Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Protoman

"A great addition to the series"

The story for this Battle Network game is one of the better ones. To sum it up, Lan and MegaMan join a team of Net Navis who are out to stop Dr. Regal (The same evil guy from Battle Network 4) from taking over the Net. The story is pretty much the same for both versions but with different characters.

The graphics for Battle Network 5 are like 4. Some people didn't like the “smaller” look, but I do. For a GBA game the graphics are very well done. I love the character sprites and shots. The battle screen seems to change in every game…Slightly. The battle animations, and enemies all look very nice. Souls, battle chip shots, and all that also look very good. It's better looking then a lot of GBA games.

The music is pretty good, like all of the games. Some of it can get annoying at times. But most of it is pretty catchy and fun to listen too. Battle sounds are nicely done. But to sum it up, the sound hasn't changed very much. If you liked the sound in the other Battle Network games then you will like this.

This is what the Battle Network games are all about. This time around, viruses drop more useful chips more often, making chip hunting easier. Dark Chips, and Soul Unisons, are back. There are also new Soul Unisons called Chaos Souls, which are very powerful. Chaos Souls last only one turn because of this power. The charge shot for each is like a certain Dark Chip. For example, Proto Chaos has Dark Sword for his charge shot. It does massive damage. But Chaos Souls are very hard to master. One wrong move could end up getting you deleted. A great thing about the Chaos Souls are that they don't permanently lower HP or anything. And now Dark Chips are put into your folder like regular chips. There is also a brand new feature called Liberation Missions. These missions let you control multiple Navis at the same time to complete a goal. In each mission you have to liberate panels in order to get to the boss. But…A liberation battle can only take 3 turns. If you don't finish it within that amount of time…You lose the battle. If that doesn't sound hard enough, the custom screen opens automatically. Chips like Slow Gauge can help this though. Overall, the gameplay if very nice. Maybe the best thing about the game.

There are some things to do after beating the game. Not much…But completing you chip collection and trying to fight Bass and Dark MegaMan as the final bosses. Plus the multiplayer can keep you busy for hours.

MegaMan Battle Network 5 is a GBA game that any fan of the series should pick up. It is harder then most of the other games though. So new people should probably start with a different version.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/05, Updated 07/19/05