50 Fun Facts About Mega Man Battle Network

Mega Man Battle Network's director says a producer insisted the development team watch which hit sci-fi film?

The Matrix, with its heroes plugging into a virtual world, was a must-watch on a producer's orders; the team also sat down together at the office to watch a Digimon film.

Mega Man Battle Network was built to capture the kind of fun found in which hit handheld RPG series?

Pokémon was the model, but the director found it hard to blend that kind of fun with fast action, because no game quite like it had been made before.

Lan's late twin brother in Mega Man Battle Network shares his name with which piece of networking hardware?

Hub died very young of a heart condition, and his father preserved his mind as the NetNavi MegaMan, which is why the boy and his digital partner share such a close bond.

Which classic Mega Man villain leads the WWW crime syndicate in Mega Man Battle Network, bent on revenge?

Dr. Wily turned to net crime after the government cut his research funding and backed a rival's project, and he now runs his gang of hackers from a hidden mountain base.

Mega Man Battle Network arrived in Japan in March 2001 as a launch title for which handheld console?

Game Boy Advance buyers in Japan could pick it up on day one; it had been announced the previous summer as one of just four games lined up for the new system.

In Mega Man Battle Network's first chapter, which appliance in Lan's kitchen is set ablaze by a WWW virus?

The oven fire is the work of a villain posing as a repairman, who is really after a rare fire program hidden inside the Hikari family's appliance.

Mega Man Battle Network's villain turned to crime after the government cut funding for his research in which field?

Robotics lost out to network research in this world, a sly reversal of the classic games, where the same scientist fields an army of mechanical bosses.

The initials of the WWW, the net-crime syndicate in Mega Man Battle Network, officially stand for what?

World Three sits at the top of the criminal list in the game's manual, and its agents are behind every crisis Lan and MegaMan are called on to solve.

Which sword-wielding NetNavi does Lan's rival Chaud operate in Mega Man Battle Network?

ProtoMan and his operator keep crossing paths with Lan while chasing the same criminals on the government's behalf, and the two pairs finally duel inside a power plant.

Which hidden boss of Mega Man Battle Network is a NetNavi version of the rival introduced in Mega Man 7?

Bass lurks in the deepest corner of the Internet and only shows himself once the player has collected nearly every Battle Chip in the game.

Mega Man Battle Network's team at Capcom was first tasked with making a game in which genre?

Horror was the original brief, but the project stalled; the team tried a card game next, and only then paired the idea with the Mega Man name.

Which NetNavi with healing powers belongs to Mayl, Lan's neighbour and close friend, in Mega Man Battle Network?

Roll is no frontline fighter, but her Navi Chip helps MegaMan in a pinch, and Mayl makes sure Lan gets stronger versions of it as the story goes on.

Which burly NetNavi belongs to Dex, the classmate who keeps challenging Lan to duels in Mega Man Battle Network?

GutsMan loses to MegaMan early on, and after a rematch Dex hands over his Navi Chip, turning the class bully into one of Lan's firmest friends.

In Mega Man Battle Network, what does WWW agent Ms. Madd sabotage to cause chaos across DenTown?

Traffic lights all turn green at once, and the WWW then emails drivers an offer to sell them a fix for their automated cars at an enormous price.

Lan's friend Mayl is trapped aboard which runaway vehicle, rigged with a bomb, in Mega Man Battle Network?

A bus carrying Mayl speeds through DenTown until MegaMan brings it to a halt, and when the villain sets off the bomb anyway, Mayl's own Navi blocks the signal.

Which currency, also spent in Breath of Fire and Monster Hunter, buys Battle Chips in Mega Man Battle Network?

Zenny turns up across its publisher's games, and here one unit seems to be worth about a single Japanese yen, so even cheap items cost hundreds.

Mega Man Battle Network's enhanced remake, released only in Japan in 2009, appeared on which console?

Nintendo DS owners got a touchscreen map of cyberspace in the remake, but it took a fan translation, finished in 2018, to bring the game into English.

Mega Man Battle Network's 2009 remake lets players swap to the hero of which successor series?

Star Force's hero can stand in for the original MegaMan, bringing a lock-on for far-away targets and a brief shield into the older game's grid fights.

Which producer, an artist on the very first Mega Man in 1987, oversaw Mega Man Battle Network?

Keiji Inafune wanted the new series to mirror the real lives of children growing up online, so its hero became a schoolboy in a town run on the internet.

Mega Man Battle Network is known in Japan by which shorter name, matching its hero's name there?

Rockman EXE is the short form of the Japanese title, and it explains why the English hero is MegaMan.EXE, a name ending like a program file.

In Mega Man Battle Network, sending a NetNavi from a PET into a computer or household gadget is known as what?

Jacking in lets operators explore the insides of everyday devices as if they were places, so even a doghouse can hide a nest of viruses.

Which of the original Mega Man's six stage bosses has no NetNavi counterpart in Mega Man Battle Network?

Cut Man sat the first game out while his five stablemates were reborn as NetNavis, then joined them as a boss in the sequel.

Which hard-hatted virus from Mega Man Battle Network is the only species to return in every sequel?

Mettaur swings a pickaxe to send a shock wave along the ground, and it is a digital take on the helmeted Met enemies of the classic games.

In Mega Man Battle Network, what name is given to the 30 Battle Chips a player picks to carry into fights?

Folder building is the game's answer to deck building: only chips placed there can be drawn in a fight, while the rest wait in a reserve called the sack.

In Mega Man Battle Network, hitting an enemy with an attack of the element it is weak to has which effect?

