TheMaxine
1997
The part of the collection that involves the classic Genesis titles is fine. Actually, it's a little more than fine, and is arguably the better way to play the original Sonic trilogy than emulating the Genesis titles. There isn't as much slowdown, instruments don't get cut off by the sound effects anymore due to CD Audio support, there's a mode that slightly rebalances the difficulty to not be as dumb (Example: They give you rings for the Sonic 2 final boss), and they even introduce the spin dash into Sonic 1. That's on top of supporting Sonic 3's lock-on gimmick, and an autosave feature so you don't have to do each game in one go. Diving into some of the bonus content, like scrapped pitches for a cartoon, or the concept art was also pretty fun. The manuals could've also been a neat addition! If they were rendered above a 144p resolution. I can't read this shit, dude.
I only lament that Sonic CD got completely robbed and isn't a part of this collection at all. Unless you count them including CD's opening as part of the bonus content, but that's just rubbing salt in the wound at that point. In general, I wonder if this collection was really worth its asking price back in the 90's. I mean, you've got no 8-bit titles, or spinoffs to speak of... just four old games with a bunch of QoL applied to them. And don't get me wrong, the QoL is very appreciated, so is the bonus content. But even back then, Sonic Jam seems like it missed a big opportunity to let this be the ultimate collection of Sonic games that were out by then, and instead settles only for the utmost necessary components instead. Is this really what Sonic fans deserved for spending their money on the Saturn, plus however much this game costed?
And I mean, you DO have Sonic World, and it's a pretty neat look into what a 3D Classic Sonic title could've looked like if they didn't go down the Adventure redesigning route. But aside from the fact that it's more of a tech demo than a real playable campaign, THIS CAMERA. Dear lord, Mario 64 had its moments here and there, but Sonic World's camera feels especially designed to fight my instincts to the bitter death. Knowing that much of Sonic World's mission structure is dependent on optimal routing of the map layout, this could've been fun if the camera was normal and allowed you to look straight ahead to see where you're heading. But it seems that everytime you start running, it forces you into this dreadful zoomed in top-down perspective that ensures you have as little awareness of the layout around you as possible. Whether this was a result of technical constraints, or just a flaw in the design choice, it makes it difficult to take the incentives of the Sonic World seriously. And its intent of a free and open space to run around in, ends up ruined by a sense of claustrophobia.
Due to Sonic Jam's unfortunate ommissions of certain Sonic titles, and its poorly executed 3D content, I can't objectively consider this a great collection when thinking about the collection that it could've been, were production on it started earlier (as in, earlier than 3 years into the console's lifespan) and been given more time to flourish. But, that's way in the past now. We should also consider the value Sonic Jam has today, especially when your most likely way to experience it will be via emulation. In that sense, if you're just looking for a good way to play the major cornerstones of Sonic's Genesis era, then Sonic Jam at least fulfills that purpose. Sure, Origins has CD, plus widescreen support... but I'd still feel safer choosing to emulate this, than forking over 30 dollars for that. At least Sonic Jam is stable.
I only lament that Sonic CD got completely robbed and isn't a part of this collection at all. Unless you count them including CD's opening as part of the bonus content, but that's just rubbing salt in the wound at that point. In general, I wonder if this collection was really worth its asking price back in the 90's. I mean, you've got no 8-bit titles, or spinoffs to speak of... just four old games with a bunch of QoL applied to them. And don't get me wrong, the QoL is very appreciated, so is the bonus content. But even back then, Sonic Jam seems like it missed a big opportunity to let this be the ultimate collection of Sonic games that were out by then, and instead settles only for the utmost necessary components instead. Is this really what Sonic fans deserved for spending their money on the Saturn, plus however much this game costed?
And I mean, you DO have Sonic World, and it's a pretty neat look into what a 3D Classic Sonic title could've looked like if they didn't go down the Adventure redesigning route. But aside from the fact that it's more of a tech demo than a real playable campaign, THIS CAMERA. Dear lord, Mario 64 had its moments here and there, but Sonic World's camera feels especially designed to fight my instincts to the bitter death. Knowing that much of Sonic World's mission structure is dependent on optimal routing of the map layout, this could've been fun if the camera was normal and allowed you to look straight ahead to see where you're heading. But it seems that everytime you start running, it forces you into this dreadful zoomed in top-down perspective that ensures you have as little awareness of the layout around you as possible. Whether this was a result of technical constraints, or just a flaw in the design choice, it makes it difficult to take the incentives of the Sonic World seriously. And its intent of a free and open space to run around in, ends up ruined by a sense of claustrophobia.
