This hack works and really does remove the slowdown. You can see it when the demo plays out. Having your generated password get saved after you turn your console off and other configurations saved is really nice too, it saves the tedium of having to input it every time. Play it with this patch! It’s a must-install for Mega Man X fanatics. Although I wish that there would be a separate sub-patch for the sub-tank change because it makes the hidden Hadouken upgrade too powerful since every time you got hit once, you can just replenish that small health back with no penalty, cheesing the rest of the game as a result.

Just a word of warning: if you’re playing on an FXPAK Pro / SD2SNES (I’m not sure if using a real SA-1 motherboard cartridge would apply), your flash cart will auto-update the save to your SD card every 15-20 or so seconds at a time instead of updating once you got past the password screen (because it’s using the battery SRAM area as work RAM as well, according to the SD2SNES FAQ) - so if you completed a stage before your save updates, you will lose your progress and will revert back to the previous save prior. In addition, if you turn off the console prematurely as the flash cart is updating, your SD card’s save will be corrupted (don’t worry it won’t affect your other saves and other files too, only Mega Man X’s) and the saved password you had prior will disappear! It will display the default password screen instead, but luckily your controller configurations will be unharmed, at least in my experience. So as a safety measure, hold RESET for a few seconds before turning off your console to guarantee a updated save once you have ended your session.

UPDATE 2023/2/1: Previous disclaimer has been replaced as the FXPAK Pro’s 1.11.0 firmware makes this patch work officially. Also a slight tweak to the review.

Happy playing.