I consider myself to be a Mega Man fan. I’ve played all the main series titles, almost all of Mega Man X, as well as all the Mega Man Zero and ZX games. My favorite was definitely Mega Man Zero (I just love green laser swords!), but each title and subseries offered me something worthwhile. That being said, for some reason I just never touched Mega Man Battle Network. It diverges from the classic 2D platformer gameplay a lot, and also takes place in an alternate universe from the regular timeline, where everything now uses the internet. So, this one I guess?
Capcom has been steadily releasing Legacy Collections of their Mega Man games, and now it’s time for Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. Bringing together the ten main games of the Battle Network series, I’ve now finally tried out the most different experience the Mega Man franchise has to offer. I’m hooked.
Let’s start with a little disclaimer. I played one of the games in this collection for this review, whilst also dipping my toes into the others to get a feel for their immediate differences and story progression. I sadly didn’t have the time to complete all the games, which would’ve taken easily over a hundred hours to fully complete when looking at my playtime of just the first game.
This is also a good time to bring up the number of games offered in the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. Whilst it’s advertised as featuring ten games, eight of these ten are in fact double up variants of four games. You see, the collection is really just the main Battle Network 1-6 games, with all games from Battle Network 3 onward having two different versions per game, kinda like Pokémon.
There are differences between game versions, but again the comparison to Pokémon seems particularly apt. There are minor differences in plot based on the characters that appear in your version of the game, and different Chips, your abilities, will also appear in different games.
Whilst this is a review of the entire Battle Network Legacy Collection as a package, now is a good time to dive into what I think of the actual gameplay. Mega Man Battle Network games are RPGs, with a lot more walking around and talking than was ever featured in any other Mega Man title, with exploration being a key feature for those who want to experience the most the games have to offer.
You play the entire collection as Lan, a boy living in a world where everything is connected to the internet. You can explore these online spaces as your digital alter ego NetNavi, with Lan’s NetNavi being the digital version of the blue bomber himself, MegaMan.EXE. This futuristic Mega Man runs through the virtual world inside the devices of citizens to solve problems, follow mysteries and save the day. Inside the ‘net, you’ll find viruses, which are enemies presented in the form of random encounters.
Combat is where these games shine. Using your deck of Chips, which you can customize as you find more around the world, you’ll be using the best moves you’ve got to try and strategically defeat the enemies. Defeating enemies faster gets you a higher rank after encounters, and with it comes better rewards. I found it honestly pretty exciting to start an encounter, flick through my Chips and try and stack up the best moveset to shred through the encounter as fast as possible.
The combat is also incredibly deep, despite being easy to pick up. Whilst on the surface you’re just selecting moves to use them, combining certain moves in certain orders will allow you to use stronger moves to deliver far higher damage. Trial and error across battles made combat slowly become second nature, as I started to discover ideal combos to maximize damage output.
My first complaint about Battle Network is about these enemy encounters. In the first game, these encounters are far too frequent, to the point of irritation eventually. You do have a Chip that helps you escape battles, but it’s luck of the draw if you’ll have it at the start of a game. It’s worth noting that, thankfully, later titles in the series actually offer abilities that reduce the frequency of the random encounters. Despite this though, it’s still a slog to get through parts of the first game.
Other parts of the Battle Network can be a slog too because of their difficulty. You can always ask MegaMan.EXE for a tip on where you’re meant to go next, but sometimes it really isn’t clear. There were a few times where I was just wandering the net for ages, bumping into encounter after encounter, all trying to find wherever I’m meant to be next. It’s all just a little poorly signposted for me. I don’t want the game to hold my hand, but if it’s going to constantly throw rocks at me (in the form of random encounters) while I’m exploring, it gets annoying quickly.
The game also wasn’t clear in how the save system works for me, and I made a huge mistake. I played for two hours straight in one session, having a great time progressing the story and collecting new Chips in battles. I found a boss, died to it, and then was sent back to the title screen after a game over. There was no autosave, no option to restart the encounter, no checkpoint and no indicator that an unskippable boss was about to appear. It was really disheartening to lose so much progress. I completely understand the game is from an older generation of gaming, but the Battle Network Legacy Collection is brand new. It would’ve been great to either have it very clearly indicated that this was a game that needs constant saving, or to have some kind of rewind option as offered by other collections of classic games, including the franchise’s own Mega Man Legacy Collection.
Despite this extreme annoyance, which was partly my own fault, I managed to bounce back into the game and catch up again without feeling too down about it – because it’s just so fun. The games have beautiful isometric artwork, with colors that pop off the screen and immerse me in a charming, nostalgic yet futuristic world. The music also helps me get into that vibe, with charming chiptune music that’s simple and catchy, and synergizes well with the pixel art of the games.
I absolutely recommend you play the Battle Network games, but what value does the collection add as a whole? Actually, quite a bit. The online elements of the game are a game changer, enabling fans of the series to trade and battle with friends with all the ease and accessibility you could ask for, and without any of the inconvenience of a wired connection a Game Boy Advance would require, or the complicated set up an emulator would need.
The Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection also offers some exclusive content that was originally only distributed in Japan such as special Chips, available now to all players around the world. Also offered with the collection are some other more traditional extras found in game collections, such as an art gallery, music player, background frames and a smoothing filter. All of these are great additions even if standard, except for the terrible smoothing filter. The smudgy filter looks pretty poor, so I turned it off almost immediately. Interestingly, even with it turned off, it seems the main menu in-game still uses this “improved” font. This wouldn’t be hugely noticeable to most, but as a big pixel art fan it is certainly a weird clash.
As a whole package, I can wholeheartedly say that the two volumes of the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection are worth it when purchased for the combined price of $60. Dividing that into six, it’s easily worth the $10 per unique title with all the added flash of the updated menus and settings. Purchasing the two volumes of the collection separately though, I don’t entirely recommend. Buying the two as separate volumes would be $40 each, for a total of $80 if you decide on playing both games, which is a little steep.
I’m glad I finally experienced this series with the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. Despite some tedious elements of dated gameplay, these classic games have a suite of new features for longtime fans, and will be sure to engross new fans who are open to an RPG interpretation of Mega Man.
Bobby played Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection on PC with a code provided by Capcom. Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is also available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
