GENRE
	Capcom
	DEVELOPER
	Capcom
	PUBLISHER
	1
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	no
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Allow me to preface this interview by saying that I have always been a huge fan of the Megaman series. Since its original release, I have owned every Megaman game released in the U.S. It saddened me to muddle through Megaman X6 and watch how bad my series was becoming. The translations were getting worse, the plots thinner, and the level design was simply horrible. Luckily, this did not deter me from picking up the newest side-scrolling Megaman game, Megaman Zero. When you pop this cart in your GBA, you will quickly realize that it brings back everything the Megaman series was about and adds plenty of new twists. This is one of, if not the best Megaman games—and it is definitely one of the best on GBA.

In this game, you play as Zero, who is awoken from a one hundred-year sleep by the desperate Dr. Ciel. Dr. Ciel helped end the war between reploids and mavericks, but now she finds herself protecting reploids from a new threat—Megaman X. He has decided that all reploids eventually become mavericks and is hell-bent on destroying them before that happens. The ruling government completely backs him on this decision. It is up to you, as Zero, to do everything you can to rescue the reploids and stop X. Along the way, you'll get four weapons, three elemental chips, and many Cyber-Elves to help you on your mission.

visuals

The visuals in this game are excellent. They are among the best seen on the GBA so far, and despite several areas taking place underground or at night, they stay at an excellent brightness level, needing only normal amounts of overhead light. Animations of all characters are extremely fluid and it’s a beautiful thing indeed to see the many different ways in which enemies can die. Even bosses have different death animations depending on what weapon you finish them with. Sometimes you are treated to cut-scene artwork that is simply beautiful. I really like the new model of Zero. It is as if he is now more vulnerable, but fights on despite the fact.

audio

The audio in this game is delicious. There are tiny speech samples here and there, perfect music for a Megaman game, and excellent effects for the Z-Sabre. When you charge up your weapons, you get an awesome effect that sounds like a Dragonball Z character powering up. It's very fitting. Playing this game with headphones on is an absolute must.

gameplay

This game has all the staples of a Megaman game without all the “been there, done that” conventions of other games in the series. Instead of choosing from a pre-determined number of bosses, you are given options of different missions you can perform. Beating a mission usually unlocks a new one. You may face a boss along the way, but often he is not your ultimate goal. Instead of having a specialized weapon from each boss, you sometimes receive elemental chips. Most bosses are aligned towards a particular element, and have a weakness. Fire beats ice, ice beats thunder, and thunder beats fire. Capcom advertises this as the most difficult Megaman game ever, and they are not lying. This game is hard, but fun and addictive enough to not be frustrating. You can make the game easy for yourself by using cyber-elves, but it is time consuming to collect enough energy to activate them, and doing so will subtract from your ranking in the game. It is completely up to the player whether she wants to go for the glory or power up first. All the stages in the game are connected to the main world, so you can select a mission to visit them, or you can go to one whenever you please by walking. It makes the game very open-ended, as you never feel like you have to collect everything in a level on your first try.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

This game is nearly perfect. Everything in it is executed at maximum quality. If you like shooters or side-scrollers, this is the game for you. If you are a Megaman fan, why are you reading this review? Run to the store right now! You really can't go wrong with this game. Great graphics, great story, great sound, and great replay value (as it will take many tries to get every Elf, and many tries to get a perfect rank). This a must-have GBA title.

Action/Platformer/10