I have been holding back on this one for too long. After X2 disappointed me due to how more convoluted getting 100 percent was over the vastly smoother X1, and hearing quite a few things about this one, I was very hesitant to start this up. But moments where you just don’t have anything to do because the mmo you’re playing is in the weeks or months before an expansion so, you just go, Bleep it!

X2 ended with the 2 major reveals, Zero is the last of the doctor’s creations ( it’s not as clear yet it was Wily but that comes soon) and that Sigma is actually now a computer virus. The former will not be addressed in this game.

We get an opening text crawl that bridges the events of that game to the start of this one. A Dr Doppler has been working on a cure for the Sigma virus and apparently restored many Mavericks to sanity. And then things go crazy. Doppler tries to take over the world and just as X and Zero are about to set off to attack his forces, they attack Maverick Hunter HQ. This is our opening level and for the most part it plays like the other opening levels, introducing you to the run and gun platformer. One shift is when a Maverick Hunter turns traitor and captures X, causing you to play as Zero for that section till you beat the mini boss and free X before fighting the large robot at the end of the stage as X.

This is the first game that lets you play as Zero in the entire franchise, but rather than a full playable character it’s more a temporary power up for sections of the level. I avoided this since it can affect the ending you get, it’s a minor detail and  requires you to use Zero at a specific moment, but I felt, get the “true” ending.

The core basics of the game are still there and haven’t been messed up (not till 5 that starts happening). You, for the majority of the game, get 8 levels, each with a  boss that has a weapon you get when you beat them, which is the weakness to another boss. The levels also have several power ups, that a good number need a different power up or weapon to acquire. A new type of power up for this game is the ride armours. These had been in the previous games but now you can unlock different versions. Downside is you need to find the first one hidden in a specific level to start unlocking the others.

You can handle the levels at any order with the only element that would change the ending not being time locked. However like the last game there are some hidden bosses, But rather than holding back a true ending, 2 of these bosses will show up in the middle of stages part way into the game and one is hidden in other stages. Defeating these bosses with the right weapon will change the bosses that appear in the final stages. That said there is an indication they really wanted you to use Zero early on as at least at the start of the game, the damage from some of the enemies is a bit much, there is a secret though that you can exploit to get health to drop more often. The weapon Frost Shield for some reason causes health to drop more often, which is vital especially when filling out those sub tanks.

Similar to the other 2 games there is a super unlock if you get every other upgrade in the game, and unlike X2 this one is actually useful on more than just one boss. Sadly this isn’t what most people thought it would be, the Tatsumaki, which would have continued the SF trend from the last 2 games. Instead you get the Hyper chip. You see there is a secret additional upgrade type even more hidden in this game, the chips. These give a permanent upgrade to Xs abilities but you can only get one. HOWEVER, if you got none of those, then in Doppler stage 1, if you have every power up and have full HP upon getting to the area the chip is located, you get the hyper chip. This chip gives you the power of all the chips in one, so you really shouldn’t get the other chips and just get this one. Makes the last bosses a lot more manageable.

Once I started to get into X3 I found it to be A LOT better than I expected to be. I previously thought this was the bad one of the SNES trilogy. But I would conclude now X2 is the weakest entry in my opinion. I replayed X1 and 2 before starting this game and still found X2 the least enjoyable to get to the ending with the worst bosses. So yeah this was a pleasant surprise. I should say, I got this game as part of a Collection of Megaman X games that contained one more entry. One I’ve never played. Next time I play a X game, it’s time to go into X4.

Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