Due to Sonic Jam's unfortunate ommissions of certain Sonic titles, and its poorly executed 3D content, I can't objectively consider this a great collection when thinking about the collection that it could've been, were production on it started earlier (as in, earlier than 3 years into the console's lifespan) and been given more time to flourish. But, that's way in the past now. We should also consider the value Sonic Jam has today, especially when your most likely way to experience it will be via emulation. In that sense, if you're just looking for a good way to play the major cornerstones of Sonic's Genesis era, then Sonic Jam at least fulfills that purpose. Sure, Origins has CD, plus widescreen support... but I'd still feel safer choosing to emulate this, than forking over 30 dollars for that. At least Sonic Jam is stable.
1993
What the fuck do you mean it's pronounced "Vai"?
Alright... how do I do this? How do I write anything about Vay without my numbness for these sorts of RPG's seeping through? Final Fantasy's spoiling me, man, even the earliest ones take the opportunity to innovate and experiment with their mechanics, delivering a fresh experience each time. Meanwhile, CD Audio has been in full swing since 4 years, and Vay still believes it's all you need to sell your game. No, Vay. You dumb moron. No, it actually takes a little more for your RPG to be interesting than just plopping CD Audio and some cinematics into it. Try as you might, that sort of entertainment only goes so far, when the ratio of boring game design is about 20 hours higher than your 10 minutes of attempts at impressing me.
As is to be done for most of these Working Designs-published titles, I made use of the Un-Working romhack, which reverts all difficulty and balancing changes made in the US version, back to how the japanese original did things. But it's not better. The US version is cited to have some real shitty amounts of grinding, but it turns out, the JP version has the exact same problem, just a different way of handling it. As The Cutting Room Floor puts it, the US version bumps up the difficulty and MP costs by a stupid degree, but makes equipment more affordable. Meanwhile, the JP version's balancing is more chill, except for the part where equipment costs astronomical amounts. I quickly realized that this game was in desperate need of a gold multiplier, but there isn't one. So, the version you choose to play will dictate whether the game is designed around grinding levels, or money. But either way it doesn't matter, because you'll incidentally end up doing both. For hours, and hours.
Makes me wonder, what even is the point of incentivizing exploration through treasure chests containing gold, if that exploration + whatever enemies you fought throughout isn't even enough to cover any of your shopping sprees? In a game based almost entirely around exploring dungeons, curiosity and thoroughness should have you walking out of these adventures feeling like you're rich as hell. For everything you accomplish, Vay tries to impose how your tales are spreading across the isles, the legendary prince that's going to stop the evil empire's reign...!
Yet it seems for all the praise and support you receive, the shopkeepers jack up their prices so high, they may just hate your fucking guts more than the villain does. Forget the "a thousand years passed since 5 magicians sealed the legendary armor" business, I wanna know what those thousand years did to the economy. It really sucks to know that your efforts aren't naturally interwoven into the design. That no matter how hard you strive to keep ahead of Vay, the game seems purposefully balanced around making your efforts insignificant until you do your mandated grinding session.
It's all grind and no substance, folks. The gameplay's a very basic form of turn-based combat, with no defining mechanics to stand out from anything. Even the magic pool is so limited, I maxed it out halfway through the game. It needed more buffs, more interesting strategies to take advantage of, but all it has is healing, elemental damage, and a singular buff to raise your attack for one turn. Meanwhile, enemies take a turn into damage sponge-territory as you edge closer towards the end, and turn what starts as a commendably fast-paced battle system, into a total slog. And oop, you guessed it, encounter rates are bad too! I even halved them using a romhack, and they were still too intrusive.
The positives of Vay are found in the strangest places. Take for example, the soundtrack. It's pretty repetitive, and kinda grating on the ears. But holy shit, why are these battle themes so good? Maybe techno doesn't exactly fit within Vay's fantasy setting, but I don't exactly care, there is a fascinating unconventionality in how it's utilized to ramp up the intensity of the tone here. If Vay leaned into this aesthetic further to support its vague and unexplored sci-fi elements, who knows, it could've gotten this close to having an identity!
