Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon

"Repetitive, but worth it in the end... If you have the patience."

This game is a bit different from the other MMBN games in the series. Sure, it follows the same formula, of collecting chips and fighting bosses, but it does it in a slightly different way. Some people may like it, and some may not.

The first thing that you'll notice that changed is the graphics. Lan has somehow shrunk about two feet, along with everyone else in the world of MMBN. Actually, it's not only the people, the buildings and Navis shrunk too. Everybody looks like a colorful Lego character now. The battle graphics have stayed the same though, for some reason. Other than the change in style, the game looks okay, and up to date with other GBA games.

The story takes a rest in this game, however. Instead of having the main focus of the game being the story in BN3, this game pushes it aside for a more battle-themed approach. What little there is of the story, is about a group of scientists who discover a comet or asteroid, or whatever, flying towards Earth. They call in Dr Hikari, and he calls in some evil looking guy, and they make some netbattle tournament to get to see who can help them stop the comet. I don't understand why they couldn't just pick Lan, since he has superhuman powers in just about every BN game, but they needed to stretch the story out.

The dialogue is hilarious. I mean, with quotes like "Leg's go, Lan!", "I need to get money from Daddy", and "What a polite young man she was!", how can you not like it? Other dialogue is just plain text, to push the story along. Translating can be a hard job though, so I won't put it against them, although it's good for laughs.

Battles have pretty much stayed the same, except for the Navi Souls. After you defeat a certain Navi, you will get that Navi's power to use in battle. To activate it, you need to sacrifice one chip of the soul's element. You will never get this chip back, but since you can buy them back at Higsby's shop, it doesn't matter. I personally like the Style system better, but oh well.

Another new addition is the Dark Chips. Whenever MM takes a lot of damage, his emotion meter will become angry, and he'll be able to use Dark Chips. When he uses these, he'll gain a ton of power, taking out some bosses in nearly 3 hits. However, when you use one, MM will lose 1HP, and you'll never be able to get it back. MM will also go berserk after you use the chip, and his HP will start going down. It's a very big risk when you use a dark chip.

Chip collecting is also different. So you don't stock up on the best chips early in the game, it forces you to play the game 4 times to get the different versions of chips. For example, on your first playthrough, you can only get Version 1 chips of Metools, and on your second playthrough, you can get the Version 2 chips. Play through all four games, and you'll get to the secret area, where you can fight MMBN's famous special boss. You should know who he is, if you played BN 2 or 3.

One other thing to note, is that instead of the story pointing you on which direction to go, you follow the tournaments. In each tournament, you will face an opponent. Before that though, Lan somehow always feels the need to help his competition with whatever problems they have, whether it be their Navi flooding the net with tears, or fixing a toy top. There are a few story scenarios, but they are short, and few.

The sound isn't bad, really. It's mostly the same old sound effects, but slightly improved. The music is softer in this game, but the battle music in the tournaments is pretty cool. There's a good amount of hummable music in the game, which is fine by me.

MMBN4 isn't that abd of a game, really. It may not be like it's other games in the series, but it's a fun game if you like collecting things, and customizing your character to your style. If you don't mind the repetition, then go ahead and buy it. If you just want an RPG, renting might be a smart choice. It's a pretty interesting game though, which focuses more on battles than story. It's worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/05