Will the real Mega Man please stand up

Well the last year I have been playing more Mega Man then is probably healthily, but when this game came out I decided to buy it. The last year I have been ignoring the GBA, it isn’t because there's been no interesting games, it's just the price was to expense. However, the prices have dropped over the past year so I decided I might has well buy a game and clean the dust off of my GBA.

Story.
In the year 20XX two genius robot inventors battle each other. It was the evil Dr. Wily and is creations against Dr. Light's Mega Man. While Dr. Light and Mega Man won against Wiley's creations, Light got old and decided to built his last great robot, an update to Mega Man. This robot was called X and he was able to think, feel, and make his own decision just like a human. Afraid that what would happen if X would ever malfunction Dr. Light put him in stasis for 100 years so his reliability could be tested.

News of this leaked to Dr. Wily who build a robot of his own that would destroy X, this robot was a red robot named Zero. 100 years passed and both Wily and Light passed away, in the year 21XX came along and X is brought out of stasis, and copy's of him called reploids where made out of him. Since the copy's where uncompleted some malfunction and became Mavericks. The maverick hunters where formed to destroy any reploid's that malfunctioned. One day the leader of the maverick hunters Sigma fought a mysterious red reploid that had gone berserk. The reploid was Zero and although Sigma won the fight he barley walked away alive. Zero was reprogrammed to fight along side of X in the maverick hunters.

They not only became allies but best friends, especially when Sigma went maverick and turn into a virus. In battle Zero never doubted his loyalty to X, but when he went to sleep he had dreams of an old man telling him to destroy X. Meanwhile the Sigma virus was out to try to reactivate Zero's original programming just so he could have the pleasure of seeing the two slaughtering each other. After one of the vicious battles with Sigma Zero's memories came back to him and he figured out what Sigma was up to and what the dream meant. Afraid for X's safety if he ever went Maverick Zero disappeared and put himself into suspended animation for 100 years.

The year is now 22XX and the Sigma virus has been deleted by X, the city of Neo Arcadia now stands for the now peaceful happy world. That is of course if you’re a human. Reploids on the other hand are all considered Mavericks by the government, and they are being retired for any reason or no reason at all. A human scantiest named Ciel and the remaining amount of reploids hide out in a deserted city. However the city is not save and Neo Arcadia's hand is started to reach towards the city. Ciel believes that Zero may still exist and if anybody can save the reploid's he can. One day while looking for Zero she is chased into a cave by the army of neo arcadia, and finds and activates a red reploid that was suspended above the floor. Is this red reploid Zero and can he save what's left of the reploids from Neo Arcadia.

Graphics.
Well after a year of not playing the GBA I forgot the graphic power of this little toy. The graphics in this game surpass the SNES Mega Man X games, and even rival the playstation versions. The characters are well drawn and animated very smoothly. Zero now also has a new look, instead of the red and white Zero that was on the X series, the new Zero is red and black.

Now I have heard that this game had blood in the Japanese version and was cut in order to get an E rating in America. I don't find this to hard to believe, has a few of the death scenes reminded me of watered down Castlevania symphony of the night scenes. Zero can cut robots and half now and the insides glow red like they where hit with something hot, it isn’t a hard leap to see that might have been blood.

Sound.
The sound is Mega Man type of fair, it fits the action the game fits. The new Zero remix isen't bad for listening for the GBA.

Gameplay
Now this has been claimed has the hardest Mega Man game so far. Well that's not to far off either the game can be tough.

First off the single stages with a boss in it are gone, now you get a list of missions you have to complete. After you complete a mission more missions in that area become available. On completing missions you can get cyber elf's (more on these guys later), or elemental chips.

What makes it so tough is after being so liberal on the lives in the Mega Man X games for the playstation Megaman Zero is terribly conservative of them. You only have one life per continue and a certain amount of continues to get a completed mission. If you run out you can choose to give up the mission but you fail it and loose the item at the end of the stage. Now while you can fail at most of the missions and still reach the end it's a guaranteed butt whooping if you do because your a weak sitting duck without cyber elf's and chips.

Also after you complete all a missions in the area you can explore it freely, the entire game is set up in a mini metroid style. After you complete stages and gain the ability to roam freely your able to walk into any area you want from the base.

Weapons.
Zero is nothing without his weapons, problem is 100 years of sleep and a good case of amnesia can cause anybody to forget how to use them. So when you first get a weapon Zero can only to very weak and simple attacks with them. Has his experience grows however he can do more advance attacks with his weapons.

Z buster.
Similar to the X buster and the Mega buster of games past this gun allows Zero to fire bullets. Has it levels up he will be able to shoot more bullets and charge it up.

Z saber
A strange Cyber elf that seems to know who Zero is throws him the Z saber while trying to get Ceil out of the cave that she found him in. The Z saber is Zero's most powerful weapon, and even though it can only be used at close range it's the most useful. At first Zero can only due a single slash but has he levels up with it he can do triple slashes, jumping slashes, and charge it up.

Triple rod.
A weapon that isn’t useful in most battles but comes in handy in a few of the harder fight's in the game, especially against aerial enemies. Zero can point this weapon any direction he wants, has he levels it up he can learn how to extend it for more range.

Bomerange shield.
A useless weapon in comparison to the other 3, with this Zero can reflect some of the enemy's attacks on to themselves. He can charge it up and throw it to, but it's a weak short range attack, and most enemy's attacks don't get repealed by the shield anyway's. It's an item that should remain in your select screen.

Cyberelfs
Zero can collect these guys and then download them after missions. These guys can give him health refills, powerup's, and save him from pits. However you can only use each ones power once, after it uses the elf dies and can't be used again.

Final recommendation.
While Mega Man Zero is definitely one of the most challenging Mega Man games I ever played, it's far from being Super Mario Bros the lost level's challenging. It's challenging enough for me not to recommend for beginners of the Mega Man games. If your an avid video game player and Mega Man player then this game is definitely for you.