If you were to ask me about my favorite games
of all time, there’s guaranteed to be a Mega Man X in there, somewhere. While the level of quality across the eight
main instalments varies wildly and stirs a lotta hot debates, there’s no denying the
X lineup contains some of the best titles of the entire Mega Man brand, and some of
the most revered 2D action platformers, period. It’s a series worth checking out, but unless
you were to sail the seven seas, it hasn’t exactly been the most accessible to get your
hands on. Thankfully, those dark times are now behind
us with the Mega Man X Legacy Collection (XLC for short) available for PlayStation 4, Xbox
One, Switch and Steam. A re-release of Mega Man X1 through X8, all
in a modern, HD package… Well… two packages, kind of; X1 up to X4
comprise part 1 while X5 up to X8 form part 2, but if you like, you can get them combined
for a slightly lower price. It’s a bit of a shame that the RPG X Command
Mission, the remake Maverick Hunter X for the PSP, and the two Game Boy Color titles
Xtreme 1 and 2 aren’t included -- it would have made for a nice XLC 3 -- but having all
the main entries in this format is still neat. In short, this collection is the most convenient
and affordable way to play the X series for the majority of people -- I don’t think
you needed me to tell you that. But if you’d like to know more details about
all the new features and bonus content thrown in, the conversion and visual quality for
the games, and whether both parts of the collection are actually worth getting as a non Mega Man
X aficionado, do stick around. I’m also on the PC version, which is relevant
for down the line. So, to begin with, when it comes to extra
content, XLC has much to offer. From the moment you first boot up, there is
a ton of stuff to check out in the museum. You’ve got a gallery full of images available
for all the eight X titles, containing not only the typical artwork you’d see floating
around on Google Images only now in higher quality, but also pictures used in some of
the games now without compression, numerous concept sketches and drawings, and even story
summaries and moderately detailed character bios for the Hunters themselves, villains
and also the various Mavericks. There’s a product gallery, showing off X
series action figures, capsule toys and other forms of merchandise that have come out over
the decades, and even a selection of trailers for the games, some of which have more than
one trailer. All this gives a pretty good insight into
the history of the Mega Man X brand, including some of the obscure stuff that I’ve never
seen or heard of before, and fans of the series are sure to appreciate it. You can listen to the soundtracks of all the
games in a jukebox environment and even The Day of Sigma has been included, a 24-minute
prequel anime to the series that sheds light on how and why Sigma turned evil. This was originally in Maverick Hunter X,
and has surprisingly high production values with good animation and voice acting that
for once feels intense and legitimate, instead of like a comedy starring random strangers
recruited off the streets. As far I can tell, there isn’t much in the
way of additional extras to unlock by completing the games or getting Hunter Medals (basically
Achievements), but with the amount that’s already available off the bat, I wouldn’t
complain too much about that. What took me by surprise the most, however
-- way back when XLC was first announced in the trailers already -- is the inclusion of
the brand-new X Challenge. In this mode, players must take on familiar
Mavericks from any of the first six installments, but with a twist, namely fighting two of ‘em
at the same time: think of Storm Eagle and Storm Owl, Blaze Heatnix and Blast Hornet,
Shield Sheldon and Squid Adler (yes, I’ll continue calling him that, dammit) and many
other boss combinations. Many people seemed fairly hyped for this feature,
and I gotta admit, it’s very commendable that the developers created it; I imagine
that mixing environments and sprites from two different console generations required
a decent amount of programming and testing to get running so well. It’s presented in a slick format, too, with
a brief scene explaining the plot, redrawn icons for all the weapons, redone sound effects
and even remixed boss music, and neat graphics during the pre-battle screen. It really doesn’t wake the impression of
being thrown in as an afterthought. Unfortunately, if you suspected fighting two
bosses at once wasn’t gonna work, you are correct: fighting two bosses at once doesn’t
work. X Challenge is bluntly put a chaotic mess. More often than not, there is too much going
on simultaneously too quickly for most people to process, and there are also plenty of instances
