Spinning-off of Spin-offs - Mega Man Battle Network Side Games 

1:26 network transmission 24:12 ws 32:07 battle chip challenge 45:37 4.5 real operation

As a Digimon fan I hear Wonder Swan and break out in hives mumbling about "Milleniummon" and "Grandfather paradoxes"; so good to hear at least the Battle Network Wonder Swan game isn't being presented as canon to the main series.

Heads up for those curious. All the story modes in BCC end with a boss fight against Bass. And there's also a special 100 gauntlet to fight against Bass GS. Both of which give you his Navi chip and despite what you'd think, he's honestly not that good. Like, 7/10 at best. *Edit: I should clarify. The Story mode fight just gives you Bass normal. The 100 gauntlet gives you Bass GS. On top of it being 100 in a row, you have to complete previous gauntlets too. I believe it goes 10-20-50 then 100

18:15 In Battle Network 3, Higsby charged a lady 100,000z for a Ratton chip she could've got for free. You should've known NumberMan was about the bag.

Finally, someone sees how far ahead of its time (derogatory) Battle Chip Challenge is!

I love how the early Japan handheld competition was literally the same creators creations fighting each other.

Fun fact, Network Transmission lets you slide between boss's legs. This makes dodging Fire Man's flame thrower much, *much* easier. ...but of course they don't explain this. :) EDIT: Ok actually looks like your footage has you doing this lol EDIT 2: Huh, I remember liking Battlechip Challenge a lot as a kid, but I bet I'd be annoyed with it too if I only found it recently.

Dokkan battle mentioned 🔥🔥🔥 Love paying for units that become obsolete when the next event decides to negate its main ability 🔥🔥🔥

WE'RE SO BACK BROS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Oh man, really appreciate the shout out in the first screen! Always love your content John, thanks for being a huge BN pillar : )

The amount of times that Higsby and Numberman screw you over with paywalls in these games is a bit alarming.

Okay, it was... a long time since I was subscribed but I wanna leave this comment now since there's at least a chance you will read it. Thank you for doing these videos! I know it's not like, the most healthy thing to do but... over the course of all the retrospectives, all of the videos... you kinda just get this weird sense of attachment, you know? Like, I am really happy whenever you uploaad because the way you write and edit these things make them weirdly personal. Like, yeah, there's ton of irony-posting, humour, ect. but at the same time its like, bot at all made in service to create something cynical or removed from humn experience of playing these games, you know? It just feels nice. Every joke, all the funny "oh god, they are doing this AGAIN", the analysis, it feels less like something that is done by a large comunity of cookie cutter "video essay" YTers but more personal and "down to earth"(?). Like, it feels more akin to hanging out with a friend who hangs out with you while talking about a game they really have lots of ppinions and feelings for. Like yeah, it is *kinda* parasocial and not really a good thing to do... but it still feels nice to see a video of yours and go "Hell yeah! New video from John!" ... in short - thank you for making these. I think you're rly cool 🫶

Damn, I missed John shitting on gutsman and numberman... I mean John talking about battle network

Funfact, my first megaman battle network game was Chip Challenge, fell in love with the characters then played MMBN 6 Gregar years later and fell in love with the game play. I am still currently in therapy for this.

unfun fact: battle chip challenge has an optional 100-battle-gauntlet mode. My relatively fresh and well cared for GBA SP ran out of battery from full charge before completing it. It also took more than four hours, from what I recall. With endgame chips.

45:49 I would not have noticed unless you pointed that out lol

I'm just here to continue to insist that all of these games could have been really good in the modern era with a bit of polish. Okay, a lot of polish for the platformers, those have some problems. But like, Battle Chip Challenge with an ability to select chips and potentially a different "board" with bonus effects if you use those chips, and maybe an ability to choose which chip you're targeting with damage? I feel like that would actually be a fun concept to play around with. Heck, Real Operation is already solid, just throw it on mobile, remove the time gates, add a simpler way to power up your Navis and you could make a really good Battle Network experience in the modern day. It won't ever happen, but I can dream.

