Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Mega Man X7

Written by John Scalzo on August 18, 2003

Updated Look: First Rush now this... I think Capcom has a thing for naming characters after rock bands.

Mega Man. The Blue Bomber. In his fifteen years of existence in the video game world he has starred in more games than any other character ever. More than Link. More than Sonic. More than the almighty Mario. But what is more amazing than that is that the Mega Man games have stayed roughly the same for all those years and no one is sick of them yet. Sure he's made the jump to 3D for two games and there was that strange experiment with soccer for the Super NES, but other that the Blue Bomber has been side scrolling platforming since the beginning.

The formula for Mega Man games really needs no introduction at this point. Even in the X series, while the graphics might be slightly more "mature", the nature of the game remains. You are Mega Man and you must stop the eight Maverick robots (each based on an animal) stationed around the world. After defeating a Maverick, you absorb his powers and can use them against the other Mavericks and then later still as you advance through the final fortress. The X series also usually gives you the opportunity to play as Zero, Mega Man's partner, and a robot who likes to wield a badass laser sword. Classic and cliche both fight over dominance of that description.

But as Bob Dylan remarked a long time ago, the times they are a changin'. Mega Man X7 is no longer taking the traditional side scrolling approach that it's predecessor's in the X series did. It's also not taking place in a full on 3D as it did in the offshoot series Mega Man Legends. Instead X7 is doing the compromising thing by using both views. At times the game will be the side scrolling shooting that we know and love. At other times it will switch to a full 3D mode like in Legends. The game also makes use of a third camera angle, an overhead isometric viewpoint.

With these new points of view come new tricks as well. The familiar tricks to fans of the X series are back. Zero still has his sword and Mega Man still has X-Buster, but now the fighting takes place with the help of an auto-aim feature. And there is more to this adventure than just shooting everything that moves. Taking yet another page from the Legends playbook, Capcom has said that Mega Man and Zero will have to explore each level to find items, rescue hostages, and perform other tasks that need to be done.

Mega Man and Zero also get a new partner for their first trip through the PS2. His name is Axl and he's a shapeshifting robot that after absorbing any enemy, can take their powers for a short time. He looks like he'll fit right into the Mega Man universe. We don't know where he fits into the story though, because Capcom is being very quiet about that. What we do know is that at the beginning of every level the player will be given the chance to pick two out of the three characters to use for that level. Once inside the level the player will have the chance to switch back and forth between their choices for a nice tag team effect.

Capcom came up with one more change for this latest Mega Man and that was the graphical style. Mega Man now lives in a fully cel shaded world. A true living cartoon and the effect is tremendous. Screenshots don't really do it justice as everything has detail and color popping out everywhere. Mega Man has never looked this good and I commend Capcom on the footage I've seen so far. I honestly can't praise the new look enough.