Mega Man Zero

"Shakin' it up in the XX's hasn't been this fun in a while."

Lead in

Picking up a blaster has become a tiresome experience. The whole idea of Rockman has been whored to death. Usually, every time you'd see wonderfully drawn sentient machina, it would be accompanied with levels that would make you flinch, enemy placement that's so bad it would want to make you throw your console (or whatever you might be using) across the room. Even worse, impressive animal robots would be reduced to walking Punch and Judy shows or at least your average white foreigner in just about any other country. Spouting out their nonsense mantras of ''Living of being. To life and be. Life is right. Our life of right!''. The company behind their linguistic circuitry was probably the first with their nads against the wall when the Mavericks attacked. Of course, I'm getting into the history of Megaman here and redundantly rambling. So let's digress ...

The last good 2D Megaman game in my opinion was X2. Since then they've been jokes. Rockman and Forté was horrible, as was Megaman 8. 7 wasn't as special as the NES versions were and it all felt rather lacklustre. Occasionally though, just occasionally, you see a company not whoring a franchise and doing something new instead. Even those that know of Megaman probably don't know about Zero and oddly enough, it's Zero that gets to star in the most fun Megaman game I've played in a long, long while. It's actually fun and you can just feel as you play it how well it's designed. If you're doing badly then it's because you're not very good, not because the designers were retarded toads. That's a good thing because beating bosses often yields equal feelings of success. This harks back to how a Megaman game should be. To X1 and X2 and even to the NES.

Game Presentation - 7 of 10

Overall the game comes off rather nice. It certainly looks very pretty for a Gameboy Advance game and there's plenty to 'Ooh!' and 'Aah!' at, some of the monsters are suitably fantastic, as is Megaman fare. The levels also sport some wonderful touches, such as the Apocalypse worn city and the crashed tanks and 'copters. The individuality of the rebel soldiers is also a nice thing to see too, that there's variety in the sprites. Everything's smooth too, which is vital to an action game. It's not all roses however, I felt that two of the bosses were a little lacklustre compared to the others, not badly drawn or animated as such but simply ... boring. It's like they'd had different design teams working on them. Still though, the lack is just a totally graphical thing. The music is average at best, nothing that will really make you stop and think ''Hey, this is a great piece.'' but it still helps the action along. There is one piece though that I do like, it's the mystery theme before bosses and in certain rooms. It reminds me of Metroid and adds a nice eerie atmosphere to things before you face a boss. As for the sounds, suitably beefy like every other Megaman game. I thought that the whole effect behind Zero's sword was nice. I love watching him in action with it.

Game: Factor - 8 of 10

Here's where the game really shines. It's better than all 2D Megaman games that have come before it in almost every way. The most notable addition is a story. Not the sad jokes of stories that existed in the later X games but something you might actually be interested in. There's a rebel base, they're interesting and the style is so visual that you don't really need to understand Japanese to get what it's all about (I didn't). Heck, you even come to like the buggers. It makes for a whole different feel from the previous games, it's actually like you're a part of something now. The X games did that well but not quite as well as this. There are missions even in which you aid the rebels with something specific, my favourite being where you have to get a rebel who's injured his arm (and thus can't use a weapon) back to base. It's not all just run and shoot.

The first thing that really deserves kudos off the top of my head are the bosses. They've been done so well, when you play them, they have patterns that you eventually see and if you watch those patterns, you can beat them. Just like in the NES games. In the X series this was taken to extremes and 7 to Rockman and Forte lost it entirely. Brains matter here, being able to see the pattern of an enemy will certainly help you beat it. Though you could probably get by on reflexes alone. It's jut nice to see an enemy that isn't totally random. Random is easy to code but it isn't fun to play against. Lastly, you can actually equip your gun or your sword at any time. Some enemies are weaker to one or the other, you can also mix these with 'elements' to make them stronger. You get 'elements' from bosses rather than entirely new weapons and it works really well. It means that Capcom didn't have to design new weapons but it's something that feels right -- and just like the X games, you actually learn moves as the game progresses. The Sword Spin is lots of fun.

Game: Life - 6 of 10

The game is a little hard. Whether you're smart enough to beat the bosses or quick enough to brave the levels is up to you but providing you beat it through once, you'll actually probably want to play it again. It has fun little things thrown in for good measure, there are these 'Digital Elves' or something which seem to have an effect but I haven't figured them out yet. I probably won't until the English version, which I shall also play and review. It says something for the game though when I'll happily go back and play the game again. Maybe just to see if my tactics worked as well against the bosses as they originally seemed too. Of course, you might even play it a few times to perfect yourself at it just so you can show off. A lot of most of the Megaman games has been timing. Once you learn that it's a doddle. It's doubtful you'll play it over and over but the game ranks you and there are the digital Elves so I suspect it'll last you a bit. Though it certainly isn't as big as X, not by a long shot. More fun, yes. Bigger, no.

Game: Overall - 21 of 30

What we have here is a fun Megaman game. It's probably an attempt by Capcom to recoup losses under a new name, since I'm guessing the latest Megaman (X) games didn't sell too well (anyone with any sense knows the series has been bunk since X3). It's rather like Legends and an attempt to do something slightly new with the series, sticking largely to it's X roots, it manages to do that just a little and it's enough to make it fresh. The RPG bits where you can wander the rebel base and talk to them, making for a story were greatly appreciated by me. This is one of those rare games I might actually buy when it comes out over here. It's worth it, at least if you've been waiting for another good Megaman game as long as I have.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/27/02, Updated 08/27/02