Megaman X6
Rating:3/10
Many of you are probably thinking "Wait, what the hell is a Megaman game doing on here?", while others are happy to see it on here. For me, it's a combination of both. I have a love-hate relationship with this game. The Megaman series in general is a great series, but this game is definitely the low point, quite possibly even lower than Megaman Soccer for the SNES. Now, lets go into a bit more detail on why this game makes the list.
There are a lot of great things about this game. It has an excellent sound track, the boss fights are entertaining and creative, the subweapons are alright, but definitely not all that bad. With all these amazing things, what could possibly make this the low point of the series? Two words, two VERY IMPORTANT words..... LEVEL DESIGN! This game has some of the worst level design I have ever seen. The levels themselves are interesting an have some unique elements (like deflecting a laser with mirrors to open doors), but the thing that kills it is spikes. For those of you who have never played a Megaman game, since the beginning, spikes were the most feared thing in the game, well they would be if not for Yellow Devil in MM1, but thats another story I'm not getting into right now. Touching spikes means INSTANT DEATH. MMX6 went overboard in the spike department. I think there are only 2 or 3 levels that DONT have an over abundance of spikes, though they do have other creative ways of instantly killing you (Like the trash compactor ceiling that keeps dropping down in Metal Shark Player's stage, a throw back to the trash compactor parts in Dust Man's stage, only 10x as evil).
One of the easiest levels in the game is made into a living hell all because of one jump. It's simply a leap of faith, praying you land on the moving platform below, which you can't see because the camera refuses to move down far enough for you.
Another thing that irritated me was the fact that visiting one level would change a bunch of stuff in another level, and finding all the heart containers/energy tanks/ armor parts became a massive chain of backtracking to get the right effect to happen on a level, mostly through trial and error. Most of the time these changes just made the level harder as well (like putting ice blocks in your way on the trash compactor level, or putting steel crushing blocks all over the place in various levels). Getting the armors was mandatory (though the Shadow Armor made you immune to the all too common spike traps, which was a VERY good thing), where in every other game, they were optional, though preferred since it made things one hell of a lot easier. The first Sigma level MIGHT be beatable without the shadow armor, but the beginning jumps are near impossible to make without touching the spikes on the walls, since you just barely make it by some stroke of pure luck. There is a jump in the second Sigma level that is IMPOSSIBLE without the blade armor's extended air dash, and it is also one of the most spike heavy levels in the game (go figure).
Now, if sadistic level designs that would make even the most experienced Megaman veteran cry in fear wasn't enough, there is still one more thing that annoyed me to no end with this game, and that would be the ending system. There are multiple endings, which you get by completing different tasks throughout the game. So you get a different ending if you find Zero than if you don't find Zero, and there are quite a few other conditions as well, not totally sure of what they are since I never touched this game again after beating it. The fact that they expect you to play this game AGAIN just boggles my mind.