Robot
05-26-2010, 01:00 AM
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No sooner had I griped about Mega Man's lousy new throwback of a toy (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031565) this morning than did Capcom stop by 1UP HQ with a preview build of Mega Man Zero Collection (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3172968) for us to check out. So lucky you: Two consecutive Mega Man posts on Retronauts (http://www.1up.com/1upblogs/3/1ups_retro_gaming_blog). It does make me die inside a little bit to talk about MM Zero (http://www.1up.com/do/search?term=mega+man+zero) as "retro," but it's kind of hard to claim otherwise. The first game launched eight years ago on Game Boy Advance, a system that's no longer sold by Nintendo, so, yeah. I'm just going to gloss over the deadening "holy crap I am old" sensation all of this instills in my soul and instead remark on the merits of this compilation.
Namely, that it's pretty good. I had kind of hoped that Inti Creates would properly reprogram the games to make use of the full screen resolution of the DS -- it's 256x192 versus the GBA's 240x160 -- but alas, they took the black border approach. It ultimately doesn't matter that much, but as tough as these games are, every extra pixel of reaction time counts.
This minor disappointment aside, MM Zero Collection is proving not to be some mere slapdash bunch of GBA ROMs running on an emulator. The big addition is the presence of an arranged mode designed to let players run through the entire Zero series in a single, sequential go. While you can also choose to play the games individually, the arranged version is meant to be novice-friendly. That is to say, it's super easy, a lot like easy mode in the Mega Man ZX (http://www.1up.com/do/search?term=mega+man+zx) games. You start out with a massive health bar and the ability to fire off charged shots, and you don't even have to think about strategy for at least the first few bosses: Just rush in, spam your attacks, and you'll win before they even knock you down to half your health.
Part of me finds this sort of horrifying, since the whole point of Mega Man Zero (the first game in particular) is that it's supposed to be the sort of hardcore challenge that grinds your self-esteem into a thin paste, then laughs at you as it spits in your dying face. Sucking out the challenge... why, that's practically missing the entire purpose of the series! But, honestly, after being repeatedly demolished in my efforts to master the original Zero -- unlike the other three games, I never have completed it -- it's kind of liberating to be able to plow through the enemies that have humbled me time and again.
The collection also includes each of the Zero games in their original, pure incarnations, though. So maybe once I've enjoyed slaughtering armies of drones and Reploids that may as well be armed with fluffy pillows, I can always go back and try to complete Zero the "right" way, punitive skill rankings and all. Then again, writing about the Zero Collection under the Retronauts header has reminded me that I am indeed old... perhaps too old for such youthful shenanigans. I think tonight, I'm gonna curl up with a blanket, a glass of warm milk, and my easy mode -- a guilty pleasure to be sure, but a pleasure nevertheless.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031590
No sooner had I griped about Mega Man's lousy new throwback of a toy (http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031565) this morning than did Capcom stop by 1UP HQ with a preview build of Mega Man Zero Collection (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3172968) for us to check out. So lucky you: Two consecutive Mega Man posts on Retronauts (http://www.1up.com/1upblogs/3/1ups_retro_gaming_blog). It does make me die inside a little bit to talk about MM Zero (http://www.1up.com/do/search?term=mega+man+zero) as "retro," but it's kind of hard to claim otherwise. The first game launched eight years ago on Game Boy Advance, a system that's no longer sold by Nintendo, so, yeah. I'm just going to gloss over the deadening "holy crap I am old" sensation all of this instills in my soul and instead remark on the merits of this compilation.
Namely, that it's pretty good. I had kind of hoped that Inti Creates would properly reprogram the games to make use of the full screen resolution of the DS -- it's 256x192 versus the GBA's 240x160 -- but alas, they took the black border approach. It ultimately doesn't matter that much, but as tough as these games are, every extra pixel of reaction time counts.
This minor disappointment aside, MM Zero Collection is proving not to be some mere slapdash bunch of GBA ROMs running on an emulator. The big addition is the presence of an arranged mode designed to let players run through the entire Zero series in a single, sequential go. While you can also choose to play the games individually, the arranged version is meant to be novice-friendly. That is to say, it's super easy, a lot like easy mode in the Mega Man ZX (http://www.1up.com/do/search?term=mega+man+zx) games. You start out with a massive health bar and the ability to fire off charged shots, and you don't even have to think about strategy for at least the first few bosses: Just rush in, spam your attacks, and you'll win before they even knock you down to half your health.
Part of me finds this sort of horrifying, since the whole point of Mega Man Zero (the first game in particular) is that it's supposed to be the sort of hardcore challenge that grinds your self-esteem into a thin paste, then laughs at you as it spits in your dying face. Sucking out the challenge... why, that's practically missing the entire purpose of the series! But, honestly, after being repeatedly demolished in my efforts to master the original Zero -- unlike the other three games, I never have completed it -- it's kind of liberating to be able to plow through the enemies that have humbled me time and again.
The collection also includes each of the Zero games in their original, pure incarnations, though. So maybe once I've enjoyed slaughtering armies of drones and Reploids that may as well be armed with fluffy pillows, I can always go back and try to complete Zero the "right" way, punitive skill rankings and all. Then again, writing about the Zero Collection under the Retronauts header has reminded me that I am indeed old... perhaps too old for such youthful shenanigans. I think tonight, I'm gonna curl up with a blanket, a glass of warm milk, and my easy mode -- a guilty pleasure to be sure, but a pleasure nevertheless.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9031590