I never got to play these games as a kid so I started playing the first one on the GBA.
The first scenario in the game involves a hacker disguised as a repairman blowing up people’s smart ovens. This game came out in 2001. Idk, just thought it was neat.
I’m enjoying myself so far. Looks like there’s a lot of sequels. Am I in for a good time?
I’ve played the sequel series Mega Man Star Force instead, but am familiar with common discourse about Battle Network. The short answer is that you’ll love it the more you play.
The netbattling is consistently solid, but the first game is a bit bare-bones on that front. It almost always improves with each new entry. Starting in MMBN2 there are transformations that become more interesting with each sequel. Some overworld sections can be annoying or padded out, particularly in 2. The story is cheesy for the most part, but it has impactful moments too. Heads-up, BN2’s story is, uh, much more off the rails than the rest and weird and insensitive at times. Also don’t try to 100-percent BN4, not worth it. BN3 is most often considered to have the best story.
Also, please check out the Star Force series some day! It has some of the best writing in the franchise and it was woefully underappreciated back in the day because of its altered battle system.