Mega Man Battle Network

"YES! Mega Man on GBA!"

Okay, I'll admit it. This isn't exactly what I was expecting when a new Mega game was announced for GBA. However, since my loyalty to the series is so great, I tried it out. I'll tell you right now, this puts every other Mega Man game to shame. Before you start flaming, here me out.

Story: 18/20
From what I've heard, the story to this game isn't too impressive. I think it's pretty good. In the near future, the WWW tries to take over the world by stealing and combining the four master programs(or something like that).
Now, it's no Final Fantasy, but I hardly think it's anything to complain about, except that it's a little short if you're not trying to get every battle chip.

Graphics: 10/10
I'm amazed. Graphics like this on a handheld are great! The colors are bright, and everything is so detailed. Even things like the Servbot pattern on Dex's rug, or the dishes in the sinks, at least in the real world.
Once you ''jack in'', (get those minds out of the gutters people) the game becomes a maze of floating walkways and animated backgrounds.
Every area has it's own wallpaper, corresponding to that person's tastes, such as Mayl's music notes.
When you go to battle, the attacks are very well done. The electrical explosions, the ice clouds, fire, and even sword slashes have a nice design to them. The only gripe here is when you're facing two creatures, sometimes you get hidden behind the first's attacks and you can't see what is going on.

Sound: 9/10
For the most part, I enjoyed the music in the different areas, however, there wasn't enough variety. One theme for towns, one for a crisis, one for battles, and that's pretty much it. While I liked the tunes, they became repetitive real fast. They might turn off older Mega Man fans as well, because most of them are a far cry from the old techno-rock of the other games.

Gameplay: 30/30
Besides the comment about the graphics, there aren't really any complaints here. The game's learning curve is nice, and it doesn't stay too easy like a lot of games. As for the style, you take control of Lan Hikari and his PET, Mega Man, as they try and stop the evil WWW from taking over the world. You alternate between playing Lan in the real world, and Mega in the Internet. Battles take place on two 4x3 grids. Mega Man on one side, and the enemies on another. While you can attack with your buster, it does little damage. Instead, you send him Battle Chips. These have different effects, and if you choose right, you can send more than one. That's about the extent of the gameplay.

Replay: 30/30
While I consider the game to be too short, it has tons of replay, like sidequests in trying to collect all the chips, and unlock the hidden Internet sections, where you have to complete tasks such as never running from a battle, or collecting a certain amount of chips in one area.

Overall: 97%
This game is the best out on GBA in my opinion, at least until Golden Sun comes out, and I hope even old school fans who think this is to different will still try it out.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/01, Updated 11/12/01