A middling end to a middling franchise. While Zero 3 made a show of being one of the best 2D platforming Mega Man titles, Zero 4 slid back into the mediocrity of the first two titles. When Zero 1 failed to deliver on anything outside of music and aesthetics, and Zero 2 was just, a slightly better and improved version of that–Zero 3 was a complete departure into higher quality gameplay, level design, and a much improved customization system, of which Zero 4 sadly completely abandoned in favor of (of all things), a crafting system for its upgrades. I don’t even have the language to explain how bad of a call that was. It feels like Inti must’ve felt forced to make Zero 4 have some big mechanical difference from Zero 3, but it just ends up kicking the legs out from under what should have been a knock-out finale.

It’s a shame too, since Zero 4 features unequivocally the best plot out of any of these games–in-part helped by the English localization not sucking complete ass this time–with the compelling narrative between Neige and Craft, star crossed human/reploid lovers. Honestly, I’d rather play a game with Neige as the main character since she isn’t the charismatic space vacuum that Zero is.

On a final note, Zero sucks. He’s a bad character and always has been. Everything cool about him has been slowly drained away since X1 for the sole purpose of making him even cooler-er than he was in X1, and it’s been pathetic the whole time. I’m glad he’s dead. Rip bozo and all that.