Mega Man X7 (PlayStation 2, 2003)

Mega Man is one of the best love characters out there and one of my favorites. The blue bomber has had quite a few great games out but there was a point during the X series when his popularity was sinking fast. Mega Man X5 and Mega Man X6 didn't seem to impress or satisfy a lot of fans though personally I liked them so I was crossing my fingers that this one would bring back the magic. Unfortunetly, I was wrong.

This was Mega Man X's first Playstation 2 game. I expected them to amaze us with dazzling gameplay, a lasting soundtrack, and a motivating story. They didn't do too good. As I watched the opening movie before the title screen started, I was impressed. The music got me in a Mega Man mood, the sequences it showed with the characters looked cool, and since I am a fan of anime I liked how some of the scenes looked like one. As soon as I pushed start and watched the beginning movie, my opinion dropped a little. The first thing I noticed was the characters had voices but the second thing I noticed was that they weren't good. I usually don't care about bad voices or graphics so I kept going. I don't want to bore anyone so I will sum it up as quickly and as mercifully as I can.

A new character has finally entered the frame in the form of Axl. He is a trigger-happy youngster who has left the bad guys to join you. The plot unveils as the underground group of maverick hunters known as Red Alert (the bad guys) challenges X's gang for control of Axl. The reason why is because not only is Axl a talented shooter but he can also copy other reploids using their DNA. A mysterious figure (not for X experts) looms over the leader of Red Alert,Red,as they continue to seek out Axl. I didn't mind the story but what I did mind were the voices. How hard is it to find decent english voice actors? I don't really know the answer to that but I do know there had to have been better ones. I usually don't whine about voices but there is a phrase I like to say, "If you are going to give the characters voices, they should at least be good." I'll just end that there and just say that most were bad(only one or two were decent to me).

The controls aren't too difficult since they are similar to past X games but the new targeting system is hard to control. Switching targets sometimes can be a bigger pain than the actual fight. To avoid this problem you would think to switch to the expert close-range fighter, Zero(my fav), but even Zero has troubles. For Zero to be useful he NEEDS the upgrades you get. Axl is the same way. Zero is stronger than Axl but pales in comparison to X but you can't use him at the start which was another big mistake. I know they probably did this so you could get used to Axl but that should be an option.

Another new addition to the series is that you can now switch between two of the characters while playing. In fact, you have to utilize that skill just to get through. Although this does now give us that fierce X and Zero combo we have always wanted, it just dosen't feel right like this. On a side note, Zero is officially the close-range fighter since he lost his ability to use his buster arm. I don't know why they did that but I would would like that as an option. The soundtrack is alright. There are a few good tunes played through it. Not all are great but they aren't bad either.

Overall, I don't recommend this game unless you can handle all the downsides and some frustration. I don't hate it, I just think it could have been better