GBAtemp game of the week #48

[FAST6191]

Time for a GBAtemp book game club. The series could be summed up as each edition a selection of a game, game series or a related selection of games is made and after that those that wish can recount a playthrough and discuss the game as a whole or various aspects of it.
We hope our selections are interesting and aim to make them so but this is not intended to be a top ? games list of some form as those are quite limiting and might miss out on something that is really worth knowing about. Occasionally we might state another criteria used for the selection (we had a nice mini series a little while back on games that appeared in Europe but did not see a North American release) or we might set a challenge run (completing a game is one thing but there are certain things you can do to change the experience radically and before trophies/achievements were a thing they were all the rage).
We might occasionally move outside it (although usually not outside the reach of an emulator for the DS) but most of our selections will come from the sometimes still growing libraries of GBA, DS and Wii commercial releases, homebrew, leaked versions of games and rom hacks.

#48- Megaman Battle Network 5 (DS and GBA)

The GBA saw many RPGs but most were ports/remakes/might as well be remakes of 8 or 16 bit games, early final fantasy clones, tactics games or pokemon clones but Capcom made (and depending upon the person you are speaking to subsequently ran into the ground) a series of RPGs set in one of the megaman universes. It was time/turn based but a huge part of the battling revolved around fast reactions in real time battle. The GBA eventually saw 6 entries (many of which doing the two slightly different versions) and two spinoffs but the fifth entry in the GBA series also got a nice DS port that was also one of the first nice RPGs on the DS (the first year or two was very dry) and made use of the touchscreen in a less than gimmicky way. Now with that many entries in the series most of which were not changed that much (indeed a handful of those that use review scores would later say great game but take one point for every entry you have played before) means this choice could well see a few eyebrows raised as megaman battle network burnout is probably worse than final fantasy clone burnout. After this though the DS entries in the battle network universe went in a slightly different direction with the MegaMan Star Force games (also quite interesting) but we maintain it is a good RPG on the DS and well worth having played. The GBA side of the series is starting to see some fairly extensive hacks (usually aimed at hard mode) if you go looking as well.

An E3 trailer but several battles and walkthroughs are available.
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GBAtemp release thread[/p]

Megaman should be about the platforming or does this spinoff hold up?[/p]

gbagotw should get you other links in this series

 

[Skelletonike]

I've always loved the BN series, while many of the original fans hated BN and SF, I found them to be really addicting rpgs, I've played all of them countless times already, it's a really good series, and this one was prolly one of the best in the series, I prefer Team Colonel tho, just cuz colonel looks cooler. x3

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

I've never really tried any of the BN games because the turn based battles turned me off. This certainly does make me feel like giving it a try

 

[ChaosAngel]

The Battle Network series has had some of my favorite Megaman, and favorite GBA games. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the Star Force series and couldn't really get into the games the same way I got into the battle network ones.

 

[DarkShinigami]

i loved the battle network(i dont think i even beat 1 100% though guess i better break it out and finally do so.)

 

[Arras]

I loved the Battle Network games. Personally I liked 6 better than 5, but that's probably because it's the first game in the series I played. The Star Force games are kinda meh. Battle Network was just better somehow.

 

[BoxmanWTF]

Battle Network series was so fun!
Wouldv'e been better for me if I had a link cable but meh

 

[pokefloote]

BN 5 was my first megaman game, and I was hooked.

...haven't messed with the others, so I don't know.

 

[EZ-Megaman]

Overall, Battle Network is my favourite Megaman series (after Zero). I wouldn't say that the 5th game was the best, though. The liberation missions and large maps were fun, but I prefer the gameplay of BN 6 more.

 

[PolloDiablo]

Long time Rockman fan here (we used to call him Rockman because we only got the japanese famicom carts here in argentina)
I love BN series, I beated the entire saga in just 1 month! that was a really fun month

love the part when you have to go into the "undernet"

 

[BigLord]

If you refuse to play this game because you only like the original games, but you actually love RPGs... then sorry, you're an idiot. This series is amazing. There was a fangame being made (MMBN 7) for the PC, starring Lan's son, but it was canceled some years ago

The 5th iteration got a DS remake because of the unique mechanics of the Liberation missions, and I'm glad it did, because the game turned out amazing. Too bad the 6th game was undoubtedly superior :/ Beasting out was so damn cool.

I wish Starforce would have never happened... I liked the series as it was. I first played MMBN 2, never played MMBN 1 from start to finish, I gotta do it someday.

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

I tried playing this game and the RPG mechanics were so terrible that it made me physically sick.

Also, I want to play the real Mega Man (and I mean Mega Man. Not X or Zero or anyone). Not some digital internet-copy.

 

[Dingoo-fan 32]

This game was so hard, I had to use cheats to finish it!

I Want to play BN 2 and 6 someday...

 

[tatripp]

One of my favorite games ever. It is good if you don't think of it as an old megaman game. It is it's own game

 

[shakirmoledina]

ahh megaman... what a history it has

 

[Pablitox]

dude i almost feel like crying in the ending of the 6 one, was like a huge wave of emotions

then again 5 is really awesome

 

[1234turtles]

I approve this game of the week.

 

[ammaralmuary]

I really like the 5th installment of BN siries , not that dont like the 6th one , but i love 5 better
i really was hoping the megaman bn siries could make more , you know ~ like the battle network 7 ?
lan's kids as succesors . but i really loved the mmbn6 city looking "modern" style . epic i must say .

 

[Clydefrosch]

to be honest, this game was like the worst after BN1 (edit: for me). while it was nice that they went into a new direction with the whole strategy/flame chess thingy and it was cool to control other navis, but they just felt so unfitting and annoying at some point.
specially when you had to start over for whatever reason all the time

so yeah. was happy when they didnt do that again in the last game

still would love a complete collection on the ds/3ds though.

 

[Hadrian]

I remember when Capcom whored the hell out of MM and the end result was the same game over and over. BN 1 was a nice diversion though you can easily see that Mega Man was shoehorned into it. I didn't mind the Zero & ZX titles but the shit anime segments and terrible story (which seems to plague this series) put me off from wanting to finish them. Also anyone remember Battle Chip Challenge? That was a bad game.

Basically if Capcom ever brings him back I want the following:
No fucking story.
You play AS Mega Man.
You run and shoot.

Ideally I would like a proper 3D run and gun game handled by a studio who can do it properly..like a Western studio or Treasure however Capcom do tend to pick poor Western studios There's not much else they can do with the 2D sidescroller games without making them less like Mega Man and to be honest I'm done with the main series style.