Mega Man ZX announced for the DS
Posted by inpheaux on January 11th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
It's been four years since the last Mega Man series was spun-off. In those four years, Capcom has delivered four iterations in the series, all of which have been really wonderful games, some of the best 2d platforming out there. Since Capcom tends to use new hardware as a time to re-invision the Mega Man series, it's been kinda expected that we'd be due for a new revision sometime soon, probably on the DS.
Well, now we know. Mega Man [or Rockman, or both] ZX will be coming to the DS some time soon, possibly in 2006. Details are currently kinda sparse, but there's a scanned and translated Famitsu article and there's this gallery of production art. Apparently it'll be some manner of a continuation of the X and Zero series, and not related to the Battle Network series. The main departure is that this time it seems both X and Zero have been shelved, in favor of two new protagonists, Van and Elie. Van and Elie seem human, or at least human-ish, but they could just as easily be non-weaponized Reploids. Van and Elie have the ability to transform into [at least] X-style modes, where they get Mega Man X-ish weapons and armor and such.
There may be other modes, too. In fact, I'd be surprised if there weren't other modes, but we'll see when more info leaks out. I'd also be surprised if both X and Zero have been completely shelved for the game, they could very easily make some cameo appearances. We also don't currently know how the DS's second screen will be used, but I'm sure Capcom will find something suitable for it.
More details will be posted as we find out about them. I've got pretty high hopes for it, seeing as Capcom has never let me down with a sprite-based Mega Man platformer. I just hope they don't decide to start down that road now.
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