Mega Man Battle Network 4 Updated Impressions

Even though it appeared for the first time back at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, and a North American release date has appeared on retailer preorder lists for a while now, Mega Man Battle Network 4 has officially been announced by Capcom. The opening of E3 was the setting for Capcom's official statement of release concerning Mega Man Battle Network 4's embarkation to North America.

The game will be split up into two editions, subtitled Red Sun and Blue Moon. The games will have more differences than you might expect., Each version will contain a few exclusive items, but bigger than this, each game will have its own storyline, unique enemies, and exclusive battle chips. Battle Network 4 will differ a bit from the previous games’ story-driven RPG focus. Instead, the game takes place against the backdrop of a cyberspace tournament. The game also contains some new gameplay systems. The soul unison system lets Mega Man infuse himself with the souls of some of his previous opponents, taking on their powers and abilities in classic Mega Man fashion. There’s a dark side to this system, though, in the form of the dark chip system. Dark chips will occasionally appear when Mega Man is in trouble. You can choose to use them, but if you rely on dark chips too heavily, Mega Man becomes evil and will be unable to perform soul unisons and some other abilities.

The games will also allow two players to link together to trade items, compare records, and battle in custom tournaments. Both Red Sun and Blue Moon are set to debut on the GBA this summer.