Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection sales hit 1 million units world wide a few days ago, making it the fastest selling Megaman game of all time. I feel somewhat vindicated because I’mma be straight with you, they’re the only megaman games I haven’t bounced off. Battle Network a beautiful unique game. And there’s nothing quite like this series. Or is there.
This game inspired it’s own original subgenre of Deck Building grid based realtime combat that still kicks ass to this day. Most devs of the last generation slept on this low hanging fruit. It’s only now that the kids who grew up playing these games are now at a stage in their lives to start releasing their own spins on the genre. It may have taken a while, but it’s good to see new games start to enter this space.
Btw, if you hear about other exciting titles entering this space. Drop a comment and I’ll add them to the list to keep this updated. Or if you’re a dev, hit me with a review key 😉 and I’ll do a full review.
FanHacks
MMBN Chrono X
It’s like a Fanhack that has gotten way out of hand. Imagine if MMBN just kept evolving with online multiplayer and new zones and new beautiful made music. It’s got an active fanbase alongside active devs. This is more than a fan hack, this is fan hack on STEROIDS.
Shanghai.EXE: Genso Network
Shanghai.exe is an excellent fangame that slammed into Touhou Project, some sort of shrine maiden thing. Look I don’t know what the fuck is happening there all I know is that it was too good for Capcom to allow the continued development for. The project is now out in the wild and still getting updates and is in the stages of getting post-endgame bosses etc added. Originally it was only available in Japanese but it’s got English support now and even a mother fucking level editor.
Mega Man Battle Network Overclocked
Completely rude to call this one a fan hack but I Don’t have the budget to make more categories. This is a 3D remake of the first two levels of MMBN1 entirely in 3D. The recreation of Lan’s home and classroom are gorgeous, and put the disgusting pixel smoothing of the collection to shame. They really should have put more effort into that bit…
It isn’t a complete experience and Gameplay is a bit rough, but this is a pretty awesome proof of concept. Think of this is something to fiddle with for an afternoon.
Original Titles
Hero.Exe
Hero.exe is in active development and have released a proof of concept demo. Rather than an overworld players take branching paths with hand crafted events at each node, usually resulting in a battle. I presume you can do multiple runs through with different heroes and different events. Getting new chips from each duel feels good, although the demo has some rough edges in terms of responsiveness and legibility in how damage is moving around the field. Some sorta lag or something. Some G rated titillation is also a little off-putting but that’s just personal taste. Anyway, I’m excited to see how this fully voiced romp goes.
EndCycle Vs
Beautiful looking Roguelite with a ton of game modes including campaign, adventure, and Vs. It even has a mod and map editor. Wtf. So cool. Positive reviews on Steam abound.
You can also get it on Android at the moment in Beta if you own the full premium version.
One Step From Eden
I dropped this one near the end because if you’ve ever done a search for games like MMBN this one was probably top of the list. Roguelike with a punishing skill curve, but with a solid fanbase that it’s worked hard to earn the love of.
Also one of the few options available on Switch for people who want to game on the go just like they did back in the day.
Duelists From Eden
The sorta sequel to One Step From Eden, this time for PVP! If you want to really prove your worth against the monsters that play these games, this will be the place to do it. That is assuming the MMBN Collection and it’s online stuff doesn’t gut this community.
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