| Megaman ZX review |
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We so desperately wanted to enter into this particular review with a clean slate and an open mind concerning the Megaman franchise. Lord knows there have been practically hundreds of games to precede this one; but with the shift to new hardware for the platform adventuring side of Capcom’s mascot we felt it appropriate to take Megaman ZX on its merits. Unfortunately after a good few hours with this DS title, it becomes virtually impossible to pen anything without invoking the past and indeed comparing and contrasting.
First there was the Megaman series, followed by Megaman X (which went on for ages, across about twenty formats), and then the Megaman Zero games, which - give or take a shedload of other Megaman related shenanigans in between the main platforming crux – brings us up to ZX. To be brutally honest, apart from the interesting Battle Network games, the corking PSP remake of the original and one or two standout efforts from the early days, Megaman games are much of a muchness. And ZX is maddeningly familiar in this respect.
Megaman ZX fits into the storyline arc madness by presenting a scenario where the world of Neo Arcadia (shudder) has been taken over by “reploids” (basically shooty anthropomorphic robots with big, knowingly evil cartoony eyes on). The scene is set with a crushing five or more minutes of conversations and text boxes between little cartoon faces before you even get a sniff of the action. It does convey, mind, that this reploid business is a Bad Thing. Ordinarily, a Megaman with knobs on called a Maverick Hunter would intervene at this point and kick some ass, but in a never before seen twist, ZX has dual male and female human protagonists who can harness the legendary Maverick powers by collecting and using “biometal”. Essentially a clunkily named and unoriginal gameplay mechanic, biometal allows the player to find collectables that give new powers such as being able to move quicker underwater, fire homing-style bullets, or dash through the air. The biometals allow the annoying anime characters to use five different “X” models each with unique abilities. The models can be switched around depending on the situation. The little humans use the powers to save the world from impending robo-geddon. End of.
The Fans would tell you this suit/model/power thang is a brand new gameplay twist – however it is difficult to see why someone would choose this game over, ooh, Castlevania DS, or even Metroid Zero Mission – which do pretty much the same sort of thing in terms of customisation - only miles better.
Gameplay here is not really that different from the GBA Zero titles that began in 2002 – it is a bit more free roaming than usual, but still a platform game where you can shoot bullets at constantly respawning enemies, carry out a charge attack, collect health pickups and fight bosses. It is ball-achingly difficult – but then all MM games are – so a bit of kudos to Capcom for including an “Easy” option which at least allows you to progress through the game without feeling like you are on the Krypton Factor, only with more robots shooting at you.
Enemies and areas have been included from earlier games in the Zero and X series, and some of the biometals allow you to tweak some bells and whistles using the touch screen. Apart from this, the lower screen is used minimally, and is for the most part completely blank. It smacks of being a GBA title shoe-horned into the DS, and indeed graphically this could be a high-end Advance effort, give or take a few spangly effects, slightly improved animation and some English subtitled clips from a Japanese Megaman telly programme. The whole oeuvre is accompanied with some soulless wailing music, garbled Japanese speech and adequate sound effects, which do absolutely nothing to spice up the action.
There isn’t much more to say about Megaman ZX. It is terribly sad to moan about a brand new 2D platformer; we are the last people alive who would want to see the death of such a beloved genre. The problem is though, there is nothing to recommend within this game cart to anyone who isn’t an uber-fan of the series, when there is much better fun to be had on both the DS and the GBA already – and for a much cheaper price. Don’t get us wrong, it isn’t a terrible game – just not a very inspiring one – and perhaps now Capcom will realise that if they are going to trouble western territories with this franchise again they need to be looking at a much more inspiring and playable overhaul and much better use of the cracking hardware that they can toy with these days. |
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System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Players: 1
Version: United States
Reviewed: Aug 2007
Writer: Sean Smith
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Pros:
- Graphics are nice 2D platforming fare
- X models try to do something difrrent
- Easy mode takes the sting out of game
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Cons:
- No true evolution from earlier games
- Music is butters
- Touchscreen is all but wasted
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Megaman ZX Video: 13.6MB
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