Mega Man X (series)

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The Mega Man X (Rockman X in Japan) series was the second Mega Man franchise. It debuted December 17, 1993 in Japan (February 1994 in North America) on the Super Famicom/Super NES. It is one of the spinoffs of the long-running Capcom video game series. It is currently available in the anthology collection Mega Man X Collection, along with five of its sequels and Mega Man Battle & Chase.

Contents

1 Plot Description
2 Series history
3 Gameplay
4 Notes

Plot Description

Mega Man X was possibly created when Mega Man was still around (there has yet to be proof one way or the other regarding this), but due to instabilities in his programming, Dr. Light had him sealed away in a diagnostic capsule for 30 years of testing to make sure he wouldn't turn against mankind. This testing is quite possibly what prevents X from becoming a Maverick. Dr. Cain was the man who found X almost 100 years after X's creation and then X's life as a Maverick Hunter began.

Zero is X's partner as a Maverick Hunter. His original weapon was a standard Buster, but he is later equipped with the Z-Saber in Mega Man X2 , allowing for close range combat. Zero was created by Dr. Wily, possibly to destroy the original Mega Man and Wily's own renegade creation, Bass, but was woken up many years later unable to remember his original programming.

Axl is a new character introduced in Mega Man X7. Originally a member of the Red Alert Syndicate, he defects to the Hunters at the beginning of the game. His weapons are dual laser pistols. He also has the ability to transform into certain Reploids of identical size by destroying them with a special laser shot, otherwise he gains a special ability from destroyed reploids.

Series history

Capcom released a more action packed Mega Man X for the Super NES to give a new image to the Mega Man game series. There are a total of eleven games in the Mega Man X series. Mega Man X1-3 on the Super NES (with ports of X1 and X3 to the PC, and a port of X3, released only in Japan and Europe, to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn), Mega Man X4-6 on the PlayStation (X4 also being on the Sega Saturn, and X4-5 being ported to the PC), Mega Man X7-8 on the PlayStation 2 (X8 also being on the PC in Japan and Europe), the RPG Mega Man X: Command Mission on the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and Mega Man Xtreme 1-2 (Rockman X: CyberMission and Rockman X2: Soul Eraser in Japan) on the Game Boy Color. Mega Man X was remade on the PlayStation Portable as Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. Lastly, Mega Man X: Collection on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube is comprised of the first 6 Mega Man X games.

Gameplay

The Mega Man series has always been squarely within the platformer genre. Mega Man X is no exception to this rule, however several things are very different in Mega Man X. Most notably that X, the new protagonist, can cling to walls and "climb", and secondly, and just as importantly, he can dash and jump at the same time, increasing his speed in the air. These modifications make it possible to go through the majority of the game without using any other gun than the default, which is very different from previous Mega Man games where one had to rely heavily on weapons won in previous fights against boss characters in previously conquered stages. In addition, from the second game onward, Zero is armed with a beam saber rather than the traditional "buster" gun. Mavericks replace the Robot Masters, and Sigma replaces Dr. Wily. The Mavericks are based on various types of organisms, usually animals, instead of being humanoid in appearance, as were most of the bosses in the classic series, although their attacks and names are usually based on mechanical or chemical phenomena or laws of physics like the original games. For example, instead of "Flame Man" there is "Flame Stag," instead of "Spark Man" there is "Spark Mandrill," etc. One exception is "Boomer Kuwanger," whose name seems to be a portmanteau of "boomerang" and "kuwagata" (A Japanese stag beetle). The PSP remake renames the English name to the more clear "Boomerang Kuwanger". Though some Mavericks have new, never-before-seen powers (e.g., "Toxic Seahorse"), most have the traditional element-based weapons of the past games, such as fire, water, air, earth, and others.

Notes

There seems to be running jokes with this series in the form of references to Star Wars. In the first game in particular, Zero played a role similar to that of Obi-Wan Kenobi (including dying and his body disappearing) and Sigma fighting with a light (or "beam") saber (Zero, who returned in the second game, gained such a saber himself in the process). The most prominent resemblance is that Vile wears something very similar to Boba Fett's distinctive "T" helmet. In fact, his Japanese name is "Vava," which can be translated as "Baba." Also, Zero's Z-Saber has a distinct lightsaber sound in the Japanese version, but was changed in the U.S. editions of the games.

