MegaMan Network Transmission Ate My Balls

…I wish I was talking about one of those little web-parodies that seem to cover every aspect of life in a way not seen since Mr. T started taking on all challengers, but this is really just about the aggravation suffered at the hands of this otherwise good game… well, from what I’ve played, “otherwise good”.

The point the game started sucking for me was a little while back… couple of months. I’m at the point where the only stage left for me to complete is the QuickMan stage, a stage whose master sends chills down the spine of many an oldschool gamer, not because he himself was difficult(though I hear that’s the case here), but because of his STAGE.

After snuffing out FireMan, sucker-punching GutsMan, turning up the heat on IceMan, sticking it to NeedleMan, and putting BrightMan’s lights out, I’ve come to have only one option left, The Flash mk. 2 himself(like it wasn’t obvious).

In many a MegaMan game, the typical routine involves kicking the ever-loving dog-shit out of an enemy, and then adding insult to injury by taking his weapon, the one thing that makes him stand out from all other robots(though granted, I’ll bet folks like FlashMan, BrightMan, and CentaurMan start to feel a bit shallow as the ranks grow).

This is a longstanding tradition which has been upheld from the first MegaMan series to the X series, and from that to the Zero series, only to a different extent. Legends so far has been the only series not to really follow this trend, but Battle Network completely redefined it.

For those who don’t know, in Battle Network games, you get not only the weapons of the bosses, but you also get the weapons of your standard enemies, your little drones referred to here as virii(or viruses, whatever). With this reinvention of the system, you get to take your weapons inventory to levels never imagined in the original series. 8 weapons? Try 30. More like 175 or so, but you’re only allowed so many at a time. Either way, the new number dwarfs the old… even X, with all his weapons and upgrades, still falls short once you add in MegaMan.EXE’s own program advances, upgrades, and style changes. But that’s neither here nor there, back to what I was getting at…

In MegaMan Network Transmission, just about every enemy I’ve defeated has had no problems giving up their trademark chip. When I destroy cannons, I get cannon chips. When I destroy those Zapring rabbit-looking things, I get zapring chips. When I go after these ghost guys who use Invis1 as their #1 move, I get… squat. Or sometimes I get a Battle Chip, but it’s Recov10 or something… a chip which I have reached my maximum capacity of, and have not used any so that my stock is full.

9 years ago, Nintendo created a game, a wonderful, magical game called Super Metroid. In this game, they did the common-sense thing: they made the enemies, if they were to give up ANY items at all, it would only be items you could use. For example, if you were full of missiles, you would not receive missiles. Full of energy? You wouldn’t get energy. Of course, some enemies wouldn’t typically carry the items you might need, like a Super Missile, but for all intents and purposes, you could restock what you needed without wading through tons of junk you didn’t need, just to end up getting a few scraps thrown to you here and there. It was good, and innovative, and I believe they still use it today in the new Metroid games.

So, if someone could PLEASE tell me, why isn’t Capcom doing this in a game that could benefit IMMENSELY from it like MMNT?

Transmission has QuickMan’s notorious beams, but it does not have the natural counter to it, the Time Stopper. Even MegaMan X5 had the Dark Hold, a variant, to counter its beams. And neither MM2 or MMX5’s versions were as hard to get by; I’ve tried it, and I can usually get quite far before any use of such items is needed.

In NT, however, they give you the Invis1 chip to use instead… rather, they put it in the game. I have a paltry amount, and the damn ghosts refuse to give me more, thereby putting my gaming progress at a complete halt, and making me leave the game again in frustration after many months away to go back to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

This saddens me. I love the Battle Network series, and would like to go on in the game, but so long as I’m stuck here, it just ain’t happening.

I’ve been playing games for over 15 years, and some of this stuff just makes me say “WTF?”. Are today’s kids, namely the 8-12 market that Capcom thinks are the sole proprietors of MM games really that much better?

To quote Bart and Lisa: “I thought you said you wanted a challenge.” “YEAH… a challenge I can DO…”

LBD “Nytetrayn”

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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