Mega Man: Network Transmission
Ah, crap.
I've been here long enough, and rarely ever contribute in the form of a review (largely because I'm lazy, and equally because I believe my writing skills concerning informational pieces suck ass). But, every so often, I force myself to do it, because, for me, being part of any group is consistently composed of not only what you get, but also what you give. So here, TNL, this is me giving.
Mega Man: Network Transmission is the seamless, all be it initially bizarre, fusion of at least one piece of nearly every Mega Man franchise to date (excluding Mega Man Soccer and the Misadventures of Tron Bonne). There's leveling up, chip collection, platforming, equipping, boss element exploitation, and the Internet. The games it borrows most heavily from are the Mega_Man.EXE series (it is, in fact, set smack in the middle of this universe), which revolves around a human boy named Lan, and his "Navi," Mega_Man.EXE.
In Lan's world, everyone has a Navi, and every Navi takes the form of a humanoid with expertise in an extremely narrow and peculiar field, evidenced by their appearance. Yet, the most basic function of any Navi is the same: to venture forth into the unknowns of the Internet and procure information. Sweeping about the net are sinister viruses that, expectantly, seek to destroy computer systems from the inside out. Some of the weaker varieties simply gum up the bus width, making passage for Mega Man and friends sticky, but doable, whereas other, more powerful viruses throw entire sections of systems out of control. How do they do this? By commandeering other peoples Navi's of course! And it is around this premise the game is based.
You see there's this new virus floating around cyber-space called the "Zero" virus. It makes otherwise civil Navi's behave in a chaotic, destructive manner. The Navi's in question happen to belong to every last human being Lan has been in contact with (great plot device, Capcom). Since Mega Man is the only Navi unaffected, guess who's called in for help?
When you're not jacked-in to the net as Mega Man, you're at home in your room, as Lan. You can do nothing as Lan aside from buying chips, subchips, and armors for Mega Man, and choosing from what PC to log Mega Man in from. There's also e-mail you can check, but that's no big deal. It furthers the plot in an all but predictable manner.
All of Lan's actions are chosen through his "PET," the meaning of which I've yet to discover...Personal Electronic...Thingy, maybe? Anyway, you open up Lan's PET menu and from the list of pictorial selections, choose what to do. Really unfun stuff. Choosing the map of town, however, is where the fun doth begin!
The selectable locations on the map are representative of the PCs Lan's has access to. During the course of the game certain someones will e-mail you, granting you permission to jack-in from their PC.
Upon gaining access to the net, Mega Man takes over and the platforming, shooting, boss fighting, etc. mentioned earlier begin! You start every jack-in session with Lan sending Mega Man chips. These are anything from attack programs, to healing or defensive programs, but all are combat oriented. Lan only ever sends five at a time, and Mega Man only has five slots to store active chips, however, you needn't always take five chips, and the ones you leave behind will be there for the next transmission, allowing for a pint-sized amount of strategy. You see, there's a meter at the top of the screen (whose name escapes me...so I'll just call it the "Z meter") that fills gradually and steadily. Upon it's filling, pressing the Z button (get it? "Z" meter?) will have Lan send Mega Man five more chips. Opening the Z meter menu always discards your currently active chips, and it can only hold a maximum of ten chips at a time. You can leverage this to your advantage, though. Let's say you've just entered Needle_Man.EXE's zone, and the very first chip that is sent is Fire_Man.EXE's "Fire Arm." It's a damned powerful chip, usable only once per level, that you wouldn't in your right mind waste on the lowly wood-type viruses that populate this zone. Leave it in the Z meter menu! It'll be there the next time you open the menu...right on top of Needle Man's wood-element-having ass!
After selecting the chips, the game begins in typical Mega Man fashion. Jump, dash, and shoot your way to the boss room to conquer the level. The controls are responsive and nicely done. The only problem is that you must switch weapons on the fly with the shoulder buttons. Though this option has always been present in other Mega Man games, you could also open the start menu to do it manually, often during boss battles wherein some sort of reprieve is achieved. Not here. It must be done on the fly, which has gotten me killed a few times, as instead of R-ing over to the +30 heath chip, I L-ed on accident and the time lost was my downfall. Outside of this teeny-tiny oversight, the controls are beautiful.
As are the visuals! The pseudo-3D backgrounds are quite involved and excellently constructed, from the aforementioned Needle Man's rose flavored garden-regulation system, to Ice Man's snowy, drifty circuit boards. There's also a little bit of light sourcing done to no small effect on Mega Man's glowing bullets. And the characters are excellently designed; while the cell shaded graphic style does a lot for this game. Mega Man, Lan, and all of the others have been perfectly realized in 3D, leaping to life from their 2D GBA adventures.
The sound is nice, too. Techno-poppy tunes with that "circuitry" type element as found in most industrial musics, from the Title screen to the ending theme.
Overall this game gets a 9/10 from me. It does everything a 2D platformer should do, spices it up a bit with variety, and the fact that Mega Man has long been one of my very favorite characters earns it some bonus pointage.
Buy it and enjoy.
P.S. It is also balls hard. You will fail several times per level.
EDIT: Jeremy beat me to it. :(
But his is not nearly as thorough.
