We open with some general legal and system information, and then we’re ready to meet our player character - Mega Man X (called simply "X" in the game). We learn about his design, first of all, and then his equipment. This is a more detailed version of what will eventually be the player’s sprite. Any actual information on the equipment cannot really be ascertained or retained, because though the sprite is essentially static, aside from a few moving targets denoting what the text is talking about, the actual text goes by pretty quickly. From there, we receive some expository text, explaining why “X”, the player’s control dummy, is important and powerful (and why children this game is marketed to should invest in this IP). Finally, we reach the title screen. From here, this game is very friendly to new players - or at least to new players somewhat familiar with platformers.
Beginning the game, “READY” flashes on the screen and the player character gets lasered onto the middle of the screen. On this beginning screen, nothing is moving, and the player can mash buttons on the controller to figure out what they do without risk of dying (in particular, jumping and firing unlimited ammo as a means of attack, or defense). Moving to the left gets you stuck, and moving to the right commences the level more properly. The first thing the game actively does is teach players the difference between background and foreground. The health bar is at a constant place in the center left of the screen, and cars come at the player from the right. They are a bit too large to jump over completely, especially if a player is new and unfamiliar with the controls, so the player learns that they take no damage seemingly touching (on the 2D display) the cars, and that normal vehicles like trucks in this level cannot be interacted with. From there, players meet a single enemy progressing towards them at the same speed that they can run. This means the player that they can get hurt and learn that the health bar on the left goes down with hits from enemies, or that they can attack enemies and possibly gain health points from that, or that they can jump over and evade enemies without ever engaging them. It is possible to do a combination of these things, but with this single snippet of the introductory level, players become primed to form their own playing styles. This may be of particular note to the anti-proceduralist, as both of these options may give rise to different mindsets, like completionism (destroying all enemies on a level) or speeding (getting through a level as quickly as possible through a mix of avoiding and engaging enemies) or pacifism (getting through a level by exclusively avoiding enemies). In addition, progressing through the level by moving to the right is encouraged, as enemies previously defeated and left behind will show up again if the player returns to the original spot that the enemy occupied. It is simply easier in the game for the player character to keep moving forward.
Later on, different mechanics are taught by force, if the player happened not to have picked up on them earlier. For instance, during one segment with a tank of a miniboss, the player cannot return to the left and the “camera” of the game detaches X from its center. This traps the player onto a specific platform, and also gives the notion that there is a new type of enemy approaching, more formidable than the previous rabble. Defeating this enemy causes the platform to plummet to a platform significantly further down, with the only escape being to climb on the walls. This is the latest possible time that the player can be unaware of and learn the mechanic for climbing walls.
(Even with all the teaching this game does, and the relative friendliness of the controls to newcomers, I have to admit that I only learned about the powered up blast attack when my friend accidentally performed it and I realized that, like jumping higher when pressing B slightly longer, pressing Y slightly longer would yield a slightly more powerful attack. It is very difficult in situations like these to take a proceduralist approach, considering this is exclusively a gameplay aspect of the game reliant on players to figure something out without clues and that .)
Regardless of the teaching of its own mechanics, this game may have a few “things to say”. While the protagonist (or at least, the player character) is a robot with the ability to make its own decisions, the enemies are also robotic, with some of them being recognizable as explicitly artificial, and others being robotic bastardizations of nature (notably frogs, pufferfish, rabbits, woodpeckers, bats, and lumberjacks). In addition, sparks of electricity can harm the player character, as can lava, spikes, machinery, and other factors. It is very difficult to arrive at a clear message from gameplay or form alone. (This is especially if the player is a weak scrub with very little experience with video games and who couldn’t beat any of the levels past the tutorial, not that I would know anything about that).
One message could be that choice (what X has that the other robots do not have) is inherently something that may be used for good. Another could be that humanity shouldn’t dabble too much in robotics because bad people can do bad with robots. Yet another could be that you should look to take down evildoers because you will be rewarded for doing so. There can definitely be a case made for a few different viewpoints, especially considering the game does involve a robot saving humans from robots, but considering very little is explicit, the specifics of the game’s agenda may be up to debate. As a relative newcomer to consoles and video games, though, I won’t pretend that the most interesting aspects were anything other than the introductory aspects designed to fool-proof at least the very initial stage. Should we look to technology to save us from the problems we've created in our environment? Well maybe, but I sure as hell know how to climb a wall in this game, and that's pretty fun to me.
If anyone is interested, there is a longplay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2NqblSmIY
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