things up for those of us who feel we have little to prove any more.įor those who do want more of a challenge, the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 offers up some Hunter Medals for players to earn. This can be toggled on and off at will and will make the player take far less damage on top of making pits and spikes non-lethal in some of the games. Instead of offering the ability to save anywhere like in the Mega Man Legacy Collection, this collection offers a Rookie Hunter Mode. While paying careful attention to the series’ history, the collection isn’t a slave to its difficulty. It’s a lovely touch that lets players try out the game in a ‘new’ way, and shows how far its developers went to capture a ton of Mega Man X history with the game. Players can choose to go through the Japanese versions of all of the titles, as well as localizations in other languages for some of the later games, letting them experience the game as it was designed for other audiences. The soundtrack is just as crisp as the visuals, giving the ears a treat as well as the eyes (although some of the delightfully cringe-y dialogue is just as muffled as it used to be).Ĭhoosing a visual filter is far from the only option available.
Players can also choose to opt into CRT-like filters to give the games that old tv feel or use the new, cleaner visuals that look oh-so-nice.
The games all look razor-sharp on the Switch’s portable screen, playing with no input lag as players whip through stage after stage of oddball bosses and well-hidden power-ups. This is through no fault of the presentation.
Which begs the question, “where is MMX: Command Mission”? Sure, it was not a standard platformer like all the rest, but it was still a part of the X series and one that I enjoyed given my predisposition towards JRPGs.Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 Review Gameplay Image provided by Capcom
Still, for completionist sake, it is nice to have them in the collection since they were not available on the MMX collection on the PS2. The changes to the visual design of these two entries have not aged well, and the various gameplay tweaks felt ill-advised as they felt like a chore to play. This collection gave me the opportunity to play through MMX once more, which I always welcome, but it also gave me the chance to play some of the lesser known entries like MMX7 and MMX8, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that I skipped them for good reason. There were some minor tweaks like the names of certain mavericks being changed amongst others but all in all, it’s a faithful collection of ports. Even though there are visual filters as well as the ability to save the game instead of having to plug in a 3×3 code(good ol’ SNES days), the games are presented exactly the same way as when they were first released on their respective consoles. There are various tweaks to the loop but that’s the general gist.Īs for the collection, the most important thing to establish first and foremost is that these games were not remastered at all. After defeating a boss, the player is granted a new weapon which can be used to defeat another boss which greater efficiency.
MSRP: $39.99įor those that don’t know what Megaman X games are, they’re platformers where the player tackles individual stages which end in a boss fight. The first collection includes MMX-4, while the second includes MMX5-8.