Ranking Best Megaman X games

[Lars]

1: X6
2: X8
3: X5
4: X1
5:X3
6:X2
7:X4
8:X7 (The concept was good but executed poorly, if it used the fast gameplay from Command Mission X "without the turn based RPG, then it would have been amazing)

[funewchie]

Nice list.
(And the fact someone also liked X6 is interesting to see. It's one of my favorites in the series (mostly due to atmosphere and story. That said, stage design and difficulty balance needed work))

Myself, I'd put X5 lower on such a list, as I didn't like it too much.
The 8 stages were okay (really bad puzzles aside (seriously, frame-perfect steering of the firefly weapon?!)), but the fortress stages... ugh.
(And people give X6 grief for their love of spikes? X5 blew it out of the water for bad spike placement)

And yeah, I liked X3 more than X2, too.
X2 was just... kinda bland. It just felt lacking.
X3's fortresses were brutal (especially Sigma's 2nd form), but it felt cool the whole way through.
-----

Wow...you put X4 pretty low on the list.
I actually liked X4.
Story was epic, stages were reasonable, bosses didn't go overboard (though General and Sigma's final form were pushing it), and X's armor was pretty useful.

(I mean, yes, X4's English dubbing was horrifying.
(Side note: I still appreciate Lucas Gilbertson doing a re-dub of Iris' Death scene on his YouTube channel. He did a much better job of the scene)
But, I can put up with it (unless the Collection offers a Japanese voice option? If so, yes!))

[funewchie]

And yes, X7 very much deserves the bottom of your list.

The camera controls.... wait, what camera controls?! Full 3D, and some of the worst camera work I've ever seen in a game!
Goodness, it makes Sonic 2006 look good in comparison! (Granted, I'm one of the few that willingly plays that game, but still...)

And the writing... ugh.
X is a terrible crybaby, Zero's a grouch, and Axl... little bit of writer's pet treatment, I sense. (At least he gets treated more reasonably in X8 and Command Mission)

I still laugh at the opening, though:
Zero's called to a scene, sees a young Reploid running for his life from a rogue mech, blames the reploid for the maverick outbreak, then arrests him for the high crime of... running for his life?

Then said reploid begs X to become a Hunter... while Signas, the actual commander, is standing 6 feet away.
(Also, why would they bring a dangerous, albeit arrested, suspect into the central command center, where the top senior officers are all gathered?)

[matohin]

necro'd for fun but mehhhhhh x's armor in x4 was pretty terrible. the infinite ammo stuff is just a poor way to tape it all together and make weapons useful for anything other than soul body in cyber's stage and sigma's first phase, the busters are both lame, the hover was better executed in x7, which is already impressive, and x4's armor part... what did it even do, again? lame.

also wanted to add that while x7's story isn't perfect, i disagree that it was bad. the retranslation makes it a lot more clear that the story is decent, even if x is still stupid there.
the story that is unsalvageable and terrible beyond any belief is x8's - i have wrote almost an entire essay about how bad it is once.

[Juaniputo]

si

[ekolis]

Originally posted by funewchie:

I still laugh at the opening, though:
Zero's called to a scene, sees a young Reploid running for his life from a rogue mech, blames the reploid for the maverick outbreak, then arrests him for the high crime of... running for his life?

ACAB 😛

[funewchie]

Originally posted by ekolis:

Originally posted by funewchie:

I still laugh at the opening, though:
Zero's called to a scene, sees a young Reploid running for his life from a rogue mech, blames the reploid for the maverick outbreak, then arrests him for the high crime of... running for his life?

ACAB 😛

Although, the Hunters are technically more like soldiers.
Military police?

[matohin]

Originally posted by ekolis:

Originally posted by funewchie:

I still laugh at the opening, though:
Zero's called to a scene, sees a young Reploid running for his life from a rogue mech, blames the reploid for the maverick outbreak, then arrests him for the high crime of... running for his life?

ACAB 😛

don't remember asking the maverick

[crystal_diancie]

for me, it's
X4, X1, X8, X5, X6, X2, X3, X7.
X4 is the best for graphics and gameplay, while X7 is the worst for everything but the graphics.

[Lost Drunk]

My list:
1: X1 (Masterpiece in general way)
2: X6 (Only after your already know how handle with it)
3: X5 (On easy mode because that feel more a flat gameplay like in first 3 titles)
4: X2
5: X4
6: X3 (Or X5 in normal/hard mode. I hate the rank system to get parts also tanked bosses in final level)
7: X8 (Or X6 in a blind run)
8: X7 (No comments...)

[funewchie]

Originally posted by Lost Drunk:

My list:
1: X1 (Masterpiece in general way)
2: X6 (Only after your already know how handle with it)
3: X5 (On easy mode because that feel more a flat gameplay like in first 3 titles)
4: X2
5: X4
6: X3 (Or X5 in normal/hard mode. I hate the rank system to get parts also tanked bosses in final level)
7: X8 (Or X6 in a blind run)
8: X7 (No comments...)

Yeah, that's fair about X6.
It's true - when you know what you're doing, X6 can be fun.
But if you're a novice and/or doing a blind first playthrough... oof, it's gonna really hurt.

And yeah, X1 - a masterpiece. Not too harsh, not too easy, just right. You want a little challenge, you can go against the boss order grain. Want it easier? Do boss order.

