GENRE
	2D Platformer
	DEVELOPER
	Capcom
	PUBLISHER
	Capcom
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

When the SNES first came out, the announcement of a Mega Man game for the console was hardly a surprise. What was unusual was that the new game would be set in a new continuity only marginally related to previous Mega Man games. Since Mega Man X was such a sales success, it was also no surprise that numerous sequels would be released as well. Now the first six installments of the series are available in the Mega Man X Collection for the Nintendo GameCube. Fans of the series will be pleased with the collection, because basically, nothing has changed.

visuals

Few GC-specific graphics are used in the collection, other than some interactive menus. It is mostly just the classic 16- or 32-bit graphics. Some of the PS games also feature animated cutscenes in addition to in-game visuals.

audio

Again, while the audio is reproduced faithfully from the original games, nothing's new here. Some of the earlier games, particularly the original, have very catchy stage songs and are quite enjoyable, but on the downside, the voice acting (X4, cough cough) is somewhat...horrifically bad.

gameplay

If you're playing an X game, you know what you're getting. Mega Man has been a bastion of 2D platforming goodness since the earliest days of the NES, and the X games not only continued this tradition, but improved upon it, giving X the ability to cling to walls and fire.

Every game is reproduced almost exactly, and only the most obsessive nitpickers (like this reviewer) will notice any difference. (For instance, while the Hadouken trick from the original game is present, X does not say "Hadouken!" like he did in the SNES version.) In fact, the loading time for the PS games has been decreased to almost nothing, which makes playing the collection possibly more desirable than playing the original games.

However, Mega Man X Collection is noticeably lacking in extras. Whereas the original Mega Man Anniversary Collection had numerous unlockables, including concept art and the Power Battles arcade games, this collection has only one, the ancient kart-racer Mega Man Battle & Chase, which is unrelated to the X continuity. On the other hand, control issues which plagued the older collection have been resolved---the A button now functions as the jump, and B once again handles the firing duties. Also, controls are now assignable from each title's options menu.

multiplayer

Mega Man Battle & Chase is playable with two-players for kart-racing action. All of the X canon games are single-player only.

overall

It's hard to find better 2D platformers than these, but Capcom could have spared a little more expense for the extras. Even including Mega Man's Soccer would have been nice. Still, even though the unlockables are unbelievably light, Mega Man X Collection is a great value. Even a bad X game is better than most, and the entire collection costs less than it might to buy X2 or X3 on eBay these days. This is a must for fans of Mega Man, good 2D games or angsty, tormented, pretty-boy robots, or maybe all three.

7.8/10