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Battle Network 7

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: August 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a longtime fan of the Battle Network series and owner of all six previous games (which I played the heck out of) I feel fairly qualified in commenting on the latest evolution in the series. The name has changed and all the characters have been replaced but it's clearly Battle Network and it would be absurd not to compare it to the previous iterations. Let me start by saying that my initial reaction was concern. I hate the name Starforce, the font on the cover art looks cheap and dated and I quickly found a couple syntactical errors in the story text. However, once I got into it I was increasingly impressed by the quality of the production. First I'll address the nuts and bolts.

There are cosmetic changes and gameplay changes but perhaps the biggest alteration is in the battlefield. The three quarters top down view has been replaced by a 3D straight on shot with a three by five grid reducing the real estate by one row from previous games. Megaman sits in the near row while enemies have four to move around in. Is this an improvement? Maybe not. It creates a claustrophobic feel in battles although some weapons like swords have become significantly easier to use thanks to the new lock-on feature. After awhile the updated battle arena began to grow on me.

There are no longer different letter versions of battle chips which simplifies the game, it just doesn't improve it. Program Customizers have been replaced with Brotherbands that offer Megaman new abilities but without the customizations of the Battle Network series. The biggest killer is the removal of Program Advancements which were, in my opinion, the best part of the Battle Network game. There is a new feature called battle combos that I suppose replaces the PA's but the feature seems rather awkwardly designed.

Starforce has a lot of short sidequests although the rewards tend to be likewise small. The core game has a slight graphical upgrade and a decent if rather unfocussed story (what Battle Network game doesn't). Although the backgrounds are all redone the environment is pretty much the same as Battle Network with a small neighborhood, a school and a bus to other cities. It all boils down to collecting chips/creating folders and battling Navi's. I love it but I can't fault other who find it tiresome after 6 previous games.

My biggest issue with the Battle Network/Starforce series is the lack of continuity and what I mean by that is the ability to trade between iterations. It's disappointing to spend so much time collecting battle chips only to get the next in the series and have to collect the same ones all over again. This is probably the main reason that a site like IGN.com gave Starforce a dismal 5.2 rating. The worst thing is that the series actually did this at one point. You could trade `retro chips' between Battle Network 1 and 2. If you pop a previous version of Battle Network into the DS and perform some tasks in Starforce you can get a special weapon but the weapon is rather mediocre and the player will likely only use it for a short time before something better comes along. Pretty weak. I will continue to harp on this issue until it's corrected. It is the one glaring weakness of the series.

Reviews can (and have) slammed the series but there must be something in it to have such a loyal and active fan base. As of this writing Megaman has 3 of the top 7 DS FAQ's on gamefaqs.com and 3 of the top 5 DS message boards which are exceedingly active. Despite my complaints I thoroughly enjoyed the game. My problem isn't that the series didn't change enough. My beef is that they changed some of the strongest elements. If Capcom ever does retro chips again I'll give the game 5 stars until the 4 is the best I can do.

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