Mega Man Zero 4 for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

As long as kids keep buying them, Capcom's going to keep making them. And with a solid game engine under its belt, the company can keep on cranking sequel after and sequel as long as they've got a creative level design team at the ready every year. At this point, Capcom's already worn out the "ooh neat" factor of the Mega Man Zero series; the game can only stand on the merits of the level design because the development team has already shot its wad on the visual and audio front. A tweak here, and an update there is all that gamers are going to get in this fourth iteration; this game doesn't do anything to make an impact in the GBA's 2005 library other than being another solid, fun, and challenging entry. But event though it lacks being special, it's still way better than 90 percent of the GBA games out this year.

The fourth game in the series moves forward with a few tweaks and new challenges that's a bit more accessible thanks to a slight tweak in the balance between "fair challenge" and "absurdly frustrating." The game introduces an "Easy" mode which is as ridiculously simple as the Mega Man Zero series has been freakin' difficult. It's an answer to the zillions of folk who couldn't get Zero through the dozens of levels from the previous games in the series, so if you're sick of getting your robotic ass handed to you at the middle or end of each level, you can always bring the game down a notch to something a little more tolerable.

But the Normal mode isn't quite as over-the-top hard as the past games in the series, and it's clear that the level designers are developing a little soft spot in their hardened creative mind. Where the past three Mega Man Zero games were relentless in throwing aggressive enemies and crushing mid-bosses right at the player right from the Power On of the GBA, Mega Man Zero's development team eases off the challenge until deeper into the game. Almost like a tempting carrot that pulls the gamer in towards the trap of the more familiar "hit the player over the head with difficulty" flair.

The game has changed only slightly, with far less emphasis on the very Pokemon-like CyberElf element. Oh, they're still here, but they've been shoved more into a secondary position in the game design to put a little more focus on the standard run-and-jump-and-shoot action. Designers have added a new sub-ability along with Zero's sword slash -- players can switch to a very Mega Man-like ability of stealing enemy's powers with Zero Knuckle. This Knuckle grabs a bad guy's main way of attacking, turning it into an ability for Zero to use. Honestly, it doesn't work all that great in practice, and more often than not you may find yourself switching back to the ol' faithful Zero Slash move.

To comment on the visuals and sound of Mega Man Zero 4 would be picking at the previous three games as well; this sequel simply reuses the same solid and impressive engine of Mega Man Zero 1, 2, and 3, adding new background and sprite elements, and changing up the cutscene artwork to fit the new scenario. Luckily, this scenario moves Zero out of the same base that's been used in the past sequels, so at the very least there's fresh blood in the location where this storyline takes place.

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