He will appear as a hologram and explain the purpose of each upgrade before you proceed. As you are exploring different stages, you will come across a capsule leftover by Dr.
The introduction of the upgrade system, however, really helps to differentiate this title among platformers at the time. You are still traveling from left-to-right on a 2D plane, shooting enemies and gathering energy and power-ups along the way. The gameplay is typical Mega Man fare, but feels like an upgrade in every kind of way. This upbeat, heroic tune is as clear and distinct as Proto Man’s theme from the classic series, yet with more excitement and energy, showcasing that Zero was a completely new kind of character for this universe. The combination of the rock-and-roll and metal musical themes with the SNES sound chip made for some extremely memorable music, with the clear standout being Zero’s theme song whenever he appears to help out X. Composed by Capcom’s “Alph Lyla” in-house band, it was clear that this was the next evolution for Mega Man music. Right from the introductory stage where you are learning the mechanics, you can tell a lot of love went into this first Mega Man title for the SNES. Soundtracks during the early Super Nintendo era were a bit hit-or-miss, but make no mistake: the music in this game is simply phenomenal. Mega Man X has a great focus on these characters and other Mavericks throughout the entire game, and it really gives you reasons as to why these reploids went Maverick and rebelled against humanity. Throughout the story, you interact with various characters and learn this backstory in a very organic manner, whether it’s through the animosity of Vile, the cunning of Sigma, or the friendship and heroics of Zero. Reploids who choose to rebel against humankind are deemed “Mavericks,” so hunters among the ranks of reploids were charged with the duty to fight back against the Mavericks for the sake of peace.
Right away, you are thrown into combat and learn about all of these different “reploids” (or “replica androids”), a type of robot that could conceivably have free will and demonstrate their own form of decision-making, even if it ran contrary to what humans wanted.
In fact, the way that story was presented in Mega Man X was very unique during this time. This brings up fascinating story possibilities right from the get-go, which was never a primary focus in the classic Mega Man games. Cain, proving that he was forgotten about for some length of time. Thomas Light and needed to be sealed away in a capsule for a minimum of 30 years to pass his diagnostics and prove he was not a threat to humankind yet, he is not awakened until about 100 years afterwards by Dr. Story-wise, the Mega Man X games take place around 100 years after the end of the classic Mega Man games, although details are fuzzy on what, exactly, happened to the original Mega Man at this time. This first experience was enough to show me that the world of Mega Man X was going to be VERY different from the word of the classic Mega Man games. Booting it up, I was greeted with what looked like a computer login menu, which then lead to a diagnostic of Mega Man X and an emergency message left by Dr. I remember playing Mega Man II a lot on my brother’s NES when we were growing up, but back then, I really had no idea what the game was all about other than a blue robot and a bunch of really tough enemies. When I first started up Mega Man X, I had no idea what I was in for. Would this gamble pay off for Capcom? Or were they starting to get too big and unwieldy, milking their franchises for all they were worth?
Releasing in 1994 in North America, this game was unique because it came out on the Super Nintendo directly before Mega Man 6 was released on the original Nintendo, creating two concurrent Mega Man series that seemed only tangentially connected. In fact, many would consider the early games in the X series to be among their favorite Mega Man titles. Mega Man X is a title that is beloved by many.