When gamers think of Mega Man, out of all of the subseries that the Blue Bomber has featured in, they’ll often think of the Mega Man X series. Here’s our ranking of every Mega Man X game, from worst to best!
30 years ago, the original Mega Man X graced the Super NES, so in the spirit of celebration, let’s take a look at the best and worst entries that this beloved subseries has to offer. While the series has been dormant for a long time and fans like myself want nothing more than to experience a Mega Man X9, at the very least, most of the games in the series are accessible through rereleases like the Mega Man X Legacy Collections, so you can discover a small part of gaming history through these games.
12) Mega Man X DiVE/Offline
Did you know that a Mega Man X game was released in 2020? Well, it’s probably not a surprise, given that Mega Man X DiVE is a mobile “gacha” game that played out exactly as you would expect. It’s a game designed to farm money from players in surprisingly linear levels that lack a lot of the polish you would expect from a Mega Man game. There is an offline version that came out last year, but gutting the pay-to-win mechanics just replaces it with excessive grinding. I don’t like dissing mobile games unless they deserve it, but there’s no other way of looking at Mega Man X DiVE as anything other than a mobile cash-grab.
11) Mega Man X6
If you’re a Mega Man X fan, then you probably think the worst game in the series is either Mega Man X6 or X7. And while we will be talking about X7 VERY shortly, X6 is the weaker of the two games. A botched localization may be the most obvious problem the game has, but its issues run so much deeper.
Levels are poorly designed to the point where some of them are legitimately impossible to complete in your base form, which violates a core tenet of the series where you can tackle any of the stages in whatever order you want. Other levels are so short and dull that they barely register by the time they end. I remember reading in the official Mega Man X art book that the development team apologized for how poor the overall game was and how much of a mess it was. I didn’t see anyone apologizing for X7.
10) Mega Man X7
Speaking of X7, if you want the textbook definition of a series failing to transition to 3D, look no further than Mega Man X7. X7 is a dull game mostly due to the level design, with each stage having at least one thing about it that’s either poorly designed or badly implemented. You can just walk around enemies and challenges simply because the developers didn’t consider that you can just avoid your enemies thanks to the 3D environment, making stages pathetically easy.
It tries so hard to reference elements from Mega Man X, but the comparisons are surface-level at best. Boss fights drag for an eternity, not because they’re hard (except for the infamous Flame Hyenard fight) but because they’re damage sponges. Ultimately, I would rather have a game that’s too easy than an absurdly difficult game, so X7 gets the nod ever so slightly.
9) Mega Man X: Command Mission
Did you know that there was a Mega Man X RPG, and a lot of former Breath of Fire developers developed it? It’s a non-canon entry that takes a lot of inspiration from RPGs of the day, like Final Fantasy X, and doesn’t really do anything else besides emulate better games. I don’t know what possessed Capcom to greenlight a Mega Man X RPG, but it exists, and it fulfills the absolute barebones requirement of the genre. It’s a footnote more than anything else, one that Capcom probably forgot about due to just how mediocre of an experience it is. Lord knows I did.
8) Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2
In theory, I have nothing wrong with the Xtreme games. They’re a duology of Gameboy Color games that offered pocket-sized Mega Man X experiences, remixing the first three games in the series, much in the same way the Game Boy Mega Man games remixed NES games. They’re almost entirely obsolete nowadays, but they have their charms for the era, and having a downgraded Mega Man X game for the road was charming in its own way. Plus, the visuals are neat, and it’s cool to see what well-known characters look like in a downgraded visual style. Like Command Mission, the Xtreme games are historical footnotes, but they’re still enjoyable games for their time despite hardware limitations.
7) Mega Man X8
The last canonical entry in the series seemed to fix most of the problems plaguing X6 and X7. With tons of customization and an in-game shop, a series first, players could play X8 in a variety of different ways and take part in levels that try plenty of new ideas that were never seen in the X series. Sadly, the other half of those levels are painfully generic, and a lot of the story, revolving around Christian iconography and symbolism, devolves into mindless nonsense by the end despite having a lot of potential in the beginning. Despite those missteps, it’s a solid endpoint for the series and one that should receive some kind of a follow-up 20 years later.