where avoiding damage is straight-up impossible. None of these Mavericks and their patterns
were ever designed with this sort of situation in mind, and though some pair-ups work better
than others, like Chill Penguin and Frost Walrus, there are also combinations that are
just obnoxious and cheap. I started out doing quite alright and was
cautiously optimistic... until I reached The Skiver + Neon Tiger together. The Skiver is already aggressive and unpredictable
in the original X5, demanding good reflexes and attention to dodge consistently, but dealing
with that in such a significantly smaller, tight-ass room, while also trying to avoid
contact with Neon Tiger flying across the screen or shooting bullets around, is pure
madness. No matter how on-point your movement and reaction
is, you’ll be taking hits, as these bosses follow their own AI scripts and do not account
for what the other is doing. It felt like a war of attrition, and one where
your victory seems to depend on luck, too. As I said, some of the Maverick duos they
cooked up here do work decently well, however, I already ran into bullshit as soon as stage
2. There are nine stages in total, so I don’t
suspect it improves as you progress, and the reason I say ‘’I suspect’’ is because
I quit at stage 3. I can already hear the ‘’ha ha ha lol
u suck git gud stop complaining if u cant handle it crybaby’’ comments, but trust
me, I’ve heard it all a million times already, so you’re not very original. The thing is, I like hard games that provide
a genuine, well-designed challenge, but I don’t find X Challenge does that. Not solely due to the fights themselves, either;
some of the surrounding design choices are equally questionable. For example, each stage has three battles,
and if you die at any one point, you have to retry from battle one of said stage. This equals repetition of doing earlier fights
over and over, and not being able to practice properly on the later fights of a stage. You do get three lives, so one per battle
on average, but your health doesn’t regenerate at all between battles. As such, you’re best off killing yourself
before seriously tackling the next encounter to save time, and also because special weapon
energy doesn’t refill all the way after a death. To be fair, that aspect is admittedly pretty
cool -- how you can choose three special weapons between a selection of nine, I mean -- as
it tests your knowledge of the weaknesses of the Mavericks you’re going to be facing,
and it forces you to pick the weapons you ultimately value the most. You aren’t allowed to swap between fights,
either, so there is an element of strategy present that I do like, and you’ll surely
have an easier time if you’re familiar with the Mavericks and their behavior. When it comes down to it, though, I didn’t
enjoy X Challenge much myself, because the concept and how it’s executed doesn’t
lead to a balanced sense of difficulty. There is an Easy setting, but I quit that
at stage 6 because it was so ridiculously easy that I got bored out of my mind, so it’s
like pick your fucking poison. Still, I can’t rag on X Challenge too much,
as the developers didn’t have to put it in, and if you’re a masochist X fan who’s
really craving some solid flicks in the balls and feels more masculine for it, you’ll
probably get a lot out of this. Just don’t go in expecting anything more
thoughtful than that. I think that about covers the extra content,
so how about the main games themselves? How do they play? How do they look? Well, from the get go I should mention that
the PS1 version of X3 is not at all included here; you’re only getting the SNES release,
and while I like that one the most myself, I do know plenty of people who enjoy the PS1
music more. I think at the very least the option to toggle
between the audio of the two versions of X3 would have been swell, but it looks like we’ll
have to make due with the SNES audio. This is probably due to the fact that X1 through
X3 are all clearly emulated, instead of ported to the new hardware natively like they seemed
to be on the 2006 X Collection for PS2 and GameCube. For the most part, this shouldn’t make much
of a difference, and so X1 through X3 are pretty faithful conversions in XLC in many
ways, but not without some drawbacks and inconsistencies. It’s hard to prove this point with evidence,
but I’m fairly confident, first of all, that the SNES titles all have some degree
of input lag, at least on PC. Response time simply feels delayed to me when
compared to original hardware and even emulators with proper settings, so beware if you’re
sensitive to input lag. Furthermore, what’s disappointing is that
X1 through X3 slow down just like they do on real hardware. Since the games can absolutely chug at certain
