Pandora's Box: The Ultimate GameCube Tier List

#63: Mega Man Network Transmission

Rating: E

Players: 1

Price Range: ~$26 USD

A 2D action-platformer set within the Battle Network subseries of Mega Man.

Now, this is a game I have a lot to talk about.

First, my thoughts about Mega Man in general.

I'll tell you right away that I'm a certified fan of the series. I love me some good ol' fashioned Mega Man.

The NES and SNES game shave aged like fine wine and are simple, yet challenging. As a person who eats challenging video games for breakfast, these are my comfort food.

As for my experience, I enjoy classic Mega Man and the X series. In fact, I prefer the X games...when it is done right, which unfortunately doesn't happen more than half the time. However, we'll get into my thoughts on the individual games when we get to their respective collections on the GameCube. I...didn't get into the Mega Man Zero games, mostly due to how impossibly difficult they are, nor the ZX games. I've never played Star Force or Legends, and I've only played Battle Network 4 (Red Sun version) from obtaining it at a garage sale, and...this game.

I gel a bit with this game.

However, the vast majority of the gaming community consider this one of the worst Mega Man games out there.

It doesn't help that this is one of the worst selling games in the series, which came out during the time where Capcom oversaturated the market with Mega Man games to the point that there was diminishing returns. The game is even exclusive to the GameCube to this day despite not being considered a part of the Capcom Five.

However, after playing through the game two times to the end, it is nowhere near as bad as people say it is.

Now, that's not to say that it is an amazing game, because it's not, and in fact has a lot of problems that would ward off any potential players like it's a coming of the plague.

First, the problems, but to talk about them, we must discuss the gameplay.

This is a 2D-sidescroller like the classic series. In fact, this is one of only console Mega Man games in this style besides X8 before the hiatus.

You see, this game carries over the battle chip system from the GBA games in which you set up your deck or "folder" of battle chips that you randomly pull from that have a variety of effect, being able to take up to five at a time or take less in order to save the ones not taken for later, with up to ten being able to be stored in reserve. Every three or so minutes you can do this, but you are forced to trade your current chips for either stored ones or five new chips from your folder.

While this may seem like a rather intuitive system, especially in this format, it is a bit flawed.

For starters, three or five minutes. If you need to get a specific battle chip, say, before a boss fight, unless you use a consumable, you'll have to wait that egregious amount of time before getting a chance to get that one chip. Ridiculous. Also, some of the chips are just not good at all, like Stone Bod, which just makes you invincible while making Mega Man.EXE immobile and unable to attack. Repair is also never used, as there is no situation in which you would ever need to respawn fallen platforms to progress if it is a one-way path. What is the point of these?

As if to add insult to injury, the Mega Buster is actual garbage in the opening hours of the game. You can't charge it, it has a rather slow fire rate, and does pitiful damage. It takes about eight or so shots to kill even basic enemies in the first level. This means you have to rely exclusively on battle chips to survive, which is a problem when the system is not executed the best.