Mega Man Zero

The Good
This platformer feels very open world with plenty of secret passages, shafts and places to explore, all rich in colour and scenery. The missions involve more than just rampaging through levels and destroying bosses as there are Reploids to rescue and sometimes defending the Resistance Base to keep the action interesting. Throughout the game, the music really pumps you up when you're doing a mission. It's a bonus that the game also has some voice clips.

Difficulty in this game is more or less what you would expect in a Ghosts n' Goblins game, with enemies respawning and come from above or below. Bosses are relatively easy by comparison, especially if you've equipped the element chip that is their weakness. Even without Reploid weapons you got from the Mega Man X series, the selection is good and the three elemental chips you gain more than compensate. It's thrilling to destroy waves of enemies and your weapons get upgraded the more you use them, even though the Z-Saber takes forever to gain MAX power.

The Bad
There are so many quirks and faults to nitpick about that make the game harder than it should and spoil an otherwise perfect run of the game. A mild irritation is trying to use so many tight controls at once (i.e. jump, dash, secondary fire and fire simultaneously). One major annoyance is the inability to replay missions in order to collect cyber-elves that you missed. When trying to go for a hundred points, you have no idea how many enemies you need to destroy, then respawn and destroy before you eliminate the final boss. And try destroying the Golem without hitting Ciel once if you want to see how hard it is to get 100% in a mission.

The most common problem lies in the jumping mechanics, including the ledges that require you to make specific jumps, angles and leaps to actually land on them and you could really use Axyl's hover feet (Mega Man X7) to make this a whole lot easier. Some of the hardest jumps require you to use the Triple Rod which is too tough to pull off, seeing as Zero's weapon is not Commander Keen's pogo stick. Finally the screen size still poses an issue, because you can't see spikes below you on high platforms, so you'll unintentionally get killed instantly. If the button used for secondary fire was instead used as a camera control, then it would be okay.

The Bottom Line
This game certainly took a new and different direction, just when you thought Sigma was gone for good, now Reploids are at risk instead of humans. The title in itself is a big misleading because you see a lot more of Zero and very little of Mega Man. In some ways you feel like you're watching and playing a pixelated Anime movie. The only real repetition in the game is grinding for energy crystals, replaying certain jumps and sections for hard to get items as well as the same music tune when not doing missions. This game is worth experiencing to put your platforming gaming skills in gear while you experience the events of the 23rd century. Get your cartridge inside and play away.