Back in the early 1990s
Capcom began taking different elements of their famous
Mega Man games, combining them, and releasing the product as a series of
Mega Man games for the
Game Boy. In the early 2000s
Capcom began doing this with their
Mega Man X series, and
Mega Man Xtreme is the result of those efforts.
MMX brings Mega Man X to the Game Boy Color in a scaled down version of some of his Super NES adventures. Of course, all of the 16-bit animation and character designs had to be shrunk down to fit the tiny, 8-bit screen and the music has been overhauled to play on the little speaker, but nonetheless all the classic elements are there. Mega Man X retains his blaster, dash, and jump as well as the special abilities found in Dr. Light's capsules. Zero is only playable as a special attack in which you select him, he appears and fires off a blast, them vanishes until you call him again.
The premise of the game is new, however. Someone has hacked into the Reploid Computer Mainframe and is accessing old enemy data from past Mega Man X games, and Mega Man X volunteers to link to the computer and fix the trouble. Naturally, this means he'll have to revisit old levels and bosses from past games.
This is the first of the Mega Man X games to feature an auto save system. At certain points in the level you will come across a flashing pillar of whiteness. Crossing this pillar saves your position in the level so that if you turn off the Game Boy you will return to this point when you play again later. Furthermore, after crossing a save point you are unable to backtrack to previous sections of the level.
The game is split into three modes: Regular, Hard, and Xtreme. Depending on the mode you play you traverse different levels and fight different bosses. Let's take a look at the breakdown, shall we?
Hard
Xtreme
After beating all the bosses
Mega Man X faces several final foretress levels before facing off with the
person behind all the trouble.
The most frustrating and puzzling thing about this game is the poor translation. The game was released first in Japan as Rockman X Cyber Missions and when the game was brought to America not all of the character names and weapons were properly translated. For example, the boss named Vile in English is named Vava in Japanese, and his Japanese name shows up in the American version of the game. Plus, some of the grammar is questionable in various story segments.
Overall Mega Man Xtreme is an enjoyable playing experience, but for true Mega Man X fun I recommend sticking to the Super NES versions. The game is still available in gaming stores if you search hard enough (it's starting to become a little dated). The game also spawned a sequel in 2001, Mega Man Xtreme 2.