TGS 2001 Fall: Hands-onMega Man X6

The Mega Man X series is still going strong. X6, the latest version, was getting quite a bit of attention at this fall's TGS, with an amount of booth real estate nearly rivaling that of Onimusha 2. Capcom has said that it continues to crank out installments because of consistent demand, and nowhere was this more evident than in the game's native territory.

The game stars Mega Man and takes place weeks after the ending of the last game (during whose climax Zero sacrificed himself for the survival of humankind). Though the game will feature a supposedly elaborate "nightmare system," which will have events in earlier levels impact those of later ones, we weren't able to witness any of its effects due to the brevity of our demo.

What we did see, though, were some pretty interesting 2D level designs. One side-scrolling stage had a giant, menacing reploid inhabiting the parallax plane who would constantly bombard you with jets of flame. Every so often, you'd arrive at point where the scrolling would cease, and you'd be forced to battle the robot via a sensor that would appear on the scrolling plane. Every time you defeated it, the robot would take damage, change shape, and attack you in a new way until the next checkpoint.

Friendly reploids are littered throughout the game's environments, and it's your job to save them. Doing so will earn you their gratitude, which they express via glowing text over their heads.

Mega Man X6 seems as solid as any of the recent games in the series, and the implementation of the nightmare system seems like it could really imbue it with a longer life span than fans have been accustomed to recently. The control mechanics seem identical to those in the last few games--dashes, dash-powered jumps, and the like being the order of the day--which guarantees the sort of cadence that fans have become attached to.

Mega Man X6 is scheduled to hit stores in December.