Battle Network 5 for the Gameboy Advance. I had finished both Team Protoman and Team Colonel, but I pretty much phoned in Double Team DS. I had assumed the game was largely unchanged with a few graphical additions and some new music. While this is mostly true, the game does feature a few new gameplay additions as well, which I neglected to mention. There isn't enough there to review the entire game over again, as the story, graphics, and level design is mostly unchanged, but I felt like pointing out some of the changes and how they affect my impressions of the game.The biggest change to Battle Network 5 is the addition of Team Navi's and the Party Customizer. Early on in the game, ProtoMan and Chaud (or Baryl and Colonel) hand you a new device hooked on to Lan's homepage that allows him to add another Navi to his PET. This allows you to call upon other navi's aid during combat, or switch to them altogether. Navis come in all shapes and sizes, and you'll unlock them as you progress normally. Your team members have special abilities, such as ProtoMan jumping in to attack with a wide sword every now and again, and Gyro man using the Fan chip during combat.
Most of the abilities are pretty useless, but you'll find something you want out of the available choices, and being able to switch to another navi with full HP when MegaMan's in a jam is really helpful, especially when fighting somebody like Bass. Occasionally they'll get in your way and screw up combos and what not, but you can turn them off at any time. This whole ability certainly pulls back some of the tedium of wandering around, but it doesn't work in dungeons or liberation missions.
In addition to this, you can also obtain an item from the NumberMan trader that allows you to switch two team navi's from the different versions in the middle of a liberation mission. That means if you'd rather have ShadowMan over GyroMan, or KnightMan over MagnetMan, it's as easy as selecting a menu option.
Other changes include a few extra character portraits, some shoe horned DS minigames, bonuses for slotting into the gameboy advance other Battle Network games, and a tie in with Boktai. None of these things are very interesting, though the extra portraits were appreciated.
All and all though, it does little to alleviate the major problem with Battle Network 5, the limited folder options. You're just plain stuck with a pretty bad folder the whole way through the game, without a hell of a lot you can do without sacrificing power or versatility. You really have to play any Battle Network game except 4 to understand how precious having a wide range of chips is to one of these games.
In addition to this, you can't even trade chips between versions on the same DS! Talk about killing a selling point! Double Team DS is certainly more enjoyable than the gameboy advance versions, but the game overall is still a big turd on the whole series.
