TMMN Reviews: Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

The Mega Man Zero series is something of an anomaly among the many different subsets of the greater Mega Man franchise. For one reason or another, series like Mega Man Classic and Mega Man X are sort of like American superhero comics: They basically go on without end, occasionally going away for a spell (short or long) only to come back later, and will leave the occasional cliffhanger, but rarely a full resolution.

Mega Man Zero, on the other hand, reminds me of most manga: It told its story, then it moved on. It received a follow-up almost immediately in Mega Man ZX, but that didn’t really gain enough traction to stick around as long. As such, we haven’t heard much out of either series since Mega Man ZX Advent in 2007, barring re-releases of the former in Mega Man Zero Collection for the Nintendo DS in 2010 and Wii U Virtual Console releases in 2015 (which, being the Wii U, meant not a lot of people played).

Things have been pretty quiet on this front since then, with the developers of both series, Inti Creates, moving on to work on other projects like Mighty No. 9 and their own Azure Striker Gunvolt series during “The Great Mega Drought of the ‘10s.”

But over the last several years, Capcom’s been rolling out collections of various titles from their past, and after Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 & 2, it only made sense for them to move on to the next chronological point in the timeline with Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection.

I mean, it was either that or Mega Man Legends, right? Though I guess there’s a case to be made for taking a detour into Cyberspace for Mega Man Bat — no, no, I’m getting off track here.

The Games

As I’ve said in the past, if you’re reading a site called “The Mega Man Network,” there’s a decent chance you don’t really need me to go over each game in the collection in any great detail. Suffice to say, while each game may have its high and low points, depending on your preferences, there really isn’t a stinker among them (though some can really test one’s patience). For completion’s sake, here’s my thoughts on each title in brief:

• Mega Man Zero – The most savage of the bunch, to the point one gets the impression Capcom said “Hey, can you guys dial it back a little for the sequels?” You can make things easier for yourself, provided you don’t mind lots of grinding, sacrificing cute little Cyber-elves, and having the game basically call you a sissy forever after. Things feel a little more raw and experimental here than in the subsequent titles, but if you can take the heat, then the graphics, music, and story are a real treat.

• Mega Man Zero 2 – Things start to feel a little more familiar here as more traditional “pick a boss” missions return. Zero is now able to gain new forms that can augment the player’s style, but the catch is that to get them, you have to be good enough that you probably don’t need them to begin with.

• Mega Man Zero 3 – My personal favorite of the Zero bunch, perhaps not coincidentally because this one felt the most in-line with the kind of challenge I expect from the Mega Man X series. I loved this one enough to basically achieve total perfection throughout upon its initial release. That said, in case you were thinking it’s a cakewalk, I can say that it’s been long enough since I last played that it’s more challenging than I remember.

• Mega Man Zero 4 – Inti Creates wanted to end things at 3, but were talked into one last ride with the red hero. While not bad by any means, this one always felt a little strange to me — not like the series had overstayed its welcome, as it makes a fine coda for the Zero series, but it still feels like an extension to me. But at least it brought some humans into the mix — you know, the guys we’re supposed to have been fighting for since 21XX, yet haven’t seen more than one of at a time, if that?

• Mega Man ZX – I am an unashamed life-long fan of Power Rangers, so combining their henshin heroism with Mega Man action? Well, despite the fact I’d been imagining that since Mega Man V on the Game Boy anyway, this is a more complete wish fulfillment, and in a Metroidvania-type world to boot. It’s down to this and Mega Man Zero 3 for my favorites in this set.

• Mega Man ZX Advent – Then we have this. A lot of people love this one, but I’m… let’s say I’m torn. There is a lot good here, but there are caveats. It’s the one and only game in this collection to feature English voice acting, but the quality is maybe B-tier. You can transform into the various boss enemies to move around a new-and-improved map and stages, but their general mobility kind of sucks, and the constant hot-swapping back and forth to them can be a chore, especially once you’ve collected everything.

Near as I can tell, you can freely choose between the English and Japanese versions of each game, with the unique flourishes of each being present (read: there’s blood spurts in the Japanese versions of the Zero games). For Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent, French, Italian, German, and Spanish are included as well. That said, you can’t, for example, mix English text with Japanese voices in Mega Man ZX Advent.

Also worth noting is that it seems they’ve used the Nintendo DS versions of the Mega Man Zero games from Mega Man Zero Collection, at least going by the revised scripts from that release (which tended to replace “die” and “kill” with “retire”). Typos and other blemishes of localization seem to remain intact, however.

The Collection

For those curious, Capcom kept this one in-house, so the usual hallmarks of a Digital Eclipse collection are absent here. As such, you can expect a quality here that’s more or less on par with what Capcom brought to the table in their releases of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 (better, even, if you’re of the mindset those last two should have been a single release).

