Wednesday, October 31, 2007

IT'S FRIGGIN HALLOW-WEAN!!!!

YA RLY!!!!!!1111 And to celebrate, let me do a quick review on Megaman ZXA. Yeah I KNOW I said I wouldn't, but beats me, I don't know why I feel the need to do it: Megaman ZX Advent Platform: Nintendo DS portable system Producer: Inticreate and Capcom Publisher: Capcom and Nintendo Release Date: October 23 2007 Megaman ZX Advent is a Direct Sequel to Megaman ZX, which was published a year earlier on the same system. when the first Instalment of this new Megaman Series Introduced some major Changements in the Megaman Franchise. Basically, Megaman X and Zero, the two main Protagonists of the X and Zero series were now dead and the player would control a human being using the powers of these fallen heroes contained in strange artifacts known as Biometals, giving the ability to the user to transform into a powerful robot looking like the Hero whose powers once belong to, as well as using the same abilities (X shooting with his Buster and Zero using his trusty Laser blade). Megaman ZX Advent Takes this same game, add a new plot, and upgrade it by eleminating every flaws of the previous instalment as well as revealing more details about the ongoing Storyline. The Game takes place 3 years prior to the first one. Vent/Aile( the two Protagonists of the first game) Were now travelling around the world to get rid of the Maverick raids using their Biometal powers. However, one day, Four of their biometals were stolen by mavericks of unknown origins. Now switch to a short while later(lets say a month) and that's when the main story of ZXA takes place. The story takes place aroud two new protagonists. So instead of just controlling Vent and Aile like in the first game, you are given two new fresh heroes...ISENT DAT SUHWEET??? So it's like in the first game. Starting a new game lets you choose between the two protagonists: a boy named Grey, and a girl named Ashe. Unlike the first game, where Vent and Aile were Twins, Grey and Ashe have no links between each others. Grey is a defective Reploid child who doesn't remember his past and is being hunted for no reason, while Ashe is a human being part of a Bounty hunter guild known as the Hunters. She have no parents and wish to be the greatest of all the hunters. While Capcom promised two unique stories for each characters, What we got is slightly different: Each characters have their own Intro stage, and each characters have unique dialogues with other Characters in the game. Aside of that, the same bosses, the same gameplay and the same stages. It's not close to "unique storyline", but it still does more than enough of a job compared to the first one where Vent and Aile had the exact same storyline except for some really minor changes in dialogues at some times in the game. Both Grey and Ashe will take custody of Biometal Model A(for those thinking it is Model Axl, be prepared for a suprise at the end) Early in the game. This Biometal display the same attitude as Axl from the MMX series and the same power attributes. It morph your hero into a Reploid highly similar to Axl. Same colors, same weapons (dual pistols) same copy ability and same...everything. But it' not Model Axl, however it was highly inspired by him, so I guess the maker of Model A found infos about him and made the model in his(Axl) image. The gameplay is basic, like any other MMX related games, you can run, jump over plaforms,use the dash technique, climb walls and charge up your gun attacks. Grey's charged Shot is a huge powerful blast of energy while Ashe's one is a Piercing Laser that bounces on walls. They both have a sub weapon, the homing shot. using it reveals some kind of beam that goes in a arc in fromt of the player, everything geting inside the radius of the beam gets a target on them. I don't know up to how many enemies you can lock on at once(didn't count), but it's a lot. and once everyone has a target on them, you release the button to shoot a load of lasers that home at every targeted enemies. Ashe's one is one single beam that travels from one enemy to another. In the first game, there were 8 Animal themed robots called Pseudoroids that contained shards of biometals. getting them with Vent or Aile would allow them to transform into the Megaman corresponding to the shard they got( Model Hx, Model Px, Model Lx and Model Fx respectively)including with their own Biometals(Model X and Model Z combining to make the ZX form). They changed this in this game. The Pseudoroids doesn't hold to the stolen Biometals. Instead, Model A uses one of his unique and coolest feature: the Copy ability. Each time you beat a boss, you get their DNa data and can transform into that boss. There is 13 bosses of which you can steal the DNA and get their forms. I won't spoil these forms to you :p . another addition is that in Human form, you get a gun to defend yourself. In the first one, Vent and Aile were harmless. Now with what I thought sucked about this game: What I liked about this game is that they added everything the first one lacked, but strangely, they managed to mess up what was already good in the first game and make it a total mess. I speak of one SINGLE detail: the trans server. Now, in the ZX series. You don't work like in the other Megaman games where you could choose which of the 8 bosses to beat and then go through their stage to pummel them. Now there is a huge map where you can travel freely and, of course, sinc eit's effin huge, they added some "checkpoints" called trans servers wher eyou can recharge your life energy, save, and transport to any other activated trans server. In ZXA. The trans servers are still here, but now you CAN'T warp from trans server to one another. now each stage is separated into zones. each zones gets a "pole" which you can activate for 100 Energy Crystals(it acts as money in the game)each! BUT it's what suck about it, these poles do NOTHING but be there and act as your checkpoint. you can use a Trans server to warp to these poles, but you can't use the poles to warp back to another trans server. I wouldn't have minded if you could warp but they removed the healing and saving function, but now it's just ridiculous. Okay now you can warp to every single zone instead of going through all of them, but just see it as this: There is ONE trans server per Areas. and it lies at the end of the area. To get to the end you go through 4 zones. each zone has a pole you can activate for 100 EC. Now lets just say you try to save your money for something very important and don't activate all the poles of the Area. You get to the end and beat the boss. Go to the Trans server and confirm the Mission was a sucess. Then want to head back to HQ but accidentally select the beginning of the same area you are in. Now you're back at the beginning and HAVE to get back to the end to get this damn Trans server OR, You seek a certain item which lies in Zone 2 of a certain Area (a shop or an equippable Item). You get there but you can't go back and have to go through the whole level fighting enemies and sometimes Mini bosses to get the nearest Trans server. it is a PAIN and it happened to me a lot. So this was the only thing bugging me about this game. Now I won't judge the gameplay, OST, controls' storylines and give them an individual note to make an average note at the end. Not today, I'm just too tired. Instead I'll give you the straight note: 8/10 And the comment: Megaman ZXa was a long awaited game for me, I bugged dozens of stores to know when they'd receive it. now I got it, played it. and it filled my expectations. The first one was great too, but when I was seeing all the previews I was so excited that it would be the best Megaman EVAR. in the end Megaman ZX was regular. a great Megaman game, but just average. Now I expected ZXA not to be the best Megaman Game, but to be one of the best that would be even better than ZX. and it did just that. If you happen to possess a DS system and want a new game, try this one out. It deserves a try.

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