MEGA MAN ZERO – ZX LEGACY COLLECTION / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: CAPCOM / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE (REVIEWED) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
After several years of languishing in relative obscurity, Capcom has finally made the bold move of porting the entire Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX collection of games to current gen consoles. If you’re not a Blue Bomber aficionado, you might be forgiven for not even being aware of this series’ existence, given that every entry was exclusive to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and DS (aside from a brief period of availability for the earlier games on Nintendo’s now defunct Virtual Console), so it was seen as something of a surprise when this collection was announced late last year. Capcom has been absolutely knocking it out of the park recently with their extremely well-received Mega Man and Mega Man X anthology collections, but can they repeat that success with Zero/ZX?
Set 100 years after the events of the Mega Man X series, the first Zero game introduces us to our Reploid central protagonist (conveniently named Zero) who has been awakened from a century of sleep to aid the resistance against a nefarious plot to wipe out all self-conscious androids. Although largely sticking to the classic Mega Man action/platformer gameplay tropes, rather than taking bosses’ powers after defeating them and being able to select individual levels, MMZ features upgradable power ups and is set in a large (mostly) interconnected world. There is also less emphasis placed on the ‘run and gun’ elements of previous Mega Man games (although it is still ubiquitous throughout) as more ‘hack and slash’ elements have been introduced – Zero has several close range sword and melee attacks, which are absolutely necessary to progress. Players can now also collect Cyber Elves, which act as power ups and can supplement Zero’s abilities or change parts of the level.
The original GBA Zero series continues with the gameplay innovations from the first game, but returns to the more traditional level select of the Mega Man and X games, eschewing the interconnected world (which was criticised by fans at the time). This remains the case until the first entry on Nintendo DS, Mega Man ZX, which not only returns to the interconnected levels of the first Zero game, but adds selectable missions, sub missions and more RPG elements, which make it feel like some sort of Mega Man/Metroid/Zelda hybrid. ZX Advent continues in this vein, but adds the ability to change between Reploid and human form at the touch of a button right from the start of the game.
The story and cutscenes are noticeably darker and feel a lot more ‘grown up’ than previous MM entries with the narrative continuing through all six games in the anthology. The plot remains thoroughly engaging throughout and features numerous references and tie-ins to both the original and X series’. Many agree that the Zero/ZX storyline is the most compelling in the entire MM franchise and is, in itself enough reason to play through these games. That’s not to say that the games themselves are bad. Far from it! There isn’t a bad game on this entire collection and the six titles on offer range from ‘pretty damn great’, to ‘bona fide classic’.
Mega Man games have always been notorious for their intimidating difficulty, but the main criticism of the Zero games at their time of release was that they had perhaps been made a little bit too hard. The Zero/ZX Legacy Collection rectifies this by giving players a wide range of difficulty options. In addition to checkpoints and save assists, there is an easy mode which is designed for players who just want to enjoy the story without the stress of having to play through some of the hardest games ever programmed, unassisted! And of course all the original difficulty settings are present for any sadists or any gamers that like to really test themselves. Taking all this into account, there is absolutely no doubt that this is now the definitive way to enjoy this series.
The presentation and array of extras in this Legacy Collection is as fantastic as the games themselves. The gallery and music player features are exhaustingly extensive with a vast array of images, every track from all six games plus a load of exclusive music. All of the animated footage and cutscenes have been fully decompressed to enjoy in all of their vibrant, colourful, full quality glory and many of the voice tracks have been completely remastered. Players have the ability to choose between American and Japanese versions of all the games (which is particularly welcome here, due to the blood censorship in western localisation). There are a wide variety of display and sound options including graphical smoothing filters, and if all that wasn’t enough, we get the marvellous Z Chaser.
Z Chaser is basically this collection’s version of challenge mode, but it has so much going on, it almost feels like a game in itself. Each of the six entries has two separate challenges, but each challenge can be tweaked and adapted with a myriad of settings to feel different each time. Players have the option of having a second screen next to their play screen with successful runs of challenges being displayed so they can compare it to their own progress in real time, as they play. This is a superb innovation and really shows how much care and attention has been put into this anthology.
It is extremely difficult to think of anything negative to say about the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection. From the quality of games, to the quality of presentation and extras, right through to the quality of the all new menu music, this is basically a flawless product and easily the best collection of Mega Man games yet. Capcom has actually managed to surpass themselves. Fantastic. Go buy it right now.
