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(More customer reviews)Mega Man ZX is, technically, Mega Man's first action venture onto the dual screens of the DS. Yes, I know we've a Mega Man Battle Network port before this, but that's more of a RPG, and doesn't exactly re-enact the type of frantic side-scrolling adventures so commonly associated with the series' games of the past. ZX, on the other hand, works like previous GBA Mega Man Zero (and before) titles, and continues to provide a sterling challenge for fans of the series with its easy-to-master, hard-to-execute platforming gameplay.
Playing either as Vent (male) or Alle (female), your character is a delivery personnel working for Giro Express, a courier company. Giro, the boss of the company, actually has the secret identity of being a Guardian, who has been fighting against the evil Mavericks for quite a while. Early in the game, you're tasked to delivery a biometal package to the Guardians, but ended up being attacked by the bad guys. The biometal then merged with you, and you gained the powers of a Mega man prototype form known as Model X. Model X provides you with increased speed, mobility and firepower, which you used to perfection in removing the immediate threat. However, Giro has gone missing during the melee, and your immediate task is to go for his rescue.
Playing as Vent or Alle has little differences to the plot. Some dialogues are different, but the premise remains identical. What's important is the introduction of Model X in the scheme of things, because it's what you'd need to transpire the various platforms and death traps in the game in your bid to uncover the evil schemes of the Mavericks and their perpetuator. As you progress, you'll unlock different forms of Model X, granting you more powers to transverse the large map that several challenging level designs. The LX, for example, allows you to move freely underwater. The HX, on the other hand, gives you the ability to hover, which in turns allows you to access previously non-accessible areas. You'll also have the option of reverting to human form as and when required - this is useful when you need to crouch under low areas, which is not possible when you're in your biometal costume.
The mission structure in Mega Man ZX has some free-roaming elements. The map is enormous, spanning over 60 unique levels, and each level has its own missions for you to undertake. It's entirely up to you to decide what you want to do first, which is a great idea for what's essentially a 2D platformer. However, despite the freedom to choose, the idea is not exactly well executed. This is because most of the time, you'd only be limited to a choice or two when you access a mission terminal. A large part of this is due to the somewhat linear manner of accessing a new area. You'd need to go into a new area via doors, but many of these doors are locked, and cannot be opened until you get a key. You'd still get to choose between missions available in the areas that are accessible, but this restriction somehow undermines the potential of a truly free-roaming environment.
The platforming in the game provides some nice challenges. Many of your jumps require extreme precision, and this is where the game sometimes becomes frustrating. Enemies also respawn almost immediately after you beat them (once you leave their "first appearance" location), and at times, you'd get hit just because you didn't expect the enemy to reappear so quickly. The challenging nature of its platforming means that Mega Man ZX may pose some problems for newcomers to the game - this is certainly not your usual feel-good Mario jumping galore. A great challenge is always good though, and this game serves up lots of them on top of the platforming. The old-school boss fights, for example, are fun and engaging. They typically require you to find out a distinctive weakness in a boss' attacking pattern, and then dealing your own counter-attacks said weakness. These fights differ from boss fights from the modern era, which are usually settled by spamming the "attack" buttons relentlessly.
For a DS game, Mega Man ZX surprisingly doesn't utilize the features of the dual screen extensively. The action occurs primarily on the top screen, while the touch screen shows nothing but a logo. During some action scenes, the touch screen will show the biometal information, but this is very much a gimmick than anything. To view your character's items, weapons and statistics, you'd need to stop the game, but these are also shown on the top screen. With several pages of statistics available, you'd end up pressing the shoulder buttons to browse through them. Surely, dividing these pages onto both screens would be a more viable choice? Moreover, for a game with such a massive number of levels, the game would do well to have a Castlevania-style map on the touch screen to guide the player. Sadly, this isn't included.
The in-game graphics in Mega Man ZX are a combination of 2D and 3D graphics, which are typical of a side-scrolling platformer on the DS. They provide some enjoyable in-game displays, and give the game a nice, dimensional look. The cut-scenes are also awesome in a sense that they're actually rendered in cel-shaded animation sequences. True, the rather weak decoding makes the animation appear blurred, but to actually watch some short cartoon scenes while playing a game? I'd take that any day. The music scores are also catchy and exciting, but most importantly, they provide much variety (no more being bored to death by repetitive music!). The levels and their bosses each have a different theme, making this a really thorough experience on top of playing the game and enjoying the graphics. The voice-overs during the cut-scenes, however, are in its original Japanese form. There's also no evidence of this game having any English voice-overs, which could be disappointing for those who wanted to actually understand what they're hearing. Subtitles are included though, so that should make understanding the story a little easier.
In a nutshell, the solid gameplay and presentations make Mega Man ZX one of the best action games on the DS. The lack of a dual-screen map support and English voice-overs pose some concerns, but the game still offers the kind of thrill that can only be found in a Mega Man franchise. And for some of us out there, it's more than enough.
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