Developer: Fire Hose Games, Batterystaple Games Publisher: Fire Hose Games Release: 08/16/17 Genre: Action
Mega Man is finally set for resurgence this year thanks to numerous classic compilations and a new entry in the classic series after 8 years. While Capcom were questioning what to do with the IP the indie community took it upon themselves to keep the torch lit with mixed results. As much as we wanted it to be good Might No. 9 is a disappointment. 20XX succeeds where that game failed but also introduces many features that I wouldn’t mind seeing in Capcom’s series. This is a fantastic game for action platform fans and a great buy.
20XX wears its inspiration on its sleeve. The game is very clearly patterned after Mega Man X with Nina and Ace being expys for X and Zero. All of their abilities are the same, from charge shots, dashing, wall sliding and multi-hit combos. While it follows the core tenets of Mega Man 20XX does differ in numerous ways. The bolts you collect serve as currency for a variety of items, most prominently to restore health. Soul chips are carried over between deaths and are used to buy permanent upgrades. It is here where the game’s rogue like element comes into play.
What truly makes 20XX special are its massive array of parts and special weapons. The number is staggering with wildly different effects. Regular augments boost stats and help with survival. Core augments grant new abilities such as life restoration when destroying enemies, reduced charge time, and even flight! In addition there are weapons which heavily alter your character. Ace is primarily a melee fighter but with the Sharp spear gains a mid-range attack. Or how about equipping Nina with a four way blaster? And these are on top of the boss weapons. Finding an extremely cool augment that radically changes your play style is what helps make 20XX special and there are enough augments that you could play for weeks and still stumble across new ones.
Although you can buy some augments there are plenty of other ways to find them. The harder to reach parts of a level usually has a random piece of gear. Chests can also (rarely) spawn a core augment. Glory Challenges task you with specific challenges in a strict time limit but will always drop good gear. And if you really want a leg up the hub has a variety of tough challenges that give access to the best gear early. The game is certainly not wanting for content.
When you think of Mega Man you picture tightly crafted levels and colorful bosses. 20XX fulfills half of that equation. Levels randomly generate although they follow set themes. Because of this they aren’t as strong as the best in Capcom’s series. However they retain enough thematic elements on subsequent runs that breed some degree of familiarity. Although there are eight bosses many share the same theme with new obstacles and such. The levels seem to follow one or two tracks: easy stage, hard boss battle or hard level, easy boss. The deeper you progress in a run the harder each subsequent level becomes which applies to bosses. Some bosses become absolute nightmares if saved for last which makes your end level choices crucial. Since you can only choose from three at a time it is inevitable but luckily the game does its best to prepare you for its rising challenge.
The difficulty in Mega Man has always been mitigated by finding the correct boss order and energy tanks. There really isn’t much of that here. When you begin a run the game randomly chooses a boss level to start. At the end of each level you have a choice of three further bosses. While they all have weaknesses they aren’t mandatory. In fact you don’t even need to pick up the boss weapon; you can instead opt for a different upgrade. It may sound blasphemous but every bit of extra survivability helps. Only on the easiest setting do you have lives. It’s an interesting choice; the little mistakes you would normally brush off because you have a stock of lives here can easily end a perfect run.
What also makes the difficulty easier to swallow is that all of the game’s choices are optional. And the game still works perfectly fine without them. This has always been the Achilles heel of the rogue like genre, that the randomness of items largely determined your success. In 20XX all characters are potentially able to reach the end in their base form with skill. It won’t be easy but it is doable. For those that truly crave aside from the hardest setting there are skull modifiers that disable certain aspects of the game. It was a little too hardcore for me but maybe I’m just too old.
Due to the game’s random nature replay value is off the charts. Since a single run can vary between ten minutes and one hour the game is conducive to multiple play throughs. There are so many weapons and items that fundamentally change your approach that no two runs are ever the same. Both Ace and Hawk offer unique experiences through their mechanics. Especially Hawk, who relies heavily on special weapons compared to the other two. I am very conservative with special weapons so her mechanics forced me to break a habit I’ve held since the first Mega Man but I like it. Even outside of the main game there are all sorts of activities in the hub area to partake in, my favorite being the boss rush mode Rush Job. And I haven’t even mentioned two-player coop!
In Closing
20XX could very easily have been a quick cash in banking on nostalgia to hook fans. However it doesn’t, and while it proudly flaunts its inspiration it is more than that. Fantastic mechanics, mountains of content and high production values make 20XX the best Mega Man game in recent years in everything but name.
