"What am I fighting for?!?!?"
Article by: Taylor Brown (Mirby)
Pictured from: Mega Man X5
Created by: Capcom
First appearance: 1993
Bio
After the awakening of the robot known simply as X, peace reigns. All is calm for eight months, until some Reploids go "Maverick" and start destroying the city. A council of Hunters is established to defeat these Mavericks, and Sigma is appointed leader of these Hunters.
After two years, a group of Hunters move into the "Forbidden Area" somewhere near or in the Rocky Mountains, which hold Dr. Light's lab and other ancient artifacts. Zero awakens and destroys the Hunters that intruded upon his solitude. Sigma then faces this red Maverick himself to avenge his fallen comrades. During the battle Zero uses Sigma's pride and confidence against him, eventually ripping off one of Sigma's arms. At one point, Sigma gets the upper hand, shattering Zero's helmet gem with a mighty punch and revealing a "W" symbol behind it. While this is exposed, a virus held latent inside Zero's body since his creation is transmitted to Sigma, where it would later become known as the Sigma Virus.
After this incident, Zero is taken to Dr. Cain's lab for analysis, as per Sigma's orders. All malice is gone, and Zero wants to fight for the side of good. Under Sigma's wing, he quickly rises to the rank of SA-class Hunter within Sigma's 17th Elite squad. He helps X out quite frequently, especially once the Sigma Virus finally consumes Sigma's soul and turns him Maverick. He was a friend in the first two games in the X series, and finally became partially playable in Mega Man X3. He would be a fully playable character in all subsequent installments, including the Game Boy Color-exclusive Xtreme series. During the events of Mega Man X5, he finally did what he was created to do, and fought X in a battle that was supposed to be to the death.
His personality is quite noble, and he has sacrificed himself a few other times in the series for the sake of peace. Zero has been known to act brashly, but he is more often tactically minded and refuses to serve dark purposes. His power and abilities are much greater than that of X, something that X uses as a goal to reach. He'll fight whenever fighting is necessary, and always stand up for those he considers friends.
After the X series, he seals himself up for a century, only to be awakened in order to save the Resistance in the first Mega Man Zero game on Game Boy Advance.
Selected game appearances
Super NES
- Mega Man X (1993)
- Mega Man X2 (1994)
- Mega Man X3 (1995)
PlayStation
- Mega Man X4 (1997)
- Mega Man X5 (2000)
- Mega Man X6 (2001)
Game Boy Advance
- Mega Man Zero¹ (2002)
- Mega Man Zero 2 (2003)
- Mega Man Zero 3 (2004)
- Mega Man Zero 4 (2005)
PlayStation 2
- Mega Man X7¹ (2003)
- Mega Man X8 (2004)
¹ no ReMixes in database
References
