February 4, 2005 - You could sense our excitement when Capcom revealed that the company would be bringing the fifth installment of the Mega Man Battle Network franchise to the Game Boy Advance in North America this year. This year's iteration will once again come in two flavors: Team Protoman and Team Colonel. Though both games will certainly share assets like storyline and characters, each edition will feel much different to each other with enemies, souls, and battle chips unique to that particular cartridge.

In Battle Network 5, a month has passed since the final battle in Battle Network 4. Another evil syndicate has risen up to try what all the other bad guys in the Battle Network series have attempted: try to take over the global internet. By entering the virtual world with Mega Man, players will be able to partner up with other cyber heroes to liberate the evil territories and prevent the global take-over. Players will obtain teammates to help them work through the hazardous territories of the viral-infected networks. Uncovering digital data will enable players to read through scenario's past and uncover details that will answer questions to the mystery of the Nebula syndicate.

Capcom has enhanced the gameplay of the Battle Network series with several additions to the familiar presentation. Players still do battle with chips in a turn-based/realtime fighting environment, utilizing strategies to defeat the hundreds of enemies in the game. A new "Chaos Union" system allows players to control the power of the darkness by uniting with a dark chip. Each version will have six distinct allies to befriend, each with their own background storyline. There are also six unique "Soul" chips per version, and some enemies will only appear in one edition and not the other.

Have a look at the newest screens and art for the games. Expect a release of Mega Man Battle Network 5 later in the spring.

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