intervals and in certain stages, I feel most people would want these performance drops
fixed. Purists would argue it’s more authentic
that way, but any sort of slowdown that originally stemmed from the special CX4 chip used in
X2 and X3 -- think of Serges or Crystal Snail’s sprites spinning around -- is no longer in
XLC. As a result, Capcom met an in-between that
won’t satisfy those looking for a true, accurate representation of the originals,
neither will it satisfy those against the slowdown. I’m also not a fan of how saves are implemented. You don’t get save states or a rewind feature
or any of that fancy schmuck in XLC; instead, the numbers of the password system of X1,
2 and 3 are sort of manipulated into a save file. Sadly, this allows for only one save slot,
and remapped controls also aren’t stored in these saves, so every time you restart
the games, you’ll have to rebind the buttons again. A compromise could have been to allow the
creation of save states only during the stage selection screen, which wouldn’t mess with
the spirit of the games, while simultaneously having more save slots and carrying over control
settings. Not that the developers seemed to care too
much about not messing with the spirit of the games, because all of the installments
come with a ‘’Rookie Hunter’’ mode. This is basically the noobie switch, but in
my opinion they went way overboard with it, as you barely receive any damage whatsoever,
spikes no longer kill you, and when you fall into a pit, you’re immediately spawned to
the closest solid ground -- well, in X4 through X8, anyway; you still die from an abyss in
X1, 2 and 3. That’s a weird inconsistency, I dunno what’s
up with that, but I suppose if you can’t get past a certain section or just wanna cheat,
the Rookie Hunter mode is at your service. X6 would certainly be more palatable with
it. And thankfully, when it comes to the conversion
quality for X6, and thereby also X4 and X5, I’d say it’s actually pretty solid. Save files were always in these games, which
also store customized controls, and performance issues were rarely, if at all a thing, even
on the original hardware: smooth 60fps all the time with no slowdown. Great shit. Load times, on the other hand, were a drawback
of the PlayStation 1 using CDs for storage, and though these load times were never long
in the first place, they’re near instantaneous in XLC, so thumbs up for that, as well. Even the input lag didn’t seem as noticeable
on the PS1 titles as they did on the SNES titles. Again, I don’t have factual evidence to
back me up, but the responsiveness did feel a tad snappier to me. Of course, not every aspect is perfect, and
call me a nitpicker for this, but the audio is noticeably off for X4, 5 and 6 here and
there. For one thing, the music is a little quiet
in comparison to the sound effects, and certain sound effects are significantly louder than
others for whatever reason. Listen to obtaining an extra life in X4 on
original hardware compared to on XLC… as well as menu navigation in X5… I dunno what’s up with that, but it’s
strange and a little sloppy. These aren’t details that’ll bother most
people at all, especially without a direct comparison to the originals, but if there’s
something I noticed, I’ll be damned to point it out. This leaves us with X7 and X8, which have
probably transitioned the best. Most importantly, X7 and X8’s load times
have been drastically reduced. This is a massive improvement, because X7’s
loading in particular was horrendous on PS2. So were its moments of slowdown, by the way,
which have also been fixed here. I’ve never finished X8, so I don’t know
if that had slowdown or frame drops originally, but either way, I didn’t notice any of that
in XLC. Both titles also majorly benefit from being
rendered at a native HD resolution that appears to be 1440x1080. They aren’t widescreen, which is a shame,
but the visuals overall have a much cleaner appearance regardless. X8 in particular looks more appealing, I find,
because the scaling of 2D assets in the original PS2 version was bad: everything from the UI
to the text to the art looked soft and uneven. XLC improved this scaling, making for a sharper
and more pleasant presentation. If I had anything to point out, it would be
that I noticed a graphical glitch on this enemy once in X7, but beyond that, it and
X8 have carried over wonderfully well visually. The same can, unfortunately, not be said as
much for X1 through X6 and their video output options. This is the aspect where XLC personally irked
me the most. Here’s the deal: the SNES games are 224
pixels tall in graphics, while the PS1 games are 240 pixels tall in graphics. XLC typically runs in 1080p, so 1080 pixels
