To be completely honest I never have been that into the Mega Man Battle Network series. Call me old school, but I prefer my Mega Man games to contain mindless blasting and platforming action. I never really caught on the phase of the whole Strategic RGP for this particular video-game character. Even though the game contains some fun elements, overall the series never impressed me much from what I have played on the various systems it has been on. Capcom has seen fit to release another game in the series entitled Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar. Read on more to find out about this game.

If you are completely new to this series, which is hard to believe with so many games out there, I will give you a quick run down of what is going on. You will step into the shoes of a student and famous Net-Battler that goes by the name of Lan Hikari, who has defeated many viruses that have infected the city. Lan uses Mega Man as his virtual pet counterpart where he gets onto the “Net” and does various things, such as defeat enemies, in cyberspace.

As mentioned earlier Mega Man Battle Network does not follow the typical Mega Man games of the past. Instead of a lot of platforming high-action moments as you go through a level, this game is presented in an RPG fashion. You will control Lan as he walks around the city finding various story elements. When you plug in, the game becomes like a strategic RPG. Instead of leveling up Mega Man you must find and collect various battle chips that will aid Mega Man in each battle. In order to stay on top of the “game” you will have to continuously make sure you have the best chips possible if you want to defeat the tougher enemies.

To Capcom’s credit they did add two new things to Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar battle system: Cross System and Beast Out mode. First of all the Cross System allows Mega Man to combine his abilities with various Net Navis that you encounter which gives him way more powerful attacks. This is a throwback to the classic Mega Man game, gaining the powers of your defeated foes. Then you can also combine with the Cybeast you encounter to go into, what the game calls, Beast Out mode. In this mode you will become extremely powerful, but like everything in life, if you misuse it bad things will happen later on down the road. What makes this really cool is that you can combine the effects of both of these modes to create a super powerful Mega Man that is close to unstoppable. These two additions really take the theme of customizations to the next level, as the things you can combine to make your ultimate Mega Man really powerful.

I would say that the GameBoy Advance is beginning to show its age, but when I look back and check out some of the previous game in the series that would not seem to be the case. Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar looks pretty much exactly the same as earlier games in this series. Something needs to be done about this pronto. It is not that the graphics are bad or the animation is sloppily done, the game just needs a change of pace and a new graphics engine. You can only rehash something so many times before it becomes stagnant and boring, and this game has proven that the time has come for a facelift.

Now it is time to talk about the sound category for this game. It is such a shame that the sound category gets the same treatment as the graphics. While playing this game will you hear music and sound effects that you swear you have heard before and you are probably right. Everything sounds like is has been reused from previous games and really helps make the game feel even more tedious than it already is.

Not only does this game have an in-depth single-player mode, but it also allows you to play with a friend with the Game Link Adapter or Wireless Adapter. Players have the option to do a Net Battle with their friends to see who is the best. They can also compare records with each other. Best of all is that you can trade Battlechips with your friend, which can open up some new possibilities in the game for each player.

Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar is rated Everyone for cartoon violence.

Gameplay: 5.5
Each game in this series feels like a rehash of the previous games. There are few new additions in each game, but the fundamental game remains exactly the same over the years, and the series is starting to become extremely repetitious.

Graphics: 5.6
The game has not changed in since it first came out. The graphics are the exact same as are the animations. While it does not look bad some change is seriously needed here.

Sound: 5.1
Boring! It seems that all the sounds from the previous games that I have played were just recycled for this game. Nothing new seems to be added here. Has the “same old” feeling as the other games.

Difficulty: Easy
If you have played any game in this series you will know exactly what to do and how easy it is to get your missions accomplished in a really quick manner.

Concept: 5.2
The new customization aspects of the game are a nice addition to the game, but it doesn’t save the game fro the overall “been there-done that a million times” feeling.

Overall: 5.4
This series needs to get an overhaul bad. I think the developers have done just about everything they can with Lan at this time and they need to think of a new direction to take this game. If you are a fan of this series then you might want to pick it up just to find out what the latest happenings are, but other than that you can get a cheap used copy of an earlier game and get close to the exact same experience as you will have with this one.