Dream Game: MegaMan ZX2 (Japanese Rockman Zero 2)

Last night I dreamt that I somehow got my hands on a Japanese import game entitled "Mega Man ZX2" but was pronounced "Mega Man Zero 2" but, of course, should have been titled "Rockman 2". (Hey, its dream logic.) Ayway, it was supposed to be a Mega Man game that was only released in Japan. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a member of the ZX series or the Zero series since the pronunciation of the title and the way the title was spelled did not agree.

Of course, this game, being a dream game, was ridiculously cool, and--despite being a Japanese import--was entirely in English. It was for the Nintendo DS.

The title screen was nothing too spectacular...just the misleading "Mega Man ZX2" with some kind of light-colored green-and-white background, I guess kind of like the one in the real Mega Man ZX, only without the 3D object floating around. The options were "Game Start," "Continue," and "Options."

Selecting Game Start took you to this really complicated character select screen that I didn't understand. It showed two variations of the Zero from the Zero series, one was the usual MMZ Zero holding some weird weapons, and the other was a slightly more evil-looking and cool-looking version of that same Zero that had a lot more black and blue. They were both the well-drawn full-sized pictures like in the cut scenes from MMZ4. Also, there were a bunch of other options you could customize but they didn't make any sense to me so I left them alone and selected the more regular Zero.

After that, their was a short loading screen, followed by a cut scene. It was voiced acted in Japanese, and the English subtitles...I guess I just didn't read those. I don't remember/didn't understand the cut scene, but it had some kind of operator reploid that kind of reminded me of Iris from Mega Man X 4, only her voice was much less annoying. Zero also had a few lines, and there was a narrator as well, but he didn't say much.

Even though I didn't really understand the plot I get the feeling that it was kind of unrelated to the actual MMZ plot, and the Zero in this game was somehow a different Zero than the one in the other games, even though at first he appeared to be the same one.

So finally I got to the actual game play, and here's where things diverged from the usual Zero games significantly...

The game starts you off with all kinds of crazy crap. First, you get four different kinds of boots: Normal dash boots, fast-dash boots, air-dash boots w/upward dash, and some other kind of boots that I didn't understand but looked really cool. Second, you started off with 2 subtanks. Third, you had two different types of helmets, one was like the usual MMZ helmet except that the dark purple part was white and the crystal was shaped kind of like a 4-point star instead of the usual upside-down triangle. The other helmet was like the first except that the crystal was bigger and more slightly more stylized. In either picture the crystal would grow brightly whenever you put the cursor over one to select it. Finally, the game started you off with two weapons: the usual hand buster/plasma pistol thing, and a hammer. Not even an an energy hammer, it was just a big battle hammer, like a sledge hammer, only mechanical and colorful like Zero. There was no Z-Saber to be seen.

The game started you off in this great big jungle area, way up in the middle of the area in some kind of observer's platform. There were tree branches and artificial platforms all over the place that you could jump around on. And this place was huge--you would have to travel up, down, left, or right for quite a while before you finally hit the edge of the area. Not only that, but it had upgrades hidden all over the place.

Another weird thing about this game is that collecting a subtank would cause all your existing sub tanks and the one you just collected to merge into one great big "super tank." This essentially turned sub tanks that were lying around into sub tank upgrades which would add more points to the maximum capacity of your super tank. A side effect of this is that there were these "mini tanks" you could find which would add to you super tank's maximum but would not add as much as a regular sub tank. One of these mini tanks was right in front of you on top of a table in the observer's platform when you started the game. It had hot pink and some weird little triangular symbol in the area that usually shows how much energy is in the tank, and of course, the tank was smaller than a regular sub tank.

The weirdest thing of all about this game was that the DS game card had a model hammer--like the one in the game--sticking out of it. It had a motion sensor in it so that when you rocked the DS so as to "swing" the hammer it would make Zero swing his hammer. (Of course, this wasn't the only way to make him swing...)

But, that was my weird game dream. I'm sure that there's lots of other details but I can't remember.