On the transition between the SNES and N64 generations, Nintendo lost most of its third-party franchises. Mega Man X was one of those, with Capcom jumping ship and releasing Mega Man X4 on the Sony PlayStation. And it's great that they did: can you imagine if, after the low performance of X3, they decided to make X4 into some sort of early 3D monstrosity? We'd miss out hard.
X4 brings the series to a new generation, with flashier graphics, cell-animated FMV cutscenes and revamped gameplay, while still preserving the traditional sidescrolling X formula. It cuts back on most of the pointless stuff X3 had added, and gives us the one thing that game had left us waiting for: a playable Zero. In X4, you can choose to play the game as either X or Zero, each of which has different moves and a slightly different story.
Yessir, we can finally take the Z-Saber in hand and slice around, no worries about being gimped, teleporting away when approaching boss doors or having to avoid dying at all costs for some upgrade. Zero's gameplay, as a melee character, is very different from X and completely changes how you approach fights. Both characters are really fun in their own ways, giving X4 a lot of replayability.
The story doesn't really make a lot of sense: Sigma instigates yet another rebellion, this time by corrupting the Repliforce, an organization originally created to stop Mavericks. Surprise surprise. They enact a coup d'etat and then flee into space, death cult style. It's kinda silly. But it does manage to hit some emotional notes, especially in Zero's story. It helps if you play with Japanese voices, though, since the dub is a bit of a meme (spoiler warning on those clips!).
Next to the original, X4 is one of my favorites in the series, and I replay it often. The only problem is, it being so good means the series only goes downhill from here.
X4 brings the series to a new generation, with flashier graphics, cell-animated FMV cutscenes and revamped gameplay, while still preserving the traditional sidescrolling X formula. It cuts back on most of the pointless stuff X3 had added, and gives us the one thing that game had left us waiting for: a playable Zero. In X4, you can choose to play the game as either X or Zero, each of which has different moves and a slightly different story.
Yessir, we can finally take the Z-Saber in hand and slice around, no worries about being gimped, teleporting away when approaching boss doors or having to avoid dying at all costs for some upgrade. Zero's gameplay, as a melee character, is very different from X and completely changes how you approach fights. Both characters are really fun in their own ways, giving X4 a lot of replayability.
The story doesn't really make a lot of sense: Sigma instigates yet another rebellion, this time by corrupting the Repliforce, an organization originally created to stop Mavericks. Surprise surprise. They enact a coup d'etat and then flee into space, death cult style. It's kinda silly. But it does manage to hit some emotional notes, especially in Zero's story. It helps if you play with Japanese voices, though, since the dub is a bit of a meme (spoiler warning on those clips!).
Next to the original, X4 is one of my favorites in the series, and I replay it often. The only problem is, it being so good means the series only goes downhill from here.