Mega Man X5 would have been a great ending to the X Series, if this was the final game in the series.
Lows: Some stage designs are a joke, being too hard and too unpredictible(Squid Adler's stage, Sigma castle #1), camera can be your worst enemy, 16-hour time limit may be too challenging on newer players, should have been the last game in the series.
Verdict: Although not as good as some past entries in the series, X5 is still a must-have for PlayStation owners.
After 4 games in the Mega Man X series, how would Capcom's Keiji Inafune keep the series strong? He brought us what was supposed to be the final game in the series, Mega Man X5, released for the PlayStation in 2001. In X5, you play as X and Zero, as they have 16 hours to stop the space colony Eurasia, which has been infected by the Sigma virus, from crashing into the Earth by defeating 8 mavericks to get the necessary parts to complete a plasma cannon and a space shuttle in order to destroy the colony. Also, in the end, they must defeat Sigma once and for all, which leads to a shocking climax in the end. Playing X5 is similar to X4, as the controls and gameplay are still very nice, also adding in the ability to duck. There are 9 Dr. Light capsules in the game, as these capsules contain parts for the Falcon Armor - a special armor that makes you invincible while flying, the Gaea Armor, which can walk on spikes but can't use any special weapons, and the Ultimate Armor(Details Unknown). The Ultimate Armor capsule also has a special armor upgrade for Zero as well. If you play as X when you start the game, you get the Fourth Armor and you can keep that for the whole game. During the actual game, you can play as either X or Zero when you go to fight a Maverick. Also, when you grab a heart tank, only the character you play as gets that heart tank. If you pick up a sub-tank or weapon tank, either character can use it. So those are two new innovative features of X5. When you go to fight a Maverick, it takes a hour off the clock as to when the colony will collide with the Earth, so make wise decisions during the game, okay? Also, each Maverick in the game is named after a member of the former rock band Guns N' Roses, as the voice actor who does Claire Redfield's voice in the Resident Evil games, came up with the names for all 8 Mavericks. That's strange but pretty cool as well. In the Sigma castle stages of the game, each castle level's stage design is designed after levels from the classic Mega Man games on the NES, like robot master stages and Dr. Wily castle stages. Also, there is a boss similar to the Yellow Devil named Black Devil in the first Sigma castle level! There is so many throwbacks in X5 which is no wonder why Inafune wanted this to be the final game in the X Series. X5 is great, but there are problems. Some of the stage designs are terrible, like Squid Adler's and Sigma Castle 1's stage, being too hard and too unpredictible. The camera is also very lazy, as it can be your worst enemy at some points in the game. The 16-hour time limit may be too much for newer players, as it can make them panic and not know what to do. Also, this should have been the last game in the series as after Inafune made X5, Capcom made X6 right behind his back because Capcom loves money, ya know! But overall, this is a great game. May not be X2 or some other games in the series, but this is still a solid entry in the series. Copies of the original PlayStation version should be reasonably priced and easy to find on Ebay and Amazon, or you can just pick up the Mega Man X Collection for GameCube and PlayStation 2 to experience this game. Play this whenever you get the chance.