This game was provided by Capcom for review. Thank you!
The Mega Man Battle Network games have returned in this two-part collection! The Battle Network series follows Lan Hikari and his digital partner, MegaMan.EXE, in 6 different adventures in this action RPG. Partake in hybrid action/turn-based combat where you must choose your unique attacks from a library of chips, that you find and build yourself, to delete viruses. Run across the Net to progress the story and find caches of money and rare chips so you can upgrade and demolish your enemies.
The Mega Man Battle Network games originally launched on the Game Boy Advance from 2001-2006 and is a spin-off of the main Mega Man series. Regardless, the Battle Network series is one of my favorites and brings back so many memories. I love the mechanics for battling and the chip system, which pauses the game for you to choose new attacks and think about a new strategy. These were some of my favorite games to play on my GBA.
The Legacy Collection re-releases the mainline games in this series and separates them into two volumes, while also adding in some new features! Volume 1 consists of the first 3 games, while Volume 2 has the last 3. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th game all have 2 different versions with minor differences and yes, they are all included too! The collection adds in a gallery, music, and online play so you can battle and trade with others! Each volume individually is $40, while a pack with both is $60. And luckily, this is all able to be fully enjoyed on the Steam Deck.
For the majority of the games included, and online play, performance was perfect. This is a port of GBA games, so I didn't expect it to be poor, but I do have a few points I would like to make. First, there are some optional settings I would recommend setting. In the Display settings, making the Screen Layout set to "Largest" will make the game take up as much of the display as possible. With the Deck's screen being smaller than a monitor or TV, having it as large as possible makes it much easier on the eyes.
There are also settings for Filter and Color Space. Personally, I prefer the Filter off, as I like the more pixelated look, and Color Space set to "Rec.709". The color differences are very slight, but Rec.709 feels slightly more pronounced and vibrant compared to sRGB.
The other quirk I discovered is slightly large power draw in some areas. While the majority of the game is around 7W - 8W, there are some places in-game, like the main menu, that can draw up to 12W. Some of the time, this is caused by SteamOS menus, but others seem to just be the spot. As I was writing this sentence, I have the game up on my Steam Deck and while standing still in one spot, the power draw went from 8W to 11W and gthen down to 6.5W. I set a TDP limit of 3 to just make sure it doesn't keep drawing more, but it is still notable!
While the Mega Man Battle Network collection does have full controller support and cloud saves, it only supports 1280x720 resolution, so you will see the black bars at the top and bottom of your screen. Other than that, it feels fantastic to play on the Deck!
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is a fantastic way to return to one of my favorite spin-off series I have ever played. The unique battle mechanics hooked me completely and I enjoyed the story of the games, especially Battle Network 5 (either version). With online play, galley and music, and all the games compiled into easy-to-access spots, the Legacy Collection is a fantastic excuse to dive back in on the Steam Deck!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection puts together some of my personal favorite games into an easy-to-access collection with some awesome integrated features like online battling and trading. And this can all be enjoyed on the Steam Deck without any changes, making it a Best on Deck game!
