Game #954: Megaman Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

  Should I pronounce that like "Zix"? Or like "Z" "X" ?

 I grew up with Megaman 3(Although I knew it as Rockman 3). I adore the X series. But for my money, the ones that look the coolest are Zero and ZX, which is why I'm starting with Megaman Zero/ZX Legacy Collection. I've very fond memories of the Zero series, I discovered it during my GBA roms highschool era, one day I came home, downloaded the new roms and... 'This plays a lot like Megaman! It's so cool! BLOOD!'.... and some time later I'd discover it actually was Megaman. As for the ZX series, I really liked them back when the DS was my favorite system, I may not have specific memories, but I liked them a lot. 

 I'll start with the Zero series, since all four Zero games are pretty much identical. These games are hard. Like REALLY hard. The rock-paper-scissors system got completely axed, in its stead we get elements, Lightning, Fire and Ice, as well as Cyber Elves to enhance Zero's abilities. But hey, you'll only get your Chips and your EX attacks IF you finish boss fights with high ranks, making these already hard games EVEN harder. Doesn't matter if you cut your teeth with the X series, these games are 2-D platforming hells.... which is why this collection offers two options to make your time with the game easier: Easy Scenario and Checkpoints. Either can be turned on or off, so if you just want the checkpoints for convenience but would like to suffer for your victories you can simply toggle on checkpoints and ignore Easy Scenario. As for me, I toggled both options on because I'm a dirty casual.

 Honestly, I feel like the Zero series is TOO hard to be fun, and I'm sure many would disagree, but I don't care. Regardless, turning on the coward's options made me able to enjoy these games.

 On another note, you can toggle between different versions of the game, like say, Rockman Zero. Not many people know, but the localizations for Rockman Zero removed blood. If you want blood, you can play the Japanese version... provided you don't care about not being able to understand what's being said.

 That's that when it comes to the Zero series, now onto Megaman ZX... I'll start mentioning that you can use Easy Scenario AND checkpoints in both ZX and ZX Advent, but it's not necessary, as these games are about as hard as the original X series, feeling much fairer. These games were released on the Nintendo DS, so.... they did their best to incorporate both screens. There are many layouts available, in my case I opted for the one that goes on the lower right of the screen on TOP of the screen you're playing in, but transparent, and you can toggle it on or off with a button. You can opt for a smaller play screen and have this second screen on the side or below, but I preferred a bigger play area.

 I used to love the original ZX back then, since it turned Megaman into a Metroidvania, not only was the world interconnected, but you could turn into different forms based on Zero as well as the four guardians from the Zero series, each form bestowing you with different abilities, like an aerial dash or free underwater movement. It's so cool!

 That said, there's a tiny problem with ZX, one that I remember having back when I first played it.... the map is useless. It shows you what areas are connected but not how, so you might have to try every door inside an area before you get to where you want to be. Not to mention that some areas are more than one screen long and others aren't, so you might have to constantly pause the game to make sure of where you are. And it's even worse when a mission says 'Get to J-1'. Who knows where J-1 is? And the name doesn't help because J-1 is NOT connected to the I area. It makes no sense! To the point that eventually I refused to play without a map in hand. This map issue is REALLY bad, this is a Metroidvania, exploration is the name of the game and the game shouldn't have this issue.

 ZX Advent is a bit better when it comes to the map, but you can only see the map when you are using a few specific forms, which is lame. It's more useful than the map in ZX though. The gameplay is basically the same, but now your character can, besides transforming into different Megaman forms, transform into the bosses. In some ways, you have more tools to play around with... but I thought bosses were kinda lame, I would've preferred having more MegaMan forms since those look cool. I always found it kinda silly how your character actually transforms into the boss, so in a way, so if you're playing as the boy you get get the female voices when transforming into female Megamen, and if you're playing as the girl you get male voices when transforming into the male Megamen.

 The story in ZX Advent I felt wasn't as interesting as the one in the original game, and the two new protagonists were a bit generic. The whole Megaman war could've been an interesting angle, but it's quickly forgotten and thrown into the wayside. And while gameplay is certainly a bit better, since we have a better map and even more abilities to play around with.... I just didn't find this game as memorable as the original, it's missing some of its charm I guess.

 After going through this collection I discovered that.... I think I've outgrown the Zero and ZX series of Megaman. These games have the best art direction in the entire series I think, as Zero and the Megamen look very stylish, but I feel like the Zero series is too hard for its own good and the ZX series had great ideas that needed more polishing.

 7.5