tall. 224 and 240, however, don’t evenly fit into
1080, so blow the games up and you get uneven scaling. This can be spotted most easily in the SNES
titles, as the health bar will look jank as hell, but you can also see that certain pixels
are taller or wider than others, even in the PS1 titles. Look at X here in X6, for example: depending
on his positioning on screen, the size of his eye changes due to the uneven scaling. Another side effect is that it creates a sort
of flickering or “shimmering” as the screen scrolls, because the pixels shrink and grow
as they move. This is all with the default setting, labeled
Type 1 in the options, but there is also Type 2, which scales all pixels by the highest
possible equal factor, and thus avoids uneven scaling. The trade-off, though, is a smaller game image,
and there’s nothing you can do about that. At least not on consoles, where XLC is locked
at 1080p, from what I’ve gathered, with no support for 4K on PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. On PC, by contrast, you can select between
720p, 900p, 1080p and 1440p. No 4K here, either, but the available resolutions
are sufficient, I suppose. You see, for the PS1 titles, 720p and 1440p
are perfect, since 240 fits into these two resolutions evenly while filling the screen
vertically. Therefore, I highly recommend using the ‘’fullscreen’’
setting -- don’t pick ‘’windowed full’’, that won’t work -- and choosing 720p for
the PS1 games, or 1440p if you have a capable monitor. As for the SNES titles, 720p + Type 2 is a
valid option, but I would not recommend this for reasons I’ll clarify in a moment. Instead, I’d say you’re best off picking
900p + Type 2, since it fills practically the entire screen vertically. Switching resolutions like that is an inconvenience,
I understand, but I’m just putting info out there for PC users. Yo, just a bit of a post production note here. While I was editing and recording remaining
clips, I noticed a glitch where all the games, so X1 up to X6, ran somewhat slower in full
screen mode and then specifically 720p. I dunno why 720p only and if this’ll happen
to you, but if it does, the way I fixed it is as follows. Go to your folder where Steam is installed,
then ‘’steamapps’’, ‘’common’’, and in both of the X Legacy Collection folders,
edit the ‘’config’’ file. Look for the line that says ‘’Refreshrate’’,
and enter ‘’60’’ as the value. Save the changes, and all the games should
run at full speed no matter the resolution or settings. It’s a strange bug, for sure, but at least
it seems easily fixed, and permanently, too; I didn’t need to go back again even after
messing around with the in-game options. And yeah, that’s it, so back to the main
video. What sucks, though, is that the SNES games
cannot be fixed entirely, as there is no aspect ratio control besides Type 3… Don’t pick Type 3. Anyway, for convoluted reasons I won’t get
into here, SNES and PS1 games typically displayed differently on a CRT back in the day than
how the consoles render them internally. For X4, 5 and 6, you cannot choose the CRT
aspect ratio in XLC, which may annoy some, but at least it doesn’t lead to scaling
issues. For X1, 2 and 3, on the other hand, you are
stuck with the CRT aspect ratio, which is shit. For one, some people prefer the skinnier aspect
ratio of the console’s internal render, and two, it creates unresolvable, horizontal
scaling issues. The image is essentially stretched by duplicating
only certain pixels, so no matter what you do, you’ll get that shimmering effect during
scrolling, and generally distorted graphics. That said, if you have a 1440p or 4K monitor
or TV and pick Type 2, you can eliminate this horizontal scaling jank almost entirely. This is because you get more pixels to work
with: a 6x scale on 1440p, as opposed to the 4x scale you get on 900p or 1080p. I really cannot stress this enough: use 1440p
and Type 2 if you can, because it truly is the best option for both the SNES and PS1
games. This is also the reason why I don’t recommend
720p for the SNES games, because that makes for a 3x scale, and thereby noticeably worse,
uneven horizontal scaling. Now, once more, many people won’t notice
or care about all this stuff and that’s fine, but we shouldn’t be having this problem
in the first place. This is a professionally made compilation
and commercially sold; it was somebody’s job to get it right. What Capcom should have implemented, is interpolation,
which is a method of creating in-between pixels to ensure an even image regardless of scale
factor and aspect ratio. Emulators can do it, video editing software
can do it, Sonic Mania can do it -- why can’t XLC? It would’ve led to an even image that always
fills the screen vertically, at no cost of user-friendliness. Fuck, I got so caught up in that scaling nonsense
