After a series of terrible games, Mega Man X8 restored the series to “tolerable” status. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t even good. But it did shine a lot brighter next to X5, X6, and X7. Maybe the 3D brought it down. The series was really at its best on the SNES. If that’s how your brain works, then have I got a fan demake for you.
I nearly missed this. The friend who gave me the news had missed it. But at the Sonic Amateur Game Expo (SAGE) 2024, Alysson da Paz released their work on a 16-bit-ified version of the Mega Man X series’ most recent game. Everything from that 3D sidescroller has been compressed down, pixelized, and pressed into a new version of itself.
Okay, not everything. Axyl and Zero weren’t implemented and were never planned to be. Alysson states that it was intended to be “simple in scope.” There are also no secret techniques or armor to be found, but they were able to fit in the game’s three “secret” bosses.
“Simple in scope” is greatly underselling it. I’ve tried it out. It’s a pretty convincing effort. It feels like Mega Man X in so many ways, capturing even its eccentricities. When they say “no secret techniques or armor,” they don’t mean “no armor.” I played through Earthrock Trilobyte’s stage and managed to find the chest piece on that stage. It’s a unique piece of armor, mimicking the look in the actual Mega Man X8 rather than just cheaply reusing an asset. It feels fantastic. This is the juice.
You can play it for free here. Alysson notes that performance may not be the best on lower-end computers, and while I’m not on a lower-end computer, I can see this being true.
There have been some great Capcom fan games throughout the years. Maybe the company will canonize this one like Mega Man x Street Fighter. The Mega Man X8 remake doesn’t completely fill the hole left in my heart by the series’ absence, but it at least reminds me of why I love it. And the Super Nintendo, for that matter.
Published: Sep 10, 2024 10:53 am