Megaman X: Past Rising (title pending)

Megaman X: The Return of Wily (Cutman Demo) Review by ZPE

Date: 9th January 2009
Filesize: ~34 MB unzipped
PC Specs: CPU speed at 433 MHz and 256 MB RAM. This was enough to run this game smoothly.
Play Time: About 45 minutes (reached the battle against Cutman).



Introduction

This is a Megaman fan-game by Mitsuhide_The_Vagrant but it is more aligned to a RPG than the standard platformer design Megaman is known for. This is a demo of the first stage in which the player faces Cutman at the end. I'm not really a Megaman fan but I've played a few of the GBA games which this game isn't really based on but I'll give it a go anyway.

Story - The Return of Wily

The game is set in 21xx where Roy Wily (descendent of Dr. Wily) takes control of monsteropolis with the help of a bomb blast. X and Zero (from the Maverick Hunters) go to stop him but X gets

trapped in an electric crystal while Zero runs away. While surfing on his computer, Zero detects a strong signal coming from a certain location so he goes off in the hope that it's X.

This was paraphased from Mitsuhide's game page but there's no intro in-game (yet).

Gameplay

The game starts off with a warning of a glitch in the battle system, more on that later. The player controls X in the normal 2D environment and has to get through the stage while fighting off on-screen enemies and meeting the end Robot Master (Cutman in this case).

There is a simple and clear map on the top right corner so the player can determine how close they are to the end of the stage as well as the next exit point on the map but I didn't need to use that in this demo as the stage required little effort when it came to navigation.

The battles themselves use the RPG Maker 2003 default battle system and it works well. There's the option of charging X's gun so he can do a Power Shot next turn which causes twice the normal damage, it's often needed as well.

The enemies are nicely balanced and on-screen they move towards the player in a simplistic manner although maybe there is some sort of zone marking in there. Mettataurs use their signature helmet move nicely but their smaller friends prove to be more annoying than dangerous as they come in large groups and get repetitive.

Apparently every battle earns the player a point to use to purchase skills after defeating the Robot Master of the current stage but that's beyond the scope of this demo. The game also employs a currency system called Bolts which isn't of much use at this stage of development.

Out of battle, there are mazes and ledge hopping. Nothing too difficult but things do get a little desperate once you start running out of HP which is probably why there are lots of items scattered around.

Graphics

Some of the graphics are definitely lifted from other sources but they work nicely. There's only one background for battles including Cutman's who should have a different indoor one really but it's probably just a placeholder.. The mapping is simple but there are some traps in place to get forced enemy encounters like an item bait. Nothing really stood out but I didn't mind what I saw.

Sound

Most (if not all) of what I heard was taken from the Megaman games but they were used effectively.

So, Does This Demo Make the Cut?

I'm coming back to the known glitch that occurs when the player check their items then proceeds to charge X's X-Buster which consequently results in an event script error. It happened to me accidentally when I was in a fight against Cutman and I was pretty annoyed, it's easy to forget this when a battle gets intense so I hope Mitsuhide fixes this problem before releasing the full game.

The lack of a save feature within the stage adds to the realism of the older Megaman games I reckon but it really does make the game less enjoyable as the repetitive nature of some of the long enemy battles won't please a lot of players.

However, the positives far outweigh the negatives and Megaman X: The Return of Wily promises to be a great addition to the library of independent games and it's definitely one for the Megaman fans out there.