Mega Man Zero

"Zero is here, and he will destroy everything in his way!"

Capcom announced Megaman Battle Network and people couldn’t wait its release, as it was the first Megaman game on the GBA. But, the game wasn’t the same that made the blue robot famous: Battle Network was an RPG. Although the game was good, it was not as good as the side scrolling classics. Capcom realized that and announced Megaman Zero. This, my friends, is the game that people were waiting for!

Megaman Zero is almost the same as the other Megaman games, but it is still very different. It’s the same because it is a side scrolling game in where you select a stage, kill as many enemies as possible and, in the end you fight with a boss. The formula of the success is the same. But it is different because of two things: Megaman is not the hero here! When you play the game, you will find yourself controlling… Zero! The other thing that makes this game different is its difficulty. Wow, this game is hard! It is definitely the hardest Megaman game ever!

Megaman Zero takes place 100 years after the X series, where Ciel, a girl who is fighting against Neo Arcadia's evil plans, finds Zero in the middle of a battle. Her Cyber-Elf decides to sacrifice herself in order to wake Zero. After that, Zero destroy the enemies and Ciel tells Zero what the problem is and asks for his help. Now, it's up to him (i.e. you) to defend the Resistance Base and save the world.

The game has a lot of new features. Let’s start with the weapons. There are four of them in this game. The Buster Gun and the Z-Saber you may already know. The new one are the Triple Rod and the Shield Boomerang. The Triple Rod is a special Rod that can the used in any of the eight directions. And the Shield Boomerang is a shield that blocks the enemy’s attack and, when charged, acts like a boomerang.

One thing that happens with the weapons is that the more you use them, the stronger they become. Let’s use the Z-Saber as an example. In the beginning, you can only give a slash with it. As you use it, you will be able to give a double slash, a triple slash… also, the way you use the weapons influences in which upgrade you will get first. For example, if you use the air attack you your Z-Saber, it will get the air upgrade before the others.

Another new feature is the Cyber Elves. Cyber Elves are small programs that, when used, gives you a new ability, that can have a permanent effect or during only one stage. There are three types of Cyber Elves: Nurses (they nurse you back to health), Animals (they boost your ability) and Hacker (they change data). Only with the elves you can get more vitality and the Sub Tanks. Some Elves have to be fed in order to be used. To feed the elves, you need to collect items called Crystals, which are found by defeating enemies or found in a certain place of a stage. To find Cyber Elves, you need to search the stage for capsules with elves and defeat as many enemies as possible, since some of them will drop elves.

The last feature is the ranking system. Depending on how well you went through a stage, you will receive a rank, that may vary be F, E, D, C, B, A or S (from lowest to highest). In order to get higher ranks, you need to kill lots of enemies, avoid being hurt, complete the mission as fast as possible, etc. You will also receive a codename, depending on how you act on a stage.

The graphics of this game are awesome! The characters are pretty well designed and the stages have an enormous variety of colors. The sound is also very good, as the musics are pretty nice to listen and the sound effects are good.

But, nothing is perfect. There are only to bad things in this game, which won’t game the game better or worse, but are important to mention. Since you are going to use the A and B buttons to jump and attack, the L and R buttons are used for dash and secondary weapon. You will need some time to get used to these controls and, since the bosses are pretty fast, an error can make the difference. The other thing to mention is that, when the screen has lots of enemies or too many things happening at the same time, the game get a little slow.

To finish, this game is awesome and has a big replay value. If you are a Megaman fan, you should definitely buy it. If you want to play it for the first time, rent it, and if you like, buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/03