I probably would have loved 4.5 if i got to play it as a kid the way it was intended. It sounds so hype.

Love that bed of chaos is catching strays in a megaman spin-off video

39:30 THEY HAVE A SPEED STAT?!

Another banger video. Your narrative and voice are very pleasant to listen to, makes the video that much more enjoyable! Keep up the good work dude!

An hour of John bring on the Good Times.

"Goon Squad." Hey, phrasing!

“Just kill me now, they did not use that music again” killed me 😂

Cob Nation represent! Also #fucknumberman One thing that's odd is ShadowMan in Network Transmission 'kinda' makes sense since he was also a secret boss in Battle Network 1 even if he had 0 story relevance. As for the Battle Chip Gate...SOME "totally real GameBoy Advance TM" programs on Windows ACTUALLY support emulating it so at least they are usable. So even if we don't have access to the thrill of slotting in chips in real life with a plastic toy piece tacked onto our GBA's at least we can push some buttons to do the same to see what it would've done. Another thing that does stand out to me about how hostile 4.5 is to changing up characters is maybe despite all the character specific roadblocks the game intended for you to get attached to your Navi, much like how in the anime you don't really see people swap their navis out left and right?

On the WS game, Lan sometimes chimes in and you have to press up to hear what he says, which very often is a hint to getting the special chip of said stage. I could have sworn you could see the stats of navis and chips in battle chip challenge by pressing select on the chip on the deck editor... And while I know it's standard for MegaMan games by now, taking in account that most of these are not made by Capcom themselves, the music is just as amazing.

Great video! I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who struggled horribly with the gamecube game. I was super into the anime as a kid, I even put subbed episodes onto my iPod nano to watch in the car, but didn’t have any of the games for this MM series in specific. So you can imagine my excitement when I finally found a used copy for cheap at a game store…. Yeah, it was the Network Transmission game. I knew nothing about it, and I couldn’t get past Fire Man either! I think I gave up after a few times out of frustration and boredom, and had difficulty understanding the chip mechanics, especially not playing the RPGs before. Keep in mind I had my parents' old NES MM games and had beat a few of them by the time I had picked up this game. It was my first experience with being disappointed with a game purchase. My second game I got was… a Japanese copy of Battle Chip Challenge. I brute forced learning that game and the language at the same time out of sheer determination. The limited gameplay definitely helped in that regards. Thankfully, this introduction didn’t sour me to the experience of this franchise.

25:08 Starfy is, like, the only thing TOSE has to their name that's purely Theirs, and even then...

4.5 was a nice playthrough, as someone who spent a loooot of time to 100% it(no cheesing, logged in everyday!) I learned a lot of how to optimize getting every license and how to fight every boss perfectly. You can sign up to 5 navis at a time for a License, but only 1 can be done per day up til Saturday/Sunday. The battlechip Counter will be your friend for everything. The AI is janky, but can be manipulated well if you know what you're doing, like, if you have holes on the field and can't move too good and an attack is coming, suddenly a panel opens up, you can set the distance and enemy youre focusing on, use the buster and the navi teleports to that space! Basically I enjoyed 4.5 a lot more than other daily kinda games, it was fun, i built gimmicky folders for certain navis, got to play as Bass! Etcetc

Bro got PTSD from hearing the familiar tournament music

Network transmission was so 🔥 as a kid to me cause I was watching the cartoon along side playing the game.

I enjoyed BCC and I still play it every so often. It's a pretty neat spinoff

I'm so glad you like network transmission even though it's kind of awful. I feel the same way ha ha. Just letting you know since even the wiki has wrong information on it.... In 4.5 the third row of playable navis on the character select screen were battlegate exclusive navis. As in you had to buy the associated physical navi chip into the battlegate toy while playing 4.5 to unlock them. The English translation patch, knowing most people won't have the toys, give you ways to unlock those navis through in-game means. It's mentioned in the patch notes. Wonderful video, great job! Always love seeing things from you.

