Format: Advance
Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Inti Creates
Publisher: Capcom

The third game in the zero series quartet. Capcom doing what it does best, making megaman games. Funny enough though this series is about Zero, who is basically the neo-protoman of this era. the Zero series takes place sometime after the Megaman X series timeline wise. To sum it up, it goes something like this: Megaman series, then decades(?) later the X series (aka the maverick wars), then the Zero series centuries later. The game plays more or less like Megaman X. Had to mess with my controls a bit to get the button setup I wanted, but once you're set on that front, you're jammin'. The music in the game is very late 90's snes style. Capcom did a great job with this one. The intro to the game gives a quick recap of the events that happened in Zero 1 and Zero 2, which was great for me since I had only played zero 1 previously. Since the events of Zero 2, Ciel the Genius Scientist(?) had developed a program to solve the energy crisis in the world. However the appearance of Dr. Weil and the re-emergence of Copy X alongside the Dark Elf threw their plans into chaos as everyone was caught up in the battle between the resistance(Zero) and neo arcadia(Dr. Weil). The game is heavily plot focused and mission focused. You get 3-4 options of where to go at each point in the game with single junction choke-point missions as well. Zero plays a bit differently than the X series in that you get chips and elves instead of Enemy Powers and E-Tanks. With chips you can modify zero's capabilities to customize him more. Stuff like auto-charge, auto-heal, flame body, ice body, double jump, fast run, etc etc etc. You can get some chips by defeating bosses, other chips you find in the levels themselves. The ELF system is a bit more interesting. Elves are like electronic pixies in the series and played an important role in the plot. Elves have life, but using an elf will kill it. Specifically kill it. The game really hammers this point in hard. During the end of the maverick wars(x series), apparently there were many elves being used, which is why it's referred to as "the ELF wars". This sets up the premise of the zero series, in which an entity known as the "Mother Elf" was corrupted by Dr. Weil and created the "Dark Elf". The Elf system itself is pretty unique and interesting. It functions more or less as an item and option system. Some elves are single-use elves that do things like "Give extra MAX Health", "Restores Health", "Stuns enemies on screen", "Prevents falling into pits", "Halves boss health", "Halves charge time" and "Gives +3 extra lives". There are actually many many many more elves with different effects than those I just listed. This game features, what I hear, is a new feature called "satellite elves". I don't know if the previous games had them but in this game, satellite elves don't get "used" and killed but rather you can equip 2 of them to zero and get their effects. You can swap out elves at any point in time, which means getting several up that are variety based and useful is a very good idea. There are E-Crystals that are dropped and scattered throughout the game that can be used to upgrade elves. Some elves start as single-use, but can be upgraded to satellite types. There's also something called EX moves, but I didn't get a single one. I hear they require S rank, which is hard to get. Each time you start a mission, the clock starts and several tickers start up. To get S Level you need to do several things including not taking damage, getting a fast time, killing tons of enemies, and not dying or using elves. Not taking damage is really hard to do so I only got C rank most of the game. Pretty Average. Zero gets several weapons at his disposal, including his famous Z-Saber. He also gets a Recoil Rod, A Blaster, and A Boomerang. Credits are after game completion, at which point you also unlock Hard Mode! This is a very good addition to the megaman series that has some interesting post-game challenges for those that want to get S rank or minigames.

All in All, One Zero game earned a 10.0 score for it's easy MMX style gameplay. Some boss patterns will take a couple tries to get down. Some jumps just flat out are impossible without going backwards later on to get them. The ranking system is intimidating. E-Crystal drops are a bit stingy.