And of course, the other thing that kept me going with this game was the localization. Working Designs was truly one of a kind. Their localizations so eloquently stride the line between being more professionally executed than anything else available on the market, and so completely unfaithful and juvenile that you can only enjoy them with a sense of detached irony. How can you be professional yet unprofessional at the same time? Working Designs found a way, and though I cannot respect it by any means, it was the only meaningful entertainment I had throughout the game. It is very odd to hate the one thing that kept me going. But I guess I'm not invulnerable to taking pleasure out of something embarrassing.
Vay is a good YouTube game. That is, there's a lot more worth in following a longplay, because you can skip all the boring shit. And there's plenty of that coming your way, so just do yourself a solid. Time is precious. I'm starting to realize that more than ever. When games like Vay come along, and take 20 hours of my life away from me.
Lord help me, I need to play some better RPG's soon.
Alright... how do I do this? How do I write anything about Vay without my numbness for these sorts of RPG's seeping through? Final Fantasy's spoiling me, man, even the earliest ones take the opportunity to innovate and experiment with their mechanics, delivering a fresh experience each time. Meanwhile, CD Audio has been in full swing since 4 years, and Vay still believes it's all you need to sell your game. No, Vay. You dumb moron. No, it actually takes a little more for your RPG to be interesting than just plopping CD Audio and some cinematics into it. Try as you might, that sort of entertainment only goes so far, when the ratio of boring game design is about 20 hours higher than your 10 minutes of attempts at impressing me.
As is to be done for most of these Working Designs-published titles, I made use of the Un-Working romhack, which reverts all difficulty and balancing changes made in the US version, back to how the japanese original did things. But it's not better. The US version is cited to have some real shitty amounts of grinding, but it turns out, the JP version has the exact same problem, just a different way of handling it. As The Cutting Room Floor puts it, the US version bumps up the difficulty and MP costs by a stupid degree, but makes equipment more affordable. Meanwhile, the JP version's balancing is more chill, except for the part where equipment costs astronomical amounts. I quickly realized that this game was in desperate need of a gold multiplier, but there isn't one. So, the version you choose to play will dictate whether the game is designed around grinding levels, or money. But either way it doesn't matter, because you'll incidentally end up doing both. For hours, and hours.
Makes me wonder, what even is the point of incentivizing exploration through treasure chests containing gold, if that exploration + whatever enemies you fought throughout isn't even enough to cover any of your shopping sprees? In a game based almost entirely around exploring dungeons, curiosity and thoroughness should have you walking out of these adventures feeling like you're rich as hell. For everything you accomplish, Vay tries to impose how your tales are spreading across the isles, the legendary prince that's going to stop the evil empire's reign...!
Yet it seems for all the praise and support you receive, the shopkeepers jack up their prices so high, they may just hate your fucking guts more than the villain does. Forget the "a thousand years passed since 5 magicians sealed the legendary armor" business, I wanna know what those thousand years did to the economy. It really sucks to know that your efforts aren't naturally interwoven into the design. That no matter how hard you strive to keep ahead of Vay, the game seems purposefully balanced around making your efforts insignificant until you do your mandated grinding session.
It's all grind and no substance, folks. The gameplay's a very basic form of turn-based combat, with no defining mechanics to stand out from anything. Even the magic pool is so limited, I maxed it out halfway through the game. It needed more buffs, more interesting strategies to take advantage of, but all it has is healing, elemental damage, and a singular buff to raise your attack for one turn. Meanwhile, enemies take a turn into damage sponge-territory as you edge closer towards the end, and turn what starts as a commendably fast-paced battle system, into a total slog. And oop, you guessed it, encounter rates are bad too! I even halved them using a romhack, and they were still too intrusive.
The positives of Vay are found in the strangest places. Take for example, the soundtrack. It's pretty repetitive, and kinda grating on the ears. But holy shit, why are these battle themes so good? Maybe techno doesn't exactly fit within Vay's fantasy setting, but I don't exactly care, there is a fascinating unconventionality in how it's utilized to ramp up the intensity of the tone here. If Vay leaned into this aesthetic further to support its vague and unexplored sci-fi elements, who knows, it could've gotten this close to having an identity!
