Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2 review for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One

The year is 20XX and the evil Dr. Wily has created a group of evil Robot Masters?wait that?s not right (note to self, save that for another review in a couple months). Here we have the Mega Man X Legacy collection, so swap out Dr. Wily with Sigma and Robot Masters with Maverick Hunters and there you have it, a whole new Mega Man series. Now I kid all you die hard Mega Man fans, but essentially the X series is the same as the OG Mega Man series with some upgraded powers and not as creative end stage villains. So, it?s 2018 and its been a little more than a decade since the last X collection and Capcom can?t help themselves with pumping out collections of their old titles. 

Problem with these collections is that you can?t please everyone, and that?s not just an issue with Capcom (see my Sega Genesis collection review). Now lets going back to the Mega Man X collection released in 2006, so I can fill you in with the differences, for reference sake. 2006?s X Collection was available for the PS2 and Gamecube, it featured Mega Man X through X6, but also featured; Mega Man Battle and Chase (which is an obscure Mega Man racer which had previously not been released in the US). Now 2018?s Mega Man Legacy Collection included Mega Man X through X8 and is broken into two collections on the Switch and Xbox One (1 has X through X4 and 2 has X5 through X8). So as you can see, this set is strictly X series releases and they decided against including Battle and Chase which was on the previous collection. I can give them the benefit of the doubt on Battle and Chase, but this is 2018 and they could have included the other titles that are out of the X timeline.

I might be going into the weeds here but would it have been too much to ask for them to include the Game Boy Color Mega Man Xtreme titles as well? I know Capcom at times can be lazy with these ports/collections but throwing a GBA emulator with two GBA games wouldn?t have required a whole lot of work, and it would have got them kudos from the fan community. I?m not trying to be a bitter retro reviewer, but these collections of games, from much older generations, come off rather lazy as of late (again, not just Capcom). Now on to the good stuff; Mega Man X Legacy Collection is a great compilation with sprinkles of new material to keep you coming back.

There are some new inclusions for extra replay value and for those who aren?t particularly good at Mega Man X games. The new Rookie Hunter mode, is an all new easier difficulty and it applies to each title in the collection. Rookie Hunter mode shaves off half the damage you would take from attacks, making many of the more difficult stages much more manageable. As with most collection games there?s a Museum feature with all sorts of art, videos, music and more. Finally we have an all new Challenge mode, where Maverick Hunters team up and you have to battle them 2-on-1. Rather than doing random level challenges, this new boss mode is a welcome addition and one that requires some strategy and patience. 

Capcom hits almost all of the checkboxes in this Legacy collection (not with changing the Guns N? Roses inspired Mavericks though, tsk tsk). This is a great set of 8 mostly classic Mega Man games and will certainly help get you reacquainted with the Blue Bomber leading up to his more retro return in Mega Man 11. The series started to tale off with the PS2 titles (horrible voice acting mixed with some questionable 2.5D designs), but I would love to see a resurgence in the X series like we did with the OG Mega Man series, just please do it in the 16 bit SNES style.

Capcom provided us with a Mega Man X Legacy Collection Switch code for review purposes.