Mega Man X (video game)

This article is about the first game in the Mega Man X series. For the tenth game in the original series, see Mega Man 10.

Mega Man X
North American SNES box art
Developer(s)Capcom
Publisher(s)
Producer(s)Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer(s)Yoshinori Takenaka
Keiji Inafune
Sho Tsuge
Masayoshi Kurokawa
Programmer(s)Keiji Kubori
Kouichiro Nakamura
Artist(s)Keiji Inafune
Hayato Kaji
Kazunori Tazaki
Tatsuya Yoshikawa
Writer(s)Keiji Inafune[9]
Sho Tsuge
Composer(s)Setsuo Yamamoto
Makoto Tomozawa
Yuki Iwai
Yuko Takehara
Toshihiko Horiyama
SeriesMega Man X
Platform(s)
Release
December 17, 1993
  • Mega Man X
    SNES
    • JP: December 17, 1993[2]
    • NA: January 19, 1994[1]
    • EU: May 1, 1994[3]
    • WW: September 2018 (cartridge re-release)[4]
    MS-DOS
    Windows
    Mobile phone
    Android
    iOS
    • WW: December 21, 2011[8]
Genre(s)Action, platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Mega Man X[a] is a 1993 action-platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the first Mega Man game for the 16-bit console and the first game in the Mega Man X series, a spin-off to the original Mega Man series that began on the Super NES's predecessor, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Mega Man X was released in Japan on December 17, 1993 and was released in both North America and Europe the following year. Taking place a century after the original Mega Man series, Mega Man X is set in a futuristic world populated by both humans and "Reploids", robots capable of thinking, feeling, and growing like their human creators. Because of these complex attributes, many Reploids are prone to destructive, renegade activity and are thereafter referred to as "Mavericks". The plot of the game follows the protagonist X, an android member of a military task force called the "Maverick Hunters". With the help of his partner Zero, X must thwart the plans of Sigma, a powerful Maverick leader wishing to bring about human extinction.

With the transition to more advanced gaming hardware, series artist Keiji Inafune explained that the development of Mega Man X involved reinventing Mega Man through gameplay expansion and a more mature storyline while still maintaining the basic concepts on which the franchise was built. Much like the NES Mega Man games that came before it, Mega Man X is an action-platform game where the player takes control of the eponymous character and must complete a set of eight, initial stages in any order desired. Defeating the boss character at the end of each stage grants the player one new weapon that can then be toggled and used at will for the remainder of the game. However, Mega Man X adds a number of new features and makes radical changes to the original gameplay mechanics of previous releases in the series. These include allowing the player to dash along the ground, scale walls, and obtain armor attachments which grant special abilities.

Mega Man X has met with positive reviews for its gameplay, sound, and graphics, as well as its attempt to augment the aging Mega Man franchise. It is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. A longterm commercial success on the SNES, Mega Man X has since been ported to personal computers (PCs) and mobile devices, included in the North American Mega Man X Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 (PS2), and released on the Virtual Console download service for the Wii, the Wii U, and the New Nintendo 3DS. The game also received a remake on the PlayStation Portable (PSP) titled Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.[b] Nintendo re-released Mega Man X in September 2017 as part of the company's Super NES Classic Edition, and a limited physical re-release for the SNES in celebration of Mega Man's 30th Anniversary due for release in September 2018 and published by iam8bit. The game is also included in the Mega Man X Legacy Collection for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows.

  1. ^ Nintendo staff. "SNES Games" (PDF). Nintendo. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2011. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Mega Man X: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment. January 6, 2010. pp. 6–15. ISBN 978-1-897376-80-5.
  3. ^ Total! staff (May 1, 1994). "Mega Man X". Total! (in German). Future Publishing: 30–1. ISSN 0964-9352.
  4. ^ Fogel, Stefanie (May 1, 2018). "'Mega Man' 30th Anniversary Classic Cartridges Available For Pre-Order". Variety. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  5. ^ Capcom staff (September 14, 1995). "We've Dug Up Trouble: Capcom's First PC CD-ROM". PC Gamer. Vol. 2, no. 9. Imagine Media. ISSN 1080-4471.
  6. ^ GPara staff (March 1, 2007). "シグマの野望を打ち砕け！iアプリ『ロックマンX』配信開始" [Sigma's ambition! i-mode "Rockman X" released] (in Japanese). GPara.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2010.
  7. ^ Android Market staff. ロックマンＸ (月額:カプコンパーティー) [Rockman X (Monthly: Capcom Party)] (in Japanese). Android Market. Retrieved December 14, 2011.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Spencer (December 21, 2011). "Mega Man X Launch Octopuses Onto iPhone". Siliconera. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
  9. ^ Elston, Brett (July 3, 2008). "Mega Man 9 - exclusive interview with the mind behind the machines". GamesRadar. Future plc. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2010.


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