Mega Man ZX

"A rather excellent platformer for your DS."

Mega Man ZX is the first Mega Man game on the Nintendo DS, and continues on after the Mega Man Zero games on the DS. It is a platforming game, with exploration elements prevalent throughout.

The Mega Man series is a personal favourite of mine; the games are wonderful platformers with nice graphics, amazing music and best of all, they pack a punch in the difficulty department. I've rarely been disappointed by the franchise, except for the Battle Network series (I have yet to give Starforce a go), which changed up the gameplay, but did it poorly. The Zero series was a particularly wonderful quadrilogy of hard platformers, with a really rather sad ending. Just as how the Zero series is set a good while after the X series, Mega Man ZX is set a good while after the ending of Mega Man Zero 4. If you need a decent platformer for your DS, look no further than this.

Mega Man ZX's graphics are pretty nice for the DS, with lovely sprites and great-looking animated cutscenes that wouldn't look out of place in a TV cartoon show. They're a cut above the Game Boy Advance's Zero series, and the boss sprites are fairly detailed. Glowing bullets fly all around, bosses will use glorious special attacks that take up a good portion of the screen, and it all runs very smoothly, with no slowdown or anything anywhere in the game. It's a treat for the eyes, really.

Mega Man ZX's music is pretty awesome, too. One of my particular favourites is the theme that plays in the forest, it's an amazing tune. Like the rest of the Mega Man games, ZX is fuelled by kickass music, especially the boss theme. Right now, go to Youtube or something and find some of the tracks from the game, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. The music never gets on your nerves, it makes the game all the better, providing a nice touch to the atmosphere of the game. The music for the mission in which you have to get through a part of the city that was set ablaze by attacking Mavericks in order to save various citizens is made all the better by the music that plays throughout (Fistleo The Predatoroid, if you want to look it up).

But the meat of ZX is the gameplay. Like in all Mega Man games, once you beat a boss, you get a new weapon. In ZX, when you defeat a boss, you retrieve a "Biometal", an item containing the essence of a hero from a time long since past (if you played the Zero games, odds are you will recognise them right off the bat). At the start of the game, you get Model X, which places you into the standard blue bomber armour, and from there the game is on. There is no tutorial, there are no instructions. If you don't know how to play, read the manual. And even on the Normal difficulty, this game can be quite challenging (I know some people who had huge amounts of trouble with Hivolt, who is essentially the second boss of the game). The game has all the standard stuff: bosses with patterns that you must discover a way to dodge around, instant death spikes, and lots of enemies. In addition, you can pick a character (Vent, the boy, or Aile, the girl), but the only differences are in the dialogue and even then they aren't much.

There's some very slight gameplay differences between the two (Aile dashes a bit further than Vent, but receives a bit more knockback from attacks than Vent), but it really doesn't matter in the long run. You get different weapons depending on which Biometal you have equipped, with a mix of blasters, sabers and other weapons spread throughout them. Most of the game is spent running around, gunning down enemies whilst leaping from platform to platform, wallkicking up walls and finding new rooms and regions to explore.

ZX adds a "Metroidvania" (Metroidvania being the term for a subgenre of platforming games that have an emphasis on exploration, named after the Metroid and Castlevania games, both of which host a good long line of absolutely great platformers) element to the series by providing you with a map comprised of many rooms. When you accept a mission, you are told which area you need to go to, and from there you make your way to it and then through it to find the boss or an item you have to retrieve. There are no levels in the game, just the missions. You can only do them one at a time, and usually have to go to a new area to finish them, which make them seem like the levels of old. At any time, you can just ignore the missions for a bit and explore the game's large world, finding all the secrets like the Subtanks and Data Disks.

Also, now when you beat a boss, you get a new form that has its own abilties, strengths and weaknesses. However, when you first find these Biometals, they have been divided into two parts, which means that you need to go kill another boss to unlock each form's true potential (and this is mandatory, by the by, so don't worry about having to explore every nook and cranny for random optional bosses).

The story goes thus: Humans and Reploids have tried to make peace, and did for the most part, until the Mavericks, evil Reploids bent on wiping out humanity, began to attack and raid again. The main character was orphaned by one of these raids, and has a hatred for the coporation that fended off the Mavericks, called Slither Inc. The character blames Slither Inc's forces for their mother's death, believing that if Slither Inc's forces had been a bit quicker, their mother would still be alive. Your character is a courier, working for a man named Giro. They were supposed to be delivering some mysterious packages to an unknown person, but before they continue on their way, they are attacked by Mavericks, who destroy the main character's bike and send them hurtling over a nearby cliff, along with one of the packages. Soon after, your character discovers that the people looking for the packages were a group called the Guardians, a group determined to end the destruction caused by the Mavericks. The packages, the Biometals, are some rare items that contain the strength and consciousness of old, warrior Reploids from a time long since past. You get attacked by Mavericks again, merge with Biometal Model X, and from there you're off on a long journey full of Maverick killing and Biometal retrieving. The story is alright, but nothing special. But if you're playing a Mega Man game for the story, then you are just doing it wrong, I'm sorry to say.

I highly recommend Mega Man ZX. It's a great game for your DS, and odds are you won't regret it. Just expect the game to put up something of a fight, because it is a Mega Man game, after all.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/09

Game Release: Mega Man ZX (EU, 06/22/07)