Mega Man ZX Advent Review

Summary:

A surprisingly unique and refreshing Mega Man game.

Pros:

+ Solid controls and action

+ Much more depth than the average Mega Man title

+ Copying boss movesets rather than a single ability is cool

Cons:

- Story and voice acting are muddled and bland

- Graphics feel a little to GBA-ish and sometimes lack animation

Review:

[Originally written for my blog in November of 2007.]

Another year, another Mega Man game (or two or three), right? Pretty much, yes. Thing is, the Mega Man games tend to be good. As someone who hasn’t touched the franchise in recent years (Mega Man Zero was the newest title I had played, and even then, not for very long), what did I think about Mega Man ZX Advent? Let’s take a more in-depth look at this action/adventure-esque title for the DS.

Mega Man games tend to build on a few key concepts, and Mega Man ZX Advent delivers on them: lots of action, hidden powerups, confusing storyline, crazy boss fights, and the classic ability of copying the powers of those bosses. However, Mega Man ZX Advent, for those who didn’t play the last ZX game, sports a brand new function to the Mega Man franchise: instead of copying a single power from a boss, players actually can BECOME them, gaining most of if not all of their abilities.

From a gameplay standpoint, Mega Man ZX, as previously stated, follows its predecessors faithfully — which is a good thing. Controls are customizable and tight, allowing for great maneuverability during wicked fights where projectiles are flying all over the screen. The difficulty is just right on Normal mode, but less hardened players can try out the Easy setting before graduating up, which they very well may in order to play as the second playable character. Speaking of which, there are two characters to play as — a male and a female. However, their adventures are roughly the same with minimal differences. Regardless, it’s refreshing to play as a girl underneath that suit of armor — curiously, Ashe, the female lead, is still referred to as a “Mega Man” rather than a “Mega Woman.” I can hear the feminists crying out already. Oddly enough, this small detail greatly bothered me, as it’s all part of a flurry of confusing storyline.

The fairly high-quality presentation precedes the lackluster story, though. A few fully animated cutscenes are lightly sprinkled, and full voice acting is utilized throughout most of the key plot points — a surprising feet for a DS action title, at least until you realize how bland the acting is. To top off the puzzling story (which I’m sure makes slightly more sense to those fans on top of things these days) is a set of mostly forgettable dialogue shot off through subpar voicing. Sometimes, it’s all right, but most of the time, the efforts are overdone and come off as Saturday morning anime-dub material. As one who’s seen some Saturday morning anime (shamelessly), I must admit that much of the acting is even lower grade than that. In short, voice acting on the DS is great, but it needs better quality than this to stand out.

Regardless of the story, dialogue, and voice acting, we all know why we play Mega Man — to copy enemy powers and blast through hordes of robots. In that respect, Mega Man ZX Advent gives gamers exactly what they want and more. The level design is fair, if at times a little ridiculous in insta-death situations, and crushing through enemies is fun and engaging, especially with the wealth of ever-expanding abilities at the player’s fingertip — literally. Tapping a thumb on a symbol in the bottom screen is an effortless means to swap powers (though it can also be done the old school way with a menu) and the powers themselves are much more interesting than an old school Mega Man gamer such as myself is used to, what-not with the complete metamorphosis. This means, of course, that the game is tailored to different power uses — the right power is meant to be used in the right situation. Sometimes these powers are required, others, it is merely for the sake of convenience. Either way, it’s done well enough to add some new interest to the series that old fans should take note of. In all honesty, however, I usually played as the default character, as well as the inevitable “Zero” power (ala the Mega Man Zero series) received later on in the game. Nevertheless, the options are there, and most of the powers are fairly enjoyable to use, while some are completely useless in the wrong situation. As a noteworthy addition, there are lots of things to do on the side, as the Hunters and other NPCs have plenty of odd tasks that need to be accomplished, from hunting baddies, re-defeating bosses, and collecting odds and ends. These result in currency and various items, including certain equipable ones. This helps to flesh the game’s playtime out to a general allotment that makes Mega Man games of old blush, especially when considering the repeat plays due to difficulty.

The graphics looks sharp, though a little more on the GBA side than the DS one. Most backgrounds feel a little lacking in animation, but the whole appearance looks pleasing as it stands. The music is actually pretty well put together, with plenty of catchy tunes. Nothing astounding, perhaps, but certainly striking some nice notes. As a whole, the pieces click together with only a few rough spots.

Bottom Line:

While it can feel repetitive at times and overwhelming in its difficulty at others, Mega Man ZX Advent delivers a strong game with plenty of interesting extra elements to spice up the Mega Man formula. Those who’ve been caught up on Mega Man in recent years will no-doubt be more tired of the same song and dance, but to those who have been sitting about for years, ignoring Mega Man titles due to their “samey” nature, ZX Advent is definitely worth checking out. It’s evolved a good chunk over the past few cumulative years, and is deserving of a good rental at the least for those who used to love the old classics and are in the mood for a new spin on things. In the end, the presentation stumbles a bit, but as a whole, the game has so much content for this genre on a handheld system and such tight, engaging action that it merits some good play time.