A good first try, but a bit linear.
GAME PLAY
If you've ever played a MegaMan game, you know the game play. You can run, jump, jump boost, boost, shoot, charge, pull out your sword and cut up some enemies. Thats just for one model. The game offers variety by allowing you to get 5 or 6 MegaMan models with different weapons and abilities. Need to boost in air, then use Hx. Need to knock down walls, use Fx. You get the jist.
Rather than a select screen, you have a world to explore sort of like MegaMan Legends in 2D. Missions are in certain zones, and you can do any mission in any order, but you may need items from the first mission to do the second mission, so its pretty linear. The levels themselves are inventive, and on par with most 2D platformers. The one thing this game has is tricky levels and one hit kill spikes that everyone hates. Not saying its as bad as other MM games, because it isn't, but I'm tired of the one hit one kill traps.
Now you get to the end of a level, and you then fight a boss. Bosses are extremely difficult until you learn their pattern, which involved 2 to 5 attacks usually. Once you memorize their pattern and weakness, bosses become nothing of challenge. Not sure, but it gives you a certain clear after you beat a boss, like level 1 - 5 I believe. Not sure if this is based on how quickly you beat the boss are how good you were while you fought, but it must mean something eventually. Bosses can be frustrating at first, and you have to redo the entire level if you die on a boss. Without E-tanks, some bosses are near impossible on hard. I don't know about you, but losing on a boss and having to redo the entire level is not my definition of fun. But luckily, the levels are EXTREMELY short once you learn them. I'm talking less than 5 minutes easy.
Other things are the city. Nothing important really. You jump around in a relatively safe areas with no enemies. Not very much fun actually. The second mission requires you to actually look around for guardians in the city. Not fun. Stick to the combat unless you are going to make MegaMan Legends 3 alright Capcom?
The bottom screen is used for nothing usually, but sometimes you can draw the path the buster shot will take, or it will scan for items or enemies. One uses a radar so you can see in dark areas.
GRAPHICS
Aside from the cool warning you see right before a boss, the graphics are mainly GBA or SNES. The only difference are the explosions are a bit more complex than before, and the sprites sharper. Thats in game, the Anime styled cinematic scenes are down right awesome on the DS. I loved it myself, and I usually detest anime. Its in Japanese, because the lazy people at Capcom decided not to translate the voices, but the subtitles work well enough.
SOUND
You get the annoying yelp of the Hero as in any game like this. Its Link in Zelda, Mario in Mario, and Vent in MMZX. This character particularly got on my nerves though. I can't explain it, but in most games I enjoy hearing the characters yelps and battle cries, but in MMZX it justs makes me turn down the volume. He does have different voices for each model, but that only does little to quell the issue. Back on track, explosions sound good, even for a MegaMan game. The music is surprisingly non-MMXish in my opinion. I loved the music for that alone. Some get annoying if you decide to just go in the area and look for every last item for an hour or so, but for 20 minutes at a time, the music is good. Certain songs are extremely memorable, boosting how much I liked the game considerably.
VALUE
The game is short. If you played any MegaMan game ever made, you can probably beat the game in under 10 hours, if you played any recent MegaMan game, maybe in under 6 hours. That doesn't include EXE.
TILT
For a MegaMan game, it has a stronger story than most. Its not on the quality of other games, but for MegaMan, this is as good as it gets. The story makes you wonder whats going to happen next, but its easy enough to get frustrated and quit also. Basically, the story will keep you attracted, but you have to have a tolerance for back breaking difficult parts also. Like the attack on the people excavating the area. I BEAT THE LEVEL AND SAVED BUT IT DIDN'T SAVE. I reloaded, and it completely deleted it. Heh, that was enough to make me quit for a while. If its a bug, that would hurt the tilt immensely, but since it only happened once, I'll let it go...
OVERALL
Best MegaMan game in 4 or 5 years... though that isn't saying too much. I don't play MegaMan games that much any more, so I perhaps didn't see the same amount of boredom that hard core MegaMan fans would see. If you need a side scroller for the DS, this is it. If you suck at games and need a cake walk, stay far away from this.
NOTE: This game is noticably easier than most recent MM games despite me giving it a hard rating.