Mega Man X6

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours, though the post-credits timer said like 4, I know that's not true. I don't know how it's calculating the time, because even the post-mission timers would say like 10 minutes after half hour+
• Too Short/Long: Just right.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good. This is definitely one of the better ones.
• Why I played: Megamanathoning
• Jank: It's a lot less janky than X5 and besides some stupid stuff, like instant death spikes which textures don't actually go all the way out to where the hitbox is, it's not really that janky. I guess the localization is still pretty uhh.. not great. X6 has a few pretty infamous lines.
• Difficulty: X6 is definitely one of the tougher ones and in ways that can be pretty frustrating, but the also dropped any pretense of lives/continues meaning anything as you always start at the last checkpoint after dying, even after losing all your lives. They started this with X5, but at least using continues negatively impacted your score, which affects your rank.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty pleased with X6. It has it's frustrating aspect, but generally speaking I think people are far too harsh on this one. X5 I understand a bit more.
• Recommend to others: Of course, but keeping in the trend, I'd still recommend starting with 1 or 4 first.
  

Mega Man X6 overall I think has a pretty strong showing but maybe also tries to do too much when what's simple works better. That said, some of the ideas work out a little better in this one. There are ways your stage order can affect the following stage you play, the level design is pretty good, the part system is a bit better. How it handles rank and such is a bit more forgiving. Filling the level with rescuable Reploids is something they would continue to do in the Mega Man Zero series, so while it's not necessarily my favorite thing to have in every level, obviously some people like it. I think it would be a little better as a single stage gimmick(maybe two), than the whole game. It's a bit stressful at time since just one wrong move or hesitation can mean a Nightmare gets to them and they're just gone forever, no chance of rescuing, and many of them have parts/upgrades you can only get from them, so that part/upgrade is at risk of being gone forever. I'm just not a big fan of permanent missables in any game, but it does add an engaging sense of urgency I might not have otherwise had in some areas. That said, some it hindered the experience because I was treading so carefully, trying to draw out the Nightmare, which is what you really need to do in some cases.

The Nightmares are a bit annoying, maybe too abundant. I played this one as Zero because I played X5 mostly as X. I still did a lot of my backtracking and replays as Zero in X5, and I did the same with X in X6 to make sure I got everything before wrapping up the game. The Nightmares are way easier to take out as Zero because they have pretty small hitboxes and take a lot of hits, though X does have the Z-saber in this one as well, he's not quite as proficient so he's far less agile when using it, so Zero just feels better for the level design. The bosses definitely still feel more designed around X, so I guess it's balanced in some kind of way.

Anyway... I sure hope I've at least been slightly too harsh on X7 all these years...