I love Battle Chip Challenge! With a few improvements it could have been a great game. It reminds me a lot of auto-battlers, it probably would have been a lot more fun if it was more like auto-battlers instead of idle games. Great video, really enjoyed everything!

Battle Chip Challenge and Network Transmission was my introduction to Battle Network....it took until years later for me to give the series another shot. I just wrote the whole thing off for years until I got BN3 used for $5, and it was actually good

Are you going to do a Retrospective on Starforce 2 & 3?

Tbh I didn't have any real issues when I was playing this on the GameCube as a kid. I'll admit it was a lil tough but the music and the lighting effects of the charged shot was wat got me hooked and kept me going.

Everytime the Wonder Swan is mentioned, I feel like I got ripped to an alternate timeline where we got that instead of the Gameboy, and it fucks with me so hard bros.

I’m not ashamed to admit Network Transmission is one of my guilty pleasure games. The beginning of the game is rough as shit, but once you get upgrades it becomes much more fun. I rented it back in high school when it first came out and I still enjoy it. The way it mixed chips from the RPG series into a platformer is still pretty interesting to me.

Network transmission is one of my favourite games , I really love the difficulty of the game

No way my dude just dissed Quick Man’s Stage. It’s iconic

You helped me understand that I don't need to dive deeper than Network Transmission. Thank you.

Surely you aren't thinking that you can escape BN now, right? I'm sorry, but if we've gotten this far, there's still one thing left to review. ... The anime-

32:57 wow they really couldnt have moved that canon huh....

I can only play megaman 4.5 with the normal battle system mod. The regular battle system in that game legit makes me cry.

Bro I'm shocked "A lot of mediocre ground to cover." *Megaman Netwrok Transmission* WHAT!? XD I really loved it! AND I didn't quit after Fire Man :) I (and my bro) PUSHED!

Thanks for the reviews John! These are very fair critiques of the spin-offs and I appreciate your thoughts. NT: Pretty tough game that becomes ridiculously easy. The only reason I beat BrightMan was because a RU-vid LP I watched used ShieldGuard from the QuickMan Stage. Otherwise GutsMan was the biggest wall for several years until I figured out how this game was actually played. Thanks to GameFAQ's for suggesting DashAtk. WS: Really cool Gunpei Yokoi made a Game Boy for Bandai. As for our Blue Boy, I never played it. I don't know how well this game's buttons four additional face buttons translate to emulators. BCC: I never played more than a few hours of this. It's only good if you're looking for a Mega Man Battle Network game to fill the void. 4.5: Would you believe me if I told you the BN4 "Tournament Advancement" Music is listed under 4.5 on the Soundtrack? John didn't mention this but you can emulate all of the Battle Chip Gates using mGBA or GreigaMaster's "Battle Chip Gate Homebrew" if you have a second Game Boy Advance, a Link Cable, and a Flash Cart.. I'm guessing John didn't use this because he either didn't know (or it interferes with recording footage).

I remember 100% completing the Battle Chip Challenge tournaments, including that extra long one. I didn't 100% the Chip Library. Screw that noise.

that wonderswan game looks so charming though

The Undernet viruses in Network Transmission can be damaged by chips of their weakness element OR have their Aura barriers removed by attacks over a certain amount of damage. I think the exact amount varies between the different colours, with the highest being 100 for the white ones (Scuttlest), which have no weakness element. So you don't need to have all four elements available at once if you grind for M-Canons and then set that as your Regular Chip

About shadowman, if you went through the pain of 100% mmbn1, shadowman actually existed as a boss there.

Battlechip Challenge is such a weird one because it could potentially work and be compelling if either the tournament structure or the combat system were sacrificed. If the tournament was dropped then the game could be a nice RPG that just happens to be a deckbuilder, or if the combat system was dropped then it'd be a cute little Battle Network game that's gimmick is just letting you play as other navi's (So 4.5 Before 4.5 existed)

They actually released battlechips in the US. They had the PET, and all Battle Network action figures and toys came with chips that can be used with it. That chip gate just wasn't released in the US. In Japan, they straight up had an arcade game that was basically Versus mode from the games, and you used these same battlechips OH, and it ACTUALLY rewarded you with random chips that the machine was stocked with. Japan gets all the good shit. lol

You forgot to mention that the anime and mangas diverge from the games to become their own storylines!

