Mega Man Zero

Mega Man Zero adopts the action-platforming gameplay prescribed by its predecessors in the original Mega Man and Mega Man X series. The player, as the protagonist Zero, is tasked with completing several side-scrolling stages, destroying enemies, completing objectives and battling bosses. The player can run, jump, fire the player character's primary weapon, or use a secondary weapon if it is available. As in the Mega Man X games, the player can dash along the ground, cling to and scale walls, or perform a combination of these abilities.

Unlike previous titles in the franchise where separate stages are selectable from a menu, Mega Man Zero is presented as a single, interconnected overworld. The Resistance base acts as a hub with almost every area in the game freely explorable from it. The player is given a choice of missions to undertake for each section of the map. Completing one mission may unlock others.

The narrative of Mega Man Zero is presented through text dialogue cutscenes with 2D sprites and hand-drawn, anime images.

Roughly 100 years following the events of the Mega Man X series and the end of the Maverick Wars, the heroic Maverick Hunters X and Zero have long since vanished. A human scientist named Ciel, her Cyber-elf Passy, and other Reploid companions are being chased through an abandoned underground laboratory. Their relentless pursuers are mass-produced androids called Pantheons, among other terrible machines. After taking heavy losses, Ciel, Passy and the remaining troops arrive at a sealed chamber containing Zero, who has been in stasis for a century.

Mega Man Zero was developed by Inti Creates, a company established in 1996 by several former members of the game's publisher Capcom. Prior to the game's conception, Capcom had developed numerous games in its Mega Man franchise beginning with its classic series in 1987, then expanding to its Mega Man X spin-off series and two non-platformer series, Mega Man Legends and Mega Man Battle Network. Up until the development of Mega Man Zero, Inti Creates was not a successful venture. The company's vice president Yoshihisa Tsuda had wanted to create a Mega Man game and would often attend game conventions to express this interest to Keiji Inafune, an artist and producer for the franchise.

Inafune eventually called Inti Creates requesting a game proposal, on which the company promptly began working. Mega Man Zero was developed as a commission product by Inti Creates, who were given a free rein on its design and premise. The game was produced by Inti Creates president Takuya Aiza and was co-directed by Ryota Ito and Capcom's Yoshinori Kawano. Inafune signed on as the game's co-producer.

Mega Man Zero has met with a mostly positive critical reception, holding scores of 81% and 82 out of 100 respectively on the aggregate review sites GameRankings and Metacritic. GameSpot named it the second-best Game Boy Advance game of October 2002.

Reviewers across the board agreed that the game was the most difficult in the series, with one reviewer suggesting that it is not for younger or casual players. Avi Fryman of GameSpy states that the ability to give up on missions and still continue the game is a sensible feature of Mega Man Zero, whereas IGN states that given the difficulty of the game, no one would call a player "cheap" if they were to use the newly introduced Cyber Elf system to make boss fights easier.

The popularity of Mega Man Zero spawned three direct sequels on the GBA. These games were developed by the same, core team members as the first Mega Man Zero title. Beginning in 2006, Inti Creates began releasing follow-up series on the Nintendo DS comprising two games: Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent.

In addition to games, other media related to Mega Man Zero exists. A manga based on the series was written and illustrated by Hideto Kajima and serialized in the monthly Shogakukan magazine CoroCoro Comic from June 2003 to February 2006. An art book titled Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works was published in Japan by Capcom in 2006 and in North America by Udon Entertainment in 2008. The book contains detailed information on the series, promotional artwork, concept designs and sketches, and interviews with the Inti Creates staff.