History VideoGame / MegaManX

* ThemeNaming: X, Zero and Sigma are each numbers (X representing "infinity.")

* PandaingToTheAudience: Bamboo Pandamonium from ''X8''. He's far from cute and cuddly though, being able to do heavy damage with his attacks.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/ThreeDoorsDown If I go Maverick, then will you still call me Mega Man?]]]]

** ''X1'' is the only one to intersperse boss fights throughout Sigma's Fortress. The other games lock you in a room with 8 doors.

** There's a variation in the second half of the final level: most of the enemies are now using their abilities to morph into [[spoiler:weaker versions of the Sigma]] fought a level earlier, [[spoiler:now a DiscOneFinalBoss]].

** Also, someone at Capcom is a Guns N' Roses fan. Aside from the English names of X5's bosses, [[VisualPun check out the background]] in X5's jungle stage.
** Turns out Creator/AlysonCourt (who you may know better as [[Franchise/ResidentEvil Claire Redfield]]) was responsible for localizing X5, and she's [[http://www.destructoid.com/resident-evil-actress-to-blame-for-the-gnr-in-mega-man-x-200061.phtml quite shameless]] about letting her love of Guns N' Roses determine the bosses' new names.
** Neon Tiger's theme in ''X3'' (and ''Xtreme 2'') are remixes of "My Michelle" also by Guns N' Roses

** Also, in ''X6'', after you defeat a boss, an orb drops down, and when you touch it, victory music plays and the level is complete, which could be seen as an homage either to the first ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'' or ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania|I}}''.

As his MagnumOpus, Dr. Thomas Light created Mega Man X, a robot with the ability to completely think, feel, and make his own decisions. Dr. Light sealed X inside a capsule designed to run ethics testing over the course of 30 years to test X's reliability, believing that X would turn to evil if not tested repeatedly within the capsule. A century later, archeologist and scientist Dr. Cain unearths X's capsule and soon becomes astounded by Dr. Light's engineering miracle. He decides to mass-produce a line of robots based on X -- "Reploids" -- but glosses over the fact that [[BlackBox he doesn't fully comprehend Dr. Light's work]]. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

Cain's work backfires again when most of the Maverick Hunter group, including Sigma, turn into Mavericks themselves. Why the others turned, we have no idea, but Sigma turned soon after getting into a fight with "[[TheLancer Zero]]," a mysterious and insane robot of similar capability to X but of unknown manufacture. Sigma's defection heralds the beginning of a massive war between Mavericks and humanity -- and since he feels responsible for the Maverick outbreak, X decides to team up with Zero ([[TapOnTheHead repaired after Sigma knocked out him out with a decisive blow to the forehead]], which [[IdentityAmnesia makes him useful to the Maverick Hunters]]) and put a stop to the war.

* ''Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2'' (UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, PC): The eight main games re-released for modern systems, with the option of buying 1 (''X''-''X4'') and 2 (''X5''-''X8'') separately. Includes the ''Day of Sigma'' OVA and a BossRush challenge mode where you fight almost every Maverick and boss in the series from X1 to X6, with the added twist that you have to fight [[DualBoss two at once]]. [[index]]

* ''Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2'' (UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, PC): The eight main games re-released for modern systems, with the option of buying 1 (''X''-''X4'') and 2 (''X5''-''X8'') separately. Includes the ''Day of Sigma'' OVA and a BossRush challenge mode where you fight almost every Maverick and boss in the series. [[index]]

* CameraScrew: One of the ''many'' reputed problems regarding ''X7''.

* BladeOnAStick: Available as a weapon for Zero in ''X8''.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Dr. Light's warning in ''Mega Man X'''s intro is written in 100% fluent English in the Japanese version of the game. The English localization basically changed nothing of the script, except removing the subtitles and [[SpellMyNameWithAnS changing "Dr. Right" into "Dr. Light"]].

** The Hadouken upgrade in the original, and most of the special unlockable powers in the following installments. The Hadouken in particular requires you not only to have all of the other upgrades and items (many of which are Guide Dang-Its themselves), but also to [[ViolationOfCommonSense jump into a specific]] BottomlessPit [[ViolationOfCommonSense and die four times in a row]] before it appears.

* ObviousBeta: ''[=X6=]'' definitely has shades of this. With the lazy level design, the [[BlindIdiotTranslation unspeakably bad translation that was]] [[TranslationTrainWreck completely impossible to make out at times]], and several missing tracks from the sound test ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUkKspZgXw including Zero's own freakin' theme music]], which is also one of the best tracks in the game), it's pretty clear that Capcom rushed this out as soon as possible to squeeze one last bit of money out of the PS before it faded away completely (the game came out in late 2001).
* [[OddNameOut Odd Names Out]]: The Maverick bosses follow the "Adjective, then Animal-Noun" naming convention except the English version of X5, whose Mavericks were instead named after members of Guns N' Roses. Also, X6 is the series starts going with the original Japanese names of the Mavericks, leading to weird names like Infinity Mijinion and Rainy Turtloid.

* StealthPun: ''X6'' having [[JumpTheShark Metal Shark Player]] (the jumping part can also be done ''literally'', considering one of Shark Player's attacks) and [[FranchiseZombie Zombie]] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Sigma]].