Jaja I loved the last word xD really made laugh. What a good and objective review.

I actually like Battle Chip Challenge. It was unique and i didnt need lightning reflexes to actually play the game slike the mainline. Was better for me as a kid, so it holds a special place in my heart.

The worst thing with Network Transmission, is that with some tweaks, it could have been excellent. Aside from the obvious balance issues, what I would have removed is the chip usage limit. Tie that to the MP gauge. Get rid of the chips like double jump, and dash. Instead, bring in a system like BN3's NaviCust system, where you have a certain amount of expandable RAM, and can equip things like a dash, double jump, autocharge, faster slide, faster run-speed, some that grant more zenny and better drops from enemies, some that add defensive benefits to certain elements, or even augment charge shots with certain elements, etc. Some of these would outright be nods to features in other Mega Man games, like one that allows you to charge up two charged shots, and follow up with a sword chip, or Bass' rapid fire. And of course, as stated before, you can expand this RAM by fighting stronger enemies, or buying it from Higsby at a greatly marked up price. Give MegaMan a slightly more limited version of X's wall jump. You get two kicks off the wall, three if you have double jump equipped. Another change to the chips I'd make is allowing you to map two buttons to chips, allowing you to more easily combo with them, encouraging players to experiment with the chips a lot more, since combining one thing with another is cool, and the main goal of any game is to let the player feel like they're doing cool shit. Somehow the company that put out Devil May Cry not too long prior to this missed that memo.

I wish more games have Battle Network like battle system

It's always intriguing to hear about Battle Chip Challenge cause I must have major nostalgia cause I remember some features but others I remember very differently like I remember at some point operating Toadman after a shop purchase and I don't remember the battle system AT ALL. I just remember it being extremely hard.

I pray for people sanity when they attempt the 100 man challenge in Battle Chip Challenge to beat the Super Bass boss fight ._.;

EXE WS my beloved. this and Battle Chip Challenge are games i adore.

I liked battle chip challenge because I thought holding the Dpaf influenced the path the command deck picked when I was little (it sometimes worked). Same logic as holding buttons when throwing a PokeBall

The mGBA emulator actually has a function that replicates the Battle Chip Gate. Despite that, it's still not the optimal way to play 4.5 or the Operation Battles from 4-6. It's pretty clunky in comparison to physically moving the stuff around. But for those that want to go physical and don't want to break the bank (completely, you'd still need a Chip Gate), if you possess the knowhow (or know someone that does) you can custom make your own chips and they'll work as well as the official stuff.

after learning Battle Chip Challenge and Real Operation exist it feels really weird that the only Megaman Gacha Game (that i'm aware of) wasn't themed around Battle Network

36:42 Why is Hiei fighting Gilgamesh and his pair of Chibi Kratos bodyguards? This is a sentence I never expected to say, not just today but you know in general, like most sane people?

44:19 watching inti creates do WHAT

Back in the day I loved BCC because it felt like a PET simulator, which was something I always wanted from the BN series, a shame I never heard about 4.5 until now because I feel I would enjoy it even more Also I enjoy gacha games with those idle battle systems a lot so that also explains why I never had a problem with BCC

Everytime John uploads a video. My biceps irl grow an inch or so. I'm just happy to see my Boi

Every time you refer to the GBA as a "mobile device" I think to myself, "Silly John, the GBA isn't a phone!"

I liked 4.5 It did sell the gimmick well. Though I do enjoy it more with the "Real Combat" hack. Which lets it play like a traditional BN title.

