
Mega Man X4 is where the series transitioned to PlayStation, and serves as a refresh. The addition of optional super-bosses, the X-Hunters, was a concept that would continue across several games, but the genesis here may be the best implementation of it.

The upgrades require more backtracking, and the punishment for missing a power-up is often instant death. This makes it both a natural progression and, sometimes, too clever for its own good. Mega Man X2 built on the original concepts and took those high-level skills for granted. It all holds up spectacularly, and still feels enjoyable from start to finish. Optional power-ups that center around proper mastery of the dash-jump combo, and give a special sense of accomplishment that favors especially skilled play Special secondary functions for charged boss weapons that add another layer of strategy. Collections like this give a chance to appreciate just how unique its ideas were: Stages that shift based on which bosses have already been defeated build the world in subtle ways. The original Mega Man X is still a blast 25 years after its debut, with its combination of classic Mega Man gameplay with increased speed and agility feeding off of a soundtrack that pops and fizzes with the energy of a synth-heavy 80s rock band. The Switch version, where I spent most of my playtime, performed on-par with expectations, with no more slowdown on the Super NES titles than I remembered, and consistently smooth quality on the more technically demanding PlayStation- and PlayStation 2-era games.

With such a wide variety of emulation represented, technical proficiency becomes the key to a successful collection. Three of those four were remakes or retellings in one way or another, so their absence is understandable. Only missing are a handful of Mega Man X curios: the pair of Xtreme Gameboy titles, the Maverick Hunter X remake for the PSP, and the strangely endearing spin-off RPG Command Mission. True to its name, this set captures the legacy of MMX–from the original Super NES classics, to their natural progression onto 32-bit systems, to the somewhat disastrous journey into 3D on the PlayStation 2.

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