And of course, the other thing that kept me going with this game was the localization. Working Designs was truly one of a kind. Their localizations so eloquently stride the line between being more professionally executed than anything else available on the market, and so completely unfaithful and juvenile that you can only enjoy them with a sense of detached irony. How can you be professional yet unprofessional at the same time? Working Designs found a way, and though I cannot respect it by any means, it was the only meaningful entertainment I had throughout the game. It is very odd to hate the one thing that kept me going. But I guess I'm not invulnerable to taking pleasure out of something embarrassing.
Vay is a good YouTube game. That is, there's a lot more worth in following a longplay, because you can skip all the boring shit. And there's plenty of that coming your way, so just do yourself a solid. Time is precious. I'm starting to realize that more than ever. When games like Vay come along, and take 20 hours of my life away from me.
Lord help me, I need to play some better RPG's soon.
1997
A much, much better game than the original Star Fox, but with some personal gripes that still make it difficult for me to get into. I don't know if I can get used to this camera angle, for one. The airwing takes up a decent chunk of screen space, and obscures things that are directly in front of you. This makes it so enemy shots can hit you without you even being able to see and react to them, it's pretty frustrating whenever it happens. I'm also not a big fan of the highest-difficulty route. I mean, I get it, it's a short game and practicing it is part of the point. But man, if I have to go through that submarine level every single time, then I'd rather just not do it at all, that thing is slow as hell, and the rest of the route is too overwhelming for me to spend time mastering.
Despite this, I still appreciate Star Fox 64 for its variety of stages and the open-ended route-based progression. The voice acting is also a big standout. It's technically impressive for the minimal amount of space the N64 cartridge had to work with, but more importantly, it's also just really surprisingly competent for its time. Not to mention, that every 2nd line is iconic, and sticks in your memory hard. It's a lot of 90's cheese, combined with a lot of earnest and effortless charm that really makes this game stand out from pretty much every other Star Fox release.
I just wish that I was able to get into the gameplay more than I'm capable of. Eh, maybe I'll give it another shot sometime. Despite my middling feelings on the difficulty & camera stuff, I can't deny that every few years or so, I just can't stay away from this game.
Despite this, I still appreciate Star Fox 64 for its variety of stages and the open-ended route-based progression. The voice acting is also a big standout. It's technically impressive for the minimal amount of space the N64 cartridge had to work with, but more importantly, it's also just really surprisingly competent for its time. Not to mention, that every 2nd line is iconic, and sticks in your memory hard. It's a lot of 90's cheese, combined with a lot of earnest and effortless charm that really makes this game stand out from pretty much every other Star Fox release.
I just wish that I was able to get into the gameplay more than I'm capable of. Eh, maybe I'll give it another shot sometime. Despite my middling feelings on the difficulty & camera stuff, I can't deny that every few years or so, I just can't stay away from this game.
1993
Speaking as someone trying to get into fighting games, here's a tip: Don't play the old ones unless you've got a friend. Actually, maybe just don't play the old ones at all.
I've been withholding doing reviews on all the versions of Street Fighter 2 I've played, alongside these two initial Mortal Kombats, because I thought I didn't have a full picture of what did I actually appreciate about this genre. And it seems like that's gonna remain a problem for a while, but something about this. Something about this game in particular has in the very least unlocked my full thoughts on what I don't appreciate about the genre. And if it sounds like I'm trying my hardest to hide my unbridled frustration, that's because I am. It's only been about half an hour since I gave up on trying to beat Mortal Kombat 2's campaign, after all.
Being a quarter muncher is one thing. Certain arcade games will just let you start right from the point where you died, so you could theoretically brute force your way through if you had enough quarters. 1993 fighting games, though... these things just didn't want you to play at all, did they? I have never so violently heard a game tell me to fuck off the cabinet and let the other suckers in the line waste their money, despite the fact that I'm playing this in the comfort of my own home with an infinite amount of virtual quarters.
If you're in a 1993 arcade playing a fighting game by yourself, it is - for the willful lack of a better term - a scam. An insult. Skill is discouraged, cheap tactics are incentivized, and the AI utilizes pitch-perfect reflexes to read every move you've got, the millisecond you input it. So don't worry, it's not just you. Playing against the AI is a matter of luck. I hate having to say this, because it makes me sound like a toddler, but I can't put it any other way, the game cheats. The first MK wasn't much better, but by comparison, I'd prefer beating that dogshit campaign again over this utter horseshit.
