I played this pretty much exclusively to understand what the "Erasure" reference in X6 meant, and I wish I just read the wiki like a normal person instead.
X and Zero feel pathetic to control in this game. Immediately, I was bothered that they changed the way the dash works in this game. In Xtreme 1/Cyber Mission, you could set the Dash to the Start button. The GBC doesn't have enough buttons for the same depth of control as the console games, but they figured they'd use the only other available button for SOMETHING. On emulator, I had the benefit of mapping it to the R shoulder like I usually use for dashing in the other X games, but on a real GBC, I guess it didn't feel very good to use because of how mushy the button was?
For this game, Start pauses, and Select can EITHER swap your weapons (which you can do by pausing the game anyway) or tag your character out (a feature you only unlock when you reach Berkana and Gareth's Lab, and something you can ALSO do by pausing), depending on your config settings. I'm basically forced to either use Classic Rockman slide inputs for dashing (which doesn't let you dash jump) or double-tapping forward, which feels REALLY bad and imprecise. Same goes for airdashing, you airdash with a double-jump input instead of just using the dash button in mid-air.
Zero is infinitely worse, though, because ALL of his techniques share the same ammo for some reason, which gives you almost no reason to experiment trying to find out boss weaknesses because there's no Weapon Tanks and you don't regenerate ammo after a death like the PS1 games.
You also only get ONE Subtank per character for some reason?? I Googled a locations guide to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and sure enough, I found every armor piece and collectible on my own. There's only one Subtank for X and one for Zero.
I've said before that Quickman and Metal Shark Player are the two worst stages in any Rockman game, but I think Gareth and Isaz & Sowilo are two of the worst bosses in Rockman PERIOD. Worse than Kaiser Sigma, worse than Hell Sigma. Two bosses from the same game almost made me quit playing entirely.
The shop feature with Iris was a neat idea, but DNA Souls have basically outright replaced all real Health and Weapon ammo pickups. You pick up yellow souls for Health and blue for Weapon Energy. But as far as I could tell, yellow souls do not refill your Subtank. I could be wrong about this, but I checked my Subtank after collecting a soul, and often it would not be going up when I'm at full HP. I think that's really dumb. It makes grinding for souls less annoying, but I had more than enough to buy what I needed for one character by the end of the second stage.
I'll end by saying at least one nice thing, I think it's neat that this game was the origin of the tag mechanic in X7 and X8 at least. From my time playing X8 (I only know X7 has a tag feature because I saw it in the button config menu), the tag feature is SUPER fun in that game. This game doesn't really make a lot of use of it because progression is locked to one character, even if you bring stuff over from an existing save file. X will have less health and less combat options than Zero, which makes daring to use him in the Berkana Lab stages a dumb choice. X is only useful for his vertical dash if you play as Zero first.
Whereas I felt that the reused stuff in Xtreme 1/Cyber Mission was charming and really impressive, this game just annoyed me the whole time I was playing. I'd rather be playing X2 and X3 than play a version that controls worse.
X and Zero feel pathetic to control in this game. Immediately, I was bothered that they changed the way the dash works in this game. In Xtreme 1/Cyber Mission, you could set the Dash to the Start button. The GBC doesn't have enough buttons for the same depth of control as the console games, but they figured they'd use the only other available button for SOMETHING. On emulator, I had the benefit of mapping it to the R shoulder like I usually use for dashing in the other X games, but on a real GBC, I guess it didn't feel very good to use because of how mushy the button was?
For this game, Start pauses, and Select can EITHER swap your weapons (which you can do by pausing the game anyway) or tag your character out (a feature you only unlock when you reach Berkana and Gareth's Lab, and something you can ALSO do by pausing), depending on your config settings. I'm basically forced to either use Classic Rockman slide inputs for dashing (which doesn't let you dash jump) or double-tapping forward, which feels REALLY bad and imprecise. Same goes for airdashing, you airdash with a double-jump input instead of just using the dash button in mid-air.
Zero is infinitely worse, though, because ALL of his techniques share the same ammo for some reason, which gives you almost no reason to experiment trying to find out boss weaknesses because there's no Weapon Tanks and you don't regenerate ammo after a death like the PS1 games.
You also only get ONE Subtank per character for some reason?? I Googled a locations guide to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and sure enough, I found every armor piece and collectible on my own. There's only one Subtank for X and one for Zero.
I've said before that Quickman and Metal Shark Player are the two worst stages in any Rockman game, but I think Gareth and Isaz & Sowilo are two of the worst bosses in Rockman PERIOD. Worse than Kaiser Sigma, worse than Hell Sigma. Two bosses from the same game almost made me quit playing entirely.
The shop feature with Iris was a neat idea, but DNA Souls have basically outright replaced all real Health and Weapon ammo pickups. You pick up yellow souls for Health and blue for Weapon Energy. But as far as I could tell, yellow souls do not refill your Subtank. I could be wrong about this, but I checked my Subtank after collecting a soul, and often it would not be going up when I'm at full HP. I think that's really dumb. It makes grinding for souls less annoying, but I had more than enough to buy what I needed for one character by the end of the second stage.
I'll end by saying at least one nice thing, I think it's neat that this game was the origin of the tag mechanic in X7 and X8 at least. From my time playing X8 (I only know X7 has a tag feature because I saw it in the button config menu), the tag feature is SUPER fun in that game. This game doesn't really make a lot of use of it because progression is locked to one character, even if you bring stuff over from an existing save file. X will have less health and less combat options than Zero, which makes daring to use him in the Berkana Lab stages a dumb choice. X is only useful for his vertical dash if you play as Zero first.
Whereas I felt that the reused stuff in Xtreme 1/Cyber Mission was charming and really impressive, this game just annoyed me the whole time I was playing. I'd rather be playing X2 and X3 than play a version that controls worse.