MegaMan Battle Network Legacy Collection review — Busting makes me feel good

The MegaMan franchise has no shortage of sub-series, each offering a new and different take on the Blue Bomber and friends. The X and Zero series are essentially evolutions of the main games, while Legends took MegaMan into 3D for a Metroid and Zelda mash up, and of course Battle Network and Starforce are sprawling, RPG adventures. The Battle Network series has just gotten its own Legacy Collection on PC, PS, and of course Switch and, as a newcomer to this particular spinoff, how do these 6 GBA titles hold up?

MegaMan Battle Network Legacy Collection comes in two volumes, which contain 1-3 and 4-6 respectively. Technically this totals up to 10 games, since 3-6 have two versions each like Pokemon, but I imagine most people will only play one version. Version differences come into play near the end of each game, so don’t worry about it too much unless you’re trying to collect and do everything. The Battle Network series follows Lan and his PET Net Navi MegaMan.exe as they stop evil plots that would affect both the real world and the net. A PET (PErsonal Terminal) is essentially a virtual assistant device taken to the next level, they help their operators with everyday tasks, explore the net, and delete viruses in turn-based battles.

Battles take place on two 3×3 grids: one MegaMan can freely move on and one for the enemy. While a Net Navi can battle on their own using B for normal attacks, they can fight more effectively using chips sent each turn by their operator. At the start of battle or after a gauge at the top of the screen fills up, Lan can select moves like a big cannon shot, a sword slash, HP recovery, and more used one at a time with the A button. You can’t just stack chips all willy nilly though. You can send up to five chips at once, but only if they are the same type, like two cannons, or the same letter, like a sword and cannon both with the letter A. Only five chips are drawn from your customizable Folder, or deck since this is basically a card battler, but you can sacrifice a turn to draw more with various conditions depending on the game. Those are the basics though: defeat all enemies using your buster and chips, earn new chips by doing well, and so on.

I spent most of my time with the collection on the first game in the series, but checking out the others it’s clear that they make vast improvements to the UI, visuals, and mechanics, making me wish those aspects were back ported through each game. I only hope the dungeon design gets better too since the last third of the original title features some annoying and outright hostile design, like puzzles where the solution is trial and error while you’re under a very strict time limit. Thankfully you can toggle the Buster Max mode to blast through random encounters whenever you want, which multiplies MegaMan.exe’s buster power by 100. It’s not an auto win button, but it certainly helps getting you back to where you were after dying and reloading your save. Save often by the way because there’s no autosave or checkpoints. Overall, it’s a fun dungeon crawler/card battling series that’s very charming, though with some remaining annoyances.

The collection itself is likewise very charming if a bit barebones. The two volumes are separate apps, at least on Switch, but feature basically the same stuff applying to the games within. You’ve got a selection of games at the top, a gallery, and a settings menu. Let’s start with the settings menu. You can change text languages, swap between 3 button configs (which just change the interact and run buttons), change the screen size (though I don’t know why you wouldn’t just pick the largest) and turn off the god awful smoothing filter that’s on by default, change the border but not turn it off, adjust music and sound effect volume, view the credits and privacy policy, or check the online manual which is currently only in Japanese.

On the main menu itself, you can see and interact with MegaMan.exe in some cute ways. He’ll comment on whatever you select and even pose if you take a screenshot. His voice is the same from the anime too, which is great to see as someone who grew up watching that, though the actor has clearly improved greatly after 20 years. I do wish the anime itself was included here, but you can watch it on YouTube for free until September this year.

What you can view in the gallery are various art pieces for each game include concept and promotional artwork, there are even some pieces from Star Force too (some artwork and characters in the games may be offensive to modern sensibilities, and thankfully there’s a warning/disclaimer when you boot up the game). You can also listen to music, check out achievements, and view the special event chips such as Bass that can be acquired in game through a special menu. If you purchased the Custom PET Pack DLC, you get a special skin for each game: Hub Style for Vol. 1 and Dark MegaMan in Vol.2. It’s a neat addition even if I prefer the original design.

A big drawback for this collection, much like the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, is the font. The original game used a standard, chunky pixel font while here it’s been updated to a much more modern one that really clashes with the visuals. At least it mimics the original text, but it’s much too clean and smooth, as such it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Finally, this Legacy Collection includes the ability to battle and trade online. The mode is in each game, but you’ll only be able to take your collection from whatever game you start the mode in. Thankfully I was able to test with a friend and colleague since there’s no one else playing before launch. Trading is almost instantaneous and is useful for filling out your collection. Battles are a bit of a mixed bag. While my friend reported perfectly fine performance, there was a lot of input lag on my end. It doesn’t make online unplayable, but it is a very noticeable disruption. Overall, this is a decent Legacy Collection that adds some unique features, but does come across as a bit low effort in some areas like extras. Still, It’s great to have these old games available again, especially with the event cards bundled in, and I hope we see more Legacy Collections (especially for Legends, including the canceled Legends 3 demo. Please Capcom).

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