Across the board, the graphics lie in a stranger place than the aforementioned collections, as they are taking games made for nearly 15 to 20-year old handhelds and releasing them on high-definition platforms. You can tweak the viewing window, but the end result means you’re likely to either end up with a small viewing window on your big screen, or some rather large pixels. You can add smoothing or CRT television filters as well, but finding a sweet spot is going to come down to preference, and the results may not suit everyone.

In the cases of Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent, the fully-animated cutscenes have been upgraded to something a little higher-res, and look really good.

For sound, the Nintendo DS versions of the Mega Man Zero games had a bit of a higher sound quality to them, and that seems to have carried over here. Meanwhile, the Mega Man ZX games give you a choice of listening to the original Nintendo DS audio files, or “Mastered,” which utilizes the higher-quality original recordings.

Controls are customizable, though playing on the Switch, I found some difficulty in using the Pro Controller. Specifically, mine is one of those that lacks the Dpad pivot, so that can affect when I’m trying to press straight up or down and end up with a diagonal attack instead. In general, it doesn’t come up unless using a directional weapon, like the Triple Rod, but is worth noting for those looking to play it that way.

While the Mega Man Zero games appear to be taken from the Nintendo DS collection, only Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent feature any sort of second-screen implementation. You can move the second screen to a variety of locations and sizes, including overlapping the main play screen, where you can adjust the transparency. While there’s no actual touch-screen functionality here on the Switch, using the right thumbstick and ZR button to move the cursor and select options seems to work well enough.

As indicated above, many of the games in this collection can be brutal in their difficulty, but if you’re just here for the story, visuals, music — all the other fun stuff that makes up a game, in other words — then there is an answer for you here.

Mega Man Zero Collection presented an “Easy Scenario Mode,” which seems to have been carried over and renamed to “Casual Scenario Mode” here. This basically removes a lot of grinding and collecting from the early Mega Man Zero games, making them a much easier experience to get through. And unlike the Nintendo DS release, you aren’t forced to play through the games in order here.

Interestingly enough, though, Mega Man Zero 4, Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent each had their own Easy Mode in their initial releases. You can no longer select these in game, and must choose the Casual Scenario Mode for each from the collection’s launcher. That said, these Easy Modes aren’t quite as overpowered as the ones added to the earlier games, meaning that when playing Casual Scenario Modes, the arguably easier later games might just be more difficult than the earlier games now (though I haven’t had time to fully experiment with each to gauge the full extent of this).

Whether you’d like to make the Casual Scenario Mode a little easier, or just make the normal games a little more bearable, each game has another separate option you can toggle on in the launcher as well: The Save Assist System. This places checkpoints throughout each game which activate when you touch them, providing additional points to start from when you die. In addition, they also act similarly to quick saves, and can be loaded from the game’s data menu separately from your main save data.

As we’ve come to expect, there are also a variety of borders for each game, plus a music player and gallery that’s accessible from each title. While an impressive gathering of more than 650 assets, it’s still not a fully comprehensive gallery, and there don’t seem to be any new pieces slipped in to hint at a new title (sorry, Protodude; no Arby’s for you).

Achievements (or an in-game approximation thereof) are available here as well, in the form of ZZ Cards. Rather than playing renditions of “Sharp Dressed Man,” however, ZZ Cards serve a double-purpose in the form of being tied to the e-Reader content for Mega Man Zero 3, which was unavailable here until added as unlockables in Mega Man Zero Collection.

Similarly, Mega Man ZX also has options which allow you to virtually link it to Mega Man Zero 3 or Mega Man Zero 4 from the launcher, unlocking some boss battles unique to each. Near as I can tell, though, the content from linking Mega Man Zero 3 to Mega Man Battle Network 4 is absent — maybe that’s waiting for a hypothetical “Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection” to appear? Only time will tell.

Finally (unless I’m forgetting something, there’s a lot going on here), there is the bonus mode: Z Chaser.

Z Chaser is basically a race against the clock and other players from around the world through your choice of two stages (one “Normal,” one “Hard”) selected from each game (so 12 total), with a variety of difficulties for each stage. Some of the stages are among the longer end stages from their respective games, providing a bit of an undertaking for those looking to rank on the online leaderboards.

I honestly don’t have too much to say about this mode, but in a good way. It’s basically just what you’d expect and likely want it to be, and feels more streamlined and fun to go through than X Challenge did in Mega Man X Legacy Collection.

In Conclusion

While Digital Eclipse remains the kings of content preservation, Capcom’s proven that their efforts are nothing to sneeze at, either. And while I generally do like the Mega Man X series more, I think this compilation has come together better than their offerings for those titles, in part by keeping everything in one nice, neat package.

It probably goes without saying, but whether you’re a longtime fan of these games or just ready to experience them for the first time, it’s really hard to go wrong by picking this up.

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection is available February 25th, 2020 on Nintendo Switch (version played for this review), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam for $29.99 USD. A copy was provided by Capcom for this review.