PSP Recommendations: Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X is a remake of a game born in a time where games weren't judged on the length of their respective adventures. It was a game among games that challenged you to find the best way through them, a strategy detailing how to find everything that made the game's challenge a bit easier to bear. Mega Man games are known for their secrets and their replay value, but they're also known for their bitter, nail-biting challenge; and therein lies the force that drives you to strive for the former two appealing factors.

Maverick Hunter X does its best to recapture the appeal of the original SNES classic Mega Man X. And it succeeds! Well, mostly. There are times where remakes of older titles don't quite capture the spirit of the original in every way, but the good thing is that Maverick Hunter X captures most of what it had. It doesn't do it on quite the same level that a game like Bionic Commando Rearmed does, and it's definitely not on the same "better than the original" level that Metroid: Zero Mission does, but it does a good enough job that almost anyone who has or hasn't enjoyed the original will like and replay it.

The remake has many of the same levels that the original had, all of which are mostly preserved in their original form. Anyone who's played through the original multiple times will find incredibly familiar territory here, as the level layouts, and even some of their exploitable glitches, are still mostly intact. But it's important to say that they're "mostly" intact, as veterans will find a curve ball thrown at them. Many of us played the original so much that we knew where each power up was located, and by the end of the game we had X powered up to his final, fully armored form. For this one, Capcom took it upon themselves to shuffle the locations of most of the power ups, so anyone expecting them to be in the same place is in for a surprise. They're not really harder to find, though.

For the most dedicated fans how care about the world and characters of the Mega Man franchise - and you'd have to be incredibly dedicated to actually be concerned about it, because even they'll admit that it's far from the most riveting material - there's much more exposition for it this time. Most of the conversations between characters play out differently, and all of them contain full voice acting. And fortunately, it's pretty good, unlike what the atrocities the franchise was previously known for. Also, all of the additional story material is done with anime cut scenes, which look very nice on the PSP's screen.

The game itself also looks quite nice, much better than any kind of screen shot can show. But anyone who thinks the game doesn't quite look like the original is...well, they're actually right. As nice as some of the 3D polygonal models and backgrounds look, they don't have quite the same amount of aesthetic appeal of the original's 2D sprite work.

The transition from 2D to 3D - or 2.5D, if you want to be really specific - has also created some gameplay setbacks. During this process, it's difficult to make everything feel as perfect as the pixellated version, namely the platforming. The transition for jumping across platforms wasn't perfect, and it's actually made leaping over platforms a little harder than it was in the original game. It's nothing that can't be adjusted to, however.

There have also been numerous balance changes made to the game, which make the game both easier and harder. Many of these affect the end game, whose final level in the original required you to make it through it in one sitting; this was one very long section that required you to face all eight bosses (known as "Mavericks" here, because, you know, you're a "Maverick Hunter") and a few other boss characters, along with some of the toughest platforming in the game. All of that challenge hasn't been removed from the main game itself, but it's nice that what was one long level has been split into four parts, which allow you to save in the interim between them. You can also save right before the final boss! Though, to compensate for that, they're harder than they were in the original.

Just as you'd expect, all of the music has been remixed, and your old and favorite tunes have been redone very well for the remake. They may lack some of the appeal the original had, due to its music being so good while utilizing lower quality technology, but their catchiness is still completely intact. It won't replace the original's soundtrack on your iPod's playlist, but it'll wedge itself right next to it to complement it.

(What, you don't have video game soundtracks on your iPod's playlist.)

And a complementary piece is also what Maverick Hunter X serves as. The quality of the overall product isn't quite up to the experience of the original, but that would be impossible given how this isn't an original product. Its itinerary is to tinge your senses of nostalgia that you either have for the original, or games like it.

And I sincerely wish that I could be saying the same thing for the rest of the games. Series creator Keiji Inafune once expressed that he wanted to remake Mega Man X1-X6, which would've happened if this game hadn't bombed horribly (especially in Japan). That's a shame, because I sure would've loved to see if they could make Mega Man X6 into a tolerable experience. Bummer.

Edit: Thanks to Drew for reminding me that I totally forgot to mention a mode where you get to play as fan-favorite villain Vile, which gives an entire new dynamic to its gameplay style (he's very different from X). What were you expecting, a playable Zero with his MMX4 moveset? Pfft.