Mega Man ZX

In the year 25XX, humans and Reploids now coexist peacefully, successfully restoring Earth's former nations thanks to the technological efforts of Slither Incorporated. The peace is interrupted when several incidents of reploids becoming Mavericks are reported, making several areas dangerous. Trading between nations became obstructed, forcing the nations to become divided into utopian cities. These cities became safe havens for peaceful reploids, humans and the cyborg humanoids.

Still, Maverick attacks occur in the frontier regions, which are more exposed to the enemy. To repel the attacks, the humanoids in these areas developed an organization devoted to the defending their region called The Guardians.[5] The Guardians defend the Outlands and investigate the cause of the Maverick attacks. The original leader of the Guardians disappears during the investigation of an Outlands area.

A decade prior to the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Vent or Aile (depending on what gender the player states they are) loses his/her mother to a Maverick raid on an amusement park and becomes orphaned. [6][7] He/She is taken in by Girouette Giro, the owner of Giro Express,[6] which is a delivery service delivering all kinds of items.[8] Giro is contacted by an unknown person to deliver an important package containing Biometal Model X to a rendezvous point in a forest.[9]

Vent/Aile and Giro are ambushed by Mavericks after meeting up. Vent/Alie escape the area while Giro covers their retreat. Here, he/she meets face-to-face with Prairie, the leader of the Guardians. [10] This meeting is cut short when a large Maverick snake attacks the group. Biometal Model X lends its strength to Vent/Aile, allowing him/her to "Megamerge" and transform into Mega Man Model X.[11] With the help of Model X, the snake is destroyed. After finding Giro, in the form of Mega Man Model Z, [12][13] they board an airship deemed the Guardian's base. Later, a Maverick attack is spotted at the Slither Inc. main office. The duo meet the president of Slither Inc., Serpent, and his reploid guardians, Prometheus and Pandora. Serpent reveals his knowledge of the Biometal and says that he's also a Mega Man, possessing Model W.[14] He expresses his intent to find the Model W Core, and leaves, but not before possessing a weakened Giro with the power of Model W. A fight ensues, mortally wounding Giro. Giro hands Model Z over to Vent/Aile during his dying moments and transforms into a Cyber Elf. By "Double Megamerging" with both Model X and Model Z, he/she uses the form Model ZX to escape. Now the Guardians, including Vent/Aile, must recover eight Biometal fragments and stop Serpent.

After finding four of eight biometal pieces, the Guardian base comes under attack from Mavericks, led by Prometheus, with Vent/Aile aiding in the defenses. He/she succeeds in defeating Promethus before recovering the rest of the pieces.

After retrieving all eight biometal pieces and their passwords, Vent/Aile is able to enter the ruins and locate model W.

After analyzing it, they enter the ruins. After finding Model W, Vent/Aile is stalled by Pandora and the biometal is moved elsewhere. He/she later later stop a Maverick raid led by Prometheus and Pandora on the highway, forcing the pair to retreat. Vent/Aile then receives a signal from Model W, located at the Slither Inc. Head Office. Vent/Aile receives his/her mission to destroy Model W.[15]

After defeating many enemies in the tower and arriving at the top, Vent/Aile face off against Serpent, who feeds the Model W core with a lot of innocent Cyber Elfs, and then fuses with it. Vent/Aile suddenly reverts to human due to the realization that the hatred of the Mavericks that he/she has kept inside his/her heart is the last thing needed to unleash Model W's full power, thus resulting in his/her temporary defeat. However, after gaining courage from the biometals, he/she Megamerges into Mega Man ZX and challenges Serpent to a final battle. During the battle, the tower collapses, destroying Model W and killing Serpent. The game ends with Vent/Aile reunited with his/her Guardian friends.

This game contains elements from both the Mega Man X series and the Mega Man Zero series. The players are on a 2-dimensional overlay map with sprites where they engage enemies to finish their mission. Missions are selected from a list, displayed on a computer. The player can freely explore the game world during and between missions, and they must find the specified area themselves.

News of a Mega Man game for the Nintendo DS first appeared on GameSpot, January 2006[16] on the same day that Capcom created an official teaser site. Capcom promised that this game would be a 2D side-scrolling action game with the ability to choose between a male character, Vent, or a female character, Aile.[17]

A demo first appeared in Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2006 at an unlabelled kiosk at the Capcom booth.[18] Much of the main introductory plot was revealed and two in-game levels, Area H and Area E were playable.[19] The controls were said to be "simple enough… yet challenging", but reviewers did see some slowdown.[19]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 76/100[20] Review scores Publication Score Famitsu 31/40[21] GameSpot 7.7/10[22] GameSpy 7.3/10[23] IGN 8.2/10[24] Nintendo Power 8.5/10[25] Play 9/10[26] X-Play [27]

Mega Man ZX garnered positive reviews from most sources, garnering a Metacritic score of 76 out of 100.[20] Similar to Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX was compared to the original Mega Man series. Its high level of difficulty was enjoyed by some, but criticized by others. Its gameplay presentation and level designs were praised. Low points in reviews were the confusing world map and frustrating difficulty level.[28]

Mega Man ZX was the sixth-best-selling game in Japan during its release week at 33,652 units sold.[29] 94,341 units of the game were sold in the region by the end of 2006.[30] A direct sequel, Mega Man ZX Advent, was announced for release the following year.[31]

• Official website