Mega Man Network Transmission

"Capcom gets it right most of the time here for an excellent title."

I had been waiting for a long time for this game to finally arrive and while many Game magazines are putting it down, I feel that Capcom took a big step in the right direction with this title, but there is plenty of room for improvement which I think will make a sequel one of the best Mega Man games ever.

Gameplay: 8/10
The game has the classic NES Mega Man side-scroll gameplay. I am personally glad to see Capcom resist trying to make this game 3-D. I have seen screen shots of X7 for the PS2 and the 3-D views in that game look dreadful. Mega Man has always worked the best in 2-D. The controls are pretty crisp and sharp. They could stand to be tightened a bit, but it really isn't much of a factor. As far as weapons go, this is where the game falters a bit. The Mega Buster is incredibly weak, even when upgraded. You must rely on your Battle Chips way too much, and this leaves you up shit creek far too often, especially early in the game against the bosses. Fire Man and Guts Man are both pretty difficult early bosses and the only reason is because your weapons are almost totally ineffective. The random nature of the Battle Chip sets is also a bit of a pain because if you get 5-10 bad chips then you've gotta sit around and wait to get something good. This can be tedious at times although it doesn't take away from gameplay too much. The Gamecube controller is pretty well suited for this game, although it does take a bit of time to get used to the controls well enough to make quick decisions with accuracy. Overall, the gameplay is consistant and well done, but the weapon system could use a bit of work and the controls could stand to be a bit tighter.

Story: 6/10
I have not played Battle Network 1 or 2 for the GameBoy Advance, so the story background is a little lost on me. Since this game is supposed to occur between those two games. From what I can gather from the story without background knowledge, I can't say it's at all amazing or deep. It's basically your standard Mega Man story line: there is something wrong that Mega Man has to fix, so he's gotta defeat the stage bosses then the final boss. There are a bit more RPG elements thrown in which makes it different from the ''pick which boss you want to play first'' style of the NES games, but as the game progresses you get more options as to which order to play the stages. So bascially the story is there, but nothing special or important. You could play this game and enjoy it without even paying attention to what is happening.

Graphics: 10/10
This is where I think Network Transmission really shines. Capcom has in the past resisted from straying from the sprites they love so dearly, but the cel-shading here suits the game very well. I was very impressed with Mega Man's model and the model's of many of the bosses (especially Star Man, Shadow Man, and Needle Man). The level's are vibrant and visually appealing, while not overpowering like some of the levels in the X series. The enemies in the game aren't anything very flashy, but then again Mega Man enemies never really were. They fit with the rest of the graphic style well.

Audio: 10/10
This is another area in which Network Transmission shows well. Capcom has always done an admirable job of scoring their Mega Man games and this one is no exception. They really make some catchy tunes that aren't annoying in the slightest (thank goodness, since you have to do some levels over more than a few times). I also like how some of the tracks are remixes from the original NES games. I was pleasantly surprised by that. Again, Capcom really did an outstanding job here and maintained a high quality. It makes me think of how good the Mega Man 3 songs were. The sound effects are pretty minimal and are barely noticable most of the time. They don't stand out normally and the few that do don't sound bad. Mega Man's buster weapon makes an odd noise, but it's not really prominent or noticeable. The game is not translated, but subtitled from Japanese so don't expect to understand some of what they are saying. I personally like he fact it wasn't dubbed because normally the voice actors are cheesy. Basically the background music is so good it doesn't matter how minimal the sound effects are.

Replay Value: 6/10
As with most other Mega Man titles the replay value is not exceptionally high. Once you've beaten the game, there isn't much else to do unless you want to play it over again. The chips add a nice RPG replay aspect, as do the upgrades to the mega buster, but after that there isn't too much to bring you back unless you're a hardcore Mega Man fanatic and you just love playing Mega Man games over and over like me. There is an optional secret boss located in the first series of stages (not to be too specific for spoiler purposes), so if you missed that the first time around you could go back for that. So if you're a fanatic then replay will be high, if you're just in it for a great game you'll probably play this once then put it down for awhile.

Buy or Rent?
I'd say buy this one for sure. Mega Man is a tried and true series that rarely misses the mark. The game is only $39.99 at most places which is really nice since the $49.99 that most games are released at is a hefty price. Of course you can rent it just to see if it's for you, but in my opinion Mega Man Network Transmission is one of the better Gamecube titles to come out for awhile.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/03, Updated 06/22/03