Mega Man ZX

"To the Moon.."

Opening Opinions:After hearing about this game from megax, I definitely had to give it a go. You see, I've always been a staunch fan of the Mega Man Zero franchise, simply because of the difficulty. It would push me to levels of expertise that few other games would have the nerve to try and accomplish. I always felt that one wrong move could end my game, and as a matter of fact it could in a lot of cases.

It's that kind a adrenaline rush that makes me the kind of gamer that I am today, and it's the kind of gaming that I went through my early childhood with, tough as nails and unforgiving in every aspect.

Now I'll be very honest, I didn't buy this game for difficulty alone, as if that were the case I would have rather bought something else, no, this game is a perfect blend of fast-paced action with a good story that never seems to disappoint. On that note, let's talk about the story.

Story:7/10
Well, Mega Man ZX's story takes place in a futuristic world that is home to a multitude of diverse inhabitants that range from humans to maverics.

It just so happens that the Giro delivery service is attacked one day as their delivering a some rare biometals to a location. Low and behold, the assailants are non other than the maverics. While the plot is slowly unfolding, you combine with a biometal, which gives you access to the mighty Model X. This is were our story begins.....

Now I'll be very honest, this game has a great, albeit allitle slow at times, story that perfectly blends in all of the elements of which the zero series has been known to hold.

You can choose two paths, either Vent or Aile. Neither is of that much of a difference, but the game still delivers just enough to make it worth your while, and sanity , to replay as either of the characters.

Aile's story is allitle more indepth than Vents, but it comes at the trade-off of having a slightly more, how should I put this, annoying difficulty that was already hard to begin with.

Overall, it could use allitle fine tuning, but it passes as a good entree to the series.

Gameplay:9/10
I'll put it like this, if you can get past the over the top difficulty level, than you'll thoroughly enjoy Mega Man ZX's engaging gameplay that truly allows for some great action/adventure elements.

This game, like its brethren from previous titles, boasts a non-linear path taking experience. Unlike its sister games, it relies on a more open ended type of gamelpay experience to get its point across. This forms from the fact that the whole world is one big map, and your given the option to go anywhere you want with the right cards. Notice how I said cards.

That brings us to our next point. You won't be able to get far at all unless to manage to obtain special cards that can only be received upon winning a gigantic boss fight. This puts an extreme damper on what this game could have accomplished, as it basically shuts off any exploration aspects that could have been extended. Let's face it, we all know that you probably wouldn't made it far anyway without the proper upgrade, but it still gives off a feeling of a forced path. Not to say that I heavily dislike it, as it still does work, I just found it to hamper.

This next section alone gives this area a 9/10, as few games give you such options as this. We all know that it's customary in Mega Man games to give out new armor upgrades after beating a particular boss, but this game goes above and beyond in the fact that it actually allows for some awesome action. You can actually keep the suits on at all times, which was an idea that was formally introduced in Mega Man 6. You may say, "well, how do you do special attacks then?". It's really simple, you simply charge up .

Honestly, the amount of pure night and day experiences between suits is amazing, and it really adds for some awesome experiences that few other games can produce. Let's face it, each suit gets a different kind of terminal on the bottom which conveys useful data to you as you go along, whether it be enemy weakpoints or a handy map, there all good.

This brings us to our next point, to go about moving the story along, you must complete some certain missions that the game will give to you at certain points. Now for the real kicker, you can only take one mission on at a time! I guess this was meant for the best, as it saves overall chaos as you try to complete different objectives.

Graphics:8/10
Taking a page from the recently released Zero games, aside from a slight few variations within the graphical engine, there's really nothing that is extremely different. Granted, you do have access to a myriad of beautiful anime cutscens that help flesh out the story here and there. But that's for later.

I did notice some slowdown as I was playing the game, but it's minimal at most, so it's nothing to really gripe about unless you are really paying attention to the overall physical system of the game. I just though I'd mention it to give you a heads up.

Now on to the cutscenes, there absolutely gorgeous at almost every aspect across the board. You could truly say that it was like watching a long lost Mega Man Anime show .

Overall, the game could have used the DS to a much more of an extent, maybe experimenting on what they could use it for in the future. I guess they didn't want to take the gamble, but as some may say "Better safe than sorry". And that phrase truly descibes this better than anything else.

Music:8/10
Spot on in basically everything that it does. This game truly gives out such a level of perfection when it comes to placing tunes in every aea imaginable to the human imagination.

I will say that everything is perfectly matched to it's environment, giving a desolate place a moody tone of despair, to the action packed tunes of a heavily tense moment. This game never fails to set such a tone of perfection in what it does.

I decided to give this game a slightly lower score for one reason and one reason alone. At some small moments, music can chop, but that is extremely rare, so you might not even notice it when it happens.

Other than that, I truly believe that this game was a work of art in the musical section, and I wish that games in general could follow the sterling example that this game provides in all areas.

Truly a work of art.

Difficulty:10/10
Hardest game I've ever played period besides battle toads(Don't even go there.....) This game will really test your level in sanity, and you'll glimpse a reason why in a minute.

You basically except a mission, then go about trying to complete it, notice how I said trying. You'll more likely than nor blow countless hours of your life blowing failed mission attempts. Whether it be being killed by one of the many stage traps, or dying after finally getting to a harder than heck boss that will await you at the end. I can truly say that maybe they cranked this up allitle too much, as it took away some of my overall enjoyment as I went through the game.

I will be perfectly blunt here and now, do not get this game if you think you'll be able to beat it in a hop skip and a jump. Several times my sanity level went off the hinge, as at one point in particular after getting a boss down to a smigit of health, he killed me, I was on my last little bit of health, and I had to progress through the entire area....again.

Now there are two levels of normal difficult, Vent and Aile. Add that to three other modes, easy, normal and hard.

Vent and Aile's difficulty is basically the same, with Aile being allitle harder.

Easy feels like the normal mode of some previous zero titles, which says a lot when you put it all into perspective.

Normal is like the hard as heck hard mode from zero 1.

Don't even touch the subject of hard, as I have basically given up on the last boss altogether...It's Truly insane that they even got the idea to make it this hard, as I can't say how much I have truly come to abhor it.

Family Friendly:7/10
No apparent problems here, I enjoyed it, and it should be good for kids in general.

Buy/Rent:If you feel like you can beat it in the 4/5 hour window that doesn't allow for many screw ups, then go ahead and rent it. If not, than please buy as you'll be spending the next several days trying to get past one area in particular.

Final Opinions:This game is great, it improves upon what other Zero games have messed up on.

The Zero franchises first leap onto the ds truly showed us what the hardware is capable of, and I think that's what matters the most.

Final Bar

Story:7/10

Gameplay:8/10

Graphics:8/10

Difficulty:10/10

My Overall Score:8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/07