The sad thing is, is that a lot of us thought at the time that this was going to be the moment where the series was able to turn around, bring people back, and build into future X games. Sadly it never came to be. So many people are still holding out hope for x9, I don't know if it ever happens. The more time they leave us without new mega Man content, the more new gamers and new generations become isolated from the original series, the less interested they become in even exploring a new title. A lot of Gen z and gen alpha that I talked to don't even know who mega Man is or the style of games that they were. This doesn't bode well for the future.
The X series going on at the same time as Zero and Battle Network didn’t help matters either and contributed to the over saturation. Then came ZX and Star Force.
I was incredibly disappointed when they left the series at X8 with an unresolved storyline. One of the biggest problems I have with the X series is that it's *meant* to have a strong lore compared to the classic series, but playing the games they give out tidbits of a continuous narrative. X8 felt like it was trying to have a stronger story and character focus than a lot of its predecessors, explaining Axl's origins and abilities from X7, introducing a potential love interest for Zero (Layer), and giving an ending to Sigma and the Sigma virus (something that has been alluded to in the MMXCM and MMZ timelines) while giving room for a new conflict and villain for future games.
I wonder if the financial failure of the PSP-exclusive Maverick Hunter X is the reason we never got another mainline Mega Man X game. It's likely a contributing factor, at least.
@@10191927 I agree that it's a great game, don't get me wrong. But the fact is, it sold very poorly. So much so that the planned Maverick Hunter X2 was cancelled.
Honestly out of touch decision by capcom, like you take a game that mainly release on home console and stake it's entire life on a handheld exclusive, it feel like an almost intentional sabotage.
Sadly, Sony didn't support the PSP OR Vita which caused them both to fail. Which sucks because I REALLY love the Maverick Hunter X remake of X1. And I thought it would be great to connect the stories better too.
Of all the Mega Man games X8 is the one I replayed most. They set the prices of content ridiculously high. To 100% the game and unlock everything, I literally played through over 12 times. Some days I played through 3 times in a sitting. Burn Rooster stage is annoying in that it doesn’t end when you kill him. The lava chase is tedious. The Man-O-War stage is annoying but once you understand the gimmick, it’s easy to win. I’ve gotten to the point where the spikes in Sigma’s fortress don’t phase me.
So fun trick for the metal grinding. In trilobite's stage if you stand in front of the barrels that block the Light Capsule the mechanoloid can't get you and you can just sit there and shoot with Axel, making the grind less tedious, but more boring. Still, you can almost set the controller to auto pilot with some rubber bands and go watch a movie or something and come back later.
personal ranking and opinions X3: this game is very fun when you know it well, i personally enjoy the cracked damage enemies do at the start because it makes me feel like an underequipped god when i fly through the stages X1: mostly here for nostalgic reasons, i like this game a lot but its also fairly rocky in places X2: more forgettable than the other two but still very fast-paced and fun, has my favorite Sigma battle in the wolverine form X6: i will swap this with X2 depending on the day, but i like the PSX physics more. yes this game is objectively horribly designed but for similar reasons to X3 i love the feeling of triumph X4: ooh boy. easily the most polished X game to date X5: this game has problems. its still fun to play through but its easily one of my least revisited X7: i don't think i need to explain this one. i don't think X7 is THAT bad, but it does have this constant feeling of boredom that persists throughout it, its the DMC2 of the series, and i'd rather play DMC2
I can respect Mega Man X8 for many of the things it did, such as having good voice acting, putting out a decent story even if it still remains unresolved, and for making the gameplay be in 2.5D, but as pretty much being the final X game, it just wasn't a good send off for the series, and its why I think that Mega Man Maverick Hunter X was the actual final send off to the X series, since it not only remade the masterpiece that was X1, but it also had the OVA Day of Sigma which I still think its one of the best things Capcom has done, and its sad that they didn't just make an anime series of sorts, because people would have really enjoyed that, and they could have kept it running for a couple of years, until they were ready to take the proper time to make the next game, and also give people a break from the Mega Man fatigue that Capcom had caused, since they were releasing multiple games a year, from the different Mega Man spin offs and that's why they failed. To go back to talking about X8 however, I think that the partner mechanic was at its peak, since it fixed many things that the previous games had, such as X7 and Xtreme 2's flaw where if the partner died it was basically a start over from the last checkpoint, and that in X8 if you basically switched characters after taking damage, since you could recover some health back similarly to some of Capcom's fighting games, it just encouraged partner switching a lot, but the positives that X8 has cannot save it from its negatives, such as how it was a stupid idea to have to BUY pretty much all the upgrades you would find in the stages, as if it was just not enough to go through the trouble of exploring and finding the secrets, and it just felt as a dirty way to extend gameplay time, since none of the previous games did anything like that, and they should have just done the same thing that Xtreme 2 did, where the shops just had equip able mods similarly to the part systems in X5 and X6, but you only needed to have enough points to make the purchases, as everything you found in the stages you would get right away, and one of the only major flaws in Xtreme 2, was that X and Zero did not share Health Upgrades, nor would they receive the Boss' weapon if the one that defeated the boss was the other one, so that's why Xtreme 2 isn't a perfect game either, and its only through things such as the ROMHACKs that the games do become much better, and its a big shame that Capcom never released those Gameboy games in any of the X collections.
