Mega Man Battle Network 3 Review

A while back, Capcom decided to release Mega Man Battle Network for the GBA. It was very innovative as well as fun. The game took the Mega Man franchise and made it an action RPG with great replay value. Mega Man Battle Network 2 was also pretty good, because it tied up some loose ends and added a couple of more items. Mega Man Battle Network 3, however, has yet to bring any “big� change to the MMBN series.

MMBN3 takes place in an alternate universe where the internet is even more extensive. In this series, little robot-like people run computer programs and they live in household appliances. To protect these appliances, humans created these smart “internet agents” called Navis. Megaman.EXE is the Navi of a young boy, named Lan. Together, Lan and Mega Man fight the evil Dr. Wiley and his army of immoral and malicious Navis. Mega Man operates in the digital world, while Lan solves problems in the real world. There isn’t a lot of story in this game, but the game is fun nonetheless.

For those who haven’t played the previous MMBN games, the battle system is fast and filled with action. The battleground is split into two 3×3 grids. One grid is for the enemy, while the other is for Mega Man. Each character gets to move anywhere in their grid in real time. You could move around to dodge an enemy’s attack, as well as move to attack them. The only way Mega Man can attack is if he uses battlechips. Mega Man gets 3 random battlechips per round (a round is finished when you use all three of your battle chips). Like a collectable card game, battlechips could have many effects (direct or indirect). One battlechip might just be for a bomb to attack an enemy with or it might be to increase the size of your grid while decreasing your enemy’s grid. There are many battlechips in the game and you have to decide which ones are the most useful.

The biggest change I could see in the game was the addition of the Navi Customizer. It allows you to change your Navi’s stats. Using the Navi Customizer, you could install programs into Mega Man’s memory. As you progress into the game, you will find a plethora of chips ranging from Defense +1 to much more advanced programs. You could even upgrade your Customizer, which will get you additional memory map space.

If you read the title correctly, you will know that this game was split into to versions, White and Blue. From what I played, there are a few changes in each game. Each version has exclusive super-rare battlechips and an exclusive boss Navi. I really don’t feel that it is necessary to buy both versions.

Capcom decided to recycle MMBN 2’s graphics. Though the graphics were bright and colorful, I expected for them to be improved. In terms of audio, I’d have to say that MMBN 3’s audio is pretty good, though I could recognize some tunes came from previous versions of MMBN, I did notice some new tunes.

This game is long and difficult enough to please me. MMBN3 is, so far, the best Mega Man Battle Network game. It is only the best, because it has a few more features than the previous games in this series. However, MMBN 1 and 2 are better values, because you could get them for a cheaper price. Overall, MMBN 3 was fun, but lacked the innovation I expected.