Why The Mega Man Battle Network Games Were Instant Classics
Going into the 21st century, the state of the Mega Man franchise was becoming hazy. Classic Mega Man had run its course for the time being, and the X games were intended to end at X5 in 2000, and then X6 in 2001. Another Mega Man Legends sequel was not in the cards, so the Mega Man series suddenly had a huge opening for new projects. The Mega Man Zero series would not be announced until 2002, so while the X games continued to plug along on PlayStation consoles, there looked to be a sizable Mega Man drought for Nintendo consoles.
That changed when Mega Man Battle Network was announced in August 2000. The game would become a Game Boy Advance launch title in Japan on March 21st, 2001, and a North American release would follow later that year. It was meant to capitalize on the ongoing Pokemon craze while also providing a new take on the Mega Man franchise. Battle Network was swiftly joined on the GBA by Mega Man Zero, and the two series carried the Mega Man franchise for the next five years. Although the first Mega Man Battle Network was rough around the edges, its ideas were stellar, and fans were rewarded with a unique series that went on to inspire its own subgenre of action-RPGs.
Mega Man: 10 Ways Battle Network 5 Is Completely Different On The Nintendo DS
The Mega Man Battle Network games are a series of action-RPGs that combine classic dungeon crawling with twitch-based Mega Man combat set on a 6-by-3 grid. Players and enemies could move in real time, using different attacks to damage each other and affect the tiles themselves. Players also had access to Battle Chips that functioned like a deck of cards built throughout the game. The player’s chip collection in the first Battle Network could already grow fairly large, and
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