Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue

"My first MegaMan game, and a fun one at that."

Don't get me wrong. I've known MegaMan for years. I watched my cousin play MegaMan X on his SNES when I was 10. However, this game the first MegaMan game that I ever bought and played, and I must say I was delightfully surprised. (Okay, maybe "insanely obsessed" would be a better term...)

MegaMan Battle Network 3 is (obviously) the third game in the MegaMan Battle Network Series. I've never even seen the previous two, so I can't really say anything about how this game improves over the others or anything like that...and I have yet to play Battle Network 4, so I really can't compare this game to that one. Sorry. The game came in two versions: White and Blue. I only have Blue, but I think the only difference between the versions are the different chips you can get and bosses you can face... Don't quote me on that, please.

MegaMan Battle Network 3 (or MMBN3, as I'll be referring to it as from now on) uses a mixture of walking around and talking to people in the "real world" as 5th grader Lan Hikari and walking around, talking to programs, and NetBattling in the Internet as Lan's personal NetNavi, MegaMan (more about Lan and MegaMan later). While walking around and interacting with things can sometimes be tedious because of the way the maps are aligned (y'know, when the sides of the map are diagonal to the sides of the screen...), you do get a nice little feature of being able to press B while walking to run (well, actually, Lan roller-blades, but...hey, why does his mom let him roller-blade around the house? My mom never lets me do that...). It can also be a bother sometimes to have to run all over the Internet or to different areas, but at least some people create shortcuts from their homepages to different areas of the Internet... But Lan must get a lot of exercise roller-blading everywhere like that.

The battle system, however, is a lot more fun. It's a real-time battle system where MegaMan can either use his blaster-cannon-arm to whittle away at the enemies' HP or use Battle Chips to gain certain weapons/perform certain moves/summon some of his NetNavi friends to attack. The enemies' HP is always visible over their heads, and MegaMan's is in the top left corner. You have to be extremely careful during battle and heal often, though, because if MegaMan gets deleted, you have to start from the last time you saved. Ouch. That was one thing I really didn't like about the game. So, it's also a good idea to save before and after important events and battles. MegaMan is a highly customizable, as is your Battle Chip folder, and it's a lot of fun to customize your folder with the Battle Chips you like best, and customize MegaMan with special programs that increase his HP, his attack power, etc.

Now, this is probably where you're going to throw things at me, because I probably see the story in a completely different way than other people... I don't like deep, thought-provoking stories. Reading the story summaries for Final Fantasies VII, VIII, and X gave me nightmares. (Don't laugh like that...I'm a very sensitive person...) Therefore, I like lighthearted stories better, and MMBN3's story is absolutely great and fun. The story runs something like this: Sometime in the near future, just about everything is connected to the Internet. In order to help people keep organized, devices called PETs were invented. PET stands for PErsonal Terminal, and it lets people access anything with a jack-in port (which includes all computers, and even a few vending machines and telephones). "Living" inside of their PET is a humanoid-looking program called a NetNavi that can talk with other programs and interact with its digital environment. The NetNavis' looks and personalities are all unique, ranging from the adorable Roll, to the goofy and egotistic GutsMan, to the menacing, buzz-saw-toting MetalMan. By far, however, the most popular NetNavi activity is NetBattling. Enter Lan Hikari, a quirky boy who practically lives to NetBattle, and his friends Mayl (the cute, helpful girl), Dex (the pudgy self-proclaimed rival), and Yai (the know-it-all child genius). Yes, the characters are a little cliche...but did that ever hurt anybody? Well, I thought they were funny... One day, the kids are hanging out together when a mysterious guy offers them the chance to compete in the N-1 NetBattle Tournament (shame on you, Lan! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to talk to strangers, especially shady-looking guys in cowboy hats?). Naturally, Lan can't resist, so he and MegaMan start down their path to the finals...but there are sinister goings-on in the city of Netopia...

Anyway, the story is a lot of fun, it's your basic "kid hero saves (insert place name here)" gig, and there are a few surprises, especially at the end, too. I think there were some things in the story that were a continuation of the first two games, so I didn't completely understand them, though...

The graphics are bright, colorful, and get the job done well. The battles are wonderfully animated, too. There's never any cut-scenes or any absolutely spectacular graphics, which wasn't really a big deal to me since I liked the gameplay so much, but might turn off other people who like Golden Sun-like graphics in their GBA games. My only gripe was that sometimes the blinking and moving lights in the Internet got a little hard on the eyes...but also sort of hypnotic...like a lava lamp...

Sound was okay. The music got annoying sometimes, but it wasn't too bad. The sound effects were about average. I usually listen to other music while I'm playing, but if I don't have any of my music with me, I'll turn the sound up just for kicks.

In my opinion, this game is LONG. Not only is it long, but it's longer than you originally think it will be (especially since some of the bosses will take you multiple tries to defeat, so remember to save often!!). I got to a certain boss battle and I thought, "Surely, the end is near," but I checked a couple of FAQs and it turned out I was only halfway through the game! However, I was also happy, because the fun-ness overrides the long-ness. As for replayability...I don't really think there's any other reason to play the game after you've beaten except maybe to collect all of the Battle Chips, do all of the side quests, stuff like that...I like to accomplish those things before I beat a game, though. At any rate, the game is so long that by the time you finish it you'll be ready to move on to Battle Network 4 or another game...so I wouldn't really worry about replayability.

All in all, MMBN3 is a solid, fun game. If you like what I've described, then you should probably buy the game, because unless you played it like a maniac (or were insanely, inhumanly good at it), you wouldn't be able to finish it in a week (or however long your local rental place rents out for). Besides, I don't know very many places that rent GBA games anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04