Mega Man Zero 3

"Much more sportsmanslike and better thought out than its predecessors"

Very often games have lots of bold, interesting ideas that just doesn't quite gel.
And, like you might know, these games often get sequels. So it is absolutely astonishing that so often the developers don't use the sequel as a chance to fix the faults of the preceding games. In stead, they often leave those half-baked ideas intact and present poorly thought out gimmicks to cover it up.

But that is not the case of Mega Man Zero. The whole series started out as a contrived mess of ideas that really didn't work, but Inticreates simply fixed them in the sequel, which resulted as much better game. And Mega Man Zero 3 goes even farther to improve the series.

OVERVIEW:

Mega Man Zero 2 is a two-dimensional, (mainly) non-linear amalgamation of a platformer and shoot 'em up.

CATCH:

The cyber elf system is improved - it is much more forgiving and easier to manage. Also, Zero can travel stages via Cyberspace, where Elves automatically take effect. The armor system of MMX makes a semi-return, as Zero can equip chips for his body, head and legs. It is bit like the form system, but is more flexible. Oh yeah, you can find secret disks, that can contain chips, cyber elves, enemy data and plot information. These disks must be analyzed and they seem to pay homage to Capcom NES classic "Strider" (kickass Ninja platformer - like Ninja Gaiden/Shadow Warrior, but far more inventive).

GRAPHICS:

Follows the same style than it's predecessors. In other words, awesome.

SOUND:

The music is great, like always. Same goes for the sound effects. But the voice acting...

The Japanese voice clips in Mega Man Zero series always have been overacted, but this time, the voice actors obviously got a carte blanche to play their roles with reckless abandon.

The results are hilarious. Some of the reploids giggle hysterically when hit, and one reploid even yells "chikachikachika" in high-pitched tone. If you don't find that amusing, you probably are deaf or lack any sense of humour.

GAMEPLAY:

The Cyber Elf system has been changed. First of all, Zero does not need to download elves any more and can manage them on his own. Thanks to this, you can raise and use Cyber Elves whenever you want.

Even more importantly, elves are now divided to Fusion and Satellite Elves. Fusion Elves function traditionally, dying when used and reducing your score. Satellite Elves, on the other hand, don't die and do not affect your score. The flip side is that you can only use two satellite elves at once. Some Cyber Elves can even switch between Fusion and Satellite modes, and though it costs varying amount of E-crystals, it makes the system more flexible.

Also, Zero can enter Cyber Space, which is similar to the regular stage, except with green tint. The idea behind this is that in Cyber Space, certain Cyber Elves will automatically take effect without dying, but every visit to the Cyber Space will reduce your score by 5 and you can't get enemy data. The new Cyber Elf system might seem convoluted at first, but when you eventually get it to work, it is very flexible and rewarding.

Talking of flexible, Zero can now use different head, body and leg chips to enhance himself. Different combinations of chips and elves makes this the most flexible MMZ so far.

Finally Mega Man Zero dumps the weapon proficiency levels and in stead all your weapons starts out mastered. The weapons can still be enhanced with Cyber Elves, and there are 12 different EX Skills, so you certainly will not be disappointed with the range of techniques. This rewards player's ability to find stuff and beat bosses rather than having the patience for repetitive chores and bizarre behaviour modes.

Mega Man Zero 3 continues the tradition of introducing new "rod" weapon in each game by introducing the Recoil Rod, a tonfa (Accidentally, Hiryu, the hero of "Strider" is armed with a tonfa, even further affirming my belief that MMZ3 is a tribute to "Strider"). It can strike very quickly and rapidly, making it very useful for combat. It's charged attack is very versatile and useful, as it can launch enemies over the hills and far away (destroying everything in their path), push heavy objects, crush certain structures, launch Zero sky high and stun bosses (really important vs. non-elemental bosses), making it the most useful of the "rod" weapons.

The stage design not only takes the Recoil Rod to account, it also makes use of players chips. For example, fire can burn vegetation and electricity can power machines. Also, spike boots allows you to retain grip on ice and light armour helps crossing quicksand and collapsing platforms. It also offers lots of variety, so the stage design exhibits the Mega Man at it's best.

MMZ3 can obviously change data with Mega Man Battle Network 4, but unfortunately, I don't own one, so I can't give you any details.

CHALLENGE:

Mega Man Zero is much more forgiving than its predecessors, but still remains challenging. It is easier to get a good ranking, and your rank will be determined by your average score, so totally screwing up in one stage probably does not drop your rank.

Actually, on to the end of the game, I went nuts with Fusion Elves and even entered Cyber Space during a mission. I ended up with total score of 15, but since my average score was 95 before, it simply dropped to 89 and I retained my rank of A.

Some stages are still rather frustrating (e.g. Oceanic H.W. ruins and Area X-2) and while bosses mainly are just moderately challenging, some bosses, like Cubit Foxtar and Treber Celberian are rather hard. Or at least until you get the Ultima Foot, that pretty much kills the challenge. The final boss is also somewhat weak, despite having 3 forms, all with 3 life bars.

STORY:

Ciel finally finishes the Ciel System, and hopes it will finally bring peace between Neo Arcadia and the resistance. However, a space ship falls from the sky, which prompts both the resistance and Neo Arcadia to investigate it. The passenger of the ship turns out to be Omega, a powerful (yet obviously unintelligent) reploid, who once was banished to outer space for war crimes. Zero and the Guardians join forces to defeat Omega, but they are interrupted, surprisingly enough, by Master X (the fake one) and Omega's creator, Dr. Weil.

X restores Omega's citizenship, and then Dr. Weil states that finding the Dark Elf is the first priority of Neo Arcadia. It is without question that Neo Arcadia, siding with war criminals, cannot be trusted, so the resistance rallies against Neo Arcadia forces to find the Dark Elf.

Certainly not a Booker Prize worthy tale, but in a context of a video game, it works. It has the sense of urgency that makes the player feel that s/he is fighting for a just cause.

Also, background information can be found from certain secret disks, which is fairly good usage of the system, and good for a video game story.

For some reason, Copy X MkII stutters, which is a telltale sign of lazy writing. Also, while Weil is the brains of the duo, I still find Omega excessively stupid. Even High Max was smarter than him, and High Max had the intelligence of a lobotomy patient.

LONGEVITY:

MMZ3 is slightly longer than a standard Mega Man, and contains the familiar Hard and Ultimate Modes as well as some mini games. The mini games are fairly pointless diversions, but getting them is a extra challenge for those who have the energy for unlocking them.

CONCLUSION:

Mega Man Zero 3 is a very polished game with well thought out and implemented renovations. It's not the groundbreaking game out there, but is fun, mainly flawless piece of quality gaming, and that's good enough for me.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/18/06