Mega Man Network Transmission

"A fun little RPG, but a bit too easy."

My first review and I'm hoping it comes out well.

Mega Man Network Transmission is not your typical Mega Man game. Sure, it's still a platformer with move-swiping, enemy busting, and the tough boss battles, but there is an RPG element that slightly twists this game into something more. This game follows the new line of Mega Man games starring MegaMan.exe and his operator Lan called Mega Man Battle Network. Unlike old Mega Man games, you can use use up to 151 different special attacks including the program advances, you can easily get your character out of a level to save your lives, the saving feature, and power-ups. It also seems easier than most of the older Mega Man games.

GRAPHICS (8/10):

This game is cel-shaded making it seem more cartoonish and video-game like while at the same time adding dimension with shadows and build of the characters. The enemies are like many RPG-type games having the same icon with different colors as their difficulty rises. Backgrounds are spectacular for the platformer which cancels out the enemy repeats.

SOUND (7/10):

The sound is basically like most other Mega Man games: the usual sound from your Arm Cannon, enemy noises, etc. There are also many sound for the various special weapons and background noises. The only problem I have with the sound is that every character in this game speaks Japanese. The only English that is in this game is in writing. Not one word of English is spoken. Couldn't they have some voice-overs?

MUSIC (9/10):

I'm not much for describing music for most is just fine for me. I enjoy listening to the music in the background and it brings me into the game. But I'll say it another time, if you wish for a review on the quality of music in this game, please see another person's review.

STORY (6/10):

I don't know much about the backstory of this game except that it has to do something with Mega Man and Lan defeating the WWW. This game takes place a while later and concerns a virus that is making peoples PETs, what MegaMan.exe is, malfunction. There quite a few turns within the story that sort of surprised me, but it resembles a classic good vs. evil storyline.

GAMEPLAY (5/10):

In reviews and FAQs I've read about the two GBA Battle Network titles released previous to this game, there are a lot of things that mention you can control Lan and get chips and such. This is not the case with the Gamecube version. As Lan, you are stuck in your room with no control over what he does as he paces back and forth. The only thing you can do is bring up a menu where you access everything. I truly thought there'd be much more interaction when I picked up this game. Mega Man is the sole player in this game; the only one you control. Not that that isn't bad. It's Mega Man jumping, blasting, sliding, and blasting some more. Tough areas can easily be reached with some special special chips and even tougher areas can be gotten through with some luck, practice, and a few more chips. The only gameplay is with Mega Man, unfortunately.

CONTROL (9/10):

I have no problems with it. There's a button for shooting, a button for jumping, a button for special moves, a button for switching special moves, a button for the menu, a stick to move your character, and various other buttons for various things. There is no comboing in this game unless you count blasting, then a special, then more blasting, then some jumping, and finally more blasting a combo. I gave it a 9/10 because some places are just really frustrating such as jumping from rope ladder to rope ladder.

DIFFICULTY (5/10):

I seriously thought I'd wouldn't finish it so quickly. I admit that some places later on are near impossible to get through until you get that area down-pact and that boss fights are usually terrible to go into, but the game is easy. As long as you are on the ground not really moving, you can escape the level anytime you want to and regain all your lives and all your used special chips. Going through a level without instant-killing lasers, hard-to-get over drops, and nigh-invulnerable barrier-wielding enemies (basically 6 out of some 50 areas) is a piece of cake as long as you can jump and fire. There should be no problem going through the game.

REPLAYABILITY (9/10):

I believe this game is a replayable game. Unlike most RPGs, where once you know the story and how to get through certain levels makes you drop the game, this game allows you to go over and explore much more. There's an element of monster-catching games in here too where you'd love to obtain all the chips and program advances (151 I might add; same as the first set of Pokemon). You can go back to levels you've been and nothing as changed (except for one off the top of my head) except for Boss portals. Boss fights are replayable, too. And there's always a few secrets you can try and discover.

OVERALL (7/10):

This game does not hold high on any favorites list of mine, but is close. It's not like most other Mega Man games save the new series. It could've easily been better, but I won't go into that.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/03, Updated 07/15/03