Megaman Battle Network was a game for the Gameboy Advance, and the combat took on a whole new system compared to older Megaman games. I don't want to get into all the details of how the combat system worked but rather just the fun and interesting approaches that made it truly rewarding. For those unfamiliar here's an example video of the combat I'm describing.

• You had a "deck" of moves that you selected and got rewarded for being able to combo them together. You also had elemental types with strengths and weaknesses so that meant customizing your combat deck was an integral part of the game before battles even started.

• Combat played out over rounds in short spans of time, where you could only use the moves you had selected and your normal attack until a counter at the top of the screen filled up and allowed you to select new moves. This made gameplay exciting if you happened to miss your shots or made a mistake somewhere because you were left to your own devices, avoiding attacks and countering as best you could until the "round" ended.

• Destruction of the ground beneath your feet and your opponents' feet added another dimension to gameplay, i.e. you could trap your opponent on a single square by blowing up all the other squares around them, then unleash attacks they couldn't dodge.

• The speed of combat ramped up steadily with encounters and boss battles, and even though you had limited movement options (the grid was only a 3x3) executing a perfect dodge or avoiding getting stuck on a panel felt like a true accomplishment in the moment.

• The grid layout played a big part in combat as well as certain moves affected specific squares, which encouraged you to lead the AI into specific configurations then use a special attack that would hit them all at once. For a game with a simple and predictable AI, this was a wonderful mechanic that really made you feel like you outsmarting your opponent without feeling like a cheap or cheese tactic.

And that's just a few that come to mind off the top of my head. I don't see much discussion online about these games unique approach to combat aside from people praising it, and I wonder if there are other games that do a good job of it? And if there aren't any games emulating it, why not?