Ride Boarsky (Recommended)Flame Hyenard is one of the 8 Mavericks of Mega Man X7, considered one of the worst in the entire Mega Man franchise, and the absolute worst of the Mega Man X games. Literally everything in this stage is as universally reviled as the game itself, examplifying everything wrong with it.Why it sucks. Nothing but a bunch of platforms over lava, making the level's overall design extremely lame and boring. Cheap enemies and their placement.

Mega Man X7, known in Japan as Rockman X7, is a 2003 platforming game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows only in Korea.

In 2018, Mega Man X7 was re-released as part of Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Megaman X7 was the first Megaman X main series game to come out for the PS2 and was also the game that was meant to jump the X series into a 3D space. Now, this wouldn’t be the first time Capcom did a 3D Megaman. The Megaman Legends duology is Megaman in 3D and was well received by critics and fans. In Mega Man X7 the world is under threat by a group of very well armed mercenaries. X cannot be bothered to do any thing about it (at first) and Zero is forced to team up with Axl (whom he'd just arrested) to kill all of Axl's friends.

Why It Sucks

1. Heavily flawed and unnecessary 3D gameplay that was only added in order to capitalize on the 3D craze back then.
2. The lock-on system removes most of the challenge of a Mega Man game. It can also be really annoying, sometimes it doesnt target the right enemy
3. Zero was nerfed to hell and back: his saber swings while on the ground are slow as molasses, imprecise and just not fun to use and his aerial swings are simply horrendous.
4. An awful camera which feels sloppy and is barely controllable, resulting in many nuisances through the game.
5. Slow and dragged out gameplay in both 3D and 2D sections.
6. Despite what the cover is showing, X, who is the title character and the main protagonist of the series, is not playable until you either defeat all eight bosses or rescue 64 out of 128 reploids, which is extremely tedious and time-consuming.
   • Speaking of that, the front of the cover is somewhat misleading since the game mainly focuses on Zero and the new character, Axl.
   • It should be mentioned that in the Japanese cover, X is in the background.
   • The European cover is probably the worst, because it only has a picture of X without Zero and/or Axl.
7. The graphics aren't very good, even some early PS2 games had better graphics. This game was claimed to have cel-shaded graphics, although these can only be seen on the character models.
8. Questionable collision detection.
9. Wall jumping is entirely unreliable on the 3D sections, this is specially notable in Wing Crowang's stage
10. Axl‘s Copy Ability can only work if you defeat Mavericks using a special shot. However, he can only copy enemies that are the same size as him, and said special shot does very little damage, with most enemies being able to take quite a few hits before dying.
    • Even then, this ability is barely explored and is only useful in a small handful of areas.
11. X is far too overpowered compared to the other playable characters.
12. Most of the weapons suck, as they have very limited ammo, are extremely weak, and are not fit for 3D.
13. The Glide Armor, which is the only Armor available in the game, also sucks tremendously.
14. A weak and uninspired storyline, complete with an extremely obvious and predictable plot twist involving Sigma, who lives again.
    • On this subject, the plot was also, as explained above, turned into a 'contest' to see who keeps Axl. When, where, and how did the plot go from saving the world from the brink of destruction to a measly gang war???
15. The Parts system of the previous games was severely dumbed down and now only consists of a generic upgrade system that barely changes the character's attributes.
    • Also unlike in X5 to X6, after getting a game over or beating that Maverick stage, this game will force you to use that part upgrade, you can not keep that part,
16. On that note, the Reploids who need to be rescued make a return. But much like in Mega Man X6, they are poorly placed and are permanently wiped out of your save if they get damaged unless you reload that save file. In fact, it is more of a problem here since they can be killed by everything in the game, in contrast with X6 where only type one enemy could kill them.
    • Also, if you get a game over after rescuing them, you are put though a montage of the Reploids that you rescue, and it is un-skippible.
17. If you lose all of your lives in the intro level, instead of getting a game over and getting kicked back at the begging on the level, the game with out any warning or reason will boot you back to the title screen, forcing you to redo all this progress of starting that save file up.
18. Upgrades like Heart Tanks and Sub Tanks are also located in awful places. They are either in plain sight or in frustrating locations.
    • Plus, there are only eight Heart Tanks to be collected in the game, and they have to shared between three characters.
    • On that topic, no sound effect of any kind plays when picking up a Heart Tank, unlike ANY of the previous games. Even Maverick Hunter X had a muffled version of the SNES sound effect.
19. The game is filled to the brim with lazy and half-baked level design with very little thought put into it.
20. Even though you have two playable characters, if that playable character loose all of his health, the player is booted back at the nearest check point.
21. The boss fights are bland: they're far too long for their own right, tedious and irritating:
    • Mega Scorpio is an OK intro boss. Nothing special, though.
    • Soldier Stonekong is a pretty cool boss due to his appearances and his attacks are easy enough to avoid (making him the first Maverick that players should fight first), but it is ridiculously easy due to the lock-on aim allowing you to shoot him from almost anywhere.
    • Splash Warfly is an alright boss and his attacks are not too hard, but not too easy at the same time. While not the best overall Maverick, he has the best fight in the entire game.
    • Vanishing Gungaroo is cute, but his battle gets annoying as he has two phases:
      1. The first phase (the Kangaroo Ride Armor) isn't too bad, but its attacks hit hard.
      2. The second phase (Gungaroo himself) is incredibly annoying, he is always moving and his attacks are hard to avoid.
    • Ride Boarski has a cool appearance, being a Boar-themed Maverick that can transform into a motorcycle, but his fight can get annoying as he never stands still, and constantly yells 'YOU PUNK!' every second while in motorcycle mode, also the fight is filled with framerate issues.
    • Tornado Tonion is incredibly stupid, easy to defeat, and he is based on AN ONION.
    • Wind Crowrang, while having one of the best character designs in the game, is very annoying as his battle takes place on a small airship, meaning his attacks can knock you off easily.
