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»Megaman Zero 2
"A sequel to a Megaman game? That's a new one."
Considering
the fact that I loved the original, I somewhat worried that this game
would turn out badly, but as it would turn out, my fears were put to
rest. This game improves upon the original in more ways than one, and
delivers a beautiful and enjoyable addition to the Megaman Zero series.
The story behind this game is pretty good. One year after defeating the
ruler of Neo Arcadia, and revealed him to be merely a duplicate of X
instead of the original, a badly-damaged Zero decides to return to the
Resistance’s base, but is ambushed by Neo Arcadia forces and collapses
before he makes it there. Meanwhile, the old resistance base was
destroyed, and a newly created base, led by a reploid named Elpizo, is
beginning plans to run an operation in order to crush the weakened Neo
Arcadia, which is currently being led by one of Copy-X’s four generals,
Harupia. Somehow though, Zero is found outside of the resistance base
and is repaired by Cerveau.
As for gameplay, this game keeps most of the features from the old
games and employs a few new ones. The "Cyber-Elf" and "Weapon Upgrade"
systems return, as do most of the weapons from the original game,
except for the Triple Rod, which is replaced with the new, infinitely
more useful "Chain Rod", which has much longer range, and allows you to
swing and to pull certain objects toward you. Also, as the game goes
on, Zero can take on new "Forms", which change the color of his armor,
and gives him new special abilities and enhancements. My guess is that
this is a somewhat modified form of the old “multiple armors” system
from Megaman X5 & X6. These forms can enhance Zero’s defense
strength (Defense Form), enhance his Buster Shots (X Form), or even
allow him to destroy through enemy fire (Erase Form). Each of these
forms can be earned if you do certain actions in the game pertaining to
them. Also, there are the "EX Skills", which can be earned by achieving
an S or A grade on a stage. Basically, they’re special attacks that you
can equip in order to do massive damage to your enemies. (Hell, three
of them are even extremely similar to skills that Zero learned back in
Megaman X4.) Despite all of these good features, new and old, this game
loses a point due to the extreme difficulty.
The graphics in this game are spectacular. Some sprites from the
original game resurface, but there is much more to behold. For example,
there are much better in-game effects, not to mention the fact that
everything else looks much cleaner and crisper, not to mention more
detailed. Also, there are some cut-scene-styled still in some portions
of the game (the introduction being a prime example of how well they’re
used.) There were some similar stills in the first game, but they
weren’t used as often or as effectively as they are here.
Sound in this game is excellent. The game’s use of voices is even
better than in the original game, but it isn’t really as effective as
it could be. The sound effects in this game are superb though.
Everything sounds extremely realistic. Music quality is pretty good,
too. However, the tunes still aren’t up to par with the older Megaman
games.
As for Replay Value, this game’s got more than enough of it. Besides
trying to earn all of the EX Skills, Forms and Cyber-Elves, this game
also employs a two-player mode, that has three different modes, Time
Attack (Set a goal somewhere in the stage, and whoever makes it there
in the shortest amount of time after three tries, wins.), Enemy Battle
(Whoever defeats the most enemies from the generator in the time limit
wins.) & Get Item (Whoever collects the most items from the map in
the time limit wins.). Also, there’s a gallery and a Hard Mode (in
which weapons don’t level up) to unlock, which should keep you busy
until the release of Zero 3 this fall.
Article by: Wolfdogg
Posted on: Oct. 30th, 2005 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| The gameplay is superb, with the addition of a new weapon, the ability to earn new "Forms" and "EX skills", but the difficulty of this game is truly menacing, and may turn some gamers off. |
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Graphics |
| The graphics are better than the original’s, with new special effects, and cut-scene-styled stills for certain moments. |
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Sound |
| There are new voice effects, and some of the music is pretty good (especially the Introduction), but still not to the level of the older games. |
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Replay Value |
| The collectable "Cyber-Elf" system returns, and earning all of the new power-ups for Zero can be quite a long and enjoyable task. The new two-player modes also add tons of replayability. |
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