Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge

"So what if you can't walk around freely?"

Gameplay
The game might seem easy in the beginning, when you can still win by just throwing random weapons to your deck. That won't last long, though. After the easy tournaments in the beginning you have to really start thinking which battle chips you use and in what order. So the challenging part of the game is making the deck. The easier parts of the game are the battles. When a battle starts, you have no control over your Navi's actions, except for using two Slot-In chips you chose before the battle. The battles might get a bit boring when you're re-doing previous tournaments to get more money or chips. Also, you don't walk around the Internet or the ''real'' world like you do in the other MegaMan Battle Network games, but choose a place you want to go to from a menu. So what if you can't move freely on the map? This is a strategy game, not a sports simulator.
9/10

Story
The story is told in cutscenes between the battles. You don't have to care about it at all. But it is related to happenings of the other MegaMan Battle Network games. The events of this game happen in the middle of MegaMan Battle Network 3. Each of the six characters you can use has his or her own cutscenes.
7/10

Sound
The sound effects and music are pretty good, but the music tracks are quite short and there aren't many of them. Especially the battle themes may start to get very boring after listening them to loop for the 500th time.
7/10

Graphics
Most of the graphics are the same that have been collected from MegaMan Battle Network 1-3. They are generally good, but I've seen better in other GBA games. Also, the sprite makers seem to be a bit lazy. For example some Navis don't have shooting animations, they just do some weird movement and a weapon appears in front of them.
8/10

Play time and replay value
It takes quite a long time to complete the game and collect all stuff. The tournaments take a while because you can't save in between the battles. Playing it for the second time might get boring, but since there are six characters, you might want to beat the game with all of them. And with two save slots you can keep your best save and still play it again.
8/10

Overall score
If they had made more and longer music tracks and done the battle animations more carefully this would've been a nine.
8/10

Buy or rent?
Buy it. This game seems like a perfect game for times when you are sitting somewhere and can't do anything, such as boring bus trips.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04