This is the true start of the series IMO, as it's way better than the first game in almost every single way.

The story was also weirdly good. Well, not good per se, not in terms of the wider world of gaming, but off rip we're dealing the Netmafia killing a guy with a bomb and then it escalates to... uh... a bunch of servers giving off radiation and... uhhh... Bugs being spread through the net annnnnnd... other real corny 00s Internet stuff. I fucking love it, it's just fun. It's so goofy, so misguided on how the Internet and data and programs work, but it's my soft spot. Digimon also has a very 20th century outlook on the "net" and both of these series hold a very dear place in my heart.

But that said, it's still not a great game. As a major fan of MMBN, I had fun seeing how the series has progressed. I'm extremely excited to finally get past what I consider the weakest MMBN games by far and finally get to the later titles that excited me as a kid.

For MMBN2, I fired up the Max Buster for most of the adventure sans bosses and blasted through what I could, but goddamn, the lack of map (which continues for a long time, sadly), barely improved Net design, and often pointless L-button "help" had me looking up where to go for a good portion of this game, particularly the final 2 chapters. Absolutely terrible back-and-forth progression that often annoyed me, but thankfully being a GBA cartridge-based game there were zero load times to get in the way.

Seriously, for the older games and the dozens of random battles in between puzzle segments, turn on Max Buster. There's no EXP system in this series, so get the easy battles over with and get to the good stuff. Only play this once you're finished the other games and want to see how the series began and started growing.

Reviewed on May 11, 2023


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