In the year 2001, the Gameboy Advance was beginning to really shine as the most powerful handheld system to come in existence. When Capcom got ahold of the specs for this sweet handheld system, the world over could only guess that some wonderful things would emerge. This soon became a reality with Megaman Battle Network which, when released, swept the lands and caught the eye of many children, adults, and hardcore Megaman fans! They were not disappointed in the innovative gameplay, great graphics, and good storyline. Megaman Battle Network has obviously gone over so well that it has compiled into a series of 5 games for the GBA as of November 2005! But what makes Megaman Battle Network so great? The following consists of my opinion.

Megaman Battle Network has a highly original story that deals with reality integrated into the internet. A boy named Lan lives in ACDC Town (No, not the band) with his family and a multitude of friends and rivals. Net Navigators, otherwise known as PETs are used to "jack in" to all types of electronics and lead to the seemingly parallel world of the internet. Lan's PET is the ever-popular Megaman! Throughout the story, Lan and Megaman explore the internet destroying human-placed viruses set on trying to destroy the internet thus altering reality into a state of chaos.

The graphics and animations in Megaman Battle Network are very good; in my opinion, the graphics of the game are the best in its time when it comes to the Gameboy Advance. The character and enemy designs within the game are very detailed and the world in itself consists of a nice 3-D design. In the battle mode, the detail becomes even more involved with great attack animations and excellent character details. The graphics are very smooth and consist of no graphical glitches to speak of.

Possibly the only negative aspect of Megaman Battle Network is its sound support. While the sounds and music themselves are not very bad, listening to them gives a reminder of what games from the old gameboy and the gameboy color sounded like. Along with the very decent graphics, one would expect music and sound that comes up to par for the Gameboy Advance. I would have accepted the sound in the mid to late nineties, but for a 2001 RPG, the sound of Megaman Battle Network falls short of any greatness with repetative music that can become quite irritating at times and demands much more than provided.

It's fairly difficult to discover a game with innovative gameplay, especially after the turn of the century. One won't be disappointed by the originality in gameplay of Megaman Battle Network. It's battle system is highly original. There is a turn base, but within that turn there is a constant state of action and excitement. At the beginning of each turn, you select a group of actions that consist of the same code letter or type and you can use those selected actions during your turn to damage your enemies (viruses). After depleting your usage of actions for each turn, you have the option to use your weak, yet sometimes effective, blaster gun until the next turn rolls around and you are allowed to choose more actions for Megaman to use.

Possibly the only negative thing about the gameplay is the enemy repetativeness. Every little while in the internet, Megaman will enter a battle phase, and it can sometimes constantly be the same group of enemies. This can get a bit boring and repetative but if you enjoy the innovative gameplay enough, this will not effect you.

On average, without taking the time to collect all of the battle action chips (The actions stated in the 'Gameplay' section of the review), it would take between 30-40 hours to finish this game. That's not too bad for an RPG though not the best. I personally prefer a game that can offer me 60 or more hours of solid gameplay even without collecting all powerups, maxing out statistics, etc..

Do yourself a favor and go out and buy Megaman Battle Network! The innovative gameplay and decent storyline will keep you hooked on it.. While you're at it, go out and buy the entire Megaman Battle Network series! You wont be disappointed at all!

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