14 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIDEO GAMES
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003
'Mega Man X6' provides more options
The Blue Bomber is back and better than ever. Mega Man X6 is the latest episode in the Mega Man X series for the Playstation. Although this game might have been sitting on the shelves for a little more than a year, it hasn't been gathering much dust. And those who love the Mega Man and the Mega Man X games won't be disappointed.
This game picks right up from where X5 left off. Three weeks have passed since the Eurasia Space Colony disaster. The Eurasia space colony became infected with the deadly Sigma Virus and was headed on a crash course straight to Earth.
Zero—who in fact was not only immune to the virus but became stronger from it—took it upon himself to destroy the colony
REVIEW
by crashing into it. In the battle with S ig m a after Mega Man X beat him. S ig m a gave one last shot straight
Chris Moore
cmore@kansan.com
Contributed art
through X (Mega Man X) and Zero.
Zero then countered with a shot from him right back at Sigma. The end effect left the colony in ruins and no sign of Zero. Three weeks later, a Reploid named Gate wanted to make an ideal world for Reploids by getting rid of all humans. It's up to X, known as the Blue Bomber, to stop Gate from completing his plans and also to find out what happen to his fallen comrade.
The game play is still the same as all of the others. You pick a robot you want to fight, go through his massive stage fighting off other bots to get to the boss and try to blow him to bits. It may seem repetitive to some, but I never get tired of it. Ever since the days of Nintendo, I always kept up with the Mega Man X series. Mega Man X6 still
has the same two-dimensional graphics as all the others (However, with the previews I've seen for X7, that may change).
The greatest aspect of this game is the armor you collect. Unlike some of the previous Mega Man X games, you start with an initial suit of armor, but can pick up two new complete sets. Also unlike the other games, you can't use any parts of the armor until you find all the necessary pieces. The new Blade Armor pulls off new dash functions that are needed to pass certain parts of levels. The Shadow Armor is mainly used for close-range combat and lets you shoot in three different directions. And because X now can use Zero's Z-Saber (Zero's laser sword), the Shadow Armor gives it a faster and more powerful swing doing phenomenal damage.
The Nightmare System is one new feature of this game. This randomly puts together some of the stages and changes the landscape and game play. So now, you can't expect everything to be in the same place as all the other Mega Man X games. One example of the Nightmare System is that sometimes some levels will have a weird shadow effect in certain parts of the level. This is a compelling new element to add to the game that creates more of a challenge by clouding X's visibility.
MEGAMAN X6 ... A
Now available for Playstation
Rated E for Everyone
- Sells for an average retail price of $30
Another new aspect of the game is the optional parts you can put on X and Zero. During the course of the game you must rescue some of your Reploid comrades and in exchange, some of them will give you optional parts to equip. The ranking you get from a level gives you more parts to equip.
So, the better player you are, the more parts you can equip at a time. The parts system is an exceptional element to add in the game. These parts can give you certain power-ups that turn the course of battle in your favor. I always spent some time deciding which parts would better suit certain levels.
Moore is a Tulsa, Okla., freshman in journalism.
The Mega Man series never gets old. This game is definitely a must-own. It captures the old school play of Mega Man and adds on an exciting storyline for the game.