Hello everyone, this will be my first review since I've rejoined the site, I've been incredibly excited to write it and I hope it'll convince some poor soul that's never played this game to give it a try. Let's start with Story, shall we?

(CAUTION, IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE STORY YOURSELF THEN SKIP THIS SUMMARY AND GO AHEAD TO THE NEXT CATEGORY!)

STORY: Our tale begins near the end of the classic Megaman games, Dr. Light; creator of the original Megaman robot has created Megaman X. (I'll abbreviate him as X throughout this summary) However, X is capable of making his own decisions, considering his ability to be self aware and act exactly human, a paranoid Dr.Light seals X away in a pod for someone else to discover. Meanwhile at Dr. Wily's, (Dr. Light's nemesis) he's also created a robot that's more powerful than X, his name being Zero. However, considering the same things that Light had with his robot, Wily seals Zero away in a pod and leaves him there for someone of the future to find. 100 years later, a researcher known as Dr. Cain decides to begin a dig of Dr Light's lab to perhaps discover any fossils. Dr. Cain uncovers X sealed away in his pod, amazed at X, he quickly takes X and Light's other inventions to his laboratory. Soon enough Cain takes care of X and eventually Zero awakens as well. (Sorry for the thick summary of the backstory, I felt it was necessary) In this era of civilization, there are plenty of robots like X that can make their own decisions and have their own beliefs, These robots are called Reploids. However some of them have irregular behavior because of a virus, the robots who are infected with said virus are aggressive and are identified as the term Mavericks. The commander of the Maverick Hunters organization known as Sigma slowly becomes infected as well, he slowly tries to take over and begin a rebellion, calling all Reploids to join it, Sigma subdues powerful Reploids and forces them to join. Zero becomes leader of the Maverick Hunters after this and X and him slowly work their way up as they defeat the Mavericks, and then taking down Sigma once and for all.

Overall? I believe the story is pretty nice, it sets rules and explains how the story is working and how the good VS bad aspect of it functions. However, I believe the downside of this story is that some of the best aspects aren't shown in the gameplay, only showed in things like the Day of Sigma OVA and the opening cutscene to the game. (And some comics.) But, I still believe it's solid nonetheless, Let's hop into Gameplay shall we?

GAMEPLAY: X controls beautifully, his controls are tight and responsive, he comes equipped with a charge shot that can deal a large amount of damage and his shooting gameplay feels satisfying. Throughout the game you can nab various powerups though, ones that increase your weapon energy (We'll get to what weapon energy is in a moment) and restore some of your HP. The way that the game's structure runs down is that you pick a maverick, run through the stage shooting various other robots/mavericks and making your way to the boss of the stage, who has a pattern you must then figure out and exploit/work around. After you defeat said maverick boss then X can gain their powers, say for example when you defeat Chill Penguin you gain an ice shot that can reflect off of walls which is useful for hitting enemies in specific positions. The cool thing about these weapons is that you can use them on specific bosses because they're weak to each others weapons, Say for example, someone like Spark Mandrill that's running off electricity is weak to Chill penguin's ice shot, and therefore will deal extra damage to him on top of freezing him there for a moment. That's not all X can add to his arsenal though, Throughout the stages Dr. Wily has placed holograms of himself and armor pieces for X that can give him various moves/perks, The boots giving you a dash ability which I stress is ESSENTIAL, The chest giving you 50% less damage taken, The gloves giving you an extra level of charge up to your standard X shot and lets you charge boss weapons, and the helmet giving you the ability to break certain blocks within stages. The other two things that X can nab throughout these levels are Heart Tanks which increase his maximum HP he can hold, and Subtanks which are health recovery items that can be refilled by having full HP and still picking up HP from enemies. Overall, I love the way the game is. It supports fast and aggressive gameplay while not punishing newer players that take slower approaches to the level. The level design itsself feels completely fair, never did I once feel that a death was the games fault and not mine.
I believe that Megaman X is an amazing game to get into gameplay wise for newer players starting to get into the X series, however it's not good for a player wanting to get into the classic series, That's not a downside, more like a warning. Let's get into the Presentation.

PRESENTATION: The way the game presents itsself? I believe is both good and bad, the tutorial level does a good job at teaching players how the game plays in each of its levels. However, on the negative side, the game WANTS you to pick Chill Penguin as your first maverick so you can get the dash boots, Remember when I said these are essential? That's because the games level design will revolve around it sometimes with bosses like Storm Eagle who will try to blow you away and the only way you can counter it is by dashing towards him. However, despite that one gripe, as long as the player is aware of this they're still able to have a good time. The world that X is in feels alive with not only the enemy placement but the way that the game functions with the Mavericks. The bosses all have effects on each other's stages, Say for example I go and defeat Chill Penguin and then go to Flame Mammoths stage, the level should be filled instead of lava, but because I just did the ice level all the fire and lava is frozen over into ice, this can make some levels much easier. The graphics are sharp and it's easy to identify what's in the background and what isn't, and the music sounds very nice for a 16bit game, taking a more adrenaline based vibe and they use the SNES instruments perfectly in my opinion.

I think that the presentation on Megaman X can welcome a new player as I said, as long as they know what they're doing and understand to go to Chill Penguin first. Let's move onto the final overview and 100% completion bonus?

FINAL THOUGHTS AND 100% PERK: Overall, I believe that Megaman X is a great game to get into, even if you're not a fan of classic Megaman, it's still worth a shot because if you enjoy it then you're gonna enjoy it A LOT. Now let's talk about that perk eh? (WARNING, IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SURPRISE SPOILED THEN DON'T READ ON) Once you've collected all the Armor Pieces, defeated every maverick, collected every Heart Tank, and Subtank, you can go through a lengthy process in Armored Armadillos stage to get one more Dr. Light capsule, and what does it give you? The hadoken from Street Fighter, It can one-hit-defeat bosses but X can only use it at full health, such a cool easter egg huh? x)

Any and all constructive criticism is not only welcome but reccomended, I want to inform people of these games and I wanna learn how to do that better as I write these reviews every so often. Cheers.