Finding Fun #2: Mega Man X

Charge Shots

Charge shots are what make Mega Man, Mega Man. From the noise and animation that gradually ramps up to the final release of the shot and it damaging enemies, it doesn't disappoint. Holding this button while moving, dodging, jumping, and releasing it at the perfect time builds a sense of control that is very satisfying.

Fast Paced and Close Quarters Combat

The game kicks off with cars zooming by and giving you a sense of how tight the screen is as they appear from the right. You encounter a few enemy types and quickly realize you can't just blast them from far away. You'll get a nice mix of enemies that shoot back, approach you head-on, and some that even challenge the concept that they can only move left or be stationary. The variety and intensity demands your attention if you want to survive the combat.

Environments You Can Destroy and Interact With

One of the first enemies you kill drops a weighted spike that damages the ground and makes a hole where it landed. Then, the bee-battleship-robot-thing crashes an entire part of the highway and takes you with it making you think you have no way out until you try to wall jump. This forced sense of depth and height from the beginning plants a seed that players should be curious and engaged with exploration beyond just always moving to the right if they want to see everything the level has to discover.

Hmmm... I Should Start With Chill Penguin for the Dash Upgrade

Giving the player agency for which bosses they want to fight now, and which they want to stay away from, is a staple mechanic in the franchise. It offers a lot of replayability and moments of strategy as you find out which levels are easier/harder with/without certain upgrades. Eventually players can find the sequence that feels most fun for them.

There's also the key component of the level being themed with the boss. I'd be surprised if anyone who has heard the Sonic drowning music chose Launch Octopus' stage as their first, given it'd be a water stage.

Charge Shots Are Still Satisfying After the 1000th Time

Holding the charge shot button while moving, dodging, dashing, jumping, wall hugging, and releasing it at the perfect time is a thing of beauty to control. There's also a nuance to learning which enemies require which level of shot to be dealt with most efficiently. The player's relationship with this mechanic grows over time and becomes second nature whether it's through the sound/visual cues or muscle memory remembering the rhythm for when it's ready.

I Can't Wait Til He Looks Like the Box Art

Throughout the game you'll find upgrade stations that enhance your suit. The most exciting ones I'd say are the dash and the extra level of charge for your buster. The cherry on top for me is the visual upgrade your armor gets from blue to white (like the box art) so you can always see how far you've come and how powerful Mega Man X is in your playthrough.

Storm Eagle's Theme Is The Best Track

Like the boss/stage select mechanic, the music in this franchise is a staple and Mega Man X's is top-tier. When your interest in a level is starting to fade since you've memorized every frame, the music is there waiting, and more than ready, to recapture any of that newly available attention.

Like a fine-dining experience, the team who made this game put a lot of thought into what you'd experience every step of the way from the moment you start the game to the moment you beat the final boss. They did not leave a lot of open-ended systems or mechanics to encourage emergent fun. Perhaps some would consider the Hadouken easter egg an example of this, but I would consider that more of a novelty since the way you obtain it is not at all intuitive.

You Choose What Game Over Means

The password checkpointing system, while I'm sure well-intentioned for accessibility, creates some unexpected tension in the gameplay experience. Maybe some players could easily ignore it and others found it essential, yet its presence raised questions about the intended difficulty curve for me. Each game over prompted a choice between perseverance and using the password system: a meta-decision that pulled focus from the core gameplay loop. This optional difficulty modifier ended up fragmenting my experience (worrying about the "right" way to play) rather than enhancing it.

This Doesn't Feel Like a Gundam!

Occassionally the stages offer you a mech you can pilot. Sure, there's good sound effects, you can tank some hits for free, and you move a bit differently with it... but you've traded a nimble character that shoots lasers out of his arm for a slow, not that cool-looking, mech which throws little jabs out in front of it. Compared to something like the swordfish in Donkey Kong Country which offers you a totally new ability in that you can now fight back in water, jumping into one of these mechs is choosing to have less fun.