Rockman & Crystal (Zook Man ZX4)

After that one, uhm, underwhelming semi-unofficial entry by Sintax, Zook is back for reals! You may know this game better as Rockman & Crystal; this is the Taiwanese release. For those unfamiliar with Zook, it’s a series of Mega Man clones, and this one takes most of its inspiration from the X series. And I like it a lot! Okay it obviously was rushed (spoilers? there’s no unique last boss, only a boss rush, and the Zero-ish dude from the first stage never shows up again) and jacks a lot of graphics from elsewhere, but they nailed the controls really well, and there’s plenty of variety. And the music is p cool as usual for Vast Fame.Rockman & Crystal is the English version of Vast Fame’s genuinely-quite-decent Mega Man X clone and swansong for their Zook series, and it’s been something of a holy grail for ROM dumpers for a LONG time. Just over two years ago, I dumped the Chinese-language Taiwanese release, Zook Man ZX4. So the game has been playable for a while, but what has always been missing is its fantastic English dialogue. Until now!