I definitely agree about the Force Metal part, but frankly, I hate it when Mega Man games implement a shop system because it ruins the pace. The great thing about the earlier MM/MMX games is that you could scour every bit of a level looking for goods or you could rush through the game with the bare minimum. Grinding for Force Metal for equipment in X8 or bolts in the later MM classic games just destroys the speedy aspect of those games.
Honestly, losing the glitch of getting instant max Metal currency for the Legacy Collection was a BIG LOSS and sucked the fun out of X8 because of it. Especially with how expensive all the items were. If they reduced the prices of the items or increased the amount of Metals you can collect instead of grinding that one stage for the fastest amount it would alleviate some of the issues in the game. That said, I really do like the Metal currency system to help upgrade all of the characters and unlock other goodies. Would've been cool if there was a collectible on the stages that reduced the prices of the items in the R&D Shop so you can either spend a lot of money the upgrades or toughen it out to go get them to reduce the prices to make it faster and easier to buy everything for less. About the gimmicks... I didn't mind them. They gave the stages a little something different. Even X4 had the Ranking System gimmick for Cyber Peacock. And then there were the previous X5 and X7 Stages where you rode on the bike to get to the bosses. But I do agree that Frozen Yeti's stages dragged on TOO long, even if I love using the Armor Bike... I prefer if it was shorter or faster to clear it. I like the Jacob Tower too, though they could've split it into three parts; base (normal stage), elevator (like in the actual stage), and boss room. Though I do get they went overboard with gimmicks of the game. Though the game being how it is... it was released A YEAR after X7. This is the same with X6 where they rushed the game out before they properly tested it. X6 has MANY features that are inaccessible or so badly setup you miss them like that one Cutscene that triggers after collecting a certain amount of Nightmare Souls and before you kill all 8 Investigators. I was REALLY looking forward to X9 and it's sad not to see what happens next. Not to mention I assumed X Command Mission took place AFTER X8 and wonder how Axl recovered from the events of X8. Though official in a Capcom comic about the X series shows Axl fighting Omega alongside X and Zero with Dr. Weil looking over from the cliffside. So, Axl for the most part lives to the Elf Wars at the very least. Truth me told I LOVE all of the X games so it's hard for me to what I like most and like least. But, here I go: X4 > X1 > X8 > X6 > X7 > X5 > X3 > X2 Sadly, I can't recall much of X2 and X3 even though I enjoy playing them again on the Legacy Collection but the weird item placement and not keeping the super secret upgrades kinda hurts it for me. X5 is fine, but the RNG and the backtracking is the most painful for me and Alia stopping your track no matter what and I wish they fixed that in the Collection if they can fix bugs and glitches. Despite X7 being the black sheep and how they handled X in that game I still enjoyed it. It's my most beaten X game in the series with over 40 times on it. For all the upgrade and on the OG PS2 and Legacy Collection. I do want to do a 2D Sprite "Demake" of X7 with my own changes like given X's his own intro stage before he becomes unavailable and have to unlock him to play again. And some tweaks to the gameplay too. If I can get my lazy butt to do it.
X8 did things right imo, Everyone accesses to air dash and special move, roll and double jump without chip or boss defeat. Armor part that can be used without collect all the parts to use and even customize part from each armor. Quality of life such as spike shield and emergency energy even re-stock the tank so you don't need to re-farm like before. X8 may has flaws but overall still enjoyable for me.
As much as I wish X9 to be a thing, I believe 20 years it's enough to finally move on and let Capcom reboot the series or what not. That's my new wish.
