Mega Man X8 Hands-On Impressions

Mega Man just doesn't quit, no matter how many games you ask him to star in. The famed Blue Bomber, who began his storied career on the NES, is now in his umpteenth iteration in Mega Man X8 for the PlayStation 2. Honestly, if this combination of side-scrolling platforming and shooting action weren't a winning one, somebody would have noticed by now. X8 sees Mega Man and his allies Zero and Axl again battling the evil Sigma in an attempt to save the human race from an army of killer reploids.

In the level we tried, we were able to choose between Zero and Axl, and we went with Zero and his rather excellent energy sword. From here, the game played like classic side-scrolling Mega Man X, as we ran and jumped our way through a level filled with robotic enemies bent on our destruction. Zero was able to do a basic sword combo to dispatch his foes, along with a double-jump that allowed him to reach greater heights. Once we reached the level's boss, which was a giant robotic spider thing, we discovered we could call in Axl at the right moment so we could perform a double-character attack that did massive damage.

Apparently there will be other such dual-character abilities, as you'll be able to call in your secondary character to help out when you get caught up with enemies, and your standby character's health will also refill based on the performance of your primary fighter. And for those who played Mega Man X7 and remember that you couldn't play as the Blue Bomber himself at first, don't fret--afterward we were able to take control of him and blast our way through plenty of enemies. In classic fashion, the game will award you with a new weapon each time you defeat a boss in one of its 12 levels, and secondary objectives will open up afterward to give these levels extra replay value.

Mega Man X8 uses the 3D-graphics and 2D-gameplay approach that we'd really like to see more of in action games these days. It seems like the title will have plenty of meat to chew on, with its selectable characters, replayable levels, and a light character-building mechanic that will let you improve your fighters with power-up chips as you defeat enemies. Mega Man X8 will hit shelves in the fourth quarter of this year, so look for more coverage on it soon.