    • Snipe Anteator is a tedious boss as he constantly hides under the arena making it difficult to shoot him, and he constantly summons laser turrets that will attack you.
    • Flame Hyenard is the worst and most infamous boss in the entire game, and possibly the entire Mega Man X series. His attacks are annoying to avoid and the worst part is, he always shouts 'BURN! BURN TO THE GROUND!' every time he attacks, and he never shuts up.
    • Mole Bore is an OK boss and is a nice callback to the original Mole Bore enemies from the first Mega Man X game.
    • The boss battle with Red is extremely frustrating since you fight him in a stage with really small platforms (similar to Gate's boss battle from the previous installment), making it easy for him to throw you off, killing you instantly. This is made worse thanks to the atrocious camera since it can prevent you from seeing Red's attacks, many in fact mock this saying that the true boss is the camera.
    • The final boss fight against Sigma is alright, but both of his phases have problems:
      1. The first phase against Sigma is a complete joke as his attacks can be avoided easily and he can be stun locked by his weakness (the weapons of Wing Crowang).
      2. The second phase against Sigma is pretty cool as he is gigantic, and has a wide variety of moves, but his battle can be a pain in a butt as his boss fight takes place above space, and his punch attack can send you off the arena were you be instantly defeated.
22. In addition to the bosses being bland, they also have way too much HP, this was made due to the fact that the player has two playable characters with their own health bar that can be swapped between.
23. Terrible and annoying English voice acting, not unlike the fourth game or Mega Man 8, where it can be at least enjoyable to hear, including the previously mentioned issue with Flame Hyenard.
24. Tries way too hard to give players a sense of nostalgia of previous games in the series by reusing several levels, enemies and other aspects from them, such as some enemies and the intro stage from the original Mega Man X.
25. The PC version is a straight and effortless port from the PS2 version with no PC-friendly settings. To elaborate, the screen resolution is fixed (and thus the game looks ugly when played on higher resolutions), the control scheme is modeled after PS2 controller buttons, and finally unlike the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth games, there is no quit menu, so you‘ll have to close the game using the Alt+F4 key or the Task Manager.
26. The game treats the player like an idiot and gives tutorials on how to use even basic self-explanatory things like the stage select menu, the worst part is that it us un-skippable.
27. Cutscenes are way too long due to the incredibly slow dialogue boxes that can't be fast-forwarded or skipped.
28. On that topic, the cutscenes themselves are beyond lazy. They involve still images of the character models, often reusing the same images. At other times they consist of nothing more than a still 2D image, which is quite disappointing despite the game's overall bigger story.
    • While there are fully animated FMV cutscenes, they are only seen at the beginning and the end of the game.
    • To add insult to injury, this was made the same year as Jak and Daxter 2, in which it has fully animated cutscenes, so there was no excuse.
      • Even Mega Man X4 as a PS1 title had more FMVs.
29. When facing Mavericks, using a weapon they are weak against barely does any damage to them. It also stuns them and gives them invincibility frames, making it impossible to kill them quickly.
30. Axl is almost the same as X in this game due to sharing the same special weapons. The only difference is that Axl has the previously mentioned Copy Ability and has no Charge Shot. Fortunately in the sequel he plays more like an upgrade of Bass from the classic series, being able to shoot in multiple directions as well as having his own special weapons.
31. Invincibility frames don't save you from lava unlike previous games. This is especially annoying in the 3D section of Flame Hyenard's stage. While the original Mega Man did the same thing, it's worse here.
32. Near the end of the game you are confronted by one of the worst boss rushes in the series. Rather than have all the bosses in one go like in previous games, there are two loading screens for each, one for entering the boss and one after beating the boss. Considering that there are eight Mavericks you have to fight, you have to go through a total of 16 loading screens. After that there is the fight with Sigma, which alsohas two loading screens. This means that you have to go though 18 loading screens, and if you are defeated, instead of restarting the boss fight, you are sent back the selection room meaning that you have to go though two more loading screens.
    • The worst part is, if you're destined to turn off the game, and destined to replay it, not only do you have to restart the entire first section of the final level from the begging, you have to start then entire boss rush all over again, even if you are at the final phase agents Sigma, you start at the beginning at the stage.
33. The story is a mess and is filled with plot holes and things that happen by no reason at all or things that directly contradict others, for example Red challenges the Maverick Hunters to a competition for Axl, yet in another cutscene he tells to Sigma that he doesn't while he dislikes the hunters but they have nothing to do with him, this cutscene seems out of place since the game doesn't indicate if that conversation with Sigma happened before or during the game's story,
    • Another case is that the members of Red Alert seem to be all being manipulated or controlled (the previously mentioned cutscene shows it in fact) yet when the hunters fight the members of Red Alert, all of them seem to willingly fight against the hunters and in some case like Soldier StoneKong he clearly knows that he is being manipulated, the only part when is mentioned that they are being manipulated is when X confronts Tornado Tonion, one in fact might think that Sigma is taking credit for things he didn't do.
    • Also Red said that he would use the Mavericks captured by him to duel, yet everyone seems to be a member of his own Red Alert, even helping the bosses of the game.
34. X in this game is very unlikable, being extremely whiny and always talking about wanting no violence. In the dub, he also has no personality. Fortunately, the sequel fixed X's character.
35. Zero seems like they are trying too hard to make him sound cool.
36. Axl is way too cocky at the start of the game and his voice acting is annoying.
37. The Maverick roster is arguably the worst in the series in terms of designs. As mentioned above, one of them is based on an onion.
38. There are no codes for X's Ultimate Armor or Black Zero, both of which had been around since X4.