The fan-made 16bit remake of X8 is so much better. It's a must play for anyone interested in Mega Man. If it was made by Capcom it would be considered the best game since X4.
I like that new Playlist. If you put the Playlist in chronological order then it'll be 100% then new viewers can hit play and just go through all the videos and get views up
This game gives me a love/hate relationship feel with it. On one hand it is better than x6 and x7...on the other that wasn't much of a high bar and it has a bunch of bull in it still. Honestly I have to agree with your tier list some, other than adding Xtreme 1 and 2 to ok behind X3 and Command Mission to Good just behind X5 (though that is an RPG I guess lol) and with the patches they have fixing them I'd put x5 above x2 maybe even above x1 and x4 and x6 into great. x8 does have the best armor system in the series though. Love me some quick charge buster level up plus combo to rip n tear everything and make the sub weapons even ultimate armor to a point look bad lol. Man I wish you could slap ultimate armor's parts into the part system since the leg parts are just both of the other 2 foot parts..
Fun Fact: We were actually going to get an X9 at some point but the devs ultimately decided on Maverick Hunter X on PSP instead. Here’s my ranking on the X games going by how they’re split between the Legacy Collections Legacy Collection 1: X1 = X2 = X3 = X4 Legacy Collection 2: X6 > X5 > X7 > X8 X8 is too much of a gimmicky grindfest and funnily enough X7 is the poison I would pick lol
The sad thing is, is that a lot of us thought at the time that this was going to be the moment where the series was able to turn around, bring people back, and build into future X games. Sadly it never came to be.
So many people are still holding out hope for x9, I don't know if it ever happens.
The more time they leave us without new mega Man content, the more new gamers and new generations become isolated from the original series, the less interested they become in even exploring a new title.
A lot of Gen z and gen alpha that I talked to don't even know who mega Man is or the style of games that they were. This doesn't bode well for the future.
The X series going on at the same time as Zero and Battle Network didn’t help matters either and contributed to the over saturation. Then came ZX and Star Force.
@@brandonwilliams6119 Sadly so.
I was incredibly disappointed when they left the series at X8 with an unresolved storyline. One of the biggest problems I have with the X series is that it's *meant* to have a strong lore compared to the classic series, but playing the games they give out tidbits of a continuous narrative. X8 felt like it was trying to have a stronger story and character focus than a lot of its predecessors, explaining Axl's origins and abilities from X7, introducing a potential love interest for Zero (Layer), and giving an ending to Sigma and the Sigma virus (something that has been alluded to in the MMXCM and MMZ timelines) while giving room for a new conflict and villain for future games.
I wonder if the financial failure of the PSP-exclusive Maverick Hunter X is the reason we never got another mainline Mega Man X game. It's likely a contributing factor, at least.
Maverick Hunter X was such a great game, the best 2D/3D X game by far, and was what X7 and X8 should’ve been, it’s a perfect game.
@@10191927 I agree that it's a great game, don't get me wrong. But the fact is, it sold very poorly. So much so that the planned Maverick Hunter X2 was cancelled.
Honestly out of touch decision by capcom, like you take a game that mainly release on home console and stake it's entire life on a handheld exclusive, it feel like an almost intentional sabotage.
Sadly, Sony didn't support the PSP OR Vita which caused them both to fail. Which sucks because I REALLY love the Maverick Hunter X remake of X1. And I thought it would be great to connect the stories better too.
If Capcom were to re-release MHX on the Switch, it'd sell like hotcakes given how well ports/remakes have been selling on the switch
Still clinging to the hope that we get X9 someday. I love X8 and think it's underrated.
Of all the Mega Man games X8 is the one I replayed most.
They set the prices of content ridiculously high. To 100% the game and unlock everything, I literally played through over 12 times.
Some days I played through 3 times in a sitting.
Burn Rooster stage is annoying in that it doesn’t end when you kill him. The lava chase is tedious.
The Man-O-War stage is annoying but once you understand the gimmick, it’s easy to win.
I’ve gotten to the point where the spikes in Sigma’s fortress don’t phase me.
Good review got me pumped to replay x8 for the first time in 7 years.
So fun trick for the metal grinding. In trilobite's stage if you stand in front of the barrels that block the Light Capsule the mechanoloid can't get you and you can just sit there and shoot with Axel, making the grind less tedious, but more boring. Still, you can almost set the controller to auto pilot with some rubber bands and go watch a movie or something and come back later.
