At long last, the rare Japanese Rockman EXE cell phone games are within reach! Rockman Corner has managed to acquire a phone with both Rockman EXE: Phantom of Network and Rockman EXE: Legend of Network installed.
Phantom of Network and Legend of Network were originally released on Japanese “au” flip phones, with updated versions released on NTT DoCoMo phones a few years later. The games, which were released as episodic titles through the i-mode service, feature full-length, original stories with new NetNavi characters such as HatMan, RideMan and JammingMan.
So why have these games eluded Western Mega Man fans for so long? Well, not just anyone could buy and download these games. Not only was one of a few specific phone models required, you also needed a Japanese SIM card and phone plan that included access to i-mode service – something which was only available to Japanese nationals. So, buying the games on a trip was not an option. In addition, both games were removed from the i-mode service a few years back, meaning the only chance of obtaining the games now was finding a phone that still had them installed.
Thankfully, thanks to an anonymous donor, Rockman Corner has now acquired both games and will begun the process of dumping them to a modern PC. The team plans to release the games publicly, and blew through a $600 fundraiser goal to obtain the necessary hardware in just an hour.
Note that there is no guarantee the games will be in a playable state – after all, we’re dealing with ancient phone hardware here. However, getting dumps of both games and being able to analyze their contents will go a long way towards preservation. We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this!
Source: Rockman Corner