Mega Man Zero
- May 08, 2002 14:11 PM PST
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Edward Scissorhands? unrequited desire for completion. Young David?s quest to become a real boy. The design flaw that inhibits Mega Man from being able to duck. Three artificial beings?three timeless tales of tragedy and woe.
If Mega Man Battle Network?s RPG approach wasn?t quite your bag, you?ll be pleased to know that the next handheld iteration in the Mega Man series takes things back to the ?traditional? Blue Bomber format. In Mega Man Zero, you?ll play as Zero 100 years after the last Mega Man X game, awakened from stasis to find that X has gone evil, forcing a large chunk of the good person population to move underground. Unpleasant, to be sure. Obviously, the fate of the future lies in Zero?s mechanical hands.The latest preview build (essentially the finished Japanese version of the game) was crafted in the level/boss/repeat style familiar to most Mega Man fans with a few bizarre twists. In between levels, Zero would return to a ?home base? where he roamed around, tinkering with his power-ups, recharging his energy, and just chatting with some of the locals he happened to come across. The series? infamous boss battles sometimes yielded ?Elemental Chips? that changed your existing weapons? attributes rather than giving you an entirely new weapon?meaning you don?t necessarily have to figure out the correct ?boss progression? in order to get through the game. Zero could also level up his saber and Mega Buster, and progress in skill ranking through what Capcom has dubbed an ?Admiration System.?
The graphics in the early version were very nice, indeed, and aside from a few blandish indoor backgrounds, should meet (or exceed) your Mega expectations. The controls felt perfect, too, though Zero still couldn?t kneel or aim his arm up into the air despite the fact that he is a sentient, independently self-motivated, cybernetic intelligence. Mega Man afficianados should note that Mega Man Zero will be hard with a capital ARD?quite possibly the most difficult Mega Man yet?though an utterly bizarre feature called the ?Cyber Elf System? will enable you to find magical elf algorithm power-ups (or?something?) to equip, bringing difficulty down a notch?if you?re that freakin? lame.
