Mega Man Zero 4

One interesting thing about the Mega Man Zero series is that it's the only series in the sprawling Mega Man franchise that has reached any sort of conclusion. The classic series will likely exist in perpetuity, with new "vintage-feel" releases every few years or so. Mega Man X was meant to conclude with its fifth installment, but instead got all the way to Mega Man X8, which ends on a cliffhanger. Even smaller series like Mega Man Legends have had sequels announced and canceled recently enough to presume that there could be more milk to squeeze out of those cows. But Mega Man Zero lasted for four games, all of them released in four consecutive years on the same platform. And it ended pretty neatly, with proper closure.

There's little left for me to say about Mega Man Zero, but it warrants mentioning that Mega Man Zero 4 was easily my favorite game in the series. That's also impressive, since so many other Mega Man series - and really, so many video game franchises in general - linger on and on and on, getting worse with each installment.

For one thing, Mega Man Zero 4 finally brought back the Mega Man X tradition of facing off against eight robot bosses in any order. It also let you decide the weather pattern in each stage you were about to attempt, which sort of mimicked Mega Man X's "order of operations" feature where you could make certain stages more accessible or less hazardous by beating other stages first. I was also, finally, okay with cyber elves in Mega Man Zero. Here, the cyber elves were treated like a standard level-up system in an RPG. Train, advance, and unlock new skills. Simple!

All in all, I enjoyed my time with the Mega Man Zero Collection. It was better than plenty of the later Mega Man X games, even if it never came close to being as good as Mega Man X or X2. It was also a pretty quick experience, lasting just under eight hours for me. (I have "easy scenario" mode to thank for that, no question.) The experience, in total, is one I would recommend. But not before playing Mega Man X. Start there.