If I’m not mistaken, the original Mega Man series went on for eight entries in total, before Capcom switched gears and put their Mega Man focus on the ‘X’ series of games.  Back when Mega Man was still an honorable series – albeit a bit tired – Capcom rejuvenated the gameplay with Mega Man X, an incredible debut on the Super Nintendo.  Mega Man – or simply “X” as his new comrades called him – was beefed up, prettied up, and controlled better than ever.  He could receive armor upgrades; he could climb and kick off of walls, dash, even head-butt things, and of course the ability to use powers of fallen bosses returns in fine form.  Dropped were the cliché “____ Man” names, in favor of more creative titles like Spark Mandrill and Boomer Kuwanger.  This new ‘X’ series was definitely a step in the right direction for a series that while arguably solid, was getting less exciting with each new installment.

Unfortunately, Mega Man X8 is now at the point where we are quite tired of Mega Man.  After eight entries, then-fancy moves like wall-climbing don’t offer any more thrills.  Although Capcom intended to spice things up with the last entry, X7, by using a totally 3D game engine, the game fell on its face as the bland 2D segments and horrid 3D segments were either a bore or a pain to play through.

Fortunately, things are improved in X8.  The many 3D segments are mostly gone here, although a few “driving” on-rails levels remain.  The 2D gameplay makes up the vast majority of the playtime, and it’s absolutely as un-fun as it was in the last game.  Mega Man – err, “X” – plays almost exactly like he did in the original Mega Man X.  Here too are playable characters gradually introduced over the span of the series, Zero and Axl.  In an attempt to balance the characters, each one can do things that others can’t.  Zero can double-jump, Axl can hover.  Zero can use a sword for making quick work of short-range battles, and Axl can aim in all directions.  Mega Man can still charge up his Mega Buster, but it only shoots horizontally.  He can’t navigate platforms nearly as well as the other two.  The only thing going for him are the powers that he derives from fallen bosses, but seeing as most bosses in X8 are often just as easily beaten with default weapons, there’s little reason to actually use Mega Man.  The balancing idea kind of backfired.

Level design is quite bland, and is actually quite inferior to even the NES Mega Man levels.  There’s nothing here as interesting as Bubble Man’s stage in Mega Man 2 or Star Man’s level in Mega Man 5.  In fact, there are a few cheap knockoffs of earlier bosses, like a gravity altering level, but here it’s not even done as well as in Mega Man 4.  Instead of having the objects on the screen move like in Ye Olde Mega Man, the entire screen rotates, and since you have to do this very often the level actually becomes a sickening, dizzying affair.  I’ve been playing video games since I was a youngster with no problems whatsoever and I actually had to stop and take a break from this level because I was feeling a hint of nausea.

Otherwise, the level design is just plain poor or repetitive, or a combination of both.  There’s a level that you play in the dark, giving you the notion that you’re actually sneaking into some area while you avoid the rigid movements of spotlight beams.  When you do get spotted, you fight off a few enemies, and go on your merry way.  Another level literally consists of a series of rooms in which you complete little tasks – usually just defeating an enemy or a number of enemies.  Depending on how well you do, you progress through the level differently.  This would be a great idea if the challenges were actually interesting or the segments in between them cool, but unfortunately they’re pretty much empty hallways with a few gaps or enemies tossed about.

Compared to the two main 3D driving levels, though, the 2D levels are masterpieces.  One of them, where you control some kind of vehicle on a snowy path, is bearable if not great; you basically just jam on the attack button while avoiding obstacles and occasionally braking or boosting.  It’s at least controllable, unlike the frustrating flying level in which you chase down an enemy hundreds of feet high in a city, dodging skyscrapers and floating signs.  The thing is, though, the whole ordeal is on rails, and you don’t have to worry about hitting skyscrapers, only the conveniently placed signs in the area.  But the rail journey is absolutely nonsensical and rarely gives you a chance to actually hit your target because you shoot exactly forward and your target is almost always out of range, if not offscreen.  If you didn’t get the picture yet, I’ll spell it out for you: it’s a ludicrously terrible level.

The graphics in the game are hardly impressive, though they get the job done.  There’s nothing truly appealing here; textures are bright and models are smooth, but everything from the fiery level to the garden area to the sandy desert feels positively uninspired.  Animation is decent, and by far the most visually pleasing part of the game.  Running, shooting, jumping, and wall-climbing still manage to look fairly stylish just as they did in the past, which is a good thing.  And, for what it’s worth, the framerate moves at a swimmingly convenient 60 FPS most of the time.  It’s too bad the bosses are hardly worth mentioning – not only do they look like bosses rejected from previous games, some of them are practically rip-offs of the bosses in previous games.  Optic Sunflower will immediately bring back memories of Mega Man 6’s Plant Man, for example.

Sound in the game is quite unforgettable, but at least not terrible.  Most of the music is a pretty tired mixture of techno and hair metal, and if you’ve played Sonic Adventure or previous Mega Man X entries, you have an idea of what to expect.  Sound effects are okay, with the sound of gunshots and explosions getting the job done as well as any other.  The voice acting works for this type of game – it’s not awfully good, but it’s not pretentious either.  The game doesn’t lose sight of the fact that it’s just a game, and with the silly plot, it’s hard to take many of the voices too seriously anyway.

Overall, Mega Man X8 isn’t a terrible game – one 3D level notwithstanding.  But at the same time, it is terribly mundane.  There’s very little, if any, uncharted territory that this game attempts to explore.  While it will certainly please hardcore Mega Man fanatics – and is indeed a step up from the last entry in the series – it lacks a sense of newness or adventure, and the levels are barely solid, let alone incredible.  I highly recommend the nicely put-together Mega Man Anniversary Collection over this – while the games may not have top-of-the-line 3D graphics (admittedly, neither does this) they were classics for their time and will probably grant you a lot more fun and a much better fix for a Mega Man appetite.  Mega Man X8 is better left on store shelves.

Gameplay: 6.5

Borderline outplayed, the game can be slightly fun at times but is otherwise annoying.  The level design is poor, the bosses uninteresting, the character balancing a good effort at best.  The bad stuff from X7 has been mostly weeded out, but there’s very little if anything new here.

Graphics: 6.5

Yes, they’re 3D, but they hardly demonstrate what can be done with 3D in a 2D environment.  While the graphics are fine, they’re not great.  Animation is good and the framerate is solid, but everything else is less than stellar.

Sound: 6.5

Again, not bad, but not great – with predictably adequate voice acting and sound effects that work well enough, the music doesn’t do much to impress.  Don’t bother turning up the volume for this game, but don’t fret about turning it down, either.

Difficulty: Medium

There are some challenging bits here.  Bosses have easy-to-see patterns but since they deal out a lot of damage, they can be rather tricky to defeat.  Most everything else can be conquered with a bit of memorization – unfortunately, trial-and-error is required some of the time, but the game is certainly conquerable with a little patience.

Concept: 3.0

Honestly, has anything new been attempted here?  Virtually everything here has been in a previous Mega Man game.  Most of the levels look similar to previous ones and even borrow gimmicks from past games, like altering gravity.

Overall: 6.4

This is not a great game, and is barely a respectable entry in the Mega Man saga.  There’s a total lack of ingenuity here, and although this may be the first 3D Mega Man game that “works”, it’s only because Capcom played it safe; the game is downright tiresome at times, with barely any interesting touches.  If you need some Mega Man in your diet, lunge for the Mega Man Anniversary Collection instead – it’s a much better value for your dollar.