Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’ve been chewing on. Today, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mega Man X’s launch in Japan, Ollie dives into what makes its opening stage so damn good…
Original Mega man The series is well known for its punishing severity, especially for newcomers. With time, patience and persistence, and that is relatively easy to learn everything and get through each entry with little struggle, but if there was one thing the original franchise lacked — especially on the NES — it was a tutorial. You’re simply thrown into the ring with a choice of six to eight stages to choose from, and that’s about it.
You could say that Mega Man isn’t really need teaching. After all, you just run, shoot, and in later entries slide. You could easily pick up the basics as you progressed through whichever stage you chose first, but the designers Mega man he must have thought that the spiritual heir to the franchise could do something that would help the newcomers a little. Fortunately, the result is one of the best opening stages of all time.
Taking place against a cyberpunk-esque urban backdrop, the level essentially moves in a relatively straight line from point A to point B, defeating enemies large and small along the way. One of the great ways the new game took advantage of the 16-bit power of the SNES was that certain enemies could penetrate the platforms and destroy the environment, which would force X to jump over those newly created gaps.
The biggest change, however, and probably the main reason the tutorial was included in the first place, was X’s ability to jump over walls and reach high ledges. The stage enforces this in multiple intervals with the introduction of the ‘Bee Blader’: a large, mechanical helicopter that generally resembles a bee. Destroying these will cause them to crash onto the platform, causing the whole thing to fall with you on top.
Now, if this was OG Mega Man, you’d be stuck — like, completely stuck. But this isn’t OG Mega Man; this is Mega Man X. The first time you jump up a wall and realize you can keep going up, it’s honestly kind of unbelievable. It completely changes the way Mega Man games are played (some would say for the worse, but they’re wrong), and I love the way the introductory level teaches you this new mechanic.
As you make your way to the end of the level, several new types of enemies appear, including the rather nifty ‘Road Attacker’, a red car that, if you shoot the driver, can drive X himself (no real benefit to this, but it’s a great way to showcase the many ways on which you can communicate with enemies).
It won’t be long until a fearsome mech descends from an airship and utterly defeats X in a head-to-head, pulling off a ‘Souls-like’ trick decades before the genre was even a thing. As X is grounded, we get our first look at Zero, who removes his hand from the mech in one fell swoop, instantly becoming the fan favorite he was always meant to be.
I want to reiterate that Mega Man, and indeed Mega Man X, probably doesn’t need a tutorial level. The gameplay, while difficult to master, is easy to learn on its own, so Mega Man X could pretty much get away with introducing its eight main stages and being done with it. However, I’m very grateful for its sublime tutorial phase: with its satisfying mix of enemies, pounding music, and stunning conclusion, it’s the perfect introduction to Capcom’s excellent subseries.
Where is Mega Man X9 now, Capcom?
