Megaman Zero...Because Zero was badass enough to get a sequel

Megaman Zero

Warning: This Zero May look cartoony, but is still capable of rocking your face

Zero from  MMX series

Of all the characters to get a spin-off game, this is by far the best choice Capcom could have made. If you played Megaman X4 before and I mean REALLY played it, you probably played through the game as Zero and thought, "How can I play as Megaman when Zero is so much more fun to play as" because Megaman's storyline was about ten folds easier than Zero's. The Sheer challenge I felt through playing Zero, made Megaman X4 my favorite Megaman game. Sure the Story and music took a turn for the worst, but the mechanics were spot on.

Enough of me ranting about how Zero was so bad ass in Megaman X4, let's talk about how badass he is in Megaman Zero.

Story
Zero takes place about 100 years after the end of Megaman X. The Events that happen in the middle are a bit fuzzy, I think that is so they can finish up the X series. The Reploids are being hunted by the forces of Neo Arcadia. The remaining ones have banded together and fight Neo Arcadia and their leader, who is a reploid claiming to be X. Both with their numbers dwindling day by day and supplies running low, they begin to become desperate and start searching for the Legendary reploid, Zero. During one of the expeditions, the Reploid hunter bots corner Ciel, leader of the reploid resistance, and her small party. Luckily, they found a red reploid with long blond hair. Only problem is, he is powered down. In a desperate act, Ciel's cyber elf sacrifices it's self and revives zero.

Zero from the MMZ Series. Notice
the extra amount of badass added

This is the stage that is set in this first of what is 4 Megaman Zero games. It is quite a fast paced and well written plot for a Megaman game considering most of the time to story is just "wiley's trying to take over the world again...Kill his robots and do your own stuff."

Gameplay
You will be seeing a lot of run and gun gaming action here. The difficulty and speed has been cranked up as well. Your reaction times will be tested and you will get frustrated while playing this game. At least once or twice or at the very end of the game when you are taking on the final boss for about two hours because even though you have the bosses attack patterns down, it is still ridiculously hard to dodge any of it's attacks thus causing you to use your healing cyber elves...

Oh yeah, that reminds me, Cyber Elves are these new things that are basically virtual pets that you feed e crystals to to make them mature. What the hell do cyber elves do? Well since you asked, cyber elves are little creatures that will give you a boost of some sort. Rather it be a passive boost to damage or attack speed or even healing you, these little buggers are useful. Be careful though, some can only be used once.

The only problem in this game is that you don't get different powers like Megaman would, but instead Zero gets elements (for elemental attacks), cyber elves, and different weapon upgrades.

This is what a usual Boss Fight looks like.
Thank you Gamer's Hell for having the only
shot that I WANTED.

This game has HEAVY emphasis on learning a bosses pattern and what equipment combinations the enemies are weak against. Most are pretty cut and dry where as others will be a bit challenging to figure out. Some don't even have a weakness, so you just have to have the controls masters and hope you do awesome. Another way this game has changed heavily from the X counter part is that you have to walk to all the places you want to go to. No choosing a level and being warped there. No. You have to choose the direction and then dash, jump, and cut your way into it...it is usually fun but if you have to restart a level (which you will) over and over again, you may get frustrated.

In this game, after you finish a level, you will be graded. The grades will give you better stuff if you do well. This encourages you to go back and play levels over to try and increase your score. Also, during a boss fight if you finish it by using your Z-Saber, the enemy will be cut in half somehow...it is quite satisfying to see sometimes.

Sounds
The music in this game is comparable to that of the Megaman X series. To take a page out of Programmableabortion's blog, here is some game music.

This is actually a remix of an old song from Megaman X. I believe it was called Enter Zero.


This one is pretty good and I am pretty sure that it is another Remix...

The sound effects are great in this game too. You have everything from the Sound of you cutting something in half to Shooting stuff with your pistol. It is all how it should be, really cartoony and Megaman X-esque. I personally loved it because I am kinda a huge Megaman fan and I have been following the blue bomber since before the X series even started. So of course I am going to be biased towards the sounds. They are just too nostalgia-fied that I can't get enough of them...despite them probably being some of the most annoying sounds ever heard by some unlucky person when I play megaman without my headphones on. lulz

Who needs a gun arm?

Overall
Despite this game having some changes to the Megaman Series, it is quite refreshing. I mean come on, Zero deserves this. He is quite possibly my favorite character in the Megaman Universe. I mean this is obvious because they didn't make this game suck like the end of the X series did. This game is really hard though. That is what is fun about it though. It actually takes a lot of skill to finish this game. It takes even more skill to collect everything in the game. But go on Yonder gamer, go into the voyage for answers...like why the hell is X a bad guy in this game.

All and all though, this game gets a 9.2 out of 10


Regh out.