Collection essentials #312: Mega Man X4 (Saturn)

Of course it wasn’t just mainline Mega Man that would make the jump to this generation of consoles, as its sister series Mega Man X would as well. As a reminder, the “X” does not stand for “10”, instead it refers to the protagonist named “Mega Man X” who is a distinct character from normal “Mega Man”. 

Mega Man X4 makes the leap to a more technologically-capable console in roughly the same way as 8 did. That is to say, the graphics remained 2D but had an overhauled look, the basic gameplay concept wasn’t messed with that much, and voice acting and anime cutscenes were added. And, yes, the voice acting is incredibly cheesy to the point where it can be amusing. This does kill the serious vibes that the developers originally intended, unfortunately, but to me it doesn’t ruin the game by any means. 

Mega Man X4 once again requires you to take on eight “mavericks” whose stages can be tackled in any order, which works very much like regular Mega Man and its robot masters. And like before, X4 places a big emphasis on finding permanent power-ups hidden throughout the levels, which encourages the player to revisit levels they’ve already gone through to try and find what they missed, especially when they have new abilities that may give them access to something they couldn’t reach before. And Mega Man X remains much more mobile than the original Blue Bomber with the ability to dash and jump at high speeds plus other movement upgrades found as the player progresses, and this is to my liking as I tend to prefer the type of challenge that comes from enemy and level design rather than the limitations of your character. 

What’s really notable about X4 is that X’s ally, Zero, is added as a full-fledged playable character. Sure, you could play as him briefly in X3, but that felt like a throw-in with not much practical use. This time, you choose either X or Zero when you start the game, and that’s who you’ll be sticking with for that playthrough. Zero has his own distinct weapon, that being a close-range beam saber, and the new weapons he gets from the bosses are different from those that X gets. This means you’ll more than likely want to play through this game twice, once with each of the two characters, and even though you’re going through the same levels, this major gameplay difference will make it fresh and worth it. 

X4 shines with great level design that is quite varied. There’s one stage where you’ll be riding some kind of futuristic vehicle rather than being on foot, too. The only real complaint I have is the final boss, who is pretty obnoxious to fight. But otherwise, this is prime classic Mega Man X action.

There are different versions of Mega Man X4. The Saturn version isn’t the clear-cut objectively best version as was the case in 8, but it has its perks. Some graphical effects are a little different, which can be hit or miss, such  as with the searchlight effects on the Saturn that don’t use proper transparencies and therefore don’t look as good. But the nicest thing about the Saturn version, to me, is that the music properly loops. In other versions of the game, the music will start and stop over if played long enough, and that can be a little jarring in the middle of a level. I appreciate properly-looping music, so that’s enough to make the Saturn my console of choice for X4.

I got Mega Man X4 around the same time that I got Mega Man 8, back in 2005, early in my Saturn days, and it certainly helped endear me to the series. It’s more classic Capcom goodness and makes for a worthy collection essential.