And even then, let's say you're playing with a friend. Technically it's a better experience, but still full of holes. You DID take an extensive look through an internet guide and memorize all the inputs associated with the character you're currently playing as, right? No? Well in that case, all you've got is a punch, a kick, and a block, and the rest you're gonna have to figure out via button-mashing. Which I'm sure is gonna be super fun for your friend, knowing that your two options are either to fight them like a jackass, or by using the most barebone moves available. Not to mention that the fatalities, the major selling point of Mortal Kombat, you're extremely unlikely to see here unless you already know how to do them. God, what I wouldn't give to be in an era of fighting games, where training modes became a norm. Like, how were you actually expected to get good at these games when you had to learn everything on the spot, against a timer, with your quarters on the line against either an AI that teaches all the wrong lessons, or a single multiplayer match?
Mortal Kombat 2 was designed as a guide game in fighting form. If you've peered through magazines, learned things by word-of-mouth, there was most likely some appeal in being able to show off what you've learned to unsuspecting challengers, shocking them with things they had no clue existed. But that requires intense commitment, and honestly, it's all for a game that isn't even worth practicing the moves in. It is unintuitive by design, more style than substance, and constantly makes me feel despised.
My intent with playing these old fighting games was to try and ease into the more basic ones, so that when they start getting much more complex, I'm less overwhelmed by it. But at this point, I'm coming to the realization that the difficulty and vagueness of games like Street Fighter 2 & Mortal Kombat 2 are much more likely to make me never try a fighting game ever again. Nonetheless... I'm stronger than that. I know they get better. I know they get more accessible. I just have to keep pushing forward. But let it be known, MK2 was this close to breaking my resolve.
I've been withholding doing reviews on all the versions of Street Fighter 2 I've played, alongside these two initial Mortal Kombats, because I thought I didn't have a full picture of what did I actually appreciate about this genre. And it seems like that's gonna remain a problem for a while, but something about this. Something about this game in particular has in the very least unlocked my full thoughts on what I don't appreciate about the genre. And if it sounds like I'm trying my hardest to hide my unbridled frustration, that's because I am. It's only been about half an hour since I gave up on trying to beat Mortal Kombat 2's campaign, after all.
Being a quarter muncher is one thing. Certain arcade games will just let you start right from the point where you died, so you could theoretically brute force your way through if you had enough quarters. 1993 fighting games, though... these things just didn't want you to play at all, did they? I have never so violently heard a game tell me to fuck off the cabinet and let the other suckers in the line waste their money, despite the fact that I'm playing this in the comfort of my own home with an infinite amount of virtual quarters.
If you're in a 1993 arcade playing a fighting game by yourself, it is - for the willful lack of a better term - a scam. An insult. Skill is discouraged, cheap tactics are incentivized, and the AI utilizes pitch-perfect reflexes to read every move you've got, the millisecond you input it. So don't worry, it's not just you. Playing against the AI is a matter of luck. I hate having to say this, because it makes me sound like a toddler, but I can't put it any other way, the game cheats. The first MK wasn't much better, but by comparison, I'd prefer beating that dogshit campaign again over this utter horseshit.
And even then, let's say you're playing with a friend. Technically it's a better experience, but still full of holes. You DID take an extensive look through an internet guide and memorize all the inputs associated with the character you're currently playing as, right? No? Well in that case, all you've got is a punch, a kick, and a block, and the rest you're gonna have to figure out via button-mashing. Which I'm sure is gonna be super fun for your friend, knowing that your two options are either to fight them like a jackass, or by using the most barebone moves available. Not to mention that the fatalities, the major selling point of Mortal Kombat, you're extremely unlikely to see here unless you already know how to do them. God, what I wouldn't give to be in an era of fighting games, where training modes became a norm. Like, how were you actually expected to get good at these games when you had to learn everything on the spot, against a timer, with your quarters on the line against either an AI that teaches all the wrong lessons, or a single multiplayer match?
Mortal Kombat 2 was designed as a guide game in fighting form. If you've peered through magazines, learned things by word-of-mouth, there was most likely some appeal in being able to show off what you've learned to unsuspecting challengers, shocking them with things they had no clue existed. But that requires intense commitment, and honestly, it's all for a game that isn't even worth practicing the moves in. It is unintuitive by design, more style than substance, and constantly makes me feel despised.
