We all know Mega Man X3, right? The game that finally let you play as Zero, albeit briefly. One of the harder to come by Mega Man games on the SNES.
When I was first getting into Mega Man, I thought this game was the best thing since sliced bread. But now that I've grown up, grown wiser, and grown out of the Zero fanboy stage, I realize now that this game is absolute trash compared to the two before it. And it didn't have to be. If Capcom played their cards right with this game, it could've been fabulous, sexcellent, e.p.i.c, or any other positive adjective commonly thrown around here. And I'm going to tell you how this could be possible.
---------------------------------------
First off is something I mentioned right at the beginning: Playable Zero. I realize that in X3 this was just conceived as a bonus feature, something optional you never had to use. And honestly, why would you? A full powered X makes Zero obsolete. You can only use Zero for 1/3 of a stage. He can't fight bosses. If he dies, you can't use him again in that playthrough. Really, Zero's only worth in the game is getting killed by the bug miniboss in Doppler 2 so X can get the Z Saber and [twin slasher] bosses. His sprite is also really big compared to X. They're supposed to be about the same size.
Increase Zero's usefulness. Treat Zero as a special weapon of sorts. When you call him, he will be the active character for a specific amount of time. Or rather, until his weapon energy meter runs out. And this could be anywhere, even boss fights. There's no reason why you should lose him forever if he dies, either.
Zero should also have his own playable extra mode, like secondary protagonists in Castlevania games. No story, no X. Also, Zero could be differentiated from X. You know, like X4 and on did. Less importance on the Z Buster, and more focus on the Z Saber. Assign the buster to a button, and the saber to another. Give him the three step combo and all that jazz. Special weapons from bosses, too. Rising slash, sword plant, spinny move, Giga Attack, etc.
I would say use the now de facto tag team system for X and Zero, but that's probably best saved for another game. Maverick Hunter X3, perhaps. Capcom, I hope you're taking notes.
---------------------------------------
Next is the Armor Upgrades. They're terrible. The up Air Dash is really clunky. The overlapping buster upgrade sucks eggs. The body armor doesn't help too much. And the helmet is only useful the first few times playing the game. Something needs to be done with them. Especially the buster.
The placement of them is also terrible. You need the Buster for two of the other capsules. You're supposed to need the Air Dash for the Buster, too, but it is possible to get the Buster with only Tornado Fang and tricky wall jumps. Placement for heart tanks and sub tanks is also bad. Again, you need the buster for most of it. The tasks to get these things could be modified a little. And the capsules maybe swapped around MHX style.
Also, the pink capsules are just as useless, if not moreso. Why would you only want to settle for one of the four additional upgrades when you can have all four at once?
---------------------------------------
One of the game's problems is there's such a thing as too much. Equipment wise, they tried to give a load of weaponry for X to use. Too bad they're extremely situational. Either increase their usefulness, or get rid of them. The boss weapons are some of the worst in the series. Especially the charged versions of them. They could all be improved upon. The different Ride Armors was a nice idea with terrible implementation. Just sticking with wild Armors to find would be just dandy.
There's too much going on in the plot, too. Rather, if feels like there's too much because the story has a lot of info that isn't fleshed out completely. Bit and Byte, for one, feel tacked on. Either their role in the story needs to be improved so fighting them makes more sense, or they need to be dropped. Vile is also a bit too much for the game. It's nice to see him come back, and his role is much better than Bit and Byte's, but still they could have done better with him. Having all three of them is a bit of a killer, though.
---------------------------------------
Now for some nitpicks:
- Why did the music quality take such a dive from X2 to X3? It sounds so fuzzy most of the time. And some of the melodies themselves are crap too. They're either too short (Doppler's theme), or just sound like a trainwreck (Blizzard Buffalo, the epilogue).
- The smallfry enemies in this game are cheaper than they need to be. They have really high defense, too. A charge shot does nothing to them.
- The spriting sucks too. As mentioned before, Zero looks a foot taller than X based on the sprites. Sigma's head is really tiny. It's smaller than the upgraded buster, which is needlessly big. Most bosses are extremely lacking in animations, too. Hell, most of them enter the fight just by dropping in from the top of the screen. Boss designs suck too. Neon Tiger looks 5% tiger and 95% Slash Man with icky colors. And don't get me started on Volt Catfish.
- Why didn't they continue with the Street Fighter moves? I mean, the Z Saber Wave is nice. I'm just surprised they didn't continue with the trend. Did they not think Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku would translate well to X? Did they not even consider using a different character's move, like Sonic Boom or Tiger Knee? They must've at some point afterwards; the Nova Strike ain't too different from Psycho Crusher.
---------------------------------------
X3 feels like a rushed game. Capcom had a lot of ideas. They never fully fleshed them out, but went ahead and crammed them into the game anyway. That also took away from finer points of the game. If Capcom were to include the refinements I listed above, I feel X3 may very well have been the best X game on the system, and a definite contender for best X game period. If a Maverick Hunter X3 were to ever roll around with these changes, all the better.