Double damage rewards matching the right chip to the foe, with every chip and enemy aligned to fire, water, electricity, wood or no element at all.

Mega Man Battle Network's artists designed the hulking boss StoneMan to resemble which kind of structure?

A castle of stacked masonry was his motif, part of a plan to build every boss's body around one clear theme and surprise fans of the classic versions.

Which final boss of Mega Man Battle Network is assembled by the WWW from four stolen super programs?

Life Virus is nearly indestructible and was built to wipe out the Net and every device on it, starting with the planet's military satellites.

The WWW's leader in Mega Man Battle Network was once a research colleague of which relative of Lan?

His grandfather pioneered network research and won the state's backing, a snub the villain never forgave and now takes out on the networked world that research built.

Which shadowy region of cyberspace must MegaMan enter to track down the WWW's server in Mega Man Battle Network?

Undernet access takes memos from reformed ex-members of the gang, and the area returns in later games as the black market of cyberspace.

In Mega Man Battle Network, several different Battle Chips can be sent in one turn only if they share what?

A letter code is printed on every chip, so strong players stack one letter and send whole hands at once instead of a single chip per turn.

Which WWW agent in Mega Man Battle Network poses as a handyman to steal a rare program from Lan's home?

Mr. Match lives up to his name by operating the flame-wielding FireMan, the first boss NetNavi that Lan and MegaMan delete together.

Which WWW agent in Mega Man Battle Network poses as a teacher, then reforms and opens a Battle Chip shop?

Higsby locks Lan's class in with a brainwashing video for the promise of rare chips, but once beaten he goes straight and later cracks a password to help Lan.

In Mega Man Battle Network, the WWW forces waterworks scientist Dr. Froid to help them by kidnapping whom?

His son turns up locked in a car, and once Lan frees the boy, Dr. Froid and his Navi IceMan switch sides and repair the town's water supply.

When the WWW blacks out a power plant during a party in Mega Man Battle Network, what begins to run out?

Oxygen stops flowing into the sealed building, so Lan slides down a rubbish chute and shuts off a generator by hand to weaken the villain's Navi.

Lan and his friends in Mega Man Battle Network live in which neighbourhood, called Akihara in the Japanese version?

ACDC Town sits within Den City, and the WWW slips in and out of it through a secret subway station hidden beneath the elementary school.

Which wealthy classmate of Lan in Mega Man Battle Network skipped grades and operates the butler-like Glyde?

Yai is a child genius who jumped ahead to the fifth grade, and at the villains' base she and her Navi put out a wall of flames blocking Lan's way.

Trading Battle Chips with a friend in the first Mega Man Battle Network requires which accessory?

Link Cable play also allows duels: a test battle costs nothing, but in a real battle the winner takes one of the loser's chips.

In the Japanese version of Mega Man Battle Network, the schoolboy hero Lan goes by which first name?

Netto is a pun on the Japanese loanword for the Net, just as the English names of Lan and his twin nod to networking gear.

Mega Man Network Transmission, a side-scrolling follow-up to the first Battle Network story, was made for which console?

GameCube players got a story set a month after the first game, with the grid battles swapped for classic-style running, jumping and shooting.

Mega Man Battle Network returned in 2014 as a Virtual Console download for which console?

Wii U owners could download it thirteen years after its debut, and in 2023 the game came back again inside a Legacy Collection of the series.

Which composer wrote the music for Mega Man Battle Network and later returned for the series' fifth game?

Akari Kaida trained as a jazz pianist before joining the company in 1994, and all 22 of her tracks for the game were later released on a soundtrack album.

At which Japanese trade show in August 2000 was a Mega Man Battle Network demo shown on just two consoles?

Space World, the console maker's own showcase, had 140 playable machines that August, and the demo moved on to five kiosks at the Tokyo Game Show a month later.

Which Japanese magazine ran the boss design contest whose winner was added to Mega Man Battle Network's 2009 remake?

CoroCoro Comic ran the contest every year, but in 2009 readers were not told which game the winning design, a clock-themed Navi, would appear in.

Miyu, operator of the optional boss SkullMan in Mega Man Battle Network, sells what in her DenTown store?

Antiques suit Miyu, who says she can feel the spirit within every object, even inanimate ones; Lan meets her while hunting for a birthday present.

Which manga did Mega Man Battle Network's team study for its character designs and art style?

Shaman King was admired for the quality of its characters and artwork, and the director later named it among the works his team kept talking about in 2000.

Which company published Mega Man Battle Network in Europe under a seven-game licensing deal?

Ubisoft handled the European release in late 2001, a month after North America, as one of seven handheld titles it licensed from the game's maker.

A doll of which Mega Man Legends character sits in Mayl's bedroom in Mega Man Battle Network?

Servbot toys are one of several nods to Legends in the game, likely because some of that series' staff had moved over to the new project.

What is the first name of Lan's father, the NetNavi scientist who created MegaMan in Mega Man Battle Network?

Yuichiro emails Lan a Battle Chip in the opening scene, and near the end he sends the file that revives a badly wounded MegaMan.

Which subway system has its grand opening in Mega Man Battle Network, only to be hacked by the WWW's StoneMan?

Metroline trains are free for children, and the villains run a secret line of their own from beneath Lan's school to a hideout in the mountains.

In Mega Man Battle Network's finale, the WWW's leader plans to infect military satellites by launching what?

A rocket carrying the gang's ultimate weapon stands ready at a mountain base, and MegaMan has to be sent inside it to stop the plan.