This review was published on 07/04/2013.

Mega Man X6 is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Capcom and released for the Sony PlayStation in 2001. It's the sixth game in the Mega Man X series, which is the successor to the original Mega Man games. X6 is the third and final X game released for the PlayStation, unless you count X3, but that one was merely a port. According to Mega Man's creator, Keiji Inafune, X5 was supposed to be the final game in the X series. Capcom decided to develop X6 behind Inafune's back, completely without his input. That's rude, if you ask me. The X series made a strong start on 32-bit consoles with X4, but started to decline into mediocrity with X5. X6 continues that decline into mediocrity by being even worse. This is one of the worst X games of all time. Capcom should have listened to Inafune and stopped at X5.

X is the robotic protagonist of the X series and of this game. Robots in the X series are referred to as Reploids, and bad robots that endanger society are known as Mavericks. X is part of a group that hunts down Mavericks called the Maverick Hunters, and he has defeated a Maverick named Sigma five times in a row. In the previous game, Sigma took control of a space colony called Eurasia and made it crash into Earth, making the surface of the planet uninhabitable. Zero, X's robotic friend, mysteriously went missing after the events of X5. The last we see of Zero is him and X putting an end to Sigma for seemingly the final time. X6 takes place three weeks later, where a mysterious Maverick shows up out of nowhere and starts causing trouble for unknown reasons. The Maverick is rumored to be called the Zero Nightmare. This piques X's interest and he decides to investigate the situation. Given the finality of X5's plot, it really doesn't make sense for the story to go on. The plot to X6 further solidifies that this game is an unnecessary sequel.

You control X in this game, like you do in every other X game. X can do everything he could in X5: he can jump, duck, shoot, charge up his shots, dash, and jump up walls. There is one additional thing X can do in this game, and that's use the Z-Saber. Zero left his trusty saber to X before vanishing, so now X is able to use it whenever he pleases. This means that X is capable of close range combat as well as long range. Unfortunately, X is nowhere near as good as Zero when it comes to melee attacks; he's way slower, does way less damage, and only has like two basic moves. You'll be required to use the saber at various points in the adventure, since this mechanic is a selling point to the game. That should tell you something about the game. The fact that such a disappointing mechanic is actually the selling point to the game is telling. You can tell that the development team was scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. X using Zero's saber is supposed to be symbolic, but the symbolism doesn't change the fact that it sucks. X is still a decent character when fully armed with his armor, though. Just ignore the saber move and you'll be fine.

While it's a bit of a spoiler, I'm going to go ahead and mention that you can, in fact, get Zero in this game. Getting Zero is optional, but it can be done early in the game. Some of the levels have alternate paths that will lead to a fight with the Zero Nightmare, a nightmarish image of Zero. Upon winning this fight, you'll unlock the real Zero as a playable character. Zero works much like he did in the past two X games: he's a melee fighter that relies solely on his Z-Saber to do all the damage. The odd thing to note is that Zero's moves are slightly different in this game. I'm actually astonished, because X6 reuses so much content from the previous games, that it's strange Zero was altered at all. Like in X5, you switch to Zero on the stage select screen at any point during the game, which is nice. It doesn't change the fact that Zero should have been available from the beginning, but at least he's still in the game somewhere. Of course, it's possible to not discover Zero until much later in the game, and it'll basically be too late by that point.

In order to "investigate" the Zero Nightmare, eight Reploids are sent to eight locations. X feels that these "investigators" are a little fishy, so he decides to investigate the investigators. That basically entails in yet another stage select screen where you'll go on a journey to defeat eight robots. What's different this time around is the Nightmare system. This system randomly causes one of the eight stages to go into Nightmare mode, which results in a hazardous condition being applied to the environment. There are a number of different conditions that may be applied to a stage, and they're all hazardous to your health. The stages are represented by the face of the Maverick you'll be facing in that stage, so stages colored red are in Nightmare mode. What's odd is that, sometimes, stages will have Nightmare effects even when they aren't colored red. That's some swell game design. One example of a Nightmare effect is when a stage becomes pitch black, with only a few rays of light to light your path. This sucks and all it does is annoy the heck out of you. I think the intention here is that you're supposed to avoid the red stages, but sometimes you need to visit a red stage, so you'll have to bite the bullet and bear the load of terrible gimmicks. The stages are already poorly designed enough as it is without the addition of the random Nightmare gimmicks.

Rescuing Reploids in need is something that you could do in X5, but that concept was greatly expanded upon in this game. Scattered throughout all the stages are helpless Reploids that are in need of assistance. All you have to do to assist them is touch them. Doing so will teleport them to safety. Like any optional endeavor in a video game, you'll be rewarded for rescuing Reploids. Sometimes you won't get anything, but every so often a Reploid will be carrying a juicy prize for you. The prize can be a permanent upgrade to your life bar, a permanent upgrade to your weapon energy, or a part. Parts make their return from X5 and are equipped in between stages to change X or Zero's various parameters. Many parts are shared between both characters, but some are exclusive to a single character. This is too convoluted for an X game, but it does open up the possibility for customization. What sucks about the whole Reploid deal is that, sometimes, a Reploid will be captured by these floating octopus robots. A Reploid that gets infected by one of these robots will become Maverick, and then you'll have no choice but to kill it. Once a particular Reploid is killed, it's gone for good. You can say goodbye to whatever upgrade that Reploid was holding. It's really annoying, because Reploids are often positioned in ways to facilitate their demise. If you're a stickler for this stuff, then you'll have to reset the game to get another shot at saving the Reploid. You can ignore all this stuff, but you'll miss out on lots of goodies. The Reploid mechanic bogs down the game and it doesn't provide much entertainment value.

Dr. Light is the good scientist who created X, and he's dead. Before he died, he hid a bunch of capsules throughout various stages with armor upgrades for X. Normally, there is only a single set of armor per game, with the armor being divided into four parts. However, X5 started the trend of having multiple armors in a single game, which is one of the few good things X5 did. X6 continues that trend, and this also happens to be one of the few good things X6 does. What sucks is that you can't use a given armor part until you complete the armor set, but hey, at least you get different armor sets. Similar to X5, X actually starts the game already equipped with a fully assembled armor, but it's not very good. The good ones require you to find the hidden parts. You switch between X's armor sets in the stage selection screen, allowing you to use whatever armor you please. Every armor set has its advantages and disadvantages, so they're useful for different situations. The Shadow Armor is my favorite one, because it lets you stick to the ceiling, rapid fire ninja stars, and renders you immune to instant kill spikes. It has some significant drawbacks, like not being able to use Special Weapons, but it's pretty darn cool. The Blade Armor is another one, and this is the more versatile, all-around type that is useful in any situation. There aren't many things X6 does right, but the armor system is one of them.

X6 is up there, or should I say, down there with some of the worst games in the entire series. The stage design sucks, the bosses suck, the graphics are mostly reused from X4 and X5, the story sucks, the cutscenes suck, and almost all of the newly introduced mechanics suck. Just about everything sucks in this game, save for the music. The music is still pretty good, though it's not the best this series has to offer. The only X game worse than this one is X7, and that one is truly a travesty. Even for hardcore fans, Mega Man X6 isn't worth playing. It doesn't add anything meaningful to the series and will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

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