[matohin]

Originally posted by funewchie:

And yeah, X1 - a masterpiece. Not too harsh, not too easy, just right. You want a little challenge, you can go against the boss order grain. Want it easier? Do boss order.

you want tedium with no challenge, you can go against the boss order
you want it less painful, you go right order
in the end nothing is gonna make the game's bosses (and quite a few stages) any less uninteresting
X2 easily destroys X1, even in visuals which aren't really good in any of the SFC-X games

[Lost Drunk]

Originally posted by funewchie:

It's true - when you know what you're doing, X6 can be fun.
But if you're a novice and/or doing a blind first playthrough... oof, it's gonna really hurt.

I spend some time many years ago on X6 in my first run due the high difficult even in easy mode. The most frustrating was have lost all lives to exit nightmare levels because I don't knew how to defeat High Max. After some time using the Ultimate Armor and still having some difficult in many levels I finally finish the game. That was really a nightmare but today is very funny make your route using any armor and character. This game look more as a hard hack version than a official game.

My first list was more about the replay value after finish at least one time each title.
In a blind run list, that could be:
1: X1 (Most balanced also a good tutorial for next titles)
2: X4 (Good animations and challenger gameplay mainly using Zero)
3: X2
4: X5
5: X8
6: X3 (Need found the bosses order due few them are beatable using mega buster, enemies respawn is very frustrating in some areas, a lot hard find all items, final levels can be a pain)
7: X6 (Nightmare)
8: X7 (...)

[CrowRising]

For me it would be:
1: X4 (Two distinct fun characters to play as for the first time in the X series, doesn't feel too gimmicky aside from the ride armor, feels like a fair challenge especially when going for 100%)
2: X8 (The best use of three distinct playables in the X series, fun unlockables, Controls feel nice. Also has my favorite English voice cast.)
3. X2
4. X1
5. X3
6. X5
7. X6
8. X7 (I don't actually outright hate this game, but it is still the worst of the X series games. It has some severe balancing issues, the action is way more slow paced, some of the level design is pretty bad, and Flame Hyanard won't shut up.)

[matohin]

if everyone's doing lists then i shall too
1: X6 (the only one that is replayable in dozens of ways and is actually challenging, best controls and weapons, good story, amazing music and visuals, fun bossfights.)
2: Xtreme 2/X2 Soul Eraser (literally the SFC games but redone by the X6 team on GBC)
3: X2 (amazing replayability and levels, the refights are tedious and final sigma is lame though, amazing weapons, great when i am bored.)
4: X5 (i feel like this one gets better the more you play it, especially considering how the fan patch for this one got finished. really tedious to get everything as X, but by far some of the more fun games to beat as Zero, with an amazing finale, great music, visuals and really fun stages.)
5: X3 (the best SFC final fortress, much better than X2 and especially X1 in that department. still some great weapons and nice visuals, a lot of replayability and small details, plus gravity beetbood and kaiser sigma are fun to fight. most other bosses are trash, refights are still tedious. absolutely terrible armor - doing armorless was both easier and more fun than having that terrible buster.)
6: X1 (great start and still a great game, but boy does it have flaws - from barely any replayability due to only having one good route and inferior variations of it, to around 4 points in the game where the armorless run is impossible, with one point being unskippable without hacking, to at least half of the weapon arsenal being useless and most importantly having a really pathetic fortress - with one decent stage that has a horrendous section in the middle, one more decent stage and two non-stages that are mediocre.)
7: X4 (amazing controls, pretty decent music and great visuals, plus nice techniques as Zero, even if worse than X5 and X6, and the bosses are great aswell!.. shame some levels are downright terrible, such as slash beastleo, and final weapon is an incredibly disappointing finale, by far the worst fortress of the series due to how pathetically boring and short it is. also the worst final sigma fight, too - two first forms that take no effort to beat and then there's earth sigma with his ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG, ♥♥♥♥ that ♥♥♥♥ i am never attempting to no damage run that bastard ever again. oh, and the weapons of X are useless due to how OP his buster is and the force armor is lame.)
8: XTREME/X1 CYBER MISSION: (literally just X1-X2 but slightly worse. some new liberties that were taken such as making X1 bosses a bit less pathetic are nice, but overall the game is fun but decent at best.)
9: MHX (literally X1 but worse in every way. weapons that were already meh were nerfed, storm tornado is more op than ever, even more forced order, terrible new fortress level design, the plot revamp retcons almost everything from OG and it's sequels, music is worse. it's not bad overall, but there's really no reason to play it aside from the new mode, which is meh and most weapons in it are useless.)
i won't say anything on X7-X8, those who enjoy those games, good for you, but i doubt i will replay them much. i do think both of them have great bossfights, but while i would defend each game out of the 9 ones above aside from MHX, i don't really care for X7-X8.

NOTE: if anyone here is looking to replay X games, here's what i would recommend:
X1-X3 SFC: get. the. retranslation. patch. X1 and X3 have some small translation and font issues, but those depend on your personal tastes, but the X2 US translation is horrendous and cuts out dozens of details including almost everything related to Serges/Sagesse in favor of the new "prophecy" plotline that never goes anywhere because it was included by Capcom of USA without any meaning.
X4: get the undub+retranslation - you might know why.
WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOAHHHH
X5: get the tweaked version, it allows you to tweak the game to your liking and this game's translation is also rather... terrible in OG US release.
X6: get the tweaker here - if you want vanilla like i do, just pick all the retranslation options, if you don't, feel free to pick any config. pretty much the ultimate tweaker.
X7-X8: sadly, those lack a retranslation, and while it doesn't matter much for X8, aside from some small details, X7 really needs a retranslation+undub+jp damage values patch.

[Tatoomba]

1-X4
2-X8
3-X5
4-X1
5-X3
6-X2
7-X6
8-X7