For the necessity of transparency, before playing Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, I had no experience with any Mega Man titles or the series in general. I knew of the series, had heard of the games and seen screenshots of some animated series from years ago, as well as seen the character in crossover titles such as Super Smash Brothers. Yet, I have never played a single one of the games on any platform. The closest I have ever come to these titles specifically is the Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure titles on the Nintendo DS, but they are vastly different styles of game. So, this review is written from the perspective of someone completely new to this franchise and its style of gameplay.
As far as the gameplay goes, there’s a lot of specifics to break down but I imagine they are consistent through the series and franchise overall. With this in mind, I will avoid trying to cover everything and just give some more all-encompassing information.
The Games:
- Mega Man Zero series, 1 through 4
- Mega Man ZX
- Mega Man ZX Advent
The Mega Man Zero series originates from the Gameboy Advance, with its 32-bit graphics that are used to create beautiful works of pixel art in the games and during their cutscenes. Most of the cutscenes are woven together with what appear to be anime-style illustrations of characters or occurring events that add to the charm of the series. The gameplay itself fits in the genre of action-platformer with run and gun combat. You take control of the “Reploid” Zero, a legendary warrior tasked to protect and assist Ciel and her Resistance of fellow Reploids in surviving as well as bringing an end to the war against their people in the wake of an energy crisis. Each mission you undertake as you hack, slash, jump, climb and blast your way through stages with a few varieties in paths to take and numerous enemies as well as obstacles to stand in your way. As you complete missions, you can unlock new powerful weapons such as the Z saber, Triple Rod, or Shield Boomerang to keep on your mission to defeat any boss or enemies that stand in your way. There are also items called Cyber Elfs, sentient computer programs that can be unlocked to provide temporary buffs and assistance in gameplay. The story unfolds with each success and continues throughout each title, not to give away any spoilers to potential newcomers.
The Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent originate from the Nintendo DS and utilize the upgrade in capabilities very well. The games now feature some fully animated cutscenes an anime style. The stories take place a long period after the events of the Zero series and ZX Advent occurs after ZX. These games follow either the character Vent or Aile in ZX, depending on the player’s chosen gender at the start, and Grey or Ashe in ZX Advent, again determined by the player’s choice. Vent and Aile serve the same role in ZX’s story while Grey and Ashe have different but parallel stories in ZX Advent. The focus is on “Biometals”, a type of living metal or weapon that can bond with select users to give them power. These “Biometals” are central to the plot and are the tools that give the protagonists their powers. The gameplay holds to the action-platformer and run and gun formula but also puts a bit more emphasis on exploring the different areas of the game to find new locations and progress. Again, the stories are told through completing missions, but rather than specifically unlocking new weapons defeating bosses unlocks their abilities for the player to use.
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Overall, the gameplay and story are fun and challenging, especially challenging in my opinion.
Included features:
- Save Assists
- Casual Scenario Mode
- Gallery
- Music player
- Z Chaser
- Edition
Each title features a system called “Save Assist” or, put simply, checkpoints. When this mode is enabled set points on each level have a green tube/container-like object that, when passed by a player, saves their progress at that moment. In Zero these save points only activate once, which is fine since you are only headed in that direction. In ZX and ZX Advent, these save points activate each time you enter or re-enter a zone, so your exploration isn’t hindered. These are the points you will be brought back to after death, assuming you have lives remaining, or if you are loading a save and chose the “Save Assist” options you can return to these points. This makes it much easier to quit and return to the game at your leisure.
This is another feature added to each title. Casual Scenario Mode does exactly what you would believe, it makes the game much easier for those not wanting to have to invest extreme effort into playing the game. Enemies are made easier and the player is given more health. Do you just want to have fun and experience the story? Do you want to learn the game before really experiencing the punishment it can offer? Then this is the mode for you.
The gallery offers a variety of character and concept art from the games for the player’s viewing.
If you enjoy the soundtrack featured in each game, which honestly is quite amazing and the title themes are great at generating hype, then you can go into the music player and listen to each track freely.
If you believe you are the absolute greatest Mega Man player out there and want to prove it, then play the Z Chaser mode which pits your completion time against other players across Steam’s leaderboards.
Editions are essentially different regional versions of the two games. Mega Man Zero 1 through 4 have English and Japanese editions while Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent has multiple other editions as well as the previously mentioned ones. The difference stems from the added censorship in non-Japanese editions and the changing of languages to fit each edition.
The Negatives:
- Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Zero 2 had some framerate issues during my playthroughs, it often felt like the game would slow down and end up costing me some health. This is an issue I found others experiencing when I looked at Steam reviews for the collection.
- Mega Man ZX lacks a decent map to assist with the exploration of each zone. Instead, I have to consult the pause menu for a map that I failed to understand. It could have been added to the “bottom” screen portion, still kept from the DS and placed in the lower right corner.
Overall, in a deal of 6 games in one collection with added features for new and casual players, the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy collection is certainly an enjoyable and potentially challenging experience worth its $29.99 price tag. If you are at all like me and haven’t experienced the Mega Man series, this may serve as a good entry into the franchise in terms of gameplay.
