Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun

"BN 4 ads many great new features but falls short in the polish departement"

BN 4 has many great new features like the Soul Unison System
but lazy capcom prevails and prevents this game from being the best in the battle network series. (In case you are wondering by favorite BN game is BN 2. Go ahead, sue me ;) Here is my category breakdown review:

Graphics 9/10
The graphics overall are great. The new curvey internets are wonderfull and the new sprites are good, despite their cutsey look. The unison graphics are good, as are the chip animations, even if they are mostly reused. However, the part that drags this socre down is the sheer uglyness of the mugshots. Sure capcom made all new ones for the first time, they spent about 5 seconds on the design. I know this seems minor but it really grates on you by the end of the game.

Sound 8/10
The sound sort of exemplifies my view of this game. The sound is great overall and entirely new. However, lazy capcom strikes again! Since the design of the of the game doesn't have any machine specific areas except the radio tower and the asteroid capcom reused the same music for ever internet except the under net, which in fact is the same music used in the secret area. There are a total of 4 cyber world area sons in the whole game. I also like the new boss music alot.

Story 5/10
Some like the story because of its mysterious nature but I find it to be simply non existent! At the end the plot is great but until then it is just a bunch of plotless tournaments. A little more effort on capcom's part would have been appreciated.

Gameplay 10/10
This is where the game shines! The level design is almost flawless, the asteroid and undernet 4 being the only confusing areas. The battle system is well done and the soul system is convenient, although I must admit there are some times I want the add button back. The new battle chips are fun although some are confusing since I can't read japanese.

New Features 8/10
The souls rock, except for thunder sould, they are all usefull and fun to use. As a nice plus they are all drawn and animated well. Like I said I want my add button back. Another thing I think would really help would be the ability to unison with your default chip. Right now I think you spend too much time battling as normal rockman. I love the new chips but, lazy capcom has reduced the number of normal chips to 150, meaning this game has barely more chips than BN 2. However, all the new chips and navis rock, except coldman, (his regmem is too high!) Another nifty feature is that there are many occasions that you battle generic green or evil navis, which is a fun touch.

Polish 6/10
This is the games weakest link. You have to give capcom credit for redoing alot of things that were reured from bn 1 on but there are some other obscenely lazy things I mentioned before. In addition, there is no ariport, which there was in BN2. I want my airport back!! Also ACDC is extremely small and has no texturing whatsoever. Its little things like this that bring this score down.

Replay Value 10/10
Capcom sorta forces this down your throat by making you play through 3 times to get all the souls, but doing so is fun, since the plot is different each time. In addition the after quest is fun and the secret bosses and dark genetic navis rule!!

Fun Factor 9/10
Some tourney scenarios are a pain but most of the game is fun and challenging at the same time. Plus Burnerman is cool!! And so is Searchman!! (Even if his operator is a jerk ;)

Overall 8/10
This game should be a great launching pad into BN 5. It has all the components of a great game but falls short in the polish departement. However, this is still a must by for any
BN fan. I you are new to the series, however, I suggest the original or BN 3 White Version.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/03