I love that episode of Seinfeld where Newman gets killed by a dinosaur.
Half way into the video and I just realized this video was uploaded only 20 minutes ago.
personal ranking and opinions
X3: this game is very fun when you know it well, i personally enjoy the cracked damage enemies do at the start because it makes me feel like an underequipped god when i fly through the stages
X1: mostly here for nostalgic reasons, i like this game a lot but its also fairly rocky in places
X2: more forgettable than the other two but still very fast-paced and fun, has my favorite Sigma battle in the wolverine form
X6: i will swap this with X2 depending on the day, but i like the PSX physics more. yes this game is objectively horribly designed but for similar reasons to X3 i love the feeling of triumph
X4: ooh boy. easily the most polished X game to date
X5: this game has problems. its still fun to play through but its easily one of my least revisited
X7: i don't think i need to explain this one. i don't think X7 is THAT bad, but it does have this constant feeling of boredom that persists throughout it, its the DMC2 of the series, and i'd rather play DMC2
I can respect Mega Man X8 for many of the things it did, such as having good voice acting, putting out a decent story even if it still remains unresolved, and for making the gameplay be in 2.5D, but as pretty much being the final X game, it just wasn't a good send off for the series, and its why I think that Mega Man Maverick Hunter X was the actual final send off to the X series, since it not only remade the masterpiece that was X1, but it also had the OVA Day of Sigma which I still think its one of the best things Capcom has done, and its sad that they didn't just make an anime series of sorts, because people would have really enjoyed that, and they could have kept it running for a couple of years, until they were ready to take the proper time to make the next game, and also give people a break from the Mega Man fatigue that Capcom had caused, since they were releasing multiple games a year, from the different Mega Man spin offs and that's why they failed.
To go back to talking about X8 however, I think that the partner mechanic was at its peak, since it fixed many things that the previous games had, such as X7 and Xtreme 2's flaw where if the partner died it was basically a start over from the last checkpoint, and that in X8 if you basically switched characters after taking damage, since you could recover some health back similarly to some of Capcom's fighting games, it just encouraged partner switching a lot, but the positives that X8 has cannot save it from its negatives, such as how it was a stupid idea to have to BUY pretty much all the upgrades you would find in the stages, as if it was just not enough to go through the trouble of exploring and finding the secrets, and it just felt as a dirty way to extend gameplay time, since none of the previous games did anything like that, and they should have just done the same thing that Xtreme 2 did, where the shops just had equip able mods similarly to the part systems in X5 and X6, but you only needed to have enough points to make the purchases, as everything you found in the stages you would get right away, and one of the only major flaws in Xtreme 2, was that X and Zero did not share Health Upgrades, nor would they receive the Boss' weapon if the one that defeated the boss was the other one, so that's why Xtreme 2 isn't a perfect game either, and its only through things such as the ROMHACKs that the games do become much better, and its a big shame that Capcom never released those Gameboy games in any of the X collections.
I definitely agree about the Force Metal part, but frankly, I hate it when Mega Man games implement a shop system because it ruins the pace. The great thing about the earlier MM/MMX games is that you could scour every bit of a level looking for goods or you could rush through the game with the bare minimum. Grinding for Force Metal for equipment in X8 or bolts in the later MM classic games just destroys the speedy aspect of those games.
Awesome video my man. Will finish watching later but wanted to drop a note to say you kick ass like MMX8 does!
Honestly, losing the glitch of getting instant max Metal currency for the Legacy Collection was a BIG LOSS and sucked the fun out of X8 because of it. Especially with how expensive all the items were. If they reduced the prices of the items or increased the amount of Metals you can collect instead of grinding that one stage for the fastest amount it would alleviate some of the issues in the game.
That said, I really do like the Metal currency system to help upgrade all of the characters and unlock other goodies. Would've been cool if there was a collectible on the stages that reduced the prices of the items in the R&D Shop so you can either spend a lot of money the upgrades or toughen it out to go get them to reduce the prices to make it faster and easier to buy everything for less.
About the gimmicks... I didn't mind them. They gave the stages a little something different. Even X4 had the Ranking System gimmick for Cyber Peacock. And then there were the previous X5 and X7 Stages where you rode on the bike to get to the bosses.
But I do agree that Frozen Yeti's stages dragged on TOO long, even if I love using the Armor Bike... I prefer if it was shorter or faster to clear it.
