The long running Mega Man series is set to enjoy its twentieth anniversary next year and Capcom appears to be gearing itself up for the event with not one, but two remakes of classic Mega Man games, both of which have been released exclusively on the PSP. The first one - Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X - is a remake of Mega Man X, which appeared on the SNES back in 1993. For those of you not in the know, 1987 saw the debut of Mega Man as a small kid-like robot in a world of small kid-like robot bad guys and friends alike. Mega Man X saw Capcom 'animé-ise' the Mega Man series and create an older, taller and ultimately more serious character named X, presumably to cater for a wider audience while still staying true to the Mega Man mythos and classic gameplay. Maverick Hunter X's story is basically a rehash of the very first Mega Man story, only set in a hyper animeanimé-esque futuristic world. Dr. Light - creator of the original Mega Man robot - is dead. However, before his death he created a newer version of Mega Man, named X. An evil robot named Sigma has turned maverick, assembled a group of rebel robots and plans to take over the world, and it's up to the Maverick Hunters, led by X, to stop him.

For anyone who's never played a Mega Man game - and if you haven't, shame on you! - the gameplay mechanics are as follows: the game mixes old-school platforming and shooting action as you play through an easy-by-comparison-to-the-rest-of-the-game level and defeat a similarly easy boss - in this case, X's rival, Vile - and from then on you're presented with eight stages, which you're allowed to tackle in any order you see fit, going up against a hilariously named robot at the end of each stage. Seriously, their names are hilarious. Each robot is based on an animal and has powers either directly or loosely associated with the animal they're based on and/or the environments within which they dwell. You're going to find yourself battling against robotic foes such as Chill Penguin, Flame Mammoth, Armoured Armadillo, Spark Mandrill (hahaha!), Storm Eagle, Launch Octopus, Sting Chameleon, or my personal favourite, Boomerang Kuwanger.

However, no matter how side-splittingly hilarious their names may be, these guys are not easy to defeat. You'll have to pull every trick you can to send them packing. There is a strategic element involved; namely, the order in which you choose to take them on. Each boss robot you defeat gives up a specific weapon that you can use as you please, provided you have ammo for it. In turn, each boss has a weakness to certain weapons, some of which are brutally obvious, some of which aren't. So, gaining specific weapons before you take on some of the bosses can give you a much-needed edge in the fight. Additionally, the completion of certain missions can trigger events in others, making them far, far easier to navigate through. After you've beaten the 8 boss robots, you'll get to take on some even tougher missions and bosses, before going up against Sigma himself.

Extra weapons aren't the only things you can get your robotic hands on. Hidden throughout the eight starting missions are various body upgrades: head, body, arm and foot. The head parts allow you to smash certain blocks with your head, the body parts reduce the damage you take from enemy attacks, the arm parts allow you to charge your weapons to unleash far more powerful shots, while the foot parts allow you to carry out a dash move, handy for dodging certain attacks and jumping further. Also hidden in various places are life-up containers, which increase your maximum life energy gauge by a small amount, as well as sub-tank containers, which you can fill with life energy, provided your current gauge is full, and use to refill your energy gauge should it get low. These come in handy especially in the Sigma's Palace missions, so you'll want to get your hands on these. Not that they're easy to find. Most of the sub-tanks, life-ups and body upgrades are hidden in the depths of the levels, requiring other acquired abilities and/or weapons to reach them.

Maverick Hunter X looks and sounds just as brilliantly as it plays; making good, though by no means full, use of the PSP's capabilities. The environments, weapon effects, enemies and backgrounds have all been beefed up considerably and the music has been beautifully remixed while remaining every bit as toe-tappingly catchy as it was the first time around. My work colleagues are getting somewhat fed up of me constantly humming Maverick Hunter X's tunes… but openly admit that it makes a nice change from me singing the theme tunes to Duck Tales and Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers [Duck Tales, ooh ooh.. ah, happy days! Nostalgia-Ed]. Additionally, the game's simple and formulaic story benefits from some adequately (if a little cheesy) acted in-game voiceovers, as well as some lovely animé intro and outro cut-scenes. The game's stellar presentation is backed up by a pleasing amount of unlockable extras. By completing X's story mode, you'll not only be able to play through the entire story mode as Vile - who plays considerably and pleasingly different to X, essentially opening up a mode that could have easily warranted its own release as a separate game - but you'll also unlock a 24-minute animé movie called The Day of Sigma, which unfolds the chain of events leading to Sigma turning Maverick and so on. It's gorgeous, brilliantly animated, superbly voiced and any hardcore Mega Man X or animé fans will likely watch it over and over. Add to this a hard difficulty setting and a demo of Mega Man: Powered Up - Capcom's other PSP remake of a classic Mega Man game - which you can upload to other PSP owners via ad-hoc and you've got a superb package.

However, Maverick Hunter X isn't without its faults, regardless of how minor and scarce they may be. Firstly, the framerate does slow down considerably if a lot is happening on-screen. It doesn't ruin the game by any means, but considering that the game is by no means complex or pushing the PSP graphically, it can get a tad annoying. Secondly, the game might have benefited from some extra challenges, akin to those that Capcom crammed into Mega Man: Powered Up, like some extra tasks that are simple to figure out but a berk to complete, to sink your teeth into should you finally get tired of the two main stories. If I'm being truthful though, I'm just nitpicking; looking for faults to point out just so I don't look like I'm creaming over the game too much.

Now, in this crazy world of ours, there are people who are dead against remakes of videogames. A lot of older gamers tend to have the attitude "I already played it, so why should I pay to play it again?" While this is certainly a valid point, a lot of remakes - such as Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X - can offer so much more than they did back when they were originally released. Plus it gives anyone who didn't get the chance to play Mega Man X the first time around a chance to see what all the fuss was about and experience what is quite possibly one of the best games of Nineties. Frankly, I'd place my lips firmly on the cheeks (use your imagination) of every Capcom executive, programmer, artist and whoever else for what they've done here if I could. Maverick Hunter X is my favourite PSP game thus far and one of the very best games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. If Capcom is willing to carry on remaking the Mega Man X series on the PSP and can put as much care, effort and extra goodies into each game as they have here, then the majority of my PSP collection is going to end up consisting of Mega Man games and I'm going to find myself in a truckload of debt. But it'll all be worth it. So, so worth it.

Reviewed by Mark Reece for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).