Redeeming Qualities

1. To its credit, the swappable character mechanic is pretty cool, a feature introduced in the Game Boy Color title Mega Man Xtreme 2.
2. While bland and badly executed, the idea for both its plot and its backgrounds are interesting.
3. The game's soundtrack, despite not being as good as previous installments, does feature some enjoyable tunes.
4. Unlike X5 and X6, the player is no longer forced to required all of the armor pieces just to use one armor, X7 has desisted to go back to the X1 to X4 style of getting an armor on X has he finds the Armor Capsules.
5. While obvious, at least Sigma does appear half way in the game, unlike in X6 in which he literally appears out-of-no-were after the boss battle with Gate.
6. While not the best, Red is a decent villain even if fighting him and his death were completely unnecessary.
7. The Japanese voice acting is at least good and there's an option to switch the voice acting.
   • Unfortunately this does not effect voices during gameplay, so Flame Hyenard will still yell 'BURN! BURN TO THE GROUND!' even if you set the voices to Japanese.
8. Axl gets a lot of character development and is actually a pretty likeable character.
9. The Japanese opening theme is a MASTERPIECE.
10. Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 makes this at least easier to play, and prevents deaths by falling to magma or bottomless pits while adding the Rookie Hunter mode for first-timers. It also cuts down the loading times.

Reception

Mega Man X7 received mixed to negative reviews. It is considered to be one of if not THE worst game in the entire Mega Man franchise and is often used as an example of how transition from 2D to 3D can be done wrong.

Trivia

Flame Hyenard's line 'BURN! BURN TO THE GROUND!' has become an internet meme of sorts. Arctic jackets for men.

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