First of all great video, and when I came across the megaman battle chip challenge game, I had no idea what I was doing, I was not aware of how the game worked (and the fact that I didn't really know how to read English properly didn't help) and the fact that the game is automatic to a certain level and that you don't really have control over NetNevi and to date has made this game the worst I've ever seen from this franchise

A Destiny 2 Reference whwn saying grinding wasnt on my Bingo page. Today. Lol

yeeeep fireman is what caused me to quit muti-able times... i only finally managed to beat it like few months ago from trying again but i set the game down afterwards as just literally got so burned out just fighting him on it >

Love that not only is glyde not in the 4 starting navis in 4.5 he just isnt in the game period.

Ever notice yai looks awfully like Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX from cyberbots. Also: if I recall correctly, the battlegate had exclusive navi’s locked to using it…the English patch removed the requirement and made them unlockable through just playing the game

I uh, never really had a problem during my youth playing this game. Mind it was my first experience with NT

Finally more retrospectives

more megaman videos wooo! i am one day late, glad to see you again

I really don't like most of the spin-offs (to be fair I also don't like 4 or 5 at all and only mildly like 1) but I do have a soft spot for Network Transmission. It's such a weird and messy game that I can't help but find it kind of charming.

Nice work as always Really appreciate these videos as someone who loved the series not to mention it's genuinely fun to listen to your opinions about them Curious though are you going to do Onimusha Blade Warriors as well I always thought it was crazy that Exe and M.Zero were in it

Honestly, and I have said this before, possibly on this channel, BN 4.5 is an awesome idea that could easily be turned into a gacha game on Phones if Capcom ever cared enough to get a team to properly develop it...and give you full control of the Navi you play as, adding a bunch of story content using the BN world. Kind of just leaving money on the table there.

1:52 I need the source for this. For science.

As a kid, I loved Battlechip Challenge as I started to get better chips. But I NEVER knew about the speed stat...

Chip Challenge the OG P2W gacha game! Even before X Dive! 😂😂😂😂

I honestly enjoy Battle Chip Challenge. Made a deck based around Number Man. But yeah your critiques weren’t too off base but I do think it had potential!

yo the Dokkan gacha for the chip battle challenge dho

Battle Network 4.5 has a special place in my heart cause it was the 1st game I ever imported as a kid , got the complete edition with money I got mowing lawns And honestly I can say that yea , the game is fun when you play it as intended at a young age Tho because of the RTC tournament, it took forever (Years) for me to fight the final boss of the game cause getting to it requires completing the S library, and some of the chips were locked behind RNG drops from winning the daily tournaments :(

Network Transmission was so bad, even I dropped it when I played it as a kid, and traded it for another game. "I couod be playing BN instead" is all I was thinking when playing this lol

thought about getting Battle Chip Challenge but never could find it back when i was a kid when it came out. only "spin off" i played was Megaman And Bass on the GBA which was kinda fun.

9:09 looks like they successfully incorperated the elements of an rpg into a platformer 11:04 and they managed to make the first boss harder than in the Z series by not having an intro level 30:40 on par with kirby 64

Very well made and entertaining video my dude!

I was so confused the day I saw Battle Network for the GBA. I had the gamecube game and when the end credits hinted at a sequel I was excited. Then one internet search later I see there is no gamecube Network Transmission 2.

i remember seeing the GC battle network game in another state, these games were particularly hard to find here in México, thank god my mother refused to buy the game for me lmao, it sucks i would have been heartbroken

Me when 4.5 has a PvP patch based on a Real BN patch And that’s nice.

so, whens the dokkan battle review?

51:50 Here's the thing though, you can use it through emulator. MGBA actually has had an option built in to it for around like 4 to 5 years now to properly emulate the Battle Chips features. Sure it's not exactly like using the physical device, but it's close enough for now

Real operation is pretty cool in concept. Time gate, i get is part of the sim element. The character gating sounds painful

Nightmare and wake up to this seems like I’m happy to be alive and wake up yea

New upload? Welp guess its that time of the year to binge all the reviews again

Well not official the 4.5 pvp patch is really cool. It makes the gameplay like bn4 with all the navi keeping there unique abilities