Megaman ZX news

[Don]

I haven't found a working emulator for DS that does everything you would want it to (like not crashing after 5 minutes) so I'm not able to play this game right now, but it looks like this story actually picks up where Z4 lefts off. Zero and Ciel has been missing for hundreds of years presumably after the events of Z4. Alouette has become the new commander of all-that-is-good. The Living Metals, like any potential weapons of mass destruction that has ever existed since the Z series, were either made by Ciel or at least related to her in some way. There's no mention of X but one of the two playable character is said to be a Guardian, so maybe X will still make a return in another game (all the other Guardian slots are clearly taken up already by the Living Metals). It'd appear that Ciel either put herself in a stasis chamber or abandoned her human self in some ways since she is not referred to as 'dead' but merely 'missing'.

Also, after 13 games since Zero's inception, you can now play as Original/Omega Zero after defeating him and obtaining the living metal OX. He is said to be utterly invinicible (hit A to become immune to next hit, if it runs out hit A again) and have all of his overpowered moves that you normally never get to use. The game, like all the other Megaman games, don't tell us very much about what's going on, but perhaps in another 1 or 10 games we'll find out what exactly happened in the era Omega was born, and what really happened to Zero and Ciel and the Guardians. Maybe even X.

[Eric]

"Most importantly, unarmored characters can duck and crawl through narrow spaces. That's because ZX takes a page from the likes of Metroid and Symphony of the Night: acquiring new forms and powers opens new areas of the game. This is where ZX truly differs from any previous Mega Man action titles; rather than consisting of self-contained stages with simple objectives, ZX is a single, huge, open-ended game world. Exploration and upgrades are the order of the day. Don't worry, though: if you balk at the prospect of backtracking, you can take heart in the return of Zero's "Trance Server" teleporters, which appear in numerous locations and allow instant movement around the game map.

Progress in ZX is dictated by the areas you can reach and the doors you can open; players can freely roam the world at their leisure. Missions are initiated by stepping into a communications or Trance Server room. It's not without precedent, though. The very first Zero made a furtive stab at this style of gameplay but crumbled under the weight of its weird design choices, while its sequels went for a more classic approach." -1up.com

Good stuff, opened ended Megaman, Metroid style. ^_^

[Don]

That doesn't sound too different from having Flight Armor gets you some powerups you normally can't get otherwise. I saw a screenshot of the HX form flying through some spikes that normally would be impassable.

[Eric]

That doesn't sound too different from having Flight Armor gets you some powerups you normally can't get otherwise. I saw a screenshot of the HX form flying through some spikes that normally would be impassable.

That's that Metroid formula, stoping your progress based on the gear you have.

[Zeus]

Hmm, Mega Man action in a Metroid-like world? That sound very cool. And if there's the variety with being able to switch armors and stuff, giving you a pseudo-RPG feel, it'll be great if they can pull it off. Having it follow the excellent storyline of the Zero series is a big plus to me. I loved the Zero series and thought it was an excellent progression of the X story and gameplay.

Since you two are the only Mega Man fans here, I'll post this within this thread. During my last couple of trips to New York and Scotland, I played and beat through all of Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. This game isn't a remake of Mega Man X (the original), it's a re-invention of it. And it's a damned good one at that. The anime cutscenes are very well done (even though I'm not a fan of that particular style) and I love the audio talking back and forth between Mega and the bosses. Also, I was surprised at how well it played as a 2 1/2 D version. It's just as smooth and fast as the original with much nicer graphics and backgrounds. The fact they made it play as well as the 2D is the best compliment I can give. X8 played like Mega Man was running through molassas the entire time, but this one was great. And the fact that they changed around the boss order and the location of a lot of the power-ups (it was harder than expected to find the dash, dammit!) was great for those of us who played through the originals.

The next part is spoilers for what happens near the end and after you beat the game. I'll hide it in case you don't want the spoiler

START OF SPOILER:
I loved the ending sequence with Sigma. Having him sit there in background while you fight the dog was great. And they did a great job of mimicking his annoying attacks in his two forms. Not overly difficult, but very well done.

Also, the anime episode you get when you beat the game, The Day of Sigma, was awesome. Gives you the whole background on Sigma turning maverick in a great way. Really helps build the world of Mega Man X and, with the rest of the cutscenes throughout the game, does a great job of setting up the rest of the series.

Also, being able to play through as Vile once you're done with completely different storyline, including opening, middle, and closing cutscenes, different dialogue with the bosses, and that great ending where you only make it to the third level of Sigma's castle while having to fight X and Zero at the same time was just awesome. It was an excellent secondary storyline and an awesome way to give you more gameplay, especially since it's completely different to play through with Vile and his different weapons. If I'm not mistaken, he appears throughout the third X game, so I hope to hell they do the same thing for the next two remakes. They're supposed to be doing the first six X games and first 8 regular Mega Man games.

