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Megaman Zero 3 Review - GBA

Megaman is an icon of the gaming industry. He's been around since his birth in the early days of the NES, and has had more sequels than any other gaming character. Megaman X, released on the SNES way back in 1990, spawned a new era for the Blue Bomber, bringing him into the new age with some new abilities and a brand new universe and mythology, with and a story line that was merely an excuse for some ass kicking. Megaman X also introduced several new characters into the Megaman mythos, most notably Zero. With the GBA, Zero gets his own series, and with the third title so far, the series seems to be sticking to Capcom's 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it, even if it is getting a bit stale' approach.

Megaman Zero 3 kicks off with Zero and his friends from the Resistance investigating a spaceship that is emitting strange energy signals. Zero enters to find his old nemesis Omega aboard, and after a brief battle, the plot thickens. The plot never really gets any thicker than mild mush, as it was pretty weak and watery to begin with, but it serves its purpose, and that purpose is to give you an excuse to blow stuff up and cut it in half.

Gameplay

To describe the gameplay in Megaman Zero 3 in one word; brutal. If you make a mistake in this game, you're likely to pay with your life, as it takes no prisoners and really forces you to pay attention. Persevere, and you'll be a better gamer for it, as today's games tend to lean a little to heavily on the holding your hand and helping you out when you get stuck side of things; none of that here, just old school running and gunning (and cutting and smashing and a'sploding). The controls are quick and responsive, the pace fast and experience mostly enjoyable, aside from the occasional 'throw your Game Boy into speeding traffic' frustrations.

There are a nice set of weapons to use, from the standard Buster Cannon and Z-Sabre, to the boomerang, which also acts a shield, and the new weapon, the Recoil Rod, a melee weapon used to push enemies and objects around, and which can launch Zero high into the air, to reach those elevated prizes. I still prefer the old Buster Cannon and Z-Sabre combo, but the situations that call upon the other weapons aren't painful. Switching weapons is easily done through the pause menu, where the other details are taken care of, such as activating EX powers and fiddling with your poke-elves. It's nicely streamlined fully functional.

Following the standard Megaman approach, you are given the choice of which order to tackle the various missions in, starting out with four missions to choose from, each of them roughly of the same difficulty. After that, there's another mission that progresses the story and once completed gives you another set of missions to ... (continued next page)