Lan still lives at home. He seems destined to spend the next several sequels in suspended youth, like so many other beloved characters. It is from his home and other locations with the proper hardware that you'll hook up to the Internet and do battle. Wherever he goes, Lan serves mostly as the vehicle by which Mega Man finds a place to get on the Internet. Missions start off with typical random battles, but quickly you'll get into the story and be facing the forces of Nebula.

Battles take place on a grid, with you at one end and the enemy at the other. Before the contest, you'll have a rough idea of what you're up against and you'll have to choose your weapons based on what you're fighting. You'll choose from several different chips (more than 200 in all) that offer different attacks and other affects. You can string together chips if they have the same name or letter in the corner. Because you can only carry 30 chips into battle at once, much of the strategy of the game rests in organizing and choosing chips. There are many, many ways to approach a battle, which occur in real time. After putting in a little bit of time you'll get to know several kinds of enemies and a slew of different methods for dispatching them.

Liberation levels are a little different and new for this version. They're turn based, and you'll be able to slowly move your way around the board and liberate sections. Each time you find an ally, they join your team and become available during your turn. You want to cover as much ground as possible before your turn ends, or the bad guys can recharge and make life harder. Your new allies depend upon Mega Man's chip selection, but they're still helpful and the whole concept is a welcome addition to the formula.

There are six different allies in each version of the game for a total of twelve. The two versions share a story and gameplay, so these characters and the unique boss characters are the biggest difference. The affects of Soul Unisons, when Mega Man borrows powers from allies, are different in the two versions, too.

There is also another wrinkle to battle: Chaos Unions. You can choose to use powerful, evil chips during battle, but they'll eventually corrupt Mega Man and take away from his total hit points. You don't have to use them at all, but if you use them sparingly they can be handy without much negative impact.

Battle Network 5 also supports competition via system link cable. You can hook into a friend's GBA and battle it out in the arena.

But in most ways, this is the same game that's been around for a while. It looks much the same as previous Battle Network games, it sounds the same and it plays nearly the same. There aren't many animations during a battle, which makes the game that much more dated in appearance. Figures just appear in a new square when you move them. They also react to attacks by jerking from one position to another. The battle areas are boring, with simple colored blocks which are a bit too reminiscent of disco floors.

Mega Man's been around the block, and this latest edition is more of what fans probably want: the same gameplay, but with small improvements. It also comes with the same presentation – without improvement. There's no reason to knock a formula that works, but keeping too close to the formula through five editions is only going to satisfy those who have a truly insatiable thirst for more of the same.