Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection (Switch) review "Why didn't we get Mega Man Zero 5?"

This is a delicacy, but not a rare treat in the outflow of Mega Man collections from developer Capcom. We’ve been fortunate to have all of the major titles released for fan consumption with tweaks enough to make them palatable if you haven’t refined your platforming skills to the pro-sumer or professional level. No game should be a full time job, and some of these come close to that metric.

In a nutshell, the Mega Man Zero series was a relaunch of the two dimensional platforming style that was the origin of the franchise when all attempts to adapt the gameplay to three dimensions was met with a collective “meh.” Not all of these attempts failed. Overall development expense, competition from other platforms and other factors led to Capcom shifting directions.

So here we are with an archive of the most storied, character driven games in the series. Yes, this has always been a series staple, but until this run—helmed by INTI Creates—we haven’t experienced this depth of gameplay and world building. Their penchant for detailed and dynamic sprite work certainly sells their ideas, as well. However, not everyone agrees that the style is the most fitting, but these grumbles don’t spark many mandrills among the fanbase.

What we have here are two branches of games, since Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX were released on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS, respectively. Each has a unique take on the game mechanics, character presentation and world exploration suitable to the capabilities and limitations of their platforms, and underscore the technical achievements accomplished by the developers. We’ll look over Mega Man Zero and its sequels, first.

Set 100 years after the events of Mega Man X8, war has ravaged the Earth, as we suppose it always will. Neo Arcadia, the refuge of the human race, is suffering a dire energy crisis. Reploids, gluttons for the stuff, are classified as second class citizens and retired en masse. A small resistance, lead by the (young?) energy researcher, Ciel, finds and revives the legendary hero, Zero, in a desperate effort to save them and bring peace with the offering of a new energy source. Over the series of four games, Zero turns the tide against Neo Arcadia, its counterfeit Copy X and host of foes and explores the consequences of Ciel’s scientific successes.

What we have here is significant departure from the achilles’ rotary wheel of boss weaknesses against their allies’ weapons. Missions frame the effort of the Resistance in each title with standalone plot arcs that form an overarching narrative. The first game in the Mega Man Zero series tries to spice things up by sprinkling boss encounters throughout the missions, but this doesn’t last long. By the second game, Mega Man Zero 2, we’re back to choosing a big foe to tackle at the end of each level with the flavouring of various level gimmicks and objectives.

These can range from escort missions, to surviving extreme weather, fetch quests, and so on. The variety is appreciated and seldom gets in the way of the overall enjoyment of well executed physics and Zero’s many different weapons. He doesn’t absorb them as in previous games, but relies on his own skills to get things done. Sometimes this is his choice, whereas on other occasions he is thrust into the action as the only one one brave enough to take on the fight.

As supporting characters go, Ciel is reasonably well defined and offers some interesting utility. The story goes hand-in-hand with Ciel’s offerings as she perfects her energy system and shepherds/develops digital Elves, who can be raised with E-crystals to empower and enhance Zero and his abilities. They also have the ability to modify reality itself, and are particularly effective in Cyberspace, a recurring concept from the X games on the PlayStation, and just as forgettable. As the story progresses, how these Elves are implemented changes and broadens in scope, also becoming more user friendly to work with, as well. Funny how that works.

Mega Man ZX, on the other hand, fumbled the ball pretty darn hard in almost every way. In two parts, INTI Creates attempts to transport us even further into the future where the line between Reploid and human is so blurred it is scarcely recognizable. Humans effectively live forever, who can say why, and Reploids are distinguished only by a coloured shape on their forehead resembling the crystals in the helmets (heads) of Reploids in games past.

We’re jumping the mechaniloid shark here, but seeing as how we cleared it, let’s see where we landed. Mega Man ZX is a literal presentation of how the series combines its characters. We choose between the interchangable protagonists, one male, the other female, whose character development is shallow as a puddle after a brief rainshower. You have no abilities at first and a paper-thin backstory. Ouch. In short order events conspire to bring you into contact with Model X.

Yup. Our legend of legends has been reduced to a bossy, noble pendent. Things Happen and you’re abruptly at the mercy of the New But Same Old Villains, who are also Mega Men. Yeah, it’s a thing special individuals can be/do/become. Merging with one of the many Models who are the heroes from previous games grants you their powers, armour and special abilities. It’s actually pretty neat at first, and the music is rather a bit of fun as well. Some of the most listenable soundtrack happens in these games, which is notable.

Oh right, combining things. At the mercy of the villains du jour, another Model, Z, becomes available through supposedly tragic circumstances. INTI Creates struggles to make their characters sympathetic at all, an unfortunate consequence of various circumstances. Merging the two Models, however, grants your character the ability to switch between X and Z’s weapons, which is neat but somehow underwhelming. At their peak these two heroes had some impressive abilities, but we only get a sampling of that here.

Instead of weapons from each boss, we get an upgrade in the abilities and energy capacity for each of the new Models we acquire. The variety is impressive, and getting to use the strengths of previous series characters is about as engaging as it can get, in the first of the ZX titles. By the way, for general traversal, Model H is considered the best, and you’ll be leaning on that most of the time. ZX Advent trips over its own ideas, however. The ability to become the boss you defeat is clumsy, poorly implemented in levels and becomes a doldrum of ill-considered game design.

It’s painful to watch the effort of developers go to waste when they muddle design elements that others have gotten right. For instance, while a large, interconnected map is a prime way for you to explore a varied landscape of traversal options, especially as you gain new abilities and discover hidden caches of items, its implementation is a confusing mess. This is tidied up in ZX Advent, but mashed together with the frankly silly ability to become nearly useless bosses turns it into a hodgepodge of not-so-fun gameplay. ZX is almost worth completing, whereas ZX Advent is certainly a waste of time.

Why didn’t we get Mega Man Zero 4? Don’t answer that. This is why I mentioned jumping that shark: Players were so invested in the story of Mega Man Zero that not getting the answers we wanted so badly meant that any new story was meaningless. It’s not that we didn’t want to care about ZX, but the dissonance separates us from our suspension of disbelief and leaves the plot and our connection to it in limbo. We’ve been betrayed and we don’t want it to happen again.

Yeah, we’re pithy like that. Oh right...there’s a boss rush mode with online functionality? Neat.

The harsh reality of this collection is that it smacks of the cash-in that Capcom was investing in at the time. Gambling and other one-shot experiences reminded us that corporations, even the gaming ones, aren’t our friends. They’ll tell a story as long as it is profitable to do so, and will flip the script into the dumpster if they decide it isn’t worth the investment.

The long and short of this review is that most of these games are worth playing, if you can stomach the bitter reminder of corporate priority. It is a sad last note that the addition of Casual Scenario and Quick Saves make moment to moment play much more manageable, especially if your platforming skills aren’t up to scratch. Take it or leave it, these games are gems, some just less polished than others.

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Community review by hastypixels (September 07, 2025) Retro, and moreso all the time.