Mega Man Zero Collection Review

Over a hundred years after the freedom-fighting efforts of Mega Man X began, the world seems no better off -- war still rages between the Reploids, humans are caught in the middle, and there's little hope in sight. Desperately, one bold young woman follows whispers to seek out a savior -- and finds him. Zero, the one-time ally of X from that century-gone era, is awakened in a new age. His battles begin again.

Capcom's Mega Man Zero series began on the Game Boy Advance in 2002, and ultimately spanned four separate games on that system -- each of them telling a piece of the story of the sword-wielding sidekick now stepping into the spotlight, and each of them renowned for their fresh take on the long-running franchise. Developer Inti Creates not only separated the character of Zero from his past through the introduction of an all-new plot line, but also established a clear new gameplay direction for him to champion. These games were called Mega Man Zero, but they were much more Zero than Mega Man.

A key difference was in stage structure -- prior to this, 2D Mega Man games were only known for clear, delineated levels separated by stage select screens and tackled one at a time. In the Zero games, the environments are all interwoven -- and instead of stages, you're sent on missions.

Story was also integrated into the action, with friendly characters you could find and talk to in RPG-like fashion, instead of the brief, uncontrollable cutscenes that progressed the thin plots of older Mega Mans.

And item collection hit a new high. Mega Man was always notable for grabbing extra energy tanks and the occasional sub-weapon from stages on the NES and SNES -- here on the GBA, Zero did that and more. The new Cyber Elf system capitalized on the first wave of Pokemon popularity, offering dozens of collectible assistant 'bots who could be nurtured to provide boosts in health, slow down enemies, save you from pitfalls and more.

But most of all, it was hard. That critically steep challenge factor -- combined with all its many other revisions to the core concept of what a Mega Man game was -- helped the Zero series blaze clear new trails and set itself apart from its predecessors through the span of years between 2002 and 2005. This new collection package brings together all four of those Game Boy Advance adventures, and I won't spend any more time discussing their individual qualities -- they all hold up as excellent action experiences, and our original reviews for each of the four are still available, still valid and linked at the bottom of the page. Instead, let's now jump into the quality of the collection itself.

Mega Man Zero Collection takes a few liberties with its source material. Some of its alterations are minor, like the occasional grammatical error that's been corrected, or the addition of a single new frame of animation for Ciel. Some of the other changes, though, are harder to overlook.

All references to death and dying have been removed from all four games. This change might have helped Capcom maintain a "E" rating for the collection, keeping it from being pushed up to "E10+" -- but it's laughable in action, and comedically diminishes the urgency of Zero's quests. "Help!" Ciel cries, "our comrades are going to be retired!" Not so great of a call to action any more.

There's a new Easy Mode that's introduced to lower the learning curve for new players, and it also links together all four games into one continuous quest -- potentially a nice addition. It, though, fails to live up to its promise. The Easy Mode introduced in the recent Mega Man 10 made the adventure more accessible by altering the environment -- including assisting elements like extra platforms to land on, and sending out fewer enemies to attack you.

This collection's Easy Mode, though, takes the opposite approach -- it doesn't power down the stages, it powers up Zero. You're given all of his upgrades, enhancements and extra abilities from the very beginning -- and while that does work to make the early-going easier, it also cheapens the experience. The satisfaction of earning rewards on your own is lost, and it ultimately feels like you just used some kind of cheat code.


Finally, there's the issue of potential positive changes that could have been made, but weren't. The cheat-like Easy Mode points to this being a package that was put together without much extra effort, and other misses seem to confirm that. The games all play with a black border around the screen, running at the original GBA resolution when they could have been expanded to fill the DS screen. And the button assignment, while versatile, is confusing to handle -- you have to juggle between the in-game menu above and a second out-of-game menu below to get B, A, X, Y, L and R all mapped properly. That could have been streamlined.

But that's enough negativity. It's true that this collection feels tossed together in many ways, and there was certainly an opportunity to polish it more before release -- but it isn't entirely devoid of extras or welcomed changes, either. The music sounds better now -- richer and fuller, taking added advantage of the upgrades made to the DS family's speakers compared to the GBA's old sound capabilities. The screens are more vibrant, making the games much more visible running on a DS card -- especially when compared to the dim, eye-straining visuals we were still dealing with in 2002, when only the first sideways-oriented, no-backlighting GBA model had been released.

And, lastly, the excellent concept artwork for the series gets its own screen to star on while you play. Video games frequently have exceptional promotional art for their characters, but that art rarely makes it into the games themselves -- here, it's prominent. Striking images of bosses will appear on the touch screen as you do battle with their in-game forms up above, and they'll be unlocked to a gallery for casual viewing later on whenever you clear that battle. It's an extra like that that will make the diehard fans happy, and that's precisely what compilation packages like this one should strive to do.

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