Mega Man Battle Network 4 - Red Sun for Game Boy Adv Reviews & Ratings by IGN

You know, just because a game is good doesn't mean that everyone wants to see it over and over and over again. Capcom's Mega Man Battle Network series started out as an original, well-designed RPG franchise, but in its fourth iteration on the Game Boy Advance it's almost worn out its welcome. Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun and Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon are, admittedly, entertaining additions to the series established on the GBA platform more than three years ago, but we just can no longer get excited for a new story in the same old environment.

Features

• 20+ Hour Quest
• Cartridge save (one slot)
• Link cable support for two player trades and battles

Mega Man Battle Network 4 once again puts players in control of Lan and his virtual pal Mega Man. In the future, everyone who's anyone has their own virtual persona that can tap into the Network world and run around as if it were the real world. Accessing computer systems is as easy as "jacking in" and working Mega Man's way through the electronic circuits. It's here in this environment where Mega Man has to do battle with countless viruses, also personified by "Mega Man" style creatures. And it's these battles that separate the Mega Man Battle Network series from other random battle-focused RPG games on the market. The battles are a cool hybrid of realtime and turn-based elements that offer a good balance of twitch action and thought-provoking strategy.

The Battle Network series has been good about keeping the game open for newcomers to the series, so even if players haven't familiarized themselves with Battle Network 1, 2 or 3, they're not lost since the storyline offers up a quick tutorial for players to learn the mechanics of jacking in and battling viruses. But in Battle Network 4 it looks like the designers were ready to give the heave-ho to the refresher course, since it's far more abridged and quicker paced this time, which means that the game isn't quite as accessible to newbies as the previous sequels were.

Like any big publisher, Capcom's always been a company to recycle new games out of existing game engines. The company made a mint out of offering slight updates to its Street Fighter franchises, repackaging as new titles. Heck, the original Mega Man series on the NES started this trend for Capcom, creating six adventures using pretty much the same technology. I guess the best analogy in this case is a television sitcom or drama: to create new episodes, production companies obviously reuse any sets and props already created for the series to make the future episodes as cost and time effective as possible.

But you know what? I don't have to spend thirty bucks to see the next episode of "CSI" or "Frasier." If you dig the characters, the universe, the situations of the Battle Network series, then sure, it's like picking up the fourth novel in the series. But nothing has really evolved about the storyline; the characters haven't really grown up or changed, and the storyline and situations haven't evolved over the three years the series has been available. The graphics and audio are near identical to the previous games in the series, only receiving a handful of tweaks and changes to keep the development quick and cheap.

Even though most of what's here has been done in the past games in the series, there admittedly have been a few tweaks inserted into the latest in the Mega Man Battle Network series. Battles, for example, have been updated with a few new elements, including a counterattack that can stun enemies if timed while they're attacking. There's also a reward system for specific situations, like when Mega Man wipes out multiple characters out of battle at the same time.

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