Mega Man ZX

"ZXcellent!"

When I first heard of the upcoming Megaman game for the DS, I wasn't very excited. Being exposed to stuff like Battle Network and that god-awful Megaman X7 made me not as interested in the new Megaman titles.

However, seeing videos of the game gave me hope. After watching the videos, I explored the JP site and found out the whole deal about this new Megaman series they call Megaman ZX.

Story

This game is set hundreds of years after the end of Megaman Zero. Peace between Reploids and Humanity has finally been attained. Humans and Reploids are now indistinguishable.

But, the robots who have the willpower to kill humans, Mavericks, still exist.

One of the Maverick attacks claimed the life of the player's mother, and ten years later the events of the game kicks off. A transport team of you and a man named Girouette are transporting something for a volunteer group of trained combatants called the Guardians. While you are pondering about your mother, you are attacked by a small group of Mavericks.

The attack separates you from Giro(Girouette's nickname), and you are discovered by a group of Guardians. Naturally, you are attacked. As well as in the first Zero game, the grunt soldiers are completely useless against the maniacal robots. You then recieve help from the package you were supposed to deliver: Biometal Model X. You merge with it, granting you power and the ability to fight against the Mavericks. The adventure begins!

The story picks up and doesn't slow down one bit. The only missions that you'll do in this game that don't have anything to do with the main story are the side quests. Biometal and the Mega Men are major plot devices in the story, but I'll get to it in the gameplay portion of this review.

You might have wondered why I didn't refer to the main character by name, this is because there are two different characters to choose from. Vent is the male character, and Aile is the female character. Other than gender, these two are exactly the same, with the EXACT same backstory. How they proceed in the game is identical, with some small variations in missions and dialouge. The only reason you should play through the game as both characters is that certain cutscenes in the game reveal major plot points, but they're different depending on the character. So if you're playing as Vent, and you find out the true nature of the Biometal in one cutscene, if you play as Aile you'll find out who created the Biometal in the same cutscene.

Even though this game stems from the Megaman Zero series, the story isn't as serious and dark. The crisis you are fighting against is unknown to the well-off populace, therefore, unlike in Zero, their situations won't give you any drive to defeat the main enemy.

Speaking of the main enemy, throughout the game you know you have to stop him, you know he's evil, you know he's killing people, you know what he's after, but the strange thing is, you don't know what he's going to do once he attains his goal. World domination? Possibly. World destruction? Possibly. To make giant-sized pancakes? Possibly.

Story: 6/10

Gameplay

Now, this is where the game gets it's greatness. The M.E.G.A. system is the system that the Mega Men(the ones chosen by the Biometal to use them) use to interface and combine with the Biometal. Depending on the Model, you'll gain different abilities and weapons. For example, while playing as Model X you only have the X Buster to use, but while playing as Model ZX you can use the ZX Saber as well as the ZX Buster.

Each Biometal is completely different from the other, except for two, but that's a spoiller. Each of them play differently, and each of them have different strengths and weaknesses. Model LX can swim and float indefinitley in water, while Model HX can air dash. Model FX can shoot upward, and you can edit the trajectory of it's buster shots using the touch screen. Model PX has the fastest attack speed and can become temporarily invincible, while Model ZX is the only Biometal than can fire charged buster shots other than X.

The game is huge. Unlike previous Megaman games where you select the boss's stage , you select a mission, the only hint to the boss's identity is the description of the stage. You then have to find the area it tells you to go to yourself, which can be quite frustrating as the areas are set around the map rather randomly. There is only one area you cannot reach without teleporting to it, meaning that the entire game is like one huge level.

However, just because the game is huge doesn't mean that the boss's individual areas are. Compared to previous Megaman installments, the stages that the bosses inhabit are short. Don't worry though, they contain many, many obstacles and enemies that will try to impend your progress. I don't recall one screen in one of the boss's areas that doesn't have either an enemy, or a dangerous obstacle in it.

The bosses themselves are... quite easy. The only thing that makes them hard is that in order to get the Biometal that they have without having to repair it, is to defeat them WITHOUT hitting the spot where the Biometal is located. This can range from being in a tiny, nearly unhittalbe area, or an area that encompasses most of the boss's sprite and can only be hit during an attack that becomes infrequent in the duration of the fight.

Not only can you save the world or find rare stones in digging sites, but there are minigames to unlock as well. But, there are only two fun ones in my opinion. The others are either too hard or too cumbersome.

Another thing is that the touch screen isn't used to its full potential. Only four of the seven Biometals have uses for it, and even then only two of those four are extremely useful. They didn't even use up all the space on the DS card, they could've made the game longer or added more extras.

The gameplay is AWESOME, but it does have a few quirks that make some things annoying.

Gameplay: 9/10

Visuals

The game looks and feels like Megaman Zero due to the artwork style and the poses of the sprites. There is also something that makes fans(or maybe just me) go SQUEE! Full animated cutscenes! While they may be short, they are done well and look really good, but they get pixelated sometimes. The animations of the sprites are all fluid and the sprites themselves are as detailed as they can be.

The explosions of the bosses are purdy too. Best boss explosions I've seen in Megaman games.

Visuals: 10/10

Audio

The game's music is swell. The tracks are atmospheric and are fitting to the area. None of the music is annoying, but they get old moderatley fast. The sound effects sound like... Megaman Zero. The explosions have the clunk of the metal hitting the ground, exactly like Megaman Zero. There are voices too, but they are either in cutscenes or short battle grunts. In the JP version there were voices in some of the cutscenes, but they were removed for the NA release.

The audio is not the strongest point in the game, but it is a strong point.

Audio: 7/10

Extras

Extras? This game has a few. Not only are there four minigames to unlock, you have side missions and a secret boss. If you own Megaman Zero 3 or 4, you can place it in the GBA slot and fight selected bosses from either game. There are also Data Disks that contain information on friend and foe alike to collect. Other than that, the bulk of the game is the main quest.

Extras: 6/10

Replay Value: To understand the full story, you have to play as both characters. And there is also the privilege of keeping Model X after aquiring Model ZX if you start a new game after beating both stories. The game is fun, but I feel it is too short to provide fun for more than two or three weeks.

Overall

This is a solid, fast paced, fun Megaman game. It lacks in certain areas, but these things have been overshadowed by the rest of the game's awesomeness.

Overall: 8/10

Rent or Buy?: If you're an avid Megaman fan, buy. If you just want to try it, rent, but you'll end up buying it later. Either way, you're going to buy.

- kh_fan00202

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/06