The Battle Network Series

With the classic series on indefinite hold, the X series turning into an unplayable pile of shit and the Zero series about to introduce it's own levels of melodrama, Mega Man was starting to lose it's kid friendly setting. Not only that but the Mega Man formula is certainly lacking in innovation churning out the same style of gameplay over and over. Yeah it's fun, but playing it safe only works for so long.

Eventually you have to try something new to survive and Capcom finally decided to take Mega Man in a new and unfamiliar direction with Mega Man Battle Network. Well... then again maybe Capcom was working on something new, they weren't sure if it was going to work or not, so they slapped Mega Man on it to generate some sales. Who knows?

But you know what? Whether or not Mega Man was there in the beginning Capcom managed to put together a pretty good game. That game would go on to a decent series. That series would fucking explode into comic books, a cartoon series, toys, spin offs and remakes. Battle Network, called Rockman.Exe in Japan is the second most popular series in the Mega Man franchise, with only the classic series ahead of it.

Battle Network throws away all the standard conventions of Mega Man games and takes an RPG approach instead. But Capcom didn't want Mega Man to abandon his action roots so they came up with a totally unique engine that blends the two elements together. During the course of the game MegaMan.exe collects powers known as "Battle Chips" which aid him in combat. Tbere are special rules related to how to use the Battle Chips, but over the course of the game you'll get enough to increase your power tenfold. You'll also have your buster and a limited space for movement for dodging incoming attacks adding more action to the game over standard RPGs.

You'll also be able to power up Mega Man by collecting items and programs which will raise his health and give him other special abilities. Later in the series MegaMan.exe would gain abilities more similar to his original counter part in taking his opponents abilities through something called Double Soul and later the Cross System, but thats a ways away at this point.

The biggest change however is the focus on story. Yes, really, Capcom decided to try and write a narrative for these games, rather than a half assed scenario that vaguely gives the player motivation to play on. Are the stories in these games any good? Uh... Listen, it's the effort that counts, and they do have their moments. I mean, Battle Network 3 actually has a really well written ending except the last 5 seconds of it, but we can forgive that because Battle Network's stories at heart are for kids. You won't want to think about it to seriously otherwise you'll ask questions like, "Why don't any of the villains ever just carry guns and shoot Lan instead of wasting their time virtual fighting him?" The answer to that question is that it's a kids game and you need to just go with it.

Battle Network takes place in an alternate universe where Dr. Light worked on making the Internet much better, and Dr. Wily's robotics technology got largely ignored and dismissed. Dr. Light is called Dr. Hikari in this series, which I believe is the Japanese word for Light actually.

Let me allow the introduction from the cartoon show set the premise for you:

"It's the year 200X and it's almost like living in a video game. I'm Lan Hikari. Welcome to DenTech City, where the whole city is linked together through a cyber matrix that connects everything. My friends and I have these powerful handhelds called PETs that let us battle in a virtual world with our cyber warriors. They're called NetNavis and my NetNavi...is MegaMan! There's also an evil force, World Three, that wreaks havoc on the city by infecting the cyber matrix with computer viruses! Along with my friends and their personal net warriors, MegaMan and I are gonna delete these viruses and rid society of all chaos and crime!
Jack in!! MegaMan, power up!"

So you play as Lan Hikari, Dr. Hikari's grand son and his net navi MegaMan.exe. Just about all the robot masters from previous series make appearances all accompanied by new characters who act as their operators. As Lan, you'll take on the majority of the story by interacting with these people, and then as MegaMan.exe you'll take on the majority of gameplay in battling them. There are a lot of familiar faces in this game, each with new designs to suit their new world. This game practically runs on nostalgia and I often wonder if the series would have survived without the Mega Man label. I doubt it myself as the first game is a bit of a shakey start to the series.

I didn't like this series when I first played it, but it grew on me as I learned the details of it and learned some good strategies. What can I say, I am not a strategy gamer. This series plays almost nothing like any of the 2d games however, so your own mileage may vary. If you're going to try it out, check out Battle Network 3 or 6 first to see if you like the series as those are two of it's bests. Battle Network 4 and 5 can just rot in hell though.

The games in this series include

• Mega Man Battle Network
• Mega Man Network Transmissions
• Mega Man Battle Network 2
• Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue/White/Black
• Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun/Blue Moon
• Mega Man Battle Network 5 Team Colonel/Team Protoman
• Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar/Falzar
• Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge
• Rockman.EXE WS
• Rockman.EXE 4.5 Real Operation
• Rockman.Exe Operation Shooting Star

Chip Challenge isn't specified when it takes place in the series and really could take place at any time. The Wonderswan game is a retelling of the anime so it follows it's own continuity and Real Operation is a spin off unrelated to the actual events of the series. There's a few others too, a couple of cell phone games and arcade games, but I'm filing those under the miscellaneous games. Operation Shooting Star is a re-imaging of Battle Network 1 and hasn't come out yet.

Now I want to point something out before I get started on reviewing these games. I have replayed each game so far before reviewing it to refresh my memory of the game. I won't be replaying these games all the way through as they take way to fucking long and I do not want to overwrite my saves all which contain post game content and really difficult folders to build. I will however re-beat the game from my save file, grab a few screenshots of different areas, and make sure to get a screenshot of Bass.exe while I'm at it. So expect that at least in these reviews.

If you do like these games, check out Mega Man Star Force as it continues the same style with a few tweaks to the formula. If you like the stories in these games (what the hell is wrong with you?) there is also an English Dub anime called NT Warriors that is... interesting. Hey, the actual anime lasted fucking forever in Japan and Capcom made a fuck ton of money on it so who am I to argue. You can find fan subs online of most of those episodes if you look hard enough.