Episode 134 makes the case for Mega Man X as peak Mega Man

It's all Mega Man X, all the time. Just Mega Man X. The first one. (The best one.)

Last month, Mega Man turned 30. Not only did I mark the occasion with a complete live playthrough of the original NES game, I also laid down the definitive law on which classic Mega Man game is best for Polygon. It's Powered Up, in case you were wondering… but only because I limited myself to the original Mega Man games (the ones set in 20XX) and didn't include spinoffs. If I had expanded the umbrella, I'm afraid the verdict would have come down differently. You see, there's just no beating the best Mega Man game ever: Mega Man X.

This week, Kat Bailey of USgamer and Brett Elston of Capcom join us to make a rousing argument for Mega Man X's canonization as Simply The Best. This follows on the heels of the Super NES Classic Edition launch from last fall — sooner or later, I think, we'll tackle every single game on that console. This is one of the absolute winners, no question.

Not unlike last year's Zork episode, I've adopted something of a gimmicky format for this episode to mimic the structure of the game in question. You'll see what I mean once you listen…

MP3, 52.4 MB | 1:52:07
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Episode description: USgamer's Kat Bailey and Capcom's Brett Elston join Bob and Jeremy to take a deep dive into what might be the single finest entry in the entire Mega Man series: Mega Man X for Super NES. A nonlinear podcast adventure!