Mega Man X6

Notoriously continuing off where the X series should have ended, Mega Man X6 takes place three years weeks after X5, where a Reploid Researcher has found a piece of Zero's body, and uses his DNA in an attempt to create his Utopian world. Made and released in just under a year, it was understandably not without flaws, and the bad English translation didn't particularly help it.

Armor Oddities
At first glance, X6's armor system would appear to be exactly the same as the one in X5, with one set carried over from the previous game (in this game, the Falcon Armor) given in the intro stage, two more found via Dr. Light's capsules (the Blade Armor and Shadow Armor, but they require all four parts to be used), and the Ultimate Armor obtainable by code at the title screen.

However, there is a fairly revealing (yet barely visible) difference. Whereas in X5, frames of X specific to the Falcon/Gaea Armor did not have "normal" X underneath them, most likely to save on space…



…However, in X6, all armour specific moves have an underlay of regular X.

This is bizarre, since as mentioned, it is more space efficient to have underlays split into the necessary parts than to have entire sprites if the underlays themselves cannot appear themselves. Indeed, in X4, 'normal' X was always kept below the Fourth/Ultimate Armors, where the former is collected one part at a time, allowing normal X to be seen with armor parts layered on top. With this in mind, it seems likely that a completely customizable armor system was planned for X6, allowing players to use any armor parts obtained in conjunction.

This explains the existence of the Shadow Armor's charge shot Animation; with its buster part equipped, the charge shot is instead a charged saber slash. If the customizable armor system were implemented, the animation would be visible on the other three parts.

Falcon Armor Flying
The frame of the Falcon Armor flying up still remains as a leftover from X5. It is unknown whether the corresponding downwards frame still exists. As is expectable, a frame of Armor-less X exists for this sprite, despite one not existing in X5.

Rainy Turtloid
There are unused mugshots for the Nightmare Investigator Rainy Turtloid, but they do not match the mugshot system used in the final game.

Unused Black Zero unlock method
oLay2tac_BA Boss levels in X6 are tied to the number of Nightmare Souls the player has obtained, up to a max of Level 4 at 5,000 Nightmare Souls. However, the final stage is unlocked automatically when the player obtains 3,000 Nightmare Souls, meaning that Nightmare Zero is impossible to fight at level 4 without a GameShark code, since he becomes unavailable when the final stage is unlocked. If Nightmare Zero is beaten at level 4, Zero is unlocked with the black armor from the previous games, normally only unlockable in X6 with a cheat entered at the title screen.

Title Screen
As in X5, the Japanese release's background art of X and Zero was replaced with a generic tech background for the US release.

Music
The Intro stage theme gained an electric guitar in the US/EU releases.

Voice Acting
As in X5 some voices were cut from the US/EU releases, though fewer this time. The title screen and stage intros were voiced in Japanese.