My intent with playing these old fighting games was to try and ease into the more basic ones, so that when they start getting much more complex, I'm less overwhelmed by it. But at this point, I'm coming to the realization that the difficulty and vagueness of games like Street Fighter 2 & Mortal Kombat 2 are much more likely to make me never try a fighting game ever again. Nonetheless... I'm stronger than that. I know they get better. I know they get more accessible. I just have to keep pushing forward. But let it be known, MK2 was this close to breaking my resolve.
1997
After the admittingly-pretty-alright-but-somewhat-lesser X2, and the unquestionably middling X3, Mega Man X4 miraculously manages to put the series back into peak status. In fact, this may just be the best the X series ever gets. Savor it. Live in the moment. Appreciate what you've got. It won't take long before the X series will shit the bed so badly, Capcom won't know how to bring it back in any way except gacha hell. But until then, X4 was like the stars aligned, and made you think for just a brief moment, that the series was in good hands from here on.
On the surface, X4 plays it safe, as the whole franchise tended to do. But it goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're innovative or not, all you need to do is make sure your game plays good, and god damn, does X4 play gooood. The controls seemed to have been refined and tightened up since the SNES titles, the result being the most responsive and satisfying Mega Man game so far. But most importantly, it's the first game to have Zero be implemented as a playable character, in a way that ISN'T stupid as fuck!
X4 lets you pick between two separate story campaigns for X and Zero, featuring the same levels, but vastly different playstyles, and different cutscenes. X is here if you want the more classic playstyle (which is still good! i actually feel like i'm getting some use out of the weapons here!), but Zero's been amped up so hard since X3, I'll be honest, I rarely pick X in his own titular game. Zero's shortcomings in long-range weaponry are more than made up for through his destructive saber, easily capable of plowing through anything that gets in your way. That's on top of a double jump ability, plus other unlocked abilities that are incorporated into his default moveset instead of needing to be selected first. It's possible that Zero was intended to be a sort-of easy mode for the game, but I really like the idea that instead of nerfing the game's difficulty itself, X4 instead lets you step into the shoes of someone who's been hyped up for the past 3 games as leagues above X. One thing's for sure, he lives up to his reputation as a powerhouse, assuming that you take advantage of him as one.
Furthermore, I feel confident in being able to recall every single stage from X4, a confidence that I've lacked for the prior X titles. The variety of mechanics and setpieces has been increased along with the level design being tightened up, made more compact to ensure that every minute is something new to look at, a new challenge to overcome. Mega Man 8's checkpointing system has been brought back, so just like there, you can resume from the halfway point even after losing all your extra lifes. X4 continues the series's recent approach to accessibility for less experienced players, giving it all the more reason for why this game should be considered as your entry point into the franchise, if the 16-bit and 8-bit era of Mega Man wasn't as appealing to you. It's welcoming, it's constantly interesting, and yet it should still prove to be a fun challenge to get through.
The 2D visuals are impressively detailed while running at a silky smooth 60fps, and enemies explode with crunchy sound effects as you pierce right through them. And the soundtrack!! It's a smothering of high-energy 90's synths, that tops off with the rawest fucking final boss theme the X series has ever got. The music is a constant run forward, sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but never letting you stop until the mission is done.
X4 also uses the same animation and dubbing studio as Mega Man 8 did. And if you're cool like me, you will immediately recognize this as a positive, not a negative. The dub continues to make completely incomprehensible decisions that only serve to make it more entertaining than it has any right to be. Why did they use the take where Zero sounds like Kermit the Frog? Why does the "emergency, emergency" guy SOUND like that? Why did they have the voice actress from Mega Man 8 voice X in the exact same way as his cutesy counterpart? Did everyone not realize X was supposed to be a different, more mature character? Who cares? Shut up!
This is how it should be. This is now part of X4's identity, these cutscenes are a special part of what brings me back to these games. It's only a shame that most of this stuff can mainly be found in Zero's campaign, because X's campaign does not have much by comparison, and is a lot less iconic. I will say though, Double's scream is surprisingly visceral for the quality of this dub, and plays a huge part on why he was one of the more intimidating characters in this game. For every really funny dubbing decision, you got fucking Double putting out the best performance among them. You really don't get stuff like this these days.
