[Kiwami]

Finished the Mega Man Battle Network series, 1-6.

Did not think I would do it, not because I was dissatisfied or anything, but because I have a track record of not finishing videogames, let alone an entire series of them. But Battle Network had insanely fun gameplay, the right amount of retro feeling to appeal to me (love GBA games), and just in general very well executed ideas.

Sure, they do drag sometimes, it is a bit "more of the same" in there, but still, I wasn't bored playing them all back-to-back.

The earlier games have a few very annoying levels design-wise, to the point where I wondered how a kid was supposed to figure it out, and are fairly difficult, especially when you tackle the optional stuff. Later games introduce more ways to customize MegaMan.EXE and have more attack chips to use so you are effectively stronger by having more options which makes the games easier. Still a fun challenge though, again, especially since there is lots of optional stuff.

It was really cool to visit a game series that came out when I was younger, that I knew existed, that my best friend was really into, but I never touched myself back then. Especially fun because since then I have played a lot of other Mega Man stuff which only adds to the experience. And the entire idea of turning the franchise about a robot fighting evil robots into one where network communication instead of robotics became prevalent, and thus digital beings fight each other, is so interesting to me. Kind of like an alternate, What-if? world.

And the designs are so nice; love the viruses, and especially the Net Navis. The redesigned characters from the classic Mega Man series look awesome. I even bought the art book of the series to look at it again and again; the art direction is fantastic IMO.

So yeah, I wanted to check out one or two of these games to see if I want to buy the collection that comes out next year, ended up playing them all instead. Will definitely get the collection though, and play the different versions of the games that have them.

Highly recommended for everyone who hasn't checked out Battle Network by now to do so, I ended up becoming a huge fan.