For sheer proliferation, there's no series that can stack up against Capcom's beloved Mega Man. We've seen the Blue Bomber evolve over the years but the principle elements have remained the same: kill the robot baddies, and defeat the bosses to gain new and wonderful enhancements to kill more baddies and bosses all leading to an ultimate showdown with some larger than life puppet master. The latest game in the monumental and exhaustive Mega Man series, Mega Man ZX for the Nintendo DS, certainly provides the aforementioned gameplay formula but reinvents the wheel in how the user uses his or her powers in both human and armored form.

Mega Man ZX is set 100 years after the Mega Man Zero series on the Game Boy Advance. In this future world humans and Reploids live together in perfect harmony (just like the song "Ebony and Ivory"). This time our heroes (that's right, there's two at the onset) are a male named Vent or a female named Aile. Without spoiling too much of the story, ZX revolves around the questionable practices of a company called Slither Inc., who just happens to have a foothold in the world because they supply all of its power. Whoever you choose, the story goes that you end up merging with a special piece of powerful armor (or Biometal) called Model X. This mysterious armor is somehow connected to a hero of the past, whose consciousness lives on somehow within the suit. An attack here, and anime inspired scene there and the next thing you know your hero of choice is merged with the suit and on an adventure to uncover Slither's nefarious plans.

As we mentioned, you start the game by decide which character to play and begin the game. Despite this choice the gameplay isn't all that much different between the two, and players will find themselves doing the same activities they did in other Mega Man titles - namely killing reploids and battling bosses to obtain more powerful suits. The difference between this game and other Blue Bomber titles is that this time you can take your suit off at any time and explore areas as a human alter ego. It's an interesting dynamic because the enemies and even the NPCs you encounter in the world of ZX react differently depending on who you are. For example, wearing the suit around some humans will give you a less positive reaction and you may walk away not gaining any useful information.. but as your human alter ego people will readily talk to you and oftentimes give you useful clues. Robots patrolling city areas may also react differently to your character depending on whether or not you are suited up. As the suit wearing hero you'll be immediately attacked, while exploring as a human will make them pretty much ignore whatever you're doing. This dynamic certainly makes you consider who to be when exploring certain areas of the world.

Speaking of the world, players will find themselves exploring and fighting in a traditional 2D side-scrolling world with multiple paths leading left, right up or down. Instead of levels, players are given free reign to explore areas as they see fit using a series of interconnected locales reached by passing through multiple metal doors (and teleporters). This world works well enough on the DS, though navigating it is sometimes confusing because each area is connected to these metal doors that can lead to another location anywhere on the map. It would have been nice if Capcom had used the capabilities of the DS to offer a more streamlined navigational system, but what's there works. In the early part of the game it is important to learn where these doors lead to to avoid traversing the same areas multiple times. Once you get a handle on that, traveling around the world isn't all that complex and the additional teleporters scattered in various locations are certainly helpful.

Much like the open-ended nature of the world, ZX also lets you decide whether to take on a mission from one of the many Guardian factions scattered throughout the world (these naturally lead to big boss fights and new biometals) or to simply explore areas to find new goodies that will enhance your hero proper. These power-ups include Life Ups, Sub Tanks, a myriad of Upgrade Chips, and a handful of consumables. There's also a few side quests related to locating disks that fill in a bit of the game's backstory. While these disks are not essential to completing the game, they certainly offer some entertaining storytelling that fans will appreciate.

Free form exploring obviously has it's advantages, but the real meat of the game revolves around these boss missions that net you new biometals, and these biometals not only give you a wide variety of new powers but also a fresh new look. These biometals will give you some nice power-ups that range from being able to hover and dash in the air to the ability to use a triple slash move. But beyond the new and more functionality, there's a lot of biometals that utilize the system's touch screen to give you everything from radar to the ability to scope out hidden paths. The biometal system in ZX is a nice change from the Zero series even if is still basically the same concept of giving players multiple tools to take down enemy bosses. But adding the aesthetic change for each suit certainly puts some frosting on this cupcake of a game element.

At the end of the day Mega Man ZX delivers something for new and old players and does its best to utilize the capabilities of the Nintendo DS while maintaining the familiar Mega Man style of play, despite the fact that this game could have easily been put on the aging GBA system with a few minor changes. Fans of the Mega Man Zero series should definitely pick this game up, but there's no reason why gamers not familiar with Mega Man shouldn't check it out as well.