The Mega Man Battle Network series is in its fourth iteration and is definitely beginning to get a little tired. While this is a better game than the previous Battle Network cartridges, it has to lose points in the originality department.

If you have never played one of the Mega Man Battle Network games before, a short explanation is in order. These are not the Mega Man platformer games of yore that appeared on the NES. Mega Man is now a Net Navi, a virus-busting program on the Net and kind of the virtual alter ego of his owner, Lan. Mega Man accomplishes his virus busting with battle chips that are used as weapons against his enemies.

In the real world the player controls Lan as he moves about his home and town. On the Net, the player controls Mega Man as he moves around the labyrinth-like levels looking for data, meeting non-player characters and the fighting in the ever-popular RPG random battles that pit him against various viruses. The battle field consists of a six-square wide by three-square tall grid that is initially divided evenly between Mega Man's and the enemy's control, but that can change as chips are played. Within their own zones of control the fighting Navi’s may move freely during combat. Combat consists of choosing a set of battle chips from an initial five and using them against the enemy viruses or tournament opponents in real-time combat. The battle chips mainly consist of varying attack, defense and health-recovery items. At set intervals during battle Mega Man may reequip himself with more battle chips and thus the fight continues until the virus or Mega Man bites the big one.

Capcom did add a few new twists to this fourth Battle Network game. "Soul Unison" allows Mega Man to tap the special abilities from other Navis and for a time take on their powers and battle with them for increased effectiveness. Mega Man Battle Network 4 comes in two flavors: Blue Moon and Red Sun. Each has six soul types exclusive to that version. Through linking two GBAs playing different versions of the game it is possible to collect all 12. As kind of a companion feature, Mega Man may also use "dark" battle chips. These chips are powerful in combat but temporarily turn Mega Man evil where he cannot use soul unison. Being evil is also part of the new emotion system that effects Mega Man’s performance during combat depending on how well the player has handled him and how many dark chips have been used.

I blame Yu-Gi-Oh and the obsession with card-battle tournaments for the story deficiencies. In past installments of Battle Network at least there was some semblance of a real story. This time the main part of the story is about a Net Navi tournament. The over-arching story of an enormous asteroid about to whack the earth gets seriously short changed. I truly think the danger of becoming galactic roadkill is a little bit bigger deal than a Net Navi tournament.

There is no really significant improvement over previous outings in the areas of graphics, audio and control. They did the job well enough in previous editions and do a perfectly good job again.

I guess in the end analysis I think it is about time for Capcom to really do something new for the Battle Network series. These games are coming out at such short intervals that I really don’t see that they are changing enough to warrant another purchase. Again, this is the best of Mega Man Battle Network games, but I must say that I cannot in good conscience give the game as high a score as I would have given one of its predecessors. Put simply, the games are beginning to wear thin. If you’d don’t have any of the previous editions of Mega Man Battle Network, this is a good one to buy and enjoy. For returning players, hold off purchasing and demand that Capcom do a little bit more next time.



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