To sum things up, X4 is kind of like the Mega Man Zero before Mega Man Zero came to be as a series. Zero's campaign is so good in terms of gameplay and cutscenes, it's like X doesn't exist here at all. But that doesn't mean one is worse than another, one's just more overpowered. No matter which character you pick, X4 is a near-perfect Mega Man game. The short length incentivizes me to keep coming back to it just to get better, and everytime I do, I remember the other reason:
Because I want to appreciate how good we had it, before X5 came along.
On the surface, X4 plays it safe, as the whole franchise tended to do. But it goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're innovative or not, all you need to do is make sure your game plays good, and god damn, does X4 play gooood. The controls seemed to have been refined and tightened up since the SNES titles, the result being the most responsive and satisfying Mega Man game so far. But most importantly, it's the first game to have Zero be implemented as a playable character, in a way that ISN'T stupid as fuck!
X4 lets you pick between two separate story campaigns for X and Zero, featuring the same levels, but vastly different playstyles, and different cutscenes. X is here if you want the more classic playstyle (which is still good! i actually feel like i'm getting some use out of the weapons here!), but Zero's been amped up so hard since X3, I'll be honest, I rarely pick X in his own titular game. Zero's shortcomings in long-range weaponry are more than made up for through his destructive saber, easily capable of plowing through anything that gets in your way. That's on top of a double jump ability, plus other unlocked abilities that are incorporated into his default moveset instead of needing to be selected first. It's possible that Zero was intended to be a sort-of easy mode for the game, but I really like the idea that instead of nerfing the game's difficulty itself, X4 instead lets you step into the shoes of someone who's been hyped up for the past 3 games as leagues above X. One thing's for sure, he lives up to his reputation as a powerhouse, assuming that you take advantage of him as one.
Furthermore, I feel confident in being able to recall every single stage from X4, a confidence that I've lacked for the prior X titles. The variety of mechanics and setpieces has been increased along with the level design being tightened up, made more compact to ensure that every minute is something new to look at, a new challenge to overcome. Mega Man 8's checkpointing system has been brought back, so just like there, you can resume from the halfway point even after losing all your extra lifes. X4 continues the series's recent approach to accessibility for less experienced players, giving it all the more reason for why this game should be considered as your entry point into the franchise, if the 16-bit and 8-bit era of Mega Man wasn't as appealing to you. It's welcoming, it's constantly interesting, and yet it should still prove to be a fun challenge to get through.
The 2D visuals are impressively detailed while running at a silky smooth 60fps, and enemies explode with crunchy sound effects as you pierce right through them. And the soundtrack!! It's a smothering of high-energy 90's synths, that tops off with the rawest fucking final boss theme the X series has ever got. The music is a constant run forward, sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but never letting you stop until the mission is done.
X4 also uses the same animation and dubbing studio as Mega Man 8 did. And if you're cool like me, you will immediately recognize this as a positive, not a negative. The dub continues to make completely incomprehensible decisions that only serve to make it more entertaining than it has any right to be. Why did they use the take where Zero sounds like Kermit the Frog? Why does the "emergency, emergency" guy SOUND like that? Why did they have the voice actress from Mega Man 8 voice X in the exact same way as his cutesy counterpart? Did everyone not realize X was supposed to be a different, more mature character? Who cares? Shut up!
This is how it should be. This is now part of X4's identity, these cutscenes are a special part of what brings me back to these games. It's only a shame that most of this stuff can mainly be found in Zero's campaign, because X's campaign does not have much by comparison, and is a lot less iconic. I will say though, Double's scream is surprisingly visceral for the quality of this dub, and plays a huge part on why he was one of the more intimidating characters in this game. For every really funny dubbing decision, you got fucking Double putting out the best performance among them. You really don't get stuff like this these days.
To sum things up, X4 is kind of like the Mega Man Zero before Mega Man Zero came to be as a series. Zero's campaign is so good in terms of gameplay and cutscenes, it's like X doesn't exist here at all. But that doesn't mean one is worse than another, one's just more overpowered. No matter which character you pick, X4 is a near-perfect Mega Man game. The short length incentivizes me to keep coming back to it just to get better, and everytime I do, I remember the other reason:
Because I want to appreciate how good we had it, before X5 came along.