Intermission

Intermissions are mini-games featured in Mega Man X8. They are all completely optional, and serve mainly as a distraction to provide the player with a safe, risk free way of collecting large amounts of Metals to buy Chips from the Research and Development Lab.

The Intermissions can be played repeatedly and the player can quit them at anytime. Winning or losing won't affect the players Hunter Rank; and likewise dying won't cost them a Retry Chip.

Unlocking
Obtaining Intermissions requires the player to experience game overs (Mission's Failed) a certain number of times in a row. How many times depends on the Intermission being unlocked and the number of stages that have been cleared (i.e. bosses defeated) before hand. The game keeps track of this and uses it to the determine if the player will receive an Intermission when returning to the stage select screen. The counter restarts when the player starts or clears a Mission. If an Intermission has been successfully unlocked, Alia will immediately interrupt to announce an "emergency" upon returning to the stage select screen.

Noah's Park Intermission must always be unlocked first in order to gain the others. During a New Game+, the player must only receive a game over once after clearing an Intermissions' corresponding stage.

Stages
To select an Intermission, choose any of the four stages where an Intermission has been unlocked. The game will then present a choice of the regular Mission or the Intermission before proceeding to character select screen.

Noah's Park
The objective is to destroy as many Crabs-K as possible and survive through a mass of enemies in the waterfall section (where Crabs-Y was fought for the second time). The game keeps record on how many Crabs-K where destroyed (with a maximum of 999 Crabs-K). The enemies appear on screen in a set pattern:
 * First, several Crabs-K will jump out from the waterfall and rush the player.
 * Next, Spikys will roll in from either side of the screen.
 * Then, Crabs-Y's claw will fly in and attempt to crush the player several times.
 * Finally, a non-hostile MAME-Q will fly in carrying a red Metal 50.

The pattern repeats itself, increasing in speed a little each time until the waves loop. The Intermission will continue until the player is defeated or Crabs-Y's claw is destroyed (using X's Ultimate Armor Nova Strike move or Zero's/Layer's Juuhazan technique). The Navigator for this Intermission is Alia.

Central White
The player uses the Barius Ride Chaser to clear a path to the Environmental Research Center, destroying barricades blocking the way. The controls and gameplay are the same as the normal Mission.

There are Metals scattered throughout the course, and some walls have blue Metals (up to 10 each) and recovery items behind them. The number and size of the walls will increase as the race goes on. Some walls span the entire width of the path and at times it will be necessary to jump off ramps to clear them.

A giant wall marks the end of the course and must be destroyed to reach the finish line where there are three lines of Metals to grab before finishing the stage. The player only needs to clock the fastest time used to get to the finish line. The Navigator for this Intermission is Alia.

Inferno
The player must make their way down through ascending platforms (similar to certain sections in the main stage). This Intermission is an endurance test without end, with the game recording how far the player descends down the shaft. Like the normal Inferno stage dropping off the bottom of the screen is game over and getting trapped at the top of the screen inflicts some damage.

There are fixed platforms, moving platforms as well as weight-induced descending platforms, and sometimes a combination of these as well. There are Metals on each one of them and the speed of descent will also increase the further the player goes. The Navigator for this Intermission is Palette.

Troia Base
The new training program, "On Parade", is the Gateway boss battle challenge with a 10-minute time limit. This is the only Intermission where two characters can be selected.

It is recommended to have all Maverick weapons and/or X's Ultimate Armor before tackling this one. The less time to take down a Maverick boss, the more Metals will be collected after every battle (up to 1000 Metals per boss). The Navigator for this Intermission is Layer.