Mega Man Battle Network 4.5 Real Operation Details

Overview

In Real Operation, the Game Boy Advance itself acts as a PET, allowing the player to control various NetNavis from previous games in the series. The game could also be used with the Battle Chip Gate, a Game Boy accessory that allowed players to use real-life toy Battle Chips for use in the game, a feature that would be carried over to later games in the series. Users of Real Operation can also play multiplayer games against Battle Network 4 users and other Real Operation users. Due to the Battle Chip gate being an important part of much of the gameplay, the game was not released out of Japan for that very reason, due to the accessories, like the e-reader not being very popular in the US. Real Operation is also compatible with the Nintendo e-Reader, which allows for the unlocking of certain Navis, some of which are required to complete the game. Navis also give unique features and mini-games to the player, such as NumberMan who will help the player study math problems, and each Navi has different personality traits to alter the playing experience as they speak and interact with you. The game also features a real-time system and on certain days of the week, tournaments will be held in-game that the player can compete in, or you can set reminders on calendars that your Navi will keep track of. Darkloid versions of Navis that appeared in Mega Man Battle Network 4 (such as TopMan) also appear in cyberspace for the player to battle against. During the course of the game, you do not actually manually control the NetNavis in battle like you do in the other Battle Network games. Instead, they move on their own, and you provide the Battle Chips for them either by selecting them during battle (in the same fashion as older Battle Network games) or by manually slotting them into the Battle Chip Gate. You can also alter their evasion strategies to guide them closer or farther from the enemies to set up attacks. This is to simulate an actual PET experience with the player as the NetOperator, and as such, no human characters appear in the game. While the game was not released in the US, hacking in Battle Network 5: Double Team DS shows that the game can in fact, be run exactly the same way as 4.5, using the same windows and such, though the player is stuck using only Megaman and whatever chips they start with.