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Box artwork for Mega Man Zero 2.
Box artwork for Mega Man Zero 2.
Mega Man Zero 2
Developer(s)Inti Creates
Publisher(s)Capcom
Year released2003
System(s)Game Boy Advance, Wii U
Preceded byMega Man Zero
Followed byMega Man Zero 3
SeriesMega Man Zero
Genre(s)Action, Platform
Players1
ModesSingle player
Rating(s)ESRB Everyone
LinksMega Man Zero 2 ChannelSearchSearch

Mega Man Zero 2 (known in Japan as Rockman: Zero 2​ (ロックマンゼロ2?)), is an action platform game developed by Inti Creates and published by Capcom for the GBA in 2003. It is part of the Mega Man Zero series, a sub-series of the Mega Man series created by Keiji Inafune. It is the sequel to Mega Man Zero 1, and was succeeded by Mega Man Zero 3. The game was re-released as part of the Mega Man Zero Collection for the Nintendo DS, with new and improved sound quality and new features, such as unlockable wallpaper and a Mod Card collection.

Story[edit]

The sequel to the first title continues one year after Zero began his continuous attack on the immeasurable number of Pantheons seen at the end of the first game. This began after discovering his old friend, Mega Man X, has turned into a weary Cyber-Elf, and dealing with a would-be imitation known as Copy X. At the original X's request, Zero continues to fight. Meanwhile, an auspicious Reploid known as Elpizo has discovered Neo Arcadia's true motives and has abandoned his job within the capital for the sake of fighting back with a strike force of his own, feeling vengeful at its government for sacrificing the well being of innocent Reploids out of fear they will harm the human population. However, he is too haughty and self-absorbed to fully recognize the true might of Neo Arcadia, and his rebellious actions eventually lead to the discovery of a frightening entity with a haunting legacy of destruction. If left undeterred, history may be doomed to repeat itself, and once again, the whole world will be put in jeopardy. Elsewhere, a mysterious man watches these events unfold, knowing they will help incite a master plan of his own...

Localization censorship[edit]

Some content has also been edited from the original Japanese release for the sake of maintaining an E rating with the ESRB, which is more stringent on acceptable content than Japan's rating system. The initial releases of the game installments contain death animations where Mutos Reploid bosses spurt out a dark red oil, resembling blood. This occurs if the Z-Saber is used to deliver a killing blow, bisecting the boss and causing its internal mech fluids to splash loose.

Collection version[edit]

Additional changes were also made to the updated Mega Man Zero Collection. Usage of the words "die", "death", and "kill" was limited to due to their sensitive nature. Pieces of character script containing these words have been quietly altered to display softer dialogue, such as "perish", "destroy", or "retire". This is a result of placing the four Zero installments together; when viewed separately, the original GBA copies by themselves do not violate ESRB's set guidelines to qualify for an E rating, since the total instances of these words do not exceed the acceptable limit. However, when the games were compiled into a collection, they can be played as if they were a single, larger game. As such, all instances of the words across the four titles are taken into account, which did exceed the limit and forced the ESRB to require changes to dialogue.

Regardless of efforts to soften down the violence, the first cutscene of Mega Man Zero 1 appears to have been accidentally overlooked, as it no longer censors the Reploid "blood" splashes. The mistake most likely occurred as the unaltered Japanese versions were tediously modified for European and US release. The GBA titles were ported over to the DS in Japan, meaning Europe and North America received the uncut, remastered titles in raw Japanese. The dialogue had to be converted to English and all "bloody" scenes had to be censored once again for the international releases. Chances are it was missed as the game received a final examination for violent scenes, but the error was apparently too insignificant to cause problems with the ESRB.

The collection also updates in-game mechanics, with new controls and menu interfaces utilizing the Touch Screen of the Nintendo DS. All sound effects and music tracks in the collection are noticeably cleaner, remastered to fully exploit the DS's enhanced digital audio range compared to the Game Boy Advance. Aside from some minor changes in game play, it retains the original formula of Mega Man, but reintroduces the primary feature to gain abilities from enemy bosses, notably missing from the preceding installment of the series.

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