It's also possible that the idea of beam sabers might have been taken from the anime Mobile Suit Gundam.

In Mega Man X5, it should be noticed that almost every new Maverick had some relation to members of the band Guns N' Roses (note that in the Japanese X5, there were no such Guns N' Roses allusions, with the possible exception of the guns in the background of Spike Rosered's stage.) Also, in Mega Man X3, Neon Tiger's stage uses a non-lyrical and simplified SNES version of the Guns N' Roses track "My Michelle". The character named Axl is also most likely a reference.

Upon his defeat in Mega Man X2, Sigma mentions that Zero was "the last of the doctor's creations;" in Rockman X2, he also says the first syllable of "Wily" during this line. To support this theory, Dr. Wily, in his later years, was said to have worked on a robot to counter both Mega Man and his own renegade creation, Bass, who described its plans as "girlie-looking" and "long-haired". Zero also has memories of a human resembling Dr. Wily in Mega Man X4 and X5, and the "W" sign appearing in his forehead.

Mega Man X5 also contained many allusions to past games in the series. Some of these connections are certain boss fights (Rangda Bangda from Mega Man X, brought back as Rangda Bangda Mk II along with its original boss music), Duff McWhalen's stage music (Bubble Crab from Mega Man X2), and the first Sigma Stage, which is an almost exact replica of Quick Man's stage from Mega Man 2. Along with this, the boss of the first Sigma Stage is based on the "Devil" monsters from the earlier Mega Man games (complete with a remix of the Wily Fortress boss music from Mega Man 1), and in the first and third boss rooms, a faint, distorted logo of the antagonist of the original series, Dr. Wily, can be seen in the background.

Mega Man X6 used a remix from X2's third X-hunter stage as music for Gate's Laboratory Stage. It also included a remix of the battle with Sigma from X1 (where Sigma wields a beam saber) and X2 (where Sigma battles with claws ala Wolverine) as the battle music with Sigma's final form.

Also, Mega Man X is the only Mega Man series to not appear in a crossover so far, unless one counts the super-deformed cameos in Pocket Fighter or the time-travel episodes of the Mega Man cartoon, however, Mega Man X and Mega Man are two distinct series within the larger franchise.

Mega Man X has been subjugated to several manga adaptations in the past. While none of these have ever been translated and released in the United States, they are popular among fans and are often acquired through online auctions. The most popular Manga adaptation was drawn by Yoshihiro Iwamoto of SD-Gundam and Devilman fame, who authored Mega Man X1 through X4. Only 2 of the 4 Rockman X4 mangas were published in condensed form. For reasons unknown, the remainder of the X4 comics were printed in Bom Bom Comics. Iwamoto's manga gives an expanded view of the series, showing characters such as X's girlfriend Martei and giving the Mavericks reasons to fight, as well as moments not seen in the games such as Zero without his helmet. Other manga adaptations have been published, such as the Capcom-reminiscent version by Shigeto Ikehara, and the Megamissions Adaptation by Hitoshi Ariga, Iwamoto's adaptation is the most well-received and most circulated.

A petition created by the Mega Man X fanbase has been running for the last few years for Viz Communications to publish Iwamoto's manga in the United States, although it has yet to yield any sort of result.

Wikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject:

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Mega Man X series

Games	Mega Man X (video game)>MMX · MMX2 · MMX3 · MMX4 · MMX5 · MMX6 · MMX7 · MMX8 Xtreme · Xtreme 2 [[Mega Man X: Command Mission\|Command Mission]] · Maverick Hunter X
Characters	X · Zero · Dr. Light · Dr. Cain · Sigma · Vile · Dr. Doppler · Gate · Lumine · Axl · Colonel · Colonel Redips · Dynamo · Berkana · Gareth · Red · Alia · Iris · X-Hunters · Bio-Devil · Nightmare Police
Other	Vehicles · Mechaniloid · Reploid · Maverick Hunters · Red Alert Syndicate · Maverick · Maverick virus · List of Mavericks · Weaponry · [[b:List of Mega Man attacks#Mega Man X\|Gained weaponry]]

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