(NOTE: This is an accidental duplicate thread that somehow made two copies upon submission. To the Local Mods, please close this.)



While browsing games, I found this game. I've never played any of the Zero series, so I figured I'd give it a try. So, I went in with a positive attitude, and guess what? I hate it. I died far into the first level and spawned at the start of the level. I literally was right before the boss. Besides horrible checkpoints, there's many other flaws, especially design flaws from my perspective of game design. Anyone who's looking to get into game design shouldn't take example off this game, and I'll explain why. (Unless it's a kaizo challenge.)


Gameplay:

Near the end of the story line upon starting a new game, (Which if there is no save file, will immediately start the game) Zero will say a line that will pretty much warn you how bad this game is, and you should heed his warning and go play something else. However, if you're willing to pass this game up, I'll give you the idea. You play as Zero, armed with Buster Gun and Zero's Saber. As you fight with either weapons, you can level them up to increase their abilities. About four of five hits will end Zero's life, and the mission will fail, starting you back at the start of the level, no matter how far, as mentioned. The only way you can possibly get a checkpoint is going through a door. Some levels have NO doors at all, thus making checkpoints impossible. Even if there are doors, there are a lot of chances to die along the way. Continuing through the first level, you come to a miniboss. I guess this is easy, it has a little pattern, when it shoots from its back cannon, go to the left, front cannon, go the right. Shoot him a few times in the face with a charged shot, and it's down. Go a little further through the stage slashing a few baddies and... *Same miniboss appears* Really? Not 30 seconds later the exact same miniboss appears. Trust me, you'll see a lot more of these. And there's less room to stand on! After beating the miniboss for the second time,
you come to the boss right after the miniboss. This boss will probably kill you, and send you back to square one, due to his hard-to-dodge attacks and his ability to create bottomless pits. My hypothesis? Backtrack and grind some energy. Unfortunately, this comes to a problem. You may have noticed your ranking, an F. As you complete levels, you will based on different aspects. Such as objective completion, time, damage, enemies defeated, and items used.

Our problem is that achieving good ranks on these aspects is near impossible. Making it through the level is also ridiculous as the enemies are placed in some of the most annoying spots, doing lots of damage and/or making you fall into an instant kill trap. This game has those Castlevania/Ninja Gaiden traits, which are: Difficult jumps, lots of instant death from pits or instant death traps, and enemies placed in spots to mess you up. This game gives you extra lives, but it’s almost pointless because of the absence of checkpoints, and
this is one of those games where you die, die, die. With enemies that hit you a lot, long levels, too much damage that you have to use items, getting good ranks is difficult as ever, as these are key attributes to get most of the grade. Think of it as a science report grade, all the ways you present it are graded. As mentioned, there are items besides life energy and crystal. (Some form of currency I’ll explain the use of.) These items are called Cyber-Elfs. There are three types of Cyber-Elfs: Nurse, ones that heal you, Animal, various effects mostly obtained from enemies, and Hacker, very helpful but hidden Elfs that hack the game. We could just use cheat codes, but if the game will give us in-game cheats, that’s alright too. Some Elfs will need to be fed Crystals to grow and use their powers. As helpful as these little guys are, they are in a limited quantity. You may be wondering how they’re limited as some are obtained from enemies. You can tell you only get them once, due to some of them giving the same effects. Due to how limited they are, you won’t give the full effect of enjoyment. I know about one time items like the Master Ball (Although you CAN get more if you’re extremely lucky.) but when they’re so needed to
complete the game, it really becomes a problem. Let’s just wrap this up before I get mad just thinking about it.


Graphics: 10

The graphics are once again very great and the background and objects are all very fitting for each area. The cutscene pictures are also very nicely done, and really show all details.


Sound: 9

The sound is okay, but some of the sound effects I can’t help but be annoyed by, mostly the death sound, as, you guessed it, you die constantly.


Addictiveness: 3

Although the game is a straight shot, this game is unplayable for me. And, even though I am one of those people who play bad games mostly to make fun of them, I do not joke when I want to throw this game down and play something like Battletoads.


Story: 8

As far as I know, the story continues off Megaman Zero 1, but I wouldn’t know. The intro stage’s story is pretty confusing itself. This probably isn’t a fair judgement, but honestly, with the fact that the bad guys save Zero, and enjoy the pain Zero inflicts upon them(?), I think this is fair enough.


Depth: 6

Your weapons are upgradeable, and you have the Cyber-Elfs, but as explained, the Cyber-Elfs are a one time use, and never to be used again.


Difficulty: 10

Do I have to explain why I gave it a 10? You really have to play it to get a feel for what I mean. I didn’t mention the Chain Rod, the gimmick weapon. It’s an interesting weapon/gimmick that allows you to latch on walls or ceiling to swing. It can also be used to grab objects and items. It is slightly delayed (Sound familiar?) which leads to some problems. A lot of the uses of this weapon is to swing across instant death traps. If you do not time it right and attach to the wall/ceiling, you will die. There are no cheat codes for the game, except for secrets.


OVERALL: 6.2

If it wasn’t for the gameplay’s outrageous difficulty, I might have given this a good rating. Definitely not the game you want to start with on the Zero series. Sometimes I think to myself how games like this can possibly be played on the GameBoy Advance. I know there’s the extension for the GameCube, but I still find it unbelieveable. Maybe I just suck. But then again, the Megaman Homepage rates this the hardest difficulty out of 5 and they don’t rate lightly. So, until my next review, I leave you with this, and I’m sorry you passed it up.


“This isn’t fun anymore…” ~Zero – Megaman Zero 2


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