Mega Man Battle Network 3 White

"Okay, who whitewashed Mega Man?"

Ah, Mega Man, thou art the source of many lost funds. From the early NES titles to my beloved X series, this franchise has been milked like a cow being attacked by fifteen vacuum cleaners. Try to ignore the odd mental image. Anyway, I'm a big Mega Man fan, as you may have surmised. The Battle Network games were a special treat for me. Mega Man combined with RPG gameplay? RPG Whore Sense...tingling! Actually, that may be my cell phone...nope, it's the Whore Sense.

So, Mega Man Battle Network! And game 3, no less! The series hasn't managed a stellar amount of innovation after the refreshing punch in the face that was the first game. Rather, Capcom has put upon us evolution and various improvements to the franchise from game to game. Battle Network the first was fresh, new, interesting, tingly in the Whore Sense and other naughty places. The second introduced several new elements, along with the Style Change which was making its appearance in the anime (in Japan) at roughly the same time, give or take a few episodes. The third takes all that was present in the first two, lumps it together, tosses in a few new things, sprinkled it with paprika and baked at 1500 degrees for several months. The end result? A game that doesn't quite innovate, but takes all that Capcom injected into the series thus far and delivers a solid package that is a testament to just what this developer can do when they put their minds to it.

Shall we start at the beginning? We shall, we shall! Returning for his second encore is Netto Hikari, or as you and I know him in the states, Lan Hikari (Lan Router would've been funnier). He's returning to school again after the summer vacation of the last game, and as you may expect, this game doesn't focus on him getting his homework in on time. Actually, it makes you wonder just what kind of grades this kid is getting if he's spending all his free time saving the world from global crime syndicates.

Again at the beginning, you're thrown into a tutorial on the game's battle system. It's much the same from the last two games, but I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I skipped this part on the assumption that everyone's a veteran of the series. Battle is played out on a six by three grid, with two sections of nine squares each dividing up the playing field. At the beginning of each round you select up to five battle chips. You can select multiple battle chips if they're of the same letter code or of the same type (i.e. you can select several Cannon chips regardless of their letter code, or select a Sword S, LongSwd S, etc.) Putting together a proper battle folder is almost essential. Put in too many different chips with mismatching letter codes and you'll likely only be able to use one or two per round, if that. However, slap together several chips capable of unleashing a Program Advance and you've got a recipe for some dead electronic critters! Use up all your chips, and you'll still have your trusty Mega Buster to dish out damage. While all this may sound strange on paper and/or pixels, it ends up being an intriguing and excellent way of combining RPG with action-style gameplay.

The style changes from the last game have returned, with three new additions: Bug, Ground and Shadow styles. The last two are dependent on the game's version, but I'll get to that later. Once again a style change will improve Mega Man's Buster power, rate of fire and charge rate, though the changes aren't always desirable depending on your style of play. Many of the styles have their own elemental strengths, like Wood and Elec styles, along with their respective weaknesses. Use a battle chip that plays on your style's element and do increased damage, but be hit by an element you're weak against and suffer the consequences. Once again you can level up your styles depending on how many battles you fight using said style, and the rewards for upgrading is more substantial than the last game.

Those rewards come in the form of Navi customizer programs, a new addition to the game. The customizer is a four-by-four square grid (upgradable to five-by-five) in which you can place various programs composed of certain arrangements of blocks. Some programs improve Mega Man's base abilities, while others give him special moves or powers to use either in or outside of battle There's a few rules regarding the customizer which are explained in-game, but for the most part your biggest problem will be getting the most out of this little grid. This is made problematic by the fact that certain programs which give you special abilities outside of battle (such as Press, which allows you to compress Mega Man to a tiny stature so he can walk on thin rails) are often required to get anywhere or do specific tasks later in the game. The problem with this is you either have to constantly shuffle around the programs in your customizer, or just plain go without certain upgrades or special abilities, which can be a pain.

Okay, okay, so what about the game? Well, remember the WWW from the first game? For those who don't or never played it, think Net Mafia. They're all off causing havoc in cyberspace, and it's up to this gradeschooler to shut them down. Sound far-fetched? Who cares?

While the main game is very linear, you have several opportunities to go off and do your own thing. At practically any time you can jack into the Internet and go wandering off, busting viruses till your thumbs are sore. Or, you can take on small jobs like recovering data for a scientist, or deleting a particularly nasty virus, all for a variety of rewards. You also have the opportunity to trade your battle chips for (hopefully) better ones at chip trading machines, or speak to the various inhabitants of the game and set up a deal. If they're interested, of course.

For the most part, the game will toss you from one net crisis to the next. Fires, gas leaks, floods, sabotaged satellites and the like are all caused by the revived WWW via the net, and it's up to you, Netto Hikari, 5th grader, to put a stop to it all. Right. Who said it had to make sense? I know I didn't. Basically, find a crisis, enter the net, seek out the boss Navi who's causing the problems and put the Mega Smackdown on their ass. While that may sound simple, it's something of a generalization that could be applied to any RPG. There's more to the game than what I could possibly describe here without writing a full walkthrough.

Prepare for a sudden shift of subjects. Please keep all hands and legs inside the review. Graphics! Sound! That didn't hurt a bit, now did it? I never like reviewing the technicals, because I'm the sort of person who doesn't pay attention to such things most of the time. Anyway, the graphics are damned similar to the previous games. Identical, in fact. Not that that's a bad thing. The sprites were all well-detailed to begin with, and the weapon animations were a joy to watch, especially just before they cause a virus to explode, bringing joy and laughter to all non-viruses. Concurrently, the music is fun to listen to, but in moderation. Spend too much time in one area and you may go a bit batty. The sound effects are all rather passé. Shots, explosions, beeps and blips. Nothing special there, but nothing terrible either.

Now, I'm sure you've noticed from the game list that this title is split up between two versions. Well, I'll tell you right now the only difference between the two is a single encounter with a boss Navi early on. There's no real difference aside from the previously-mentioned enemy Navi and five exclusive Giga chips (uber-badass battle chips that do a lot of damage). So, basically, to choose between the two, I'd recommend looking over the FAQs covering the differences and then select your favorite.

Okay, so there's not much point to the two versions other than Capcom extracting more money out of your wallets. Well, maybe a little, as some standard chips have different letter codes in the two versions, and there's a style exclusive to each version. There's also some graphical and other small technical differences, but those are minor and unimportant to the game itself. Anyway, the main quest of this dual epic will take a couple dozen hours and change to finish, but you're not done, not quite yet. You have 200 regular battle chips to find, along with all the mega chips, and once those are gotten you can start in on the ass-busting Giga chips. Ironically, the tasks to complete after the game has been beaten (and by beaten, I mean the final boss has been torched, as opposed to everything being completed) may, in fact, take more time and a lot more skill to accomplish than the main quest. Of course, it wouldn't be a Battle Network game without the ability to netbattle someone via the link cable, and Capcom being Capcom, this feature has returned for another go in this evolution of the series. Good for Capcom, I say.

Now, as far as my tastes go, I'm always ready for a new version of Mega Man. Why not? Who cares about so-called 'new' franchises when you find one that works? While others out there may look at this game and see more of the same, I see more of what I love of the Battle Network series. Virus busting, chip collecting, and of course, the epic battle with Forte and co. If you're a fan of the first two games, you'll find nothing to hate about this game. If you haven't checked out the series before now, this would be a good time to get into it. Enjoy, netbattlers.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/04