Mega Man Zero 3

"A superb addition to the Mega Man series."

Introduction:

The Mega Man series goes a long way back. As in 1980's back. As in Gameboy back. Mega Man Zero 3 is one of the most recent Mega Man games, and it proves that the Mega Man series has improved over time. It has excellent game play, good graphics/sound, and a solid story. I will now go into more detail...

Gameplay: 10/10

The most important feature of the game, and Mega Man Zero 3 is where it shines most. The Mega Man games' heart and soul is the gameplay, and not to mention their best point. Mega Man Zero 3 is no exception. The level design is superb, the mechanics of the game are excellent, and basically everything else is great. A scoring system, added in the original Mega Man Zero, also gives a distinctive flavor in the Zero series not seen in the other Mega Man games. The addition of Secret Disks, which are basically information about various in-game things, and also serve for containers of Cyber-Elves, are interesting. Another newcomer are the chips for the head, body, and foot. The head chips alter your features, the body chips are elemental, and foot chips give you advanced control options. These are an exciting new addition to the Zero series. Again, the Cyber-elves, which are basically little sprites that help you by healing/manipulation of enemies/extending your life bar, are back. But they aren't back without change... Some cyber-elves can be used WITHOUT a penalty in score, unlike in the other Zero games. These are called satellite elves. This greatly reduces difficulty for people who want to get the EX-skills, which are skills taken from the boss that are quite helpful but require a very high score to obtain. The only quirk I have is that the charged Z-saber is way overpowered... but that's just me.

Difficulty: 8/10

The Mega Man Zero series has been notorious for its difficulty. Perhaps that's why Capcom decided to water it down this time... I, personally, was slightly disappointed at how easily I beat it, but I respect other peoples' opinions on this matter. For me, the main reason why this seems so easy that virtually every boss can be defeated in 6-8 swipes of a charged Z-saber... Also, the bosses' attack patterns are overly easy to recognize and/or memorize. I know that the bosses' attack patterns are SUPPOSED to be learned, but for a Mega Man fan like me, it wasn't quite hard enough to learn them... and about the EX-skills, I was VERY disappointed at the fact that I could get all of the EX-skills on my third try, which require an extremely high rank to get. But, again, that's just me, and some other people would argue about this, and this is just one side of the story.

Hard Mode: Good lord, this is hard... It's not that the enemies are more difficult, but it's just that Zero takes more damage in Hard Mode, and most importantly... HE CAN'T CHARGE HIS Z-SABER!! That is the biggest blow, and is the main source of Hard Mode's insane difficulty... This would be 12/10 in difficulty. Heh.

Story: 9/10

Ah... The story. Mega Man Zero 3 has an excellent story, considering it's Mega Man. It is actually quite engaging, and the ending is quite good, and setting the stage for Mega Man Zero 4... Well, anyways, back to now. The story begins as Zero and Ciel go investigate a crashed ship. On the way, Zero meets Harpuia and hears a mysteriously familiar voice... That's just the beginning, but I won't spoil anything for you.

Sound: 8/10

Hmm... I'm no sound buff, but I do listen to sound quite meticulously. The sound, I feel, sets the mood correctly, but isn't quite the thing you would be humming in the shower... All-in-all, your average and purpose-serving audio.

Playtime and Replayability: 8/10

Mega Man Zero 3, in relationship to other Mega Man games, is actually quite long. It has about 16 stages, making it much longer than any of the X games, which are actually pretty long (well, the earlier ones were)... In terms of replayability, for the hardcore fan, it is actually quite high, since you can get all the EX-skills, secret disks, etc. But for the average gamer, there isn't too much to get, as most have trouble just beating the game...

Final Word:

This is an excellent addition to the Zero series, and also an excellent introduction to the Zero series because of its lower difficulty compared to the other two games, which was long inaccesable to the average gamer due to its *excessive* difficulty. All in all, it adds new things which are quite good, and retains most of the good things of the series. Buy or Rent? I would suggest renting it first, then seeing if you like its difficulty or not, but if you're sure, BUY IT!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/05