I like the Jacob Tower too, though they could've split it into three parts; base (normal stage), elevator (like in the actual stage), and boss room.
Though I do get they went overboard with gimmicks of the game. Though the game being how it is... it was released A YEAR after X7. This is the same with X6 where they rushed the game out before they properly tested it. X6 has MANY features that are inaccessible or so badly setup you miss them like that one Cutscene that triggers after collecting a certain amount of Nightmare Souls and before you kill all 8 Investigators.
I was REALLY looking forward to X9 and it's sad not to see what happens next. Not to mention I assumed X Command Mission took place AFTER X8 and wonder how Axl recovered from the events of X8.
Though official in a Capcom comic about the X series shows Axl fighting Omega alongside X and Zero with Dr. Weil looking over from the cliffside. So, Axl for the most part lives to the Elf Wars at the very least.
Truth me told I LOVE all of the X games so it's hard for me to what I like most and like least. But, here I go:
X4 > X1 > X8 > X6 > X7 > X5 > X3 > X2
Sadly, I can't recall much of X2 and X3 even though I enjoy playing them again on the Legacy Collection but the weird item placement and not keeping the super secret upgrades kinda hurts it for me. X5 is fine, but the RNG and the backtracking is the most painful for me and Alia stopping your track no matter what and I wish they fixed that in the Collection if they can fix bugs and glitches.
Despite X7 being the black sheep and how they handled X in that game I still enjoyed it. It's my most beaten X game in the series with over 40 times on it. For all the upgrade and on the OG PS2 and Legacy Collection. I do want to do a 2D Sprite "Demake" of X7 with my own changes like given X's his own intro stage before he becomes unavailable and have to unlock him to play again. And some tweaks to the gameplay too. If I can get my lazy butt to do it.
X8 did things right imo, Everyone accesses to air dash and special move, roll and double jump without chip or boss defeat. Armor part that can be used without collect all the parts to use and even customize part from each armor. Quality of life such as spike shield and emergency energy even re-stock the tank so you don't need to re-farm like before. X8 may has flaws but overall still enjoyable for me.
As much as I wish X9 to be a thing, I believe 20 years it's enough to finally move on and let Capcom reboot the series or what not. That's my new wish.
imagine ranking x3 lower than x8.
fr tho cool video, good job!
19:51 lol that was great!
Bro. Lumine Phase 2 theme.
The fan-made 16bit remake of X8 is so much better. It's a must play for anyone interested in Mega Man. If it was made by Capcom it would be considered the best game since X4.
Lack of Zero and Axl, no tag team system, a little too overturned difficulty... no, yeah I'm good.
Not interested.
I respectfully disagree
I like that new Playlist. If you put the Playlist in chronological order then it'll be 100% then new viewers can hit play and just go through all the videos and get views up
Good idea
You know, it's probably a hot take, but this is the best Megaman X game to me. I love X1, X3, X4 and X5, but this one is the best to me.
This game gives me a love/hate relationship feel with it. On one hand it is better than x6 and x7...on the other that wasn't much of a high bar and it has a bunch of bull in it still. Honestly I have to agree with your tier list some, other than adding Xtreme 1 and 2 to ok behind X3 and Command Mission to Good just behind X5 (though that is an RPG I guess lol) and with the patches they have fixing them I'd put x5 above x2 maybe even above x1 and x4 and x6 into great.
x8 does have the best armor system in the series though. Love me some quick charge buster level up plus combo to rip n tear everything and make the sub weapons even ultimate armor to a point look bad lol. Man I wish you could slap ultimate armor's parts into the part system since the leg parts are just both of the other 2 foot parts..
i like Megaman X8 more than Megaman Zero
Honestly, I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Capcom at this stage. Wasted potential galore.
thanks flowsona.
inb4 castlevanias next
Glad to be early :D Thanks for making awesome videos :) Jesus loves ya!
I gave up hope after Megaman 11 released and nothing about X9
for me, the worst mega man, insta kill=difficult besides, since x6 there was this annoying, cheap shot of hidding spikes off the screen
Fun Fact: We were actually going to get an X9 at some point but the devs ultimately decided on Maverick Hunter X on PSP instead.
Here’s my ranking on the X games going by how they’re split between the Legacy Collections
Legacy Collection 1:
X1 = X2 = X3 = X4
Legacy Collection 2:
X6 > X5 > X7 > X8
X8 is too much of a gimmicky grindfest and funnily enough X7 is the poison I would pick lol