I really liked playing through the Mega Man Zero Collection on DS a few years back, so I picked up Mega Man ZX and its sequel. Now I FINALLY picked up the first one, because I was still in a very action game-y mood, and I needed a shorter game to play while I waited for Breath of the Wild to arrive in the mail. I played through on Normal mode and it took me just about 11 hours.
This game's level design hearkens back more to Mega Man Zero 1, where the entire map is basically a kind of open-world, almost Metroidvania design to it. It was bad then, and it's bad now, and it really does not do the game any favors other than making it confusing and annoying to get around anywhere to the actual missions :P . The mission designs themselves are fine. It's just actually finding them that's a big pain in the ass :P .
When you beat bosses, instead of getting just one new weapon, you get a new armor set. Each one allows you to do things like break blocks, boost in the air/glide, swim, and hang from the ceiling (and they all look like bosses from the Zero games :D ). Their charged weapons require energy, like in a normal Mega Man game, but those aforementioned movement abilities can be done infinitely. Each one even has a special secondary function on the bottom screen of the DS, like analyzing an enemy health bar/weak point, or showing you a map of your immediate surroundings. While the design of the game's Metroidvania world isn't that great, the armors you get to navigate it in are very fun to use :D .
The bosses you fight to get them are all the normal good designs. The game certainly isn't as hard as any of the Mega Man Zero games, as far as difficulty goes, but it's hardly easy. Bosses now all have a certain point on their body you can strike for a critical hit (like a front-plate or an armor bit) in addition to their elemental weaknesses that can be exploited through your armors' elemental attacks. It's not the hardest game in the X-line or its spin-offs, but it's hardly easy, and the bosses and levels provide a fun challenge ^w^
Verdict: Recommended. The overworld map design can really make navigating it infuriating at times, but it's still a fine Mega Man Zero game at its heart. As long as you don't mind just remembering where to go or using a map online, you'll have a lot of fun with this if you're a Mega Man fan :D
This game's level design hearkens back more to Mega Man Zero 1, where the entire map is basically a kind of open-world, almost Metroidvania design to it. It was bad then, and it's bad now, and it really does not do the game any favors other than making it confusing and annoying to get around anywhere to the actual missions :P . The mission designs themselves are fine. It's just actually finding them that's a big pain in the ass :P .
When you beat bosses, instead of getting just one new weapon, you get a new armor set. Each one allows you to do things like break blocks, boost in the air/glide, swim, and hang from the ceiling (and they all look like bosses from the Zero games :D ). Their charged weapons require energy, like in a normal Mega Man game, but those aforementioned movement abilities can be done infinitely. Each one even has a special secondary function on the bottom screen of the DS, like analyzing an enemy health bar/weak point, or showing you a map of your immediate surroundings. While the design of the game's Metroidvania world isn't that great, the armors you get to navigate it in are very fun to use :D .
The bosses you fight to get them are all the normal good designs. The game certainly isn't as hard as any of the Mega Man Zero games, as far as difficulty goes, but it's hardly easy. Bosses now all have a certain point on their body you can strike for a critical hit (like a front-plate or an armor bit) in addition to their elemental weaknesses that can be exploited through your armors' elemental attacks. It's not the hardest game in the X-line or its spin-offs, but it's hardly easy, and the bosses and levels provide a fun challenge ^w^
Verdict: Recommended. The overworld map design can really make navigating it infuriating at times, but it's still a fine Mega Man Zero game at its heart. As long as you don't mind just remembering where to go or using a map online, you'll have a lot of fun with this if you're a Mega Man fan :D