such fabulously unfun stages as
Blaze Heatnix
granted
Blizzard Wolfang
I disagree. I liked it. i particularly enjoyed the fact you couldnt climb on walls, since yknow, they were made of ICE. They also went full out with the slippery thing on it. it was an alright stage.
Commander Yammark
Only with the Night,are blinds. otherwise his stage is actually kind of unremarkable. it DOES have an annoying leap of faith down the spiked slope though.
and Blastoise Whatever-the-[tornado fang].
Eeeeh, granted, but I personally didnt mind it as much as heatnix.
Thing about X6, is it's brutal unforgiving nature means you will never get bored with it's difficulty. X4 I find less and less enjoyment in because Ive played it so much that it just offers me no challenge at all. It became boring to play. X5 just a slight bit tedious.
X6 however, throws the kitchen sink at you, and therefore it feels that much more satisfying to plow through it all. Heatnix is the epitome of unfinished, ill grant you that- but the rest of the stages are not that bad, and some are interesting. I liked the laser puzzles in Sheldon's stage. I liked The ice gimmick in Wolfang's. I liked the Central Museum and it's somewhat randomized area warps. (and Im one of the few people who actually kind of like the Central Museum music) I also liked
The Final Countdown The Weapon's Center, with Illumina. And I don't mind Shark Player's stage. It's practically Dustman X. On Steroids.
I just like X6. I like the final stages with their spike fetish, I like the bosses, I like the music, (at least we agree on that) Above all though, the story and presentation- It's the only post X4 Game, (that is, with multiple armors) that actually reflects each and every armor, in X's Mugshot. (X8 was just one armor with color variations, and they were too lazy to even properly make THOSE mugshots) Even Zero's Black Armor gets it's own mugshot. Every character has one, and they are all animated, ala X4. (well, slightly better than X4. these blink) Only Sigma does not have his own custom animated mugshot, instead using the X5 stage select Final stage icon for some strange reason.
X6's story was fantastic, and Gate was the best villain in the X series, by far. being incredibly fleshed out and caringly designed for a one off ONE GAME character. he had a backstory, motivations, even character relations with the cast.
Also, X6 is probably the best characterization X has ever gotten.