Mega Man X

The first level teaches you absolutely everything without a single word of explanation — and if you can really play well, you can even defeat a mighty boss in it who would otherwise sweep you aside. It's precisely this hidden, brilliant tutorial that is the calling card of Mega Man X, the game with which Capcom modernized its legendary series for the 16-bit era and breathed a new, sharper life into it.

Classic Mega Man was great, but after dozens of installments it was starting to feel constrained. Mega Man X added speed and freedom of movement. The hero X can dash, climb walls and bounce off them, which sped the game up and gave it a fluidity its predecessors lacked. Added to this is a system of collectible armor — capsules with upgrades hidden throughout the levels that gradually strengthen X and open up new ways to overcome the environment.

Legendary is that subtle tutorial mastery of the opening stage. Instead of text instructions, the level design itself leads you to learn to jump, shoot, dash and climb — and the game rewards you for mastering it. A skilled player can take down a mid-boss right at the start and thus unlock a secret ability far earlier than expected. It's a textbook lesson in game design that people still reference today.

Visually and thematically the series grew markedly darker. The story of robots turning against humanity, of Mavericks and of the very nature of artificial intelligence gave the game a more serious, almost melancholic hue that contrasted with the colorfulness of the older installments. Together with addictive gameplay and a catchy soundtrack, the result is a game that's hard to put down.

Mega Man X became the start of its own successful sub-series that continued through a string of further installments, and it's still ranked among the best action platformers of the SNES era. For many players it's even the very best thing to ever emerge from the entire world of Mega Man.

Why play it: For fast, addictive action, the brilliantly hidden tutorial design of the first level, and a darker tone that reshaped the Mega Man series in a grown-up way.