Mega Man X8 is a fascinating game, impressive and frustrating in equal measure, though not exactly for the reasons one would expect. Following directly after the dark era of the X series, and what I would consider to be the low point of the Mega Man franchise as a whole, X8 had a lot to carry on its shoulders alone. I’ll get the obvious out of the way first - relative to X6 and X7, X8 is essentially the second coming of Jesus Christ himself, but I don’t want to judge the game strictly through that comparative lens.

Starting off, X8 drops you right into the action with a tutorial stage that, in my humble opinion, is the second best opening act in the entire series right after the original X. There’s not a ton of wait time, the controls are sharp and instantly responsive, and it gradually introduces you to each of the three playable main characters in platforming segments that are tailored for their respective kits. The stage bosses and enemy design convey each character’s strengths and weaknesses, differences in range and power, and it properly demonstrates the new double attack mechanic in real-time. They even brought back the best X7 mechanic, being able to bring two characters into the field at once and switch between them at will, and you get a taste for how the flow of that will feel during the rest of the game. It’s an amazing introduction and it FEELS like Mega Man X again, something closer to the SNES trilogy, and it got me so incredibly pumped to get into the rest of the game. Unfortunately though, this is where X8 begins to really show its hand in a way I can only describe as an incredible foundation without the follow-through to nail the execution of any of its (many) great ideas.

Take the act of simply controlling one of the main characters, for instance. Simply moving around, dashing, wall-climbing, and lining up your shots hasn’t felt this good since X1-3. It’s super precise, satisfying, and everything I could every want out of a platformer, and they succeed in this ‘game feel’ with all three characters’ and their kits, priming you for how fun experimentation is going to be….only to never give you the chance to do so. The only stage in the entire game that’s played “straight” is the tutorial, with every following level playing around with some gimmick or stage concept that never give you the chance to…have fun with how fluid these characters’ movesets are. Most of the stages themselves are solid, with a handful of some strong highs, but I can’t help but be disappointed by this design choice. Everything in X8 feels very segmented and separated, and without a through-line with which the game’s ideas can flow, without that cohesive glue, X8 is just kinda left feeling like it has a bit of an identity crisis.

This design philosophy erodes into other areas of the game, too. There’s a shop akin to something in the later entries of MM classic, a hugely welcome addition, and heart tanks have been replaced by spending currency for permanent health upgrades (a change that I actually like). The problem arises when you realize that having an abundance of health doesn’t particularly matter outside of bosses because X8’s stage design is obsessed with spikes, bottomless pits, blocks that will crush you, and a bunch of other random shit that will kill you instantly. Especially the spikes, why are there so many spikes in this game man? Who did this? Why? For what purpose?

This is to say, of course, that you’re almost only ever in relatively little to no danger or immediate one-shot danger with little in-between. This leaves a lot of the upgrades feeling, once again, good in concept but lacking in execution.

Backtracking has never been something I’ve been particularly fond of within the X series but it’s always been ingrained within the DNA of the series and it’s something I’ve come to expect. Being able to switch characters on the fly could have and should have streamlined the secret-finding process, but instead the exact opposite - it lengthened the secret hunting process to new extremes. Certain characters are required for certain secrets meaning that there really is no “stage routing” like in the original X games as you’re almost guaranteed to have to play each stage at least twice at the absolute bare minimum, and that’s assuming you know exactly what to look for and don’t fail to do so. More realistically, especially without a guide, you’re going to be playing each stage anywhere from 4 to 5 times to accommodate for any failures and the simple act of sniffing the secrets out in the first place. This goes doubly so without a guide because essentially every secret in this game is vague as hell, stuff with multiple bullet points of very specific information you need to follow in the right order and using specific abilities on an empty spot in the corner of this one room type-beat. On one hand, it does encourage replay value to a degree, and I actually don’t think it was the designer’s intention for every run in X8 to be a ‘100% run’, but it always makes the X worms in my head go a little crazy if I don’t collect everything and regardless there’s definitely such a thing as too obscure.

And yet, despite it all and what it may sound like, I still somehow came out of X8 with a strikingly positive impression. The story and all of its religious motifs are pretty neat and I like how tonally distinct these elements are from the usual X fanfare (and the final bosses are metal as hell). It took all of these entires for a game in this series to finally ‘justify’ the end-game boss rush with a reason that makes sense in-game and that’s super cool. Banter between the navigators and the Maverick Hunters in between missions is really cool and finally gives me a sense that these guys are actually…working on a team, as a team, which is something I’ve always felt the X series has struggled to convey. While I did mention that secret hunting is tedious, the secrets themselves are really cool and do make the exploration process worth your time. More shop items and ways to customize the characters, and especially the new weapons that entirely change the way you approach the game. (and I’m personally really glad that some of these replace bonuses obtained from saved Reploids which has never been something I’ve enjoyed doing). X8 finally gets the armor system right, too, giving you two armor sets for X with completely mix-and-match sets that you can tailor to fit your playstyle (with bonus attributes if you choose to commit to the pieces in one set). This is perfect and a good example of proving that X8 has learned lessons from the design shortcomings of some of its predecessors.

Zero’s D-Glaive is the single most fun thing any 2D platformer has ever incorporated, it’s so ridiculous and it feels incredible to use. I want an entire game where I can exclusively use it, they finally made Zero cool as fuck again I’m so happy.

X8 is a good game, but it could have been even better than what we got. Missed potential but there are some really strong highs and it restored my good faith in what the X games are capable of doing when they’re firing on all cylinders. We need that X9….

(I don’t typically do ‘long-form’ reviews like this on this website but if this gets more than, like, 1 like lmao maybe I’ll continue the trend)