Mega Man Zero's Legacy Shows Mega Man X Still Has Room to Grow

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Around the end of 2001, it felt like classic Mega Man was coming to a close. The original line of games had gone dormant for years, and it would be a while before they were revived with Mega Man 9. Mega Man X had been intended to end with X5, released the year prior, and X6 had also just come out with a similar feeling of finality. It would be a few years until the X line continued, though due to declining quality, it did not last very long. The Mega Man Battle Network era had begun, but one other Mega Man spin-off was about to arrive that kept the classic spirit alive.

At a press event in January 2002, Capcom announced the first Mega Man Zero game. This fast-paced action platformer for the Game Boy Advance focused on Mega Man X co-star Zero, and it spawned a short series of its own. The Zero subseries was made as commissioned work by Inti Creates, a company of former Capcom employees that has done its best to keep 2D Mega Man alive in the modern era. Zero was the beginning of this, as well as the game that allowed the company to truly take off. Initially released in Japan on April 26th, 2002, Mega Man Zero is a tough but rewarding game that still holds up two decades later, demonstrating what a successor to the Mega Man X games could look like.

The Next Mega Man Show Should Be Based on Mega Man X

Mega Man Zero is a direct continuation of the Mega Man X series, both in gameplay and story. Roughly one century after the last canonical Mega Man X game, Zero is awoken by the human scientist Ciel. He quickly joins a resistance to fight the oppressive regime controlling Neo Arcadia, seemingly helmed by X himself. While the Mega Man Zero games have simple writing, the recurring cast of heroes and villains they built up over their