6) Mega Man X3
Mega Man X3 is weird because, despite what you may think, it wasn’t actually developed by Capcom but rather by a company called Minakuchi Engineering. At first glance, you probably wouldn’t realize this, but the closer you look, the more you notice that some things are off about the game. The music isn’t as strong, the bosses are a bit garish, level progression and power-up acquisition are bizarre, to say the least, the use of ride armors, a touted feature of the game, isn’t well implemented, and Zero, despite being a playable character, is the definition of an afterthought since you can only play as him before bosses, and if he dies, you can’t play as him for the rest of the game. It’s still a solid game, one that is perfectly fine and a great microcosm of what makes a Mega Man X game good, but one that’s not quite as polished as other games.
5) Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X
Look, I love this game from the bottom of my heart, but putting my personal bias aside, I can’t in good conscience say that my opinion is universal. Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X is a solid remake of an already great game, featuring the same stellar level design and abilities that make the Mega Man X series so fun to play through. The extra additions are nice, like an OVA intro and a second playthrough where you get to control Vile, one of the game’s antagonists, but they aren’t essential to enjoying the game. It’s a shame we never got any more of these PSP remakes, but at the very least, this remake is one of the best games on the PSP and one of the most underrated entries in the Mega Man X series.
4) Mega Man X2
Making a follow-up to Mega Man X was always going to be a difficult task, but you’ve got to give it to Capcom for crafting a sequel that expanded upon the original. The fast and action-packed gameplay of the original game is still intact, with some more extra touches like secret bosses that you can fight that will change some of the later stages in the game. There’s also just a wow factor in this sequel with new technology being implemented, like wireframe enemies, thanks to the CX4 Chip. It’s antiquated now, but it still gives off a pretty cool effect. Mega Man X2 was never going to surpass the original, but continuing the high quality of the franchise’s early days is no easy task, and it accomplished that pretty well.
3) Mega Man X5
A polarizing entry for some, Mega Man X5 was meant to be the final entry in the series and represent the transition into the Mega Man Zero series. That obviously didn’t happen, but that doesn’t make X5 a bad game by any means. There’s a real sense of finality with Mega Man X5, which delivers some of the best level design in the series, as well as bosses that are legitimately challenging even if you know their weaknesses. You can play as both X and Zero right from the beginning and switch between the two of them throughout your playthrough, but the game kind of forgets to mention that there is a chance one of these characters can be completely inaccessible if you have bad RNG. Because of that one glaring flaw, I can’t call Mega Man X5 a flawless entry, but it’s a damned good one.
2) Mega Man X
The one that started it all, Mega Man X is a textbook example of how to make an action platformer. The soundtrack is stellar, the opening stage is iconic, and the game just feels so good to control. X doesn’t feel the greatest to control right away, but by the end, you’re blazing through levels and just decimating everything that gets in your way. There are just enough secrets and hidden power-ups to incentivize players to explore the levels in more detail, resulting in a highly replayable game. Mega Man X is the definition of a game you can put on at any time and just find yourself immersed in its short yet fulfilling runtime. If you thought Mega Man was becoming tired and formulaic from his exploits on the NES, then Mega Man X proved that Mega Man could be reinvented for a new generation.
1) Mega Man X4
Mega Man X4 takes everything about the first three games and refines them to a mirror shine. The fast-paced gameplay is still present, but now, the game tests your skills in a variety of ways never before seen in the franchise at this point. Most notably, Zero has an entire campaign dedicated to him that changes how you approach combat situations. While X is all about long-range combat, Zero gets up close and personal, completely altering your approach to certain boss fights. The power-ups you acquire are some of the most fun you’ll be able to get your hands on, the soundtrack is amazing, and each stage legitimately feels different with a unique gimmick that’s well executed and implemented.
The story takes a prominent focus here, and while the voice acting is par for the course for the era, it doesn’t change the fact that the narrative here is the most engaging the X series has been. It’s the one game in the series I keep coming back to year after year, and it’s a marvel the game turned out as well as it did despite the doom and gloom surrounding its 2D art at the time. It’s quite simply the best Mega Man X game.
