Since the SNES was my first console, the first three Mega Man X games are some of my all-time favorites. It's been wonderful to see Not Sure demolish various Mega Man NES romhacks, though this has only increased my desire to have a new, challenging SNES era Mega Man X experience.

Over the last three to four years, JKB Games - a random assortment of spriters and coders tinkering in their free time - have been working on just that. This fangame has some serious potential and is being built with the flash-based Adobe Actionscript 3. It's not a romhack, but the graphics and design retain the SNES vibe. The same goes for the soundtrack!

Overall
Corrupted features eight new mavericks; new enemies; new weapons and skills; new armors; five levels of difficulties ("C" through "S+" if I'm correct); environmental changes after bosses are defeated; ride armors; lives, checkpoint and save point systems; and, of course, several hidden collectibles.

The game is set after X5. X and Zero will be playable; Axl and Vile are not featured. X has no saber moves, and Zero has no buster moves. Each has a separate intro stage.

Though the traditional structure featuring eight Maverick stages technically remains, Corrupted offers a Metroidvania/open world setup with hidden items and multiple paths to complete stage; a level up system allowing players to use skill points to improve weapons; and a "Final Four" system that makes level and difficulty adjustments based on which Mavericks remain as the last four bosses:

JKB Games Staff Member at 1/28/14 wrote:

After completing the intro stage, you start in the hunter base and have your missions to stop the eight mavericks, but with your current equipment you can only reach three. Upon each of their defeat either you gain a weapon that allows you to travel somewhere new, or the maverick's destruction causes something to change in the world and grant new places to explore. Examples of such would be Force Starfish, who gives you a weapon that can break hard blocks and crystals, and Sparkling Scorpio, who relinquishes his energy back to the power plant so all its devices can function. There world is non-linear and many paths are dependant on the defeat of certain bosses. Also, just in case the X series desensitized you at all, these are freaking MAVERICKS. They don't just wait in their boss room for you to come kill them. They have agendas, and they want to make your life miserable. Each and every maverick has a mission they're on for the first half of the game, and if you don't go after them, they succeed in carrying it out. One example is Warfare Milodon, who has taken over the weapons factory for the purpose of creating new and powerful mechaniloids for his force, and if he's not one of the first four bosses you defeat, he completes his research and elite enemies start appearing in the world, and Milodon himself gains a powerful new attack. This is the case for all of the last four mavericks remaining, and all have some effect that makes the world harder and their boss fight harder.

Not much has been said about the main antagonist or the post-Maverick levels.

The team is perpetually silent as to when the game will be completed; I believe at one point they switched game engines and created a new level editor. However, once released, the game will be playable for free on the PC. Controls are configurable, though joy2key or similar external programs will be needed to play the game with a controller.

Take a peek at the videos below to see how much polish has gone into this project! I will definitely keep the thread updated as new developments occur, and I for one look forward to playing it.

Videos
Zero versus Crystal Rafflar (Final Four), S Class Difficulty
X versus Sub-boss RT MK2, B Class and S Class Difficulty Comparison - very intriguing to see that higher difficulties result in adjusted enemy AI, as opposed to solely bumping up enemy HP. Also, it appears that X's air dash boots are unlocked from the get-go, which I applaud. I always felt as though the SNES bosses were rarely designed to counter that upgrade, so hopefully this is a good design choice.
Various Game Menus

Other Links
JKB Games on Facebook - semi-regular updates on the game's development progress.
JKB Games on Youtube - video updates (which are also posted on the Facebook page).
Mega Man X Corrupted Soundtrack - something about that SPC700 chip is timeless.

All the cool creatures like tigers, eagles and sponges have already been taken, mang. But yeah, some of them are a bit of a stretch.

Edit: Okay, I just looked up some of the Mavericks in the games I haven't played. Capcom had a water flea, dung beetle, onion, and a sunflower? Yeah, I'm happy enough with the Corrupted designs.

I'd bet they do. Not much about the game's plot has been discussed, though the fact that Axl is absent probably means that they're taking some creative liberties.

All the same, I'm not really invested in the plot. You know? I've only played X1 - X4 which can be summarized as "Sigma is an antagonist."

Still no release date but this recent video would seem to show that things are moving smoothly. This is on the toughest difficulty and I cannot wait to play this.

Still no word on a release date, but progress is progress! Very excited.

I maintain that this game is going to be dope (as long as it doesn't get c&d'd)!

This project continues to look dope.

2023 status check: Dope

The project dropped Flash for HTML5. Still very impressed with what this crew is cooking up.

2025 status check: Dope