Mega Man Network Transmission

"If you're getting this game just becuase you like the GBA ones, don't bother."

Introduction

I'm just going to give a smidge of a back-story before the actual review. I played and loved all three of the Mega Man: Battle Network games for the GBA, so when I saw that this series was coming to the NGC, I jumped at the chance. However, when I plopped this game into my NGC and hit that power button, I was more than a little disappointed.

Allow me to elaborate. The first section of this review will compare this game with the GBA series, the second with the classic Mega Man series, and the rest as an individual game. So here we go.

Compared with Battle Network

As stated in the title, if you're getting this game for the sole reason that you liked this series, don't bother. The best part of the series, the interaction between Lan and MegaMan, is not there. At least, not in the way it was in the GBA series. You don't control Lan. In my opinion one of the best parts of the GBA series was to run around in the real world finding obscure locations to jack into (and in the third one, they even had hidden locations). However, in this game, your jacking in method is to select a location off of a map. In addition, my experience of controlling Lan so far has been to watch him walk around his room. Imagine my surprise when I finish Battle Network 3, start this game, and when the opening dialogue finishes, I tilt my control stick down to have Lan go visit Mayl, and he starts moving in the opposite direction.

Other aspects of Battle Network are also muted or not translated appropriately. The style changes from Battle Network 2 and 3 are not there; instead they use the armour system from Battle Network 1. I thought it was customary to move forward with a new game, not backwards. Oh well, life goes on.

One of the major charms of Battle Network was wandering around the internet, talking to other programs and navis, and interacting with other, friendly creatures. In Network Transmission, there are no friendlies on the net, no talk button. Occasionally you meet someone friendly on the net, but it's always grounds for a cut scene rather than a simple dialogue box.

In addition, the battle system has been revamped, and not for the better in my opinion. As stated above, there are no friendlies; rather, you are always in a battle. The chip system has been changed. No longer are there chip codes for you to try and work your folder towards getting more chips in one turn. You can throw them all in whenever you want. This may seem like a good thing, but they don't replenish after every battle. They don't replenish until you jack out.

Finally, in the Battle Network series, the battles consisted of 18 panels, which you could walk around freely on the left 9, and your opponent the right 9. This gave the impression of a very realistic battle, where you could move forward, backward, and sideways. This sideways movement capability is missing from a lot of games. I remember back when I fought Bubble Man way back in Mega Man 2 for the NES, I thought ''Why couldn't I just move sideways to avoid those bubbles?''. In the Battle Network series, you could. Granted, you couldn't jump, but for some reason that didn't seem like a loss to me when I played. I guess I don't think of jumping to dodge attacks if I don't have to, moving sideways seems more realistic.

Comparing to Classic Mega Man

There's not too much to complain about here. This game has all the makings of a classic MegaMan game with a few extras thrown in. The battle chips work well with the battle system, allowing you that extra force when needed. It's probably a better idea to save them for the boss if you can though. The classic MegaMan challenges are there, getting through the tight spots, finding the obscure locations that contain hidden items, defeat the challenging bosses, etc..

One wish that I do have in these regards is that the MegaBuster were more powerful at the start. I know it gets more powerful as the game goes on (those empty boxes on the status menu have to mean something), but right now it's just so repetitive blasting an enemy 40 times before it dies.

Individual Game

Graphics: 9/10

Everything looks quite good. I can believe that what I'm seeing is real. I especially like the fire background just before you fight the first boss.

Sound: 4/10

Music is good, I especially like the classic Battle Network music on the title page (even though in my opinion it doesn't really deserve it). However, the sounds are abysmal! Along with seeming jarring to me, the bulk of them are in Japanese. That's right, they didn't bother translating ANY of the voice acting. This really pissed me off, why would they think that the majority in North America is fluent in Japanese (I know some people are, but I also know that the majority isn't). If it really would take too much time and effort to translate the voices, then please just take them out. It distracts from the game.

Gameplay: 5/10

You can find the bulk of my comments that would fit in this section up in the section that compares it with the Battle Network series. The bulk of the deductions from this section come from the fact that you don't control Lan. I always enjoyed the parts of the Battle Network series when MegaMan would say to Lan ''I need you to ______'', and then you'd have to go and solve some puzzle in the real world to continue. The other main qualm I have with this section is the presence of frustration over difficulty. In a perfect game, there should be no frustration, only difficulty. In the Battle Network series, I was rarely frustrated, but almost always challenged. The reverse seems to be true for this game. It seems to be about making the jump perfectly than finding a certain location (with a hint) to continue.

In addition, saving is a small problem. The saving system of the Battle Network Series is perfect, you can save anywhere, anytime you're not in a battle. In this game you can only save when you're jacked out (which isn't nearly as often as it should be).

Replayability: 6/10

I could see myself playing this again. As mentioned it really is more of a classic MegaMan game than Battle Network. I like the classic games too though; I just wish they had marketed it that way.

Personal Opinion: 6/10

It's a good game; it's just much different than what I expected it to be. When the box stated that you could explore fully 3-D environments, I figured that the gameplay would be exactly that of the Battle Network series, except in 3-D. That is to say, you'd have Lan moving through ACDC streets towards the school, or maybe visit Dex's house to challenge GutsMan, all in perfect 3-D (much like the game Kingdom Hearts for PS2), and then jacking into some system you see along the way, in which MegaMan explores it in perfect 3-D, gets into a battle run on a separate screen (with Lan sending battle chips), then continues exploring after deleting the enemy. Alas, the pure 3-D aspect of this game is limited to watching Lan walk around. Other than that you're controlling MegaMan in 2-D.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/03, Updated 07/04/03