Mega Man Zero

"The BEST Mega Man game in a while!"

After two average GBA games and some fairly bad playstation games, Mega Man is back on the ball. This game revolves around Zero from the Mega Man X series, and hoo boy, this game is goooood.

Graphics: 9.0
The backgrounds have a very nice-looking anime style to them, and the characters animate VERY fluidly: Zero's hair wafts in the wind a lot, many enemies fall apart into two pieces when sliced, and the bosses are huge. My only minor gripe is the character artwork for the game, which looks too much like that of Mega Man Battle Network and bears little resemblance to the characters I knew from the Mega Man X series.

Sound: 8.0
The music is executed well, and though it has some parts from past songs (zero's theme is remixed a bit, for example), the tunes aren't very memorable. The sound effects work well with what they're for but are not really that exceptional.

Gameplay: 10.0
Awwwww yeah, this game has some of the best gameplay I've EVER come across. It's a bit like controlling Zero from Mega Man X3, but the game goes MUCH faster, and Zero has more weapons to access (a boomerang and a spear). Also, he can wield two weapons at a time, and even charge them separately! (with attack control mode B) The game starts you off with mode A (hold R and press B to use secondary weapon) which is much easier for beginners to use, but mode B is so much more badass as it allows you to charge up your saber and gun, then do a charged slash with the saber and fire with a charged shot. Also since the game controls very fluidly I found myself just trying to ''show-off'' by dashing around at extremely quick speeds and doing a wide variety of attacks with the spear or the saber. Fun as hell. :)
To top it all off, this game is decidedly un-Mega Man-like in that it doesn't have all the levels available at first, though you have about 3-5 levels to choose form at a time. Also the cyber elf system works very well by supplying Zero with all kinds of advantages, though he can only have 3 with him at a time and equipping them lowers your score at the end of each level.
The only problem I see is that people who are not very good at action games will be frustrated with how hard the game is.

Story: 7.0
This is probably the best Mega Man story yet, and though the whole idea of it being 100 years after Mega Man X is nice, I kinda wish it had turned out some other way (rather than...ack! Sorry, that would be a spoiler!)

Replay Value: 8.0
This is probably the most replayable Mega Man game yet. You can open up harder modes when you beat the game, as well as try to get all the cyber elves. Plus, it's just so much fun to play (and VERY hard).

Pros:
+ Great overall presentation
+ Control beats down much other games one-handed
+ Best Mega Man story yet

Cons:
- New artwork is annoyingly cute
- May be too hard for some players

Overall (not an average): 9.0
It's all about gameplay. Mega Man Zero is just so much fun to play that you will likely ignore all the other minor flaws and just play for hours on end, and you will need to since some parts are so damn hard.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/19/02, Updated 06/19/02