Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker X Ninja Review

In August of 2007, Capcom released Mega Man Star Force on the Nintendo DS, the first game in the new Mega Man series that would take the place of the well-worn Mega Man Battle Network saga. Battle Network saw six releases on the Game Boy Advance (some with multiple SKUs), and after the first few, the series rapidly declined in quality. Star Force was a greatly anticipated departure from what was, in essence, the third time Capcom ran a Mega Man-related series into the ground (with the Classic and X series both suffering from saturation issues in their time). But it still disappointed many gamers. Why? Well, the answer is simple -- it was essentially Mega Man Battle Network 7. It wasn't new, and it was easy enough to see that fact pervade every aspect of the game.

So here we are, not even a year later, and we already have Mega Man Star Force 2. Unlike the original Star Force title, which was released in three SKUs, Star Force 2 has been toned down to two. But as you'll find out as you play through even the first few hours of the title, two SKUs is two too many. We've been here before. We've played this game before. In fact, we've played it seven times already in a matter of six years. When we reviewed Mega Man Star Force last summer, we had a lot of complaints with the rampant similarities between Star Force and the aforementioned Battle Network series. And while we didn't go into this experience expecting a departure from that formula after the first game in the new series followed it so closely, it still remains as much of a detriment to the success and likeability of the newest title as it once was. In fact, since this is now technically the eighth time we've experienced the same game with a hastily-applied new coat of paint on it, it might even be a bigger issue than it was in 2007, when we experienced it for a seventh time.

It should be said loud and clear that fans of the extensive Battle Network series and the original Mega Man Star Force are going to find plenty to like here. This is a game those people are going to want to purchase posthaste, because Capcom created this title just for you. In fact, Mega Man Star Force 2 takes place only a couple of months after the events of the previous title conclude, so there's major continuity in terms of storyline. You'll see familiar faces aplenty, and the game will feel natural to you. The game plays exactly like its predecessor. You'll once again take control of a boy named Geo Stelar. Geo is likeable enough – kindhearted and without his father (seemingly lost in a space traveling accident… or was he?), he finds himself again coupled with Omega-Xis, an alien who can fuse with Geo to create Mega Man in a parallel universe called the Wave World. Fused together, the pair of unlikely friends fight viruses which plague the electronic world parallel to the world of reality. If it sounds outrageous, well, it is. But so too are many other videogame stories. It's certainly not the story or the cast of characters that hurt Mega Man Star Force 2.

As soon as you turn on the game, however, you're going to see just how much does hurt the game. Continuity is one thing, but rehashing the same game over and over again and passing it off as something new isn't a becoming trait, especially when providing multiple SKUs of a game that are virtually identical to one another. Instead, it's actually become borderline deplorable at this point. A couple of hours into the game I was already left wondering if I was playing Mega Man Star Force 2 or the original Star Force. And when I was playing the original Star Force last summer, I was left wondering if I was actually playing, unbeknownst to me, Mega Man Battle Network 7. It's essentially the same problem the Battle Network series suffered from compounded in an unprecedented way into an entirely different series. Capcom seemingly put no effort into making this game fresh, throwing in useless "new" features and items that give the game a thin new façade that's easy to see through. But underneath, it's the same old thing. It's the same game with some new bells and whistles released stateside ten months after the previous title.

For instance, in the original Mega Man Star Force, Geo used an EM wave interface called a Transer. This allowed him to travel with Omega-Xis to the Wave World where the two could fuse and interact with the EM waves that make it up. In Mega Man Star Force 2, Transers have been replaced with "next-gen" devices called Star Carriers. Except that Star Carriers and Transers serve identical purposes, look nearly identical, and are really just fancy devices also known as "menus." Sure, you can use devices called Matter Waves now, and these can only be used with Star Carriers, but it's not like you have the option to use a Transer anyway, so it all ends up being somewhat moot.

Pulsing in and out of the Wave World from the Real World is at the heart of the game, just like in the previous iteration. And you'll find yourself doing it constantly, looking for conduits that lead in and out of the Wave World as you fight bad guys (called EM Viruses) in battle sequences you'll be plenty familiar with. Fought on virtual battle grids that are three columns wide and five columns long, Mega Man will be contained to the closest three squares as your enemies (usually up to three on a map) dominate the rest of the grid. Fighting in these random battles (which is what makes this game an RPG hybrid) is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the game. The battles require clever use of your card folder, since you can only carry a limited number of cards with you that are utilized for executing oft-used special attacks during a fight. Unfortunately, while the strategy involved in fighting is a good way to attempt eradicating the mundane feel of the game, you'll find that random battles become more and more irritating the more you play. As is the case with much of the game, we've done this plenty of times already.

The game's graphics are nothing to write home about, but they are functional nonetheless. Identical to the original Star Force in essentially every way, they don't show the true power of the DS but they are vivid, colorful and mark one of the stronger aspects of the game. The sound is also unimpressive-yet-functional, and thankfully they removed the horrifying voice acting from the first game's menu navigation. This creates an overall package that works for fans who know what they're getting themselves into, but the complete and utter lack of innovation makes for a rather trite overall experience.

There are some new additions apart from the Star Carrier, as well as some things that will be familiar to players of the last game that are worth mentioning. For instance, new transformations based on the game's two SKUs allow you to use elemental-based attacks represented by new, special forms of Mega Man. The Brother Band system has also made a comeback, a clever way to use the DS unit's Wi-Fi functionality. Brother Band allows players to trade cards, battle and communicate, and with a new system called Link Power, using Brother Band is encouraged for the first time apart from the acquisition of new cards and the like. Your Link Power, as it increases, will allow you to access new treasure and areas otherwise inaccessible to those with a lower Link Power. We'll give it to you here, Capcom – this is a clever addition. If there was more of this same type of innovation pervading more aspects of the game, the experience would have been exponentially better.

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