Well, you knew it was coming anyway- a sequel to yet another Megaman game. But this is no ordinary sequel; it's a sequel to the surprisingly good Megaman Battle Network, released early in the GBA's life. Like most Megaman games, it's more of a "remix" or incremental step up from the last one, adding new weapons, new stages, and enemies to the pot; but unlike other Megaman games, the design is so unique, tweaking it too much would take away from the solid "blaster-RPG" universe Capcom crafted for this series.

MMBN2 is set in the exact same world as the original; Lan Hikari, the lead human character, lives in a net-connected world where humans carry catch-all devices called PETs (Personal Electronic Terminal). These act like cell phones, two-way pagers, and personal links into the Internet (and other networked machines), computers, and devices. With virtual personalities called "NetNAVIs" housed inside of these PETs, all of that is a snap! Lan's NAVI is of course the famous Megaman.EXE. Not only does he serve as Lan's personal NAVI, but he's also proficient in thrashing viruses and that which would threaten his home world. And this time, a mysterious NetMafia called "Gospel" has arisen, and armed with a new super-virus are gunning to take over both the real and virtual worlds! These travails in the Net are the meat of the game, and fun as all hell, due to the wonderful fusion of turn-based RPG combat, and finger blistering classic Megaman blasting action. Said combat is definitely unique, if a bit unusual- so in starting the game off, Lan receives homework from his school on his last day, which in actuality is a tutorial on playing the game. Seems like classic "Nintendo logic" that Lan would receive homework and such over summer vacation, but still...if the game is better because of it, do we really mind? Heh... (Editors Note: *Grumble…* I have lots of homework this summer Jon!)

The gameplay, like most RPGs, is split between exploring and battling. Exploring is pretty straightforward and linear, especially with the easy-to-understand plot. Lan runs about the real world, solving problems, searching for items and places to "jack in" to the Net, where Megaman.EXE takes over and solves problems there. One of the nicer things about that is the fact that they work together; at some points, Megaman will request that Lan do something in the real world to change something in the Net allowing Megaman to solve a puzzle there, or vice versa...pretty cool stuff. But like I said before, the meat of the game is the battling, and the system for that in MMBN2 is AWESOME. When a battle starts (stupid random battles!), you get to choose battle chips that can be activated during battle. When you start usually, you can only use one chip at a time, but with a bit of that old gamer's ingenuity (otherwise known as "two of the same chips", or "two chips with the same code"), you can utilize multiple chips from your list to give Megaman extra tools to crush those pesky viruses. Movement in the battle screens is easy to understand, and very quick; Megaman can move over any open red squares on the grid, and wielding his standard buster cannon can attack enemy viruses at any point in his turn. The big damage comes from your chips and chip combinations, so the strategy comes from how you use your chips-and how you move on the grid! Some viruses are pretty wily (no pun intended), and they can literally delete squares or entire sections of your grid, or even jump into your side and launch attacks! Some even place obstacles, traps and explosives into your grid, so you have to have a keen eye on the action, and keep moving...Megaman.EXE also has a few tricks up his binary sleeve as well, as he now possesses the ability to "evolve" and change suit color and elemental affinity based on your elemental focus during a battle. Of course, that isn't quite a game breaking function to a net battling newbie, but for those of us that played the original, this new "elemental evolution" could be the difference between a skin-of-your-teeth victory, and an absolute ass-whupping.

During your traipses across Lan's real world, and Megaman's virtual domain, you'll discover many kinds of battle chips, common and rare, that you can collect and place into your battle folder. You can only allocate a specific amount of chips to a battle folder (30 to be exact) to access during fights, so you have to be wise to which chip performs what attack or technique, which are needed and which are not, etc. It's not much unlike the organizational mania applied to any Pokemon game. And just like a new set of those ubiquitous pocket monsters, this sequel throws brand new battle chips to the mix. Among the other features of this new cart is the ability for two players to swap chips between each other, via trading or by cutthroat virtual combat. Capcom was even cool enough to include connection support to the previous game with the aptly named "Retro Chip Trader".

When you look at the game, the graphics, sound, and controls haven't changed much at all. The graphics aren't a tour-de-force, albeit crisp and colorful. Typical Capcom anime-style designs make up the bulk of the characters; the really sweet thing in the character designs is the animation, especially in the NAVI designs. Classic Megaman robots get extreme new facelifts, looking sleeker and more vicious. You might even wet yourself when the all new, tall and sharply attired Quickman starts parrying every bullet you fire on him in a blur of his boomerang-tipped arms, with nary a crack in his smirk! And on the "good guy side", Megaman.EXE, and Protoman.EXE are looking pretty snazzy themselves, with Protoman wielding a Zero-like beam saber! *gasp* The sound is pretty much a little better than a GBC game, but again nothing to write to mom about. The controls, even though they're simple, are spot-on. Even the isometric view of the game doesn't throw off the preciseness of the controls...and with all the dodging, bobbing and weaving you'll be doing, on the Net and in battles, those controls needed to be precise.

At the end of the day, Megaman Battle Network 2 is a great little RPG for the GBA. Packing a nice 10-20 hour quest with an exciting battle system and wonderful exploration dynamic, it's perfect both for the gamer who's never touched a MMBN game before to just pick-up and play, and for the seasoned MMBN series net-battler. If there were any problems, it's that it doesn't do anything to push the series to that proverbial "next level"-it just leaves the game pretty much as-is, even though there isn't much wrong with that design anyway. The game could also use some sort of map or auto-map... the Net is huge, and it's pretty easy to get lost and be wandering around for an hour, especially when on a "search and return" side task or something. Megaman Battle Network 2 is a great game, and RPG and blaster fans alike should plunk their hard-earned Zenny...erm, cash, down and jack in for the ride!