We have a little game coming out this June for the Nintendo DS called Mega Man Zero Collection and suprisingly, a lot of people haven't played the series!

Officially, it's the third series in the main Mega Man storyline (the game begins about 100 years after the events of the Mega Man X series) and features Zero as the main protagonist. Game Boy Advance owners were in a for a treat when the first game launched for the system on November 9, 2002.

In order to familiarize people that have never played the game to the series, I've asked a few special people to share their recollections of Mega Man Zero. You can read the recollections of Protodude's Rockman Corner and the Mega Man Network by clicking on their names in this sentence.

Today, I'm very excited to present the one and only Mr. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com! As you may or may not know, Jeremy runs the 1UP editorial blogs and heads up the Retronauts and Active Time Babble podcasts. He's a big Mega Man fan, so when I asked him if he could write something for Capcom Unity, he was more than happy to give his two cents on the original Mega Man Zero.

Hit the jump to read his recollections!

From Jeremy:

News of the Mega Man Zero Collection was music to my ears, but not for the obvious reasons. Sure, they're good games and all that, but the real reason I'm happy about being able to take another crack at the series is because the first Zero owes me a rematch. We have unfinished business, Zero and I.

See, I've been with the Mega Man games since the very first one, and I've played just about every game that's ever had "Mega Man" in the title -- yeah, even the ones that were so bad they were never released in America. (I guess technically those had "Rockman" in the title, but whatever.) I've finished the vast majority of the games I've played. The games I haven't finished were left by the wayside simply because they weren't very good, or because they dragged on and on. Mega Man Zero, though, was different. Zero is the only Mega Man game I've ever given up on because it broke me.

Calling Zero the most difficult Mega Man ever is saying something, because the franchise isn't exactly known for pulling its punches. Someone at IntiCreates decided to turn the humble pie factory up to 11 for this one, though: The game's combination of strictly finite lives, dangerous enemies and patterns, and the not-so-subtle punishments for actually putting the Cyber Elf enhancements to use make for a deliberately cruel work of brutality. The rest of the Zero series I was able to breeze through, relatively speaking. But that first game... I never did quite finish it.

It's a shame, too, because there was so much I like about Zero. The fast-paced action and sleek controls were fantastic, and I loved the way the open world and mission-based design managed to shake up the Mega Man formula without feeling like a complete deviation from form. The graphics and design looked great, the music was classic Mega Man, and the story was a lot more imaginative than "Oh gosh, there's eight angry robots and a cackling mastermind behind them!" But man, those bosses....

But that's OK. I'm ready for our rematch. And this time, I have a DSi to play it on -- no more squinting at that dark, impossible-to-see Game Boy Advance screen. Yeah, this time, Neo-Arcadia's going down.