On one hand I’m tempted to start this review off with the line, “Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” but the problem is that’s not entirely true. Megaman is still going strong in his other series and spin-offs right now, most notably the equally recent Megaman Zero 2, which is quite excellent (all right, so technically Megaman isn’t the star of that series). So what happened here? Even if this had been a mere rehash of previous X games it would’ve been better, yet this plays as though the design team had all sorts of wonderful new ideas but the programmers decided to sabotage all their efforts.

Let’s start with the good points, shall we? I do oh so love that intro movie and the various animated cutscenes throughout look very good. A shame those are constantly interspersed by still-frame story progression that for some reason requires loading every couple minutes, but this should be mentioned in the “bad” section. They also had some nice ideas in switching up the gameplay, giving the ability to switch back and forth between different characters at will so it’s not limited to one skill set like most of the series. The cool new character of Axl is added to the team of Zero and Megaman and is arguably much better looking then the two series staples. He has the added ability of transforming into enemies to take on their abilities, although I found that to often just be annoying. Various levels also have some interesting concepts, such as the translucent computer-like stage in which one has to keep flipping between above and below the floor to find a way through the walled maze.

But that’s about where the good ends and the bad begins. It all starts with the controls, which are inferior to the entire rest of the series in a slightly floaty kind of way that never feels as responsive as they used to. How in the world they managed to mess up the same controls the series has been using for years I don’t understand, but I guess that’s all part of the bad restructuring. New in X7 is a behind-the-back camera that is used for various platforming sections and boss battles, but it’s so absolutely close that the models are in the way of seeing where you’re going and bosses are constantly off-screen unless they’re pressed up against the character. Granted, the more typical side-scrolling isn’t always free of similar problems thanks to spikes placed just off-screen so there’s no way to tell they’re there or making foliage cover enough of the ground so that roaming enemies can’t be seen. Seriously, the person in charge of camera needs to be fired right now before they hurt any other franchises.

Level design problems certainly don’t end with the visual aspect, as they decided to strike at the core and hurt the gameplay with a variety of non-sensical decisions. Among the worst is a go-kart style looped driving stage that involves targets to be picked up and Replicants to be rescued that are placed in such a way that goes against the very nature of the vehicle being driven. It also seems as though Capcom ran out of ideas partway through constructing the levels, as a few go on as long as they traditionally have while others are over so quickly I had trouble believing I was fighting the boss. A few of stages do have interesting ideas and there is plenty that works, but almost all of that is stuff that’s been in previous installments and was done better, like the upwards progression cylindrical level. Unfortunately, the slower pacing and floaty movement offset anything that might’ve been done at least as well as the other games, managing to make X7 just plain not fun to play.

It’s great to have stages work differently, it’s great to have mini-games placed in to break the typicality of it all, it’s great to add in new ways to use the characters, especially with so many sequels and series. However, it’s not great to make it all half-assed and then slap it together in such a way that it feels like an unfinished product. I really feel bad having to play such a dark spot on Megaman’s legacy, as while I’ve never played Megaman Soccer or Battle and Chase I’ve never found a single one to be sub-par. Mediocre? Sure. Derivative? Most definitely. But crappy? I think it’ll be for the best if we all just pretend this one didn’t happen and go play some Zero or Battle Network instead. Now those are some quality Megaman titles.

· · · Mechdeus