GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 10/13/2003
- Released on: 10/14/2003
- Originally published on GameSpot: Mega Man X7 (PlayStation 2) Review
Mega Man X7 marks the series' first entry on the PlayStation 2, and as if to commemorate this, it's been given a pretty severe graphical overhaul, bringing the game into 3D, and it includes a few new gameplay bells and whistles. When Mega Man X7 sticks to its old-school roots, it can be pretty enjoyable, if a bit predictable. But when it ventures into new territory and starts tinkering with the tried-and-true Mega Man formula, things start to go wrong.
You can't just skip past the between-level cutscenes, which forces you to really savor all of the bad-anime-style dialogue.
The plot behind X7 includes an excessive amount of backstory, involving conflicting ideologies, which the game tries to present with a weird high-mindedness, but ultimately, it can all be summed up as the age-old struggle between good robots and bad robots. The story is entirely disposable, which can almost be expected, considering the caliber of past Mega Man X stories. But unfortunately, you can't just skip past the between-level cutscenes, which forces you to either savor all of the bad-anime-style dialogue or switch over to the original Japanese voices.
As has been the case in the past few Mega Man games, you'll play through large portions of Mega Man X7 as characters other than Mega Man. Returning from past Mega Man X games is Zero, a gruff, battle-worn robot who uses an energy sword and can also perform a rather useful double-jump maneuver. New to X7 is Axl, a younger robot who wields a pistol, can perform a Princess Peach-style floating jump, and has the special ability to temporarily take on the form and abilities of robots he has bested. Before you go into a level, you choose a pair of robots to fight with, which you can swap between on the fly with a tap of the L2 button. It's a novel idea, and you'll find a few areas in each level that take specific advantage of each character's different abilities, but it's a concept that's not taken as far as it could have been.
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