I am one of those "scary" Mega Man fans.  I can name off every Robot Master from every game and tell you their weaknesses.  I've watched every episode of every Mega Man cartoon series, including the ones that only ever aired in Japan.  Right on top of my computer is a six-inch figure of Bass.EXE, staring down on me.  If it's Mega Man-related, chances are I've seen/bought/played it and enjoyed it.  This pattern broke last year with Mega Man Battle Network 4.  I simply did not have any fun while playing the game and I was really, really hoping Capcom would address all my complaints with the newest game in the series, Battle Network 5.  Well, they did.  They fixed almost everything I had a problem with.  So, what's the problem?  While they removed all my issues with the game, they completely forgot to replace them with anything fun.

Once again, the game is split in to two versions: Team Protoman and Team Colonel.  Both games are pretty much parallel universe ways of looking at the same story.  Continuing from where Battle Network 4 left off, Dr. Regal is still attempting to take over the world.  As the game begins, Dr. Hikari is kidnapped by the Net-Terrorism group Nebula, which kicks off their offensive on the Net.  Area after area are taken over and Lan begins to investigate.  After facing off with a skilled Navi named Colonel (or your old rival, Protoman), Lan is drafted in to the Anti-Nebula Taskforce, who's charged to liberate the Net.  The basic set-up to the story is okay, but there's very little actual development in it.  You gain extra characters for your team, Lan occasionally uncovers some little quest involving his grandfather, but nothing to the point of an actual involving storyline.

The game removes the "wander through this dungeon for six hours" mechanic from the last title and replaces it with something called "Liberation Missions."  It's an SRPG-like setup where Mega Man's team (which is different, depending on which version you're playing) travels across a long-set of tiles, fighting off viruses until you reach the robot master of that area.  Each Navi has different skills, like Shadowman.EXE is capable of running across dark tiles to hit switches, while Tomohawkman.EXE can take out a large group of dark tiles at once.  Liberation missions would be great fun if it weren't for the fact that everytime you encounter an enemy, you only have three turns (the bar will automatically bring you to the chip menu every time it fills) to defeat the enemy.  This includes when fighting the Robot Master, so you're forced to keep the best possible chips in your folder, since everyone shares Lan's chips.  They took a really good idea and killed it with the three-turn limit, which boggles the mind.

Of course, this doesn't mean there's no wandering.  There's still tons.  Before every liberation mission, you're told to investigate the area, only to find an obstacle blocking you're way.  Then you're forced to go all the way back, find a Navi that can help you, go through a dungeon, watch a scene, then go back all the way to the area you investigated and start the mission.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, until your brain leaks out of your head.  The dungeon design is just as annoying as ever, as well.  No longer are they based on clever level design.  Instead, they're basically tedious puzzles that can only be solved through trial and error.

The music is, quite literally, the exact same tracks from previous games remixed.  There's very little that's new.  It's also pretty inexcusable at this point for Capcom to skimp on the voice samples for the game, since they'd be so easy and applicable in the GBA titles.  The games aren't even that big, so cart space is hardly an issue.  Sound effects are still the same, which adds a lot to the "less of a sequel, more of an update" feel to the game.  The translation is also very, very ridiculous.  One of the memorable lines is Lan talking to Mayl and saying, in surprise of seeing her at the train station, "What are I doing here?"  During one scene, Lan and another character will completely switch dialogue.  It's less of a translation and more of some sort of acid trip.

Mega Man Battle Network 5 requires you to be a REALLY big Mega Man fan to enjoy it.  Even then, it might not be enough.  Keiji Inafune said he didn't want to take the series past seven games and, story-wise, this title is the start of that wind-down.  A Battle Network fan will get a kick out of seeing and controlling so many different Navi's and all the little fanwinks, but there's just not a good enough game there to justify playing it more than once, if even a whole time once.

3.5 out of 5 Battle Chips.  Better than Battle Network 4, but not by enough.  It can get very annoying, very tedious, and more than once you'll ask yourself "Why am I playing this?"