Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 & 2

This action game collection may not be as beloved as the classic games in this franchise, but the challenging gameplay and extras will keep people playing for a long time. Mega Max X Legacy Collection 1 & 2 gathers eight games from the series as it moved from the Super Nintendo to the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles. While the plot is basically the same (fight through hordes of enemies to a boss and defeat it to take its powers), the X franchise introduces new abilities that makes the gameplay stand out. Features like jumping up walls, dashing across the ground, and charging boss powers to make them more powerful give players new tactics, opening up stages for exploration. Plus, playing as either X or Zero (and eventually Axl in the last two games) boosts replayability, especially since each Hunter has different weaponry to destroy robots. This forces players to vary their tactics to use each character's strengths, which is key, because the Mega Man X games are difficult.

Fortunately, the collection includes Rookie Hunter mode, which makes some stages and boss battles much easier. Veterans of Mega Man, on the other hand, will love the X Challenge, which offers three powered-up weapons you can take into an arena against two bosses that attack at once. Even players that know the routines of bosses have to change their tactics to succeed at this mode. If there's an issue here, it's the inconsistency in the games. The first four games in the collection are great and stand the test of time, even though they're more than 20 years old. But the last four feel like they've lost their way, relying on new gimmicks or features instead of the Mega Man magic. A truly horrible standout in the collection is X7, which has annoying 2D and 3D transitions on stages that simply isn't fun at all. But if you're willing to overlook some of the rough spots in the collection with the large amount of gameplay here, you'll be blasting robots for a very long time.