The Mega Man Zero series of games paved the way for a lot of modern action-platformers, and I think it’s a must-play for anyone who’s a fan of retro games.
I believe the strength of this game is in its challenge, and how it uses sensation and its mechanics as a way to reward the player for overcoming those challenges.
Even among the well-known difficulty of Mega Man games, the Mega Man Zero series is known for being the most challenging games in the series. The platforming often requires carefully timed jumps and using your weapons to interact with the environment, enemies are strategically placed around the route an inexperienced player would take, and the game is conservative with the strength and quantity of upgrades it provides. The game focuses more on close-range combat, making managing the space between you and the enemies critical. All this combines to ensure that a player who blindly dashes through the stages will be punished for it.
A tricky platforming section with instant-kill spikes and an enemy blocking your jump arc
Naturally, this means a lot of newer players will have to traverse the stages slowly and methodically. However, improving at the game — learning the combos, getting better with the different weapons, learning the enemy placements and stage layouts — allows you to play much faster and feel incredibly cool.
Here’s a clip of an experienced player steamrolling through a level. Though he makes it look easy, getting to this level takes an immense amount of practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkiI7BC1k9I&list=PL8yX4L5Y6ebhsULJujhzGT9pkYRe2uKr2&index=3
The game’s visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting in making you feel cooler the faster you go and the more skilled you become.
Every enemy has a brief “slashed” animation before exploding when you kill them with a bladed weapon. That delay makes it incredibly satisfying to defeat many enemies in rapid succession.
A mechanic that complements the idea of mastering the game’s challenge is the ranking system. Getting through a stage quickly while taking minimal damage gets you a high rank, and finishing a stage with a high rank gets you moveset additions that let you traverse the game and dispatch enemies even more efficiently. Although this does mean the game gets easier the better you are at it, the ranking system does provide a tangible reward to players for mastery, especially effective since that reward makes combat more fun and engaging.
In the game’s narrative as well, Zero is meant to be this immensely powerful and experienced hero of legend, so if you stumble through every stage taking a bunch of damage it somewhat breaks the immersion. Getting better at the game makes you truly feel like the legendary hero Zero, which also makes the narrative hit harder.
Games naturally provide the player an incentive to improve, since you need to improve to progress. However, Mega Man Zero adds an additional emotional incentive to improvement. You only need to improve so much to beat the stages and bosses, but if you really want to be Zero and feel like it, you have to put in some extra work.
More along the lines of sensation, this series has incredible music! It’s all on Spotify and YouTube and I would recommend giving it a listen. Some of my favorites are:
Ice Brain – Mega Man Zero 2
Neo Arcadia II – Mega Man Zero 2
Cold Smile – Mega Man Zero 3
Cannon Ball – Mega Man Zero 3
Holy Land – Mega Man Zero 4
Falling Down – Mega Man Zero 4
