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Title: Megaman: NT Warrior
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents don't have anything to worry about in terms of content. There is no bad language, no real violence, and nothing of real concern to worry about. If the parents want their kids to read something that is worth reading, though, then I would recommend a pass on this. Kids may love this. I'd like to think that kids these days would be smarter than to fall for such a poorly made series like this, but it's true that you just can't tell what kids will watch these days. Hard-core Megaman fans will hate this. It's as simple as that. |
Out of all their franchises from the ‘70s and ‘80s, Capcom's Megaman may just be the most popular and successful. In fact, Megaman may just be Capcom's most popular creation ever. With tons of video games, various TV series, a couple of comic book series (this one included), and no signs of the franchise dying anytime soon, Megaman has been around for more than 20 years, and many people expect him to be around for another 20 years (if not more). The concept for Megaman was never all that complicated. The games revolved around a little blue guy named Megaman who would kill other robots with his charge-up arm, and whenever he would defeat a boss, he would gain their powers (of which I personally hardly ever used). Later games and TV series would make it more clear that Megaman was a robot, that he lived in a city of robots and humans, and that his enemy was an evil robot creator named Dr. Wily. Later installments would open up the world even more by introducing Megaman's dog Rush, as well as his rival and sometimes partner Zero, who was a big enough hit with the ladies to eventually get his own spin-off series. Then this little thing called "Pokémon" came out and everything changed.
Pokémon cards were selling like hot cakes all around the world, CD games like "Monster Rancher" were giving kids a reason to dig up all their old CDs to see what monsters they could unlock, a few years later Yu-Gi-Oh! cards took the world by storm, and a little series called "Duel Masters" and its card game became a hit in Japan (although failed pretty miserably in America). And then series like "Digimon" were making computer programs and the Internet a place for fun and games. Somewhere amidst all this chaos and (sometimes) wasted money, Capcom got a (what they thought to be) brilliant idea. They would take their surefire franchise, combine the Internet games and collectable card game together, slap the Megaman name on this new creation, and BOOM!! Instant money machine. All of this brings us to "Megaman: NT Warrior," a shameless creation that has very little to do with the Mega Man we all know and love, yet it certainly feels like it is eager to get a hold of children's lunch money like many of its "inspiration shows" have already.
The story for "Megaman: NT Warrior" is so superficial that it's barely worth mentioning at all. In a nutshell, the world of "Megaman: NT Warrior" is populated by an entire population of people into the hottest form of gaming around: Netbattling. What is Netbattling, you ask? In short, it's basically where two people have their online characters fight each other, and they use digital cards to make their characters stronger and have more abilities. See the commercial inspiration yet? The protagonist of the series is Lan, who is a ten-year-old Netbattling pro. His online character of choice? Megaman. Lan is constantly the number 1 champion of Netbattling, and Megaman and himself are constantly in the spotlight in school. Lan's secret to being so good is that he feels that Megaman has real feelings, and that you should treat your Netbattling characters like they were your friends (despite the fact that these are, essentially, just computer characters). Ah, but like most of these hit computer games, something HAS to go wrong! In this case, the Netbattling network is being hacked by an evil scientist who dreams of taking over the world, and it is up to Lan to stop him... with Megaman's help, of course.
Let's get the biggest problem this series has out of the way first: this is, in no way POSSIBLE, “Megaman”! There's no Rush, no Zero, Megaman's creator is nowhere to be found, his love interest (God, I wish I could remember her freaking NAME by now) is nowhere to be found, Megaman's character design looks nothing like the classic Megaman character, and while the evil scientist who wants to take over the world LOOKS like Dr. Wily, I just can't be sure yet until I see him when his face isn't hidden in the shadows! Nothing, nada, zip. Megaman's role in THIS series is not to be the savior of all humanity, but instead to be a tool for this new kid Lan, who gets the spotlight because he knows what "cards to upload" to help Megaman power up during an ONLINE BATTLE! Again: Megaman is a tool Lan can use to look cool while saving the world during a freaking online battle! In the world of "Megaman: NT Warrior," kids are raised to fight on the net responsibly, the teacher's goal (Mrs. Mari) is to walk in and out of the series just long enough to explain certain rules about Netbattling, and of course, Lan and Megaman are the world's only hope to stop the mysterious scientist who is hacking the Net (you know, guys, in America the FBI can just trace hacking back to the origin of the source and arrest the hacker’s butt).
What the...isn't this supposed to be a KIDS series?!
It may seem like such a huge responsibility for such a kid, but hey, no one cares about logic in a series like this; as long as kids are interested in the toys that are coming out, the companies are happy. So far, I don't think they've quite succeeded at making this branch of the Megaman franchise that popular. The reason "Yu-Gi-Oh!" became popular was because Kazuki Takahashi added a sick and twisted element in the story of Yugi, and the pearl and themes were dark and interesting enough to catch people's eye. Pokémon became popular because the games and toys that were made were actually fun to play with. From what I've heard from other websites I visit, the stuff that has been released for "Megaman: NT Warrior" just isn't very good. I can at least honestly say that neither is this series. There are a lot of story elements I'm not discussing, a lot of "important" characters that I haven't mentioned, and I'm sure I COULD comment on the series’ so-so "art," but I really see no reason to! This spin-off of a great franchise was made to sell toys, and that's all. The only good thing I can say about this is that the first two pages of this book were well-drawn and pretty creepy too, making it feel like maybe, just maybe, you could be able to suspend your belief long enough to enjoy this. However, once Lan decided to stop a moving train and the adults stepped aside to see what he could do... well, I just gave up on the series. Here's one network that won't have functioning servers for too much longer.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -