What If Zero Was the Star of Mega Man X, After All?

If the Mega Man franchise has any equivalent to the “Did you know that Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a different game called Doki Doki Panic?” bit of gaming trivia that everyone already knows, it might be that our boy X was not originally going to be the star of the game that bore his name, but rather, it was going to be Zero.

Then someone said, “Nah, he looks too different and we’ve invested too much in establishing this brand, so do something more… blue, and less pointy.” At least, I’m assuming it went something like that, I wasn’t there. In any case, Zero was too Zero to be X, thus leading to us getting the 22nd century Blue Bomber we all know and love today… in the 21st century. Eh, try not to think too hard about it.

Instead, let’s think too hard about what this innocuous piece of trivia might actually mean, as I’ve been doing lately.

So, we know that Zero’s design was considered for the first Mega Man X game, but what about Zero’s character? A while back, we looked into X’s violence versus his pacifism, and maybe we can find some small clues there.

Zero differs from X in that he’s a little less hesitant to pull the trigger than his little blue friend. So in the context of the game itself, it doesn’t seem like much would change. If anything, the way a player is likely to act upon first landing on the highway stage might seem even more in character for Zero than for X, as he runs to the right and fires on anything that moves (while still taking care not to hit the fleeing motorists, of course).

On the other hand, it’s tough to imagine Zero as being a pacifist like X. Unless you want to ascribe the ponytail as being some sort of reference to war protesters from the ’60s and ’70s, anyway.

There are other interesting implications to this swap, as well. For instance, X was created by Dr. Light, of course. But can you imagine how the story might be different if Dr. Cain had discovered Zero, the last creation of Dr. Wily, and used him to base Reploids on? It would certainly lend itself to a different explanation for the Maverick problem, that’s for sure!

Another question: Would Zero follow the same upgrade path as X? While Zero’s design has seen some slight changes from game to game over the Super NES era before more or less stopping at Mega Man X4 (until Mega Man Zero, at least), they’re nowhere near as radical as the visual changes X undergoes. Being a favorite of designer Keiji Inafune has no doubt helped play a part in keeping Zero instantly identifiable as Zero for most of the Mega Man X games, but what if he was placed in X’s large shoes? Would his design change with each new enhancement? Heck, would he gain enhancements at all? Heart and Sub-Tanks, sure, but the guy’s already wielding the upgraded Buster as his default, after all.

And of course, there’s the big one: If Zero as we know him served as mentor to X, then who would be the one to encourage Zero to get stronger? It probably wouldn’t be the design we know as X today, since that was made in response to Zero — that is, unless the original Mega Man were placed on such a pedestal that X was seen as the superior one at the outset, based on his lineage. Would that then mean that X might sacrifice his more traditional Mega Man self for the sake of the new and radical departure that was Zero?

These are but a few of the questions and possibilities that exist surrounding the idea of Zero being the main character — and that’s just the first game! The further you go down the timeline, the more interesting things get. Would Zero’s mentor be revived? Would Zero ever take up his trademark weapon, the Z-Saber? Would we ever see more playable characters? The mind wobbles at the possibilities — feel free to sound off with some of your own in the comments below, or let me know on Twitter, or wherever I’m around.

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