that I forgot to mention… You can also enable borders to fill the black
space, and there is a smoothing filter, as well as a CRT filter. The borders are distracting, if you ask me,
so I don’t use them, the smoothing filter is not my cup of tea and comes with weird
artifacts, and the CRT filter has scanlines so thin they’re hardly visible. It’s not a very convincing CRT look, so
might as well leave that off. Maybe some of these options suit your taste,
though. The ultimate question is: what do I think
of the X Legacy Collection? Well, first of all, it’s important to note
that the PC version, though it has the advantage of multiple resolutions, has been a bitch
to some people. I’ve heard complaints about X7 and X8 having
performance issues, in particular, either in the form of slower gameplay on its own
or not running so hot when live streaming. I can’t speak for that, since I haven’t
bumped into any such oddities myself, but it’s likely to do with PC specs. The recommended specifications on the Steam
page are quite high, and I assume they are in reference to playing X7 and X8. I wouldn’t worry too much about X1 through
X6 lagging or whatever, but keep this caveat in mind if you do decide to buy XLC on PC. Now, how about the collections themselves? Are they quality stuff? I’m a bit mixed on this. All the artwork and fun stuff is dope, and
the X Challenge, while not the best designed thing in the world, is still an appreciated
bonus that I’ve seen many people get a lot out of. The conversion quality for X7 and X8 is also
great, but it’s X1 through X6 that I’m personally disappointed with. While the games are very playable and probably
satisfactory for many players, they have a handful of flaws and shortcomings in XLC that
shows either a lack of competence or care from the developers in properly bringing over
classic pixel games to the modern age. Besides the quick loading for X4, 5 and 6,
and a half-assed save system for X1, 2 and 3, these games also aren’t improved in any
substantial way. This bothers me, seeing how the PS2 X Collection
from 2006 removed all slowdown in the SNES games, and included more than one measly save
slot. The PS1 games also don’t have small graphical
glitches like XLC does here and there, and have near instant loading, as well. None of these titles have any scaling issues
whatsoever, either. With that, I’d say, technically speaking,
this original, PS2 X Collection contains the best versions of X1 through X6. The only problem it has is that it supports
240p only, which is a resolution that leads to many incompatibility issues with modern
displays and capture cards. However, if you have an upscaler like the
Framemeister or OSSC or still have a CRT laying around, you really can’t go wrong with this
older collection, and it isn’t even expensive at all. Frankly, if you already have and can play
this, or all the original releases on the original consoles, XLC does not offer much
of an improved experience, and in some ways even offers an inferior experience. The Switch version has value for its portability,
but I gotta be honest: XLC is not how I am going to be playing X1 through X6 in the future. Of course, none of this takes away that the
X Legacy Collections are by far the most accessible and convenient for people to play the series
nowadays. Especially for newcomers to the series, I
really couldn’t tell you tell you to seek out the other options with a straight face. Get part 1 of XLC especially. With the debatable exception of X3, X1 through
X4 are all high quality stuff and worth playing if you enjoy action-packed side-scrolling
platformers: they’re not perfect, but have got tight as hell controls, rewarding exploration,
high replay value and overall good level and boss design. I’d initially hold off on XLC part 2, though,
as X5, 6, 7 and 8 make for a very mixed bag of titles. I mean, 6 and 7 are outright garbanzo -- all
the complaints and rants you’ve heard about them are valid -- and 5, while not necessarily
bad, feels like the beginning of the end to me. Fans overall seem mixed on X8, also; some
really like it, others do not, so whether you’ll like it is kind of a crapshoot. By all means get part 2 if you’re curious
about how the Mega Man X saga lost its luster or if you wanna laugh at some awful games,
but otherwise, part 1 is all ya need, baby. Hey there, thanks for watching the video! Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful in
some capacity. I actually have full, in-depth reviews of
X1 through X7, and though many of them are long and filled with spoilers, you may enjoy
them, so check ‘em out if you want. I don’t have an X8 analysis yet, but y’know,
perhaps now is the time to change that. Peace out.
