Likewise, the “grind” of the Battle Network titles relies heavily on how efficiently you can take out enemies- it’s a fine concept, but even when you rank well in a skirmish, you only have a chance of obtaining new weaponry from a downed foe. The “cracked tile” mechanic, which forces the player to stay within certain boundaries during battle, can cripple the composition of a deck, which often requires precision positioning in order to work. Battle Network has some great ideas, but it falters in a few areas that frustrate me a bit too much. I made it about a third of the way through Mega Man Battle Network 2 (the starting point recommended by my friend- I’ve noticed a trend of fans stating the second installment is where things hit their stride) before I was stripped of my deck and forced to use a developer-built, purposefully garbage deck instead, and had to defeat a boss, at that, before I threw in the towel. A friend of mine had been touting the gameplay of the spin-off series for a long time, and being a fan of RPGs, I figured the Virtual Console ports were as good a time as any to see what all the fuss was about. That brings us to Mega Man Battle Network, a game that I came to tolerate during the days of the Wii U. The original NES titles were the foundation, but many spin-off titles would attempt to entice fans of other genres, all the while maintaining the series’ staples of precision movement and very, very, gimmicky character designs. This is a franchise that has apparently nestled close to the hearts and minds of many thanks to its iterative, and dare I say adaptive premise. But Mega Man is not just an action platformer, it’s something even more special. In 2D form, action is nothing more than twitch-precision and pattern memorization, which is not my forte. I’ve never liked action platformers, really, unless the focus is on the latter half of the title and not the former.
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