Tonight I started playing three stages from MMX8, and I have to say it is a GREAT game.

Basically the gameplay is unchanged from the first Mega Man from 1987. The classic series and the X series stayed "true to its roots," which is a great way of saying it didn't evolve. Sure, new moves, new characters, new upgrade abilities were introduced consistently from MM 2 on, but the basic gameplay stagnated; and that is a good thing.

X8 and all the other classic MM and MMX games are a great look into the past of gaming. It is the only series that saw regular releases without evolving: unlike Gradius or R-Type, the series never got interrupted. In almost 17 years we got 16 (!) games, every year a new old MM. The series is unique. I can't think of any other franchise who got regular releases and stagnated. In todays industry, MM is the only one who represents a past which is still alive.

The new X game is tough, it is a fantastic sidescroller, unlike the somewhat unfortunate X7. The action and level design is exceptional and can compete with the best games in the series. It delivers frantic and tense action which only a 2D action/sidescroller can provide.

On IGN I read this second opinion after a lukewarm first opinion:

X8 plods along trying to be retro -- trying to remind me of why I liked the series and my youth. It's trying not to change so that I don't casually disregard it as different and forget my A button, B button heritage. Unfortunately, the end result doesn't stir up some golden remembrance of why gaming was once so good, but instead reminds me plainly of why I never play my stupid NES anymore.

I don't care how many polygons are tossed onto the screen, the underlying gameplay of X8 is beyond old, it's dead. Mega Man should advance. Since it has not, I find myself wondering what makes this iteration any better than the 40 or 50 that have been released since the series' conception so long ago. The answer is absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing makes this game better than 40 or 50 other Mega Man titles, so why bother?
Some reviewers just don't understand to evaluate a game if it achieved its goal. To say that it should be fundamentally different is the capital sin of every reviewer. To say that it should be a different game is as short-sighted as the book reviewer who suggests the author should have written another book.

MM is a niche franchise, and has to be reviewed as such. The games don't contribute a thing to game development or game design, and neither it is on the forefront or cutting edge of new hardware abilities. The games don't want to be progressive, they are intentionally regressive.

MM grants a look into the past, let you experience past gameplay in a new game like Gradius V and R-Type Final did. The games are a refreshing variation to modern gameplay; they fill a vacuum which modern games necessarily create; and as such they are successful not only at the cash register, but also in delivering the gameplay the game designers intend to deliver.

To compare a reviewed game to other current games in the genre is justified; but to compare a MMX8 to a Devil May Cry, or a Predator to Half-Life 2 is ignorant at best:

Wisdom tells me that 8-bit games played like 8-bit games because technology had not yet advanced to the point where they could play like anything else. This is why Predator on the NES was not Half-Life 2. This is why 8-bit games existed over a decade ago. Want to travel back in time to when things were all 8-bit and stuff?
Different technologies dictated the limits AND possibilities of gameplay. A good game idea well executed that takes advantage of the possibilities dlivered a different kind of frantic action, not necessarily a worse one. To lament the lack of 3D and lost variation in gameplay is guilty of hiding the advantages of a 2D action/sidescroller: linear simplicity, a great overview, no camera problems, straightforwardness, and simple but effective button control.

While X8 is an improvement over X7 (in that it offers more stuff), it still boasts the same "retro is cool" design that appeals to pretentious hipsters who spend their nights cuddling Moon Patrol. This is a problem because the retro is cool design describes a repackaged 8-bit game, limitations and all. And I thought we were 15 years past that? Now that we've advanced beyond the confines of cartridges and use controllers with more than two buttons, it'd be reasonable to assume our beloved franchises would also advance. Now why won't someone tell Mega Man to get with the times?
First, MM doesn't try to be a 'cool retro' character. He was already retro when retro was cutting edge, and before the reviewer probably played games and knew about so-called retro games.

The reviewer blames the game of what it wants, and what it wants to be: a re-packaged 8-bit game. Then it was successful.

The reviewer also overlooks that MM wanted to go with the times during the PS1 and N64 era: the MM Legends games went 3D and transformed the upgradability into slight RPG elements. For various reasons they failed despite being good - not outstanding - games. As a result we get a succesful niche franchise that found its place in the modern industry: as games that intentionally resist advancement.

Again, the reviewer never learned not to blame a product for something that it intentionally wants to be and sucessfully achieves.

This review is a babble about so-called fashionable, 'cool' retro-gaming and belittles a great game.