I feel that after Zero 2, the Mega Man series just slipped right there. I didn't play Zero 3, so maybe it was after that, but compared to Zero 1, Zero 4 just felt so lame to me. Weather control isn't even a practical way to change difficulty, there's too much focus on Cyber-Elves, and the music isn't very interesting. ZX had the same deal, except not only with music, and not only was the normal mode too easy, but even the power-ups were nothing short of dull; Px can't anti-air and Leviathan can only be used underwater. This completely underutilizes the pride and joy of good power-ups that we've had in Mega Man titles for over 20 years now. I never bothered with the BN or SF titles, so that leaves the classic platformer series for me.

MM9 comes around and it's a return to glory right there. By simply going back to basics, Capcom suddenly boosted the good back into Mega Man by keeping it simple, challenging, and whatever that word I'm looking for is that has to do with good music in a video game. Either way, this is actually the direction they should move forward in now. Build back up from the basics while adding new things along the way. Just like the X era, except for the next decade.

At the risk of sounding like a complete A-hole, I never could get into the X series. I wager I felt the same way you do about the middle of the Zero series as I did at the middle of the X series. There was too much talking, the new graphics just convoluted the gameplay, and the focus shifted to aquiring all of these out-of-the-way items to progress.

Maybe I'm that old or maybe I'm just a complete purist.

In short, I agree. #9 was the best thing to happen to the series since #2.

#9 was the best thing to happen to the series since #2. :) Two!

While I may not agree with your opinions on Zero 4 and the ZX games, you should definitely play Zero 3, which is imo the best game of the Zero series and to me one of my favorite MM games of all time.

My only issue is that it feels like they purposely made the game to hurt you when you try to do anything(it feels sadistically difficult).