* FiveManBand: In ''X8'':
** TheHero: X
** TheLancer: Zero
** [[TheBigGuy The Big Girl]]: Layer
** [[TheSmartGuy The Smart Girl]]: Alia
** TheChick: Palette
** TagAlongKid: Axl

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Chill Penguin from ''X''.

** ''X'': Flame Mammoth (fire), [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins Chill Penguin]] (ice), and Spark Mandrill (lightning). Interestingly enough, Fire beats Ice which beats Lightning, compatible with the ''Mega Man 6'' pattern and completely opposite of what happened in the original VideoGame/MegaMan1.

* EasilyForgiven: A weird zigzagging of this trope. Reploids are declared Maverick for not obeying humanity perfectly, then in the aftermath people realize how wrong they were and retroactively declare them not Maverick... despite the accused reploids doing things like [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 (a military) committing insubordination for petty, self-serving reasons while under legitimate suspicion of committing a massacre, engaging in city-destroying war crimes, and endangering the planet with their giant space cannon]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission ethnically cleansing the human population of a city, torturing prisoners, and endangering the planet with a missile designed to scatter over half the world a substance that killed or drove insane all but one of the test subjects... who became the guy in charge of the organization that did the aforementioned atrocities]].

* EasilyForgiven: A weird zigzagging of this trope. Reploids are declared Maverick for not obeying humanity perfectly, then in the aftermath people realize how wrong they were and retroactively declare them not Maverick... despite the accused reploids doing things like [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 (a military) committing insubordination for petty, self-serving reasons while under legitimate suspicion of committing a massacre, engaging in city-destroying war crimes, and endangering the planet with their giant space cannon]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission ethnically cleansing the human population of a city, torturing prisoners, and endangering the planet with a missile designed to scatter a substance over half the world that killed or drove insane all but one of the test subjects... who became the guy in charge of the organization that did the aforementioned atrocities]].

* EasilyForgiven: A weird zigzagging of this trope. Reploids are declared Maverick for not obeying humanity perfectly, then in the aftermath people realize how wrong they were and retroactively declare them not Maverick... despite the accused reploids doing things like [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 (a military) committing insubordination for petty, self-serving reasons while under legitimate suspicion of committing a massacre, engaging in city-destroying war crimes, and endangering the planet with their giant space cannon]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission ethnically cleansing the human population of a city, torturing prisoners, and endangering the planet by planning on scattering a substance that killed or drove insane all but one of the test subjects]].

* EasilyForgiven: A weird zigzagging of this trope. Reploids are declared Maverick for not obeying humanity perfectly, then in the aftermath people realize how wrong they were and retroactively declare them not Maverick... despite the accused reploids doing things like [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 (a military) committing insubordination while under legitimate suspicion of committing a massacre for petty, self-serving reasons, engaging in city-destroying war crimes, and endangering the planet with their giant space cannon]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission ethnically cleansing the human population of a city, torturing prisoners, and endangering the planet by planning on scattering a substance that killed or drove insane all but one of the test subjects]].

* EasilyForgiven: A weird zigzagging of this trope. Reploids are declared Maverick for not obeying humanity perfectly, then in the aftermath people realize how wrong they were and retroactively declare them not Maverick... despite the accused reploids doing things like [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 (a military) committing insubordination while under legitimate suspicion of committing a massacre, engaging in city-destroying war crimes, and endangering the planet with their giant space cannon]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission ethnically cleansing the human population of a city, torturing prisoners, and endangering the planet by planning on scattering a substance that killed or drove insane all but one of the test subjects]].

[[caption-width-right:350:My name is [[CharacterTitle X]], and I'm a Maverick Hunter!]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/ThreeDoorsDown If I go Maverick, then will you still call me Mega Man?]]]]

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning:
** In most of the games where he's playable (both in this series and ''VideoGame/MegaManZero''), one of the skills Zero learns is a rising slash. In ''X8'', he instead gets a ''spinning'' rising slash, similar to [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link's]] Spin Attack in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.
** He has the spinning slash since X4, after you beat Split Mushroom. It has been one of his staple techniques through this and the ''Zero'' series.

* AnIcePerson: Chill Penguin, Blizzard Buffalo, Frost Walrus, [[Music/GunsNRoses Duff]] [[StealthPun McWhalen]], [[AwesomeMcCoolname Blizzard Wolfang]], Avalanche Yeti.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The Music/GunsNRoses names for the Mavericks in X5. GRIZZLY SLASH! DARK DIZZY! MATTREX! Even Duff [=McWhalen=] is awesome in its own silly way.
** A lot of maverick names fall under this. Most of them have the formula of their element or gimmick followed by the name of whatever their design is based on. Sometimes this works too well, or they get a little more creative with the formula.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In games where the plot is [[HijackedByGanon Hijacked By Sigma]], there is only one fortress gauntlet to go through that is usually only 3 - 4 stages long with the DiscOneFinalBoss being fought in the penultimate stage with Sigma being tackled thererafter (as opposed to [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic the classic series]] where the DiscOneFinalBoss would have an entire fortress dedicated to them with another Wiley fortress to tackle thereafter.)

* TurtlePower: Rainy Turtloid of ''X6''.