END OF SPOILER

This is easily my favourite game for the PSP. It's an awesome game and may be my fav Mega Man game. I thought it was going to be just a fun remake, but the way they reinvented it was amazing.

I also just dabbled in Mega Man Powered Up a bit after I beat Maverick Hunter X. It seems like a pretty neat remake as well. I think the cutsey, anime large-head graphical style and Disney-like treatment of the storyline actually suits the series very well. The X series is much more of teen-level storyline and graphical style, so the original series really didn't need to copy that. Again, it plays just as well if not better than its 2D counterpart and I love the fact you can play through as the bosses you beat. In case you haven't played it yet, you don't actually destroy the bosses, you disable them and Dr. Light removes the reprogramming Dr. Wily put on them (if you don't recall the storyline, Dr. Wily steals all the robots from Dr. Light and reprograms them for his own good, so he turns to his helper robot Mega and equips him to fight, making him Mega Man), so they basically turn good again. A neat twist on the series and could turn out well. But I want to see how they explain/treat the teleportation rooms, which are essential IMO.

I only dabbled lightly in the make your own level thing. Not really sure how it works yet. I'm not so sure I like how they limit your selection of enemies to "groups" but I haven't done enough in it to have a complete opinion yet. But the fact that they even allow you to do it is neat IMO. It's just a bonus and a neat one at that. Same with being able to play the original game as it was. Not really necessary, particularly since they have the Anniversary Collection, but fun to have as an extra bonus so you can see the contrast. I hope they continue that for the other games in the series as well (and for the X games too, even though they didn't do it for the first one).

[Eric]

The Day of Sigma happened after Maverick Zero fought Sigma(That anime scene in MMX4), Sigma turned Maverick because of Zero, everything is Zero's fault imo!!!

As for sequels, I HOPE they do it. I have no clue how these games sold, and Capcom hasn't said much of anything.

[Don]

Sometimes I think if they take all the cool ideas/loose ends from all the Megaman games and put it as a big action RPG of some sorts it'd be pretty cool.

And every Megaman game should have Omega Zero, kind of like how all the Battle Network game has Bass as an optional boss.

[Julius Seeker]

You more than likely will not find a DS emulator that works due to the control mechanics (it involves a touch screen); plus the fact that there are dual screens, I am not sure how well that can be displayed on a monitor.

Though the DS Lite is a fairly inexpensive system, and the games themselves are also fairly inexpensive. Getting a traditional DS won't be too difficult either, I would think that people wanting to upgrade would be selling off their old DS's for fairly cheap prices.

As for the game itself adopting the Metroid formula. I am not sure, it might be good, I am not a Megaman fan. I haven't had as much fun with any of the Castletroid games as I have with the traditional Castlevania games though.

[Zeus]

I beat a couple more stages in Mega Man Powered Up today on the way home. Not getting the bosses as playable characters, I was perplexed and decided to read a FAQ to find out why (it's not important why, but you have to beat them with your Mega Buster to get them; use a special weapon and they get destroyed).

Wow, there's a lot more to this game than I thought. Not only can you get each of the bosses as playable characters, but you also get multiple version of Mega Man AND Protoman as well (with the three version of Mega Man, it adds up to 14 overall). And, in each stage, there are these odd-looking items that you collect. When I went through Iceman's stage, I couldn't reach any of them as I had not gotten any of the bosses weapons. But when I went through some of the other stages, I got them. They're actually expansion packs for the level construction part of the game. One of the things that I thought was pretty odd was the limited enemies and level parts that you had. Well, this solves that problem.

If you beat each of the levels on easy, including Wily, you get a version of Mega Man that can slide. If you do it on Normal, you get a version that slides and has a charge shot. If you do it on Hard, you get Mega, the non-armoured version, which only has a kick. And, if you beat all of the challenges (for those who haven't played it, there's a bunch of challenge levels, kinda like Mario Kart DSs), you get Protoman. FINALLY we can play as this guy.

That's a relatively large amount of stuff they added to it. The fact that it places very well as a 2 1/2D is pretty cool. Man, Capcom's done an amazing job with these remakes, they need to do all of the X and regular Mega Man games like this.

[Don]

Found a video of Omega Zero here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvef_srB6kA. Same moves as Z3, but much faster reaction time. But on the other hand, I guess you've access to a lot more moves in ZX too compared to Z3.

[Eric]

Found a video of Omega Zero here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvef_srB6kA. Same moves as Z3, but much faster reaction time. But on the other hand, I guess you've access to a lot more moves in ZX too compared to Z3.

Bad link for me.

[Don]

Hmmm it put the period as part of the URL. This should work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvef_srB6kA