Today I noticed one of the sites I get my manga finally has Megaman X4 the manga volume 3 uploaded, which I got about 10 years from a secret handshake with the underground world of pirating and apparently it's taken that long for this stuff to trickle to a more accessible medium. It's also interesting to note that MMX4 the manga and the game would be the first victim of 'can't destroy kid's dream of Megaman being a hero' that'd show up later in Megaman Zero. But first let's talk about the game itself. I went back and checked it out and it'd still look quite passable today if it showed up as say a $15 indie title, and certainly better than the same action platformer that looks like it's made with NES technology that still asks you for the same $15 if not more. Azure Striker Gunvolt, probably the closest thing to a modern version of MMX4, probably looks a bit better but then it doesn't have the anime cutscenes. As cheesy as they were in MMX4, I think they were quite necessary. It just wouldn't be the same if the flashback of say Zero vs Sigma was just 3 pictures showing Zero cutoff Sigma's arm. While it's true that MMX4 happened to come out at a time where people just throw anime/CG movies and figure that automatically makes stuff cooler, there is still a reason for these things. I don't know if there's a better modern day equivalent technology. Maybe something like the cel-shaded stuff like Shining Force Exa could work, or you can always just have CG cutscenes. For some reason, all the Megaman games after that skimped out on technology, and even if the Zero series are on a limited platform, X5-X8 are not. Even X8 on Playstation 2 barely had some inconsequential Anime clip, though I guess that game was so irrelevent that there really was nothing worth showing. While a good game trumps the frills, I don't see why Megaman series have regressed and basically abstained from using anything cutting edge. In X5 they even removed the original voice acting which was only limited to grunts and stuff by X and Zero in the English version. Old school doesn't mean regression!
MMX4 was probably the first and maybe the last Megaman that had an interesting plot. The Megaman X4 manga got axed because it revealed too much about the plot at that time as it mentioned the fact that Colonel and Iris was supposed to be this generation's Megaman which was probably some kind of wild plot twist that was planned at some point but never happened, and of course this ties into the whole thing how Zero was built to destroy Megaman and obviously he canonically destroyed both Colonel and Iris which was his destiny. In fact, this is one game where the gameplay mechanism itself tells a story. The point is that neither Iris nor Colonel can control Megaman's full power which is why Iris's invulnerable armor ejects her core so you can beat her. For that matter if you don't attack Iris and just let her beat you down to critical her core gets ejected too because again that's not very Megaman-like to be terminating another Reploid. Note that Zero also has this similar gameplay element, as when you fight his powered up version in X5 if you took long enough he powers up again and turns invulnerable and instant kills you with an attack that spans the entire screen. Despite the series being named "Megaman X", X is never referred to as Megaman once the games start paying attention to these things, just like Zero is never Megaman Zero in the Megaman Zero series. So where does that leave X? Well, I don't think he's meant to be very relevent even in the series that is named after him. In the MMZ series Inticreates originally decided he should be a bad guy and thus expendable until that was axed for the same reason (can't have a guy with Megaman's title be a bad guy!)
It's a shame that Capcom used to have these cool ideas, and then I guess Megaman X6 happened (though X5 was pretty weak too). I noticed that Mighty No. 9 is supposed to come out of this month, but after being burned by the last X games I can't help but to think it'd be some overpriced game capitalizing on nostalgia.
MMX4 was probably the first and maybe the last Megaman that had an interesting plot. The Megaman X4 manga got axed because it revealed too much about the plot at that time as it mentioned the fact that Colonel and Iris was supposed to be this generation's Megaman which was probably some kind of wild plot twist that was planned at some point but never happened, and of course this ties into the whole thing how Zero was built to destroy Megaman and obviously he canonically destroyed both Colonel and Iris which was his destiny. In fact, this is one game where the gameplay mechanism itself tells a story. The point is that neither Iris nor Colonel can control Megaman's full power which is why Iris's invulnerable armor ejects her core so you can beat her. For that matter if you don't attack Iris and just let her beat you down to critical her core gets ejected too because again that's not very Megaman-like to be terminating another Reploid. Note that Zero also has this similar gameplay element, as when you fight his powered up version in X5 if you took long enough he powers up again and turns invulnerable and instant kills you with an attack that spans the entire screen. Despite the series being named "Megaman X", X is never referred to as Megaman once the games start paying attention to these things, just like Zero is never Megaman Zero in the Megaman Zero series. So where does that leave X? Well, I don't think he's meant to be very relevent even in the series that is named after him. In the MMZ series Inticreates originally decided he should be a bad guy and thus expendable until that was axed for the same reason (can't have a guy with Megaman's title be a bad guy!)
It's a shame that Capcom used to have these cool ideas, and then I guess Megaman X6 happened (though X5 was pretty weak too). I noticed that Mighty No. 9 is supposed to come out of this month, but after being burned by the last X games I can't help but to think it'd be some overpriced game capitalizing on nostalgia.
