Mega Man ZX

Mega Man ZX is a collision course between the X games and the Zero games. The upgrading is widespread and permanent. There isn’t a lot of customization aside from choosing which form you will take. Mostly, I stuck with the original ZX model because the charge shot is killer. The HX model had advanced mobility, required at some points. I rarely used other forms. Model L was for water mobility, that’s basically it.

The game has an interconnected world like something out of a Metroidvania. When it’s mission time, however, the game behaves closer to a normal Mega Man game with the mission being its own level. You have a limited amount of lives to complete the objective. I liked setting my missions and completing them although I don’t think the game utilized those systems too deeply.

There’s a lot of subquests too and I didn’t like some of them including a series of repetitive subquests to fetch medical supplies all to unlock a Subtank. Sometimes unlocking upgrades required a lot of tedium and there should have been a mechanic to unlock more warp points because getting around could often be a pain, especially with an uninformative map and some paths through the environment that are one-way only.

The story wasn’t good. It tries to find some depth to its narrative but nothing is there. From the plot to the themes, it’s weak sauce. The visuals are very good, though. The music is good too, although held back by the hardware. The remastered soundtrack is definitely worth looking into if you can get it.

In the end, this is a pretty snappy Mega Man game. It plays great. There’s very little in terms of cheap BS. I loved the boss fights. Pretty solid.