PAX East 2023:Hands-On With 30XX

Fans of Mega Man X and Mario Maker will be in for a real treat as I was able to check out 30XX during my time at PAX East this year. 30XX has been shown off at PAX East in the past but this year they were showing off the creator aspect of the game more than they have in the past. For those who don’t know 30XX plays a lot like a Mega Man/Mega Man X game in terms of fighting robots to gain power-ups and dashing, just to name a few.

However, 30XX does a lot to distance itself from the Mega Man X universe. One such example is that every playthrough will be different. You will have a different experience every time you play the game. The power-ups could be totally different or you might get a playthrough where you don’t fight hard bosses until the end of the game. There are also different gameplay modes that will make the game feel different. There are several different modes that allow the player to play their way, like weekly challenges. That being said, one of the newer aspects of the game was the creator mode, which was one of the main reasons the game was at PAX in the first place.

30XX has a creator mode, similar to Super Mario Maker. That being said, when I was able to get hands-on with it, it felt like a better fit than the Mario Maker creator mode. What I mean by that is the 30XX creator mode felt like it was made more for the fan creator in. If you want to have a ton of blocks, you can just duplicate them all at once whereas in Mario Maker, you need to place them one after the other. In 30XX, you gain access to all the power-ups for your levels right from the start of the game. You might not be able to beat certain creator levels without playing the game first but it’s nice to have that option that you can try to challenge yourself.

One of my favorite aspects the developers told me about was something similar to a Mega Man mode, where you can select what robot master you want to fight like a Mega Man select screen. Being a huge Mega Man fan, this mode is pretty cool as again, it lets you play the game the way you want to. You can try out levels and beat a stage early in your playthrough. The levels will have the same layout during Mega Mode but will be different each time you start the mode.

I asked about the creator mode having something similar to the Super Worlds in Mario Maker and that is something that the developers want to have at some point. They also want to have a way to search for your favorite creators and have the option to only play levels of creators you follow. Being able to create your own Mega Man X stages sounds like a great idea. It’s always fun to be able to play brand new Mega Man games and Mega Man inspired games and 30XX is a great way to experience a new Mega Man styled adventure.

©Batterystaple Games