Buy Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection

Mega Man Battle Network is the first game in the franchise to fully divorce itself from the increasingly convoluted metaplot of the mainline series that went from Mega Man to Mega Man Legends. It is set in a more standard modern-day world. Rather than battling robots, most people have NetNavis, small AI assistants that live in their personal phones and explore the internet for them. The protagonist, Lan Hikari, is the operator of the Navi, Megaman.exe. Lan and Megaman.exe team up to battle viruses and stop the evil forces that seek to corrupt society for their own purposes, ranging from evil corporations to brainwashing cults and beyond. Thankfully, every evil organization prefers battling with electronic avatars instead of throwing a 10-year-old child (who is besting them) into a closet and locking the door.

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is a goofy Saturday morning cartoon story. It can occasionally get a little dark but only within that context. Heroes are bright and colorful, villains are cackling and evil, friendship triumphs over adversity, and so on. It slots in quite well with shows and games like Pokémon in that regard, where the focus is on heroic battles. It's perfectly fun in that regard and in line with the classic Mega Man titles over the post-Mega Man X series, but don't expect anything mind-blowing.

Probably one of the best elements of MMBNLC is how weirdly well it aged. Back when it came out, the idea of an entirely connected online world just seemed silly. After all, who would connect their oven or car to the internet? In 2023, what seemed like a silly concept is now commonplace enough that it probably fits better now that it did when it came out. The aesthetics are far more in the late-90s/early-00s era of the internet, with backgrounds that look more like a GeoCities page than the modern sleek designs, but it sure had the last laugh on those of us who giggled at the concept when it came out.

As far as graphics go, it's an upscaled GBA game. The environments are nice and full of cute little details, but it's still designed to be viewed on a screen smaller than a modern phone. The in-battle graphics have aged better than the overworld graphics and generally look quite good. The overworld has a "smoothing" effect applied to give everything a smeared look. In-battle graphics seemed to get more attention, including each of the game's special "chip" attacks being given new hand-drawn artwork. The music is still similarly built around a GBA's speakers but has aged pretty well and largely sounds quite good.

Probably the single most intriguing feature of the franchise is its combat system. Long before it was commonplace to have such things, MMBNLC presented a combination of action-RPG combat and deckbuilding mechanics that are still unmatched to this day. Effectively each battle is divided into two sets of 3x3 grids. Mega Man is on one side and enemies on the other, and they can't cross over. You can move Mega Man freely around the grid to dodge enemy attacks and fire and charge your Mega Buster. Likewise, enemies also move freely around the field, but they usually move in set patterns that allow you to anticipate their next step. Every enemy attack can be dodged, but many of them require precise timing or careful movement to avoid being hit, which gives every battle a frantic feel as you try to land hits on moving enemies while avoiding their attacks.

The deckbuilding elements come into play with special chip attacks, which range from something as simple as cannons and swords to deadly poison traps, invisibility, or even the ability to steal segments of the enemy's battle area so you have more room to dodge. During combat, a custom meter fills up, and once it does you can choose which chips to use in that turn. Most chips can only be used once, so you need to time your attacks correctly to get the best effect.

It gets more complex with you deal with chip codes and combos. Some chip combos can even form advance attacks, which are far more powerful. It's a simple but addictive system that rewards you for experimenting with different combos and creating new and distinct builds. You might favor simple attacks, but there are some incredibly powerful chip combos. Finding the correct one to use at the appropriate time is critical to beating some of the tougher challenges.

Each successive game in the franchise adds new wrinkles. You get special styles that can do things like power up your Mega Buster or make it easier to draw chips. You get fusions with other characters, you get evil "dark" chips that are super powerful but can make you go berserk, and so on. Not every gimmick is a success, but they usually make the overall combat feel fresh. Much of the combat system remains the same, which is a good case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Unfortunately, like the mainline Mega Man games, there's a distinct shift in quality over the course of the games' lives. Mega Man Battle Network to Mega Man Battle Network 3 are a general upward trend in quality, with each game getting better. If you aren't interested in the full collection, these three games comprise "part one" and provide a huge amount of value for your buck. Battle Network 3 is probably the best game in the series on its own.

Sadly, part two of the collection isn't quite as good. Mega Man Battle Network 4 can kindly be called a huge mess. It's a poorly designed, buggy and quite an unenjoyable experience, with some of the worst level and boss design in the franchise. There's very little positive to say about it, and it's probably my least favorite Mega Man title. Battle Network 5 and Battle Network 6 represent a big step upward in quality but only Battle Network 6 manages to capture the highs of the first three.

It's worth noting that from Battle Network 3 and onward, the game adopted a Pokémon-like strategy of releasing multiple versions of the game with version exclusives. Battle Network 3's release is odd in that it was originally one game in Japan and then an "upgraded" version was released, with the two versions released as counterparts in North America. From Battle Network 4 onward, the differences are more standard, with each version having unique chips, styles and bosses, even if the titles shared the same basic plot. The collection allows you to select which version of the game to play, but it's not quite getting two different games for the price of one. It's more akin to … well, Pokémon Red vs Pokémon Blue, right down to allowing you to trade features from one version to another.

Speaking of which, the MMBNLC adds some welcome new features. Perhaps the most prominent is the addition of online trading and battling. While online chip trading is cool, this adds the ability to battle opponents. The Battle Network games were designed with the idea of fighting other players, but the limit of having to have a nearby friend limited the audience, considering the more niche nature of the game. Online battling also has specialized rules that limit some of the most overpowered combos in the single-player game to make it more balanced. Those rules have been adjusted for the new versions to try to keep things fresh.

There are several other new features. The franchise had a crossover with Konami's odd Boktai series, a franchise which can best be described as "Castlevania but with a sunlight sensor, so you had to play it outdoors." Most of this content was cut in the original North American release, but the bulk of it has been added back, with only crossover battles getting axed. There's now a special MAX Buster cheat mode that makes your standard Mega Buster do absurd amounts of damage in case you want to breeze through the story. There's also the now-standard collection of concept art that you can view for each game in the franchise.

Overall, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is a really good collection. Even if every game isn't a hit, more than enough of them are strong that you'll probably lose hours of time to these games if they even remotely hit for you. Their unique combat system is fondly remembered to this day, and the weirdly prescient concept of the future has aged shockingly well. It's not going to be the platforming game that some fans of the franchise might prefer, but of all the Mega Man collections, this is going to give you the most value for your dollar.

Score: 9.0/10