Due to the scenario-based nature of the series, Battle Network is no stranger to Big Lipped Alligator Moments. The scenario that we are about to embark on, the airplane flight, is perhaps one of the more bizarre sequences in the game. Plane flights are generally pretty boring, right? So how do we spice it up as a gameplay segment? Why, add exotic poisonous animals, some of the most badmazing rap ever heard, and the flouting of so many security regulations that would make any air marshal sputter in disbelief in a post-9/11 world of course!
As sort of a herald for the wackiness that is about to ensue, the scenario opens up with an inner monologue from Lan reflecting on his trip and wondering what everyone’s doing back home which transitions to a dream of him meeting his friends at Den Airport where Mayl ends up all over him, sort of like a G-rated, toy ship version of an Erotic Dream, I guess. Really strange, since Lan’s cut from the Oblivious to Love shonen mold, usually. He wakes up in his seat, still on board the plane with Megaman teasing him over some…awkward sleep talk of his. The two decide to get up and stretch Lan’s legs a bit, and maybe even ask if they can see the cockpit. Because that’ll totally fly in today’s society, right?
The airplane is divided up into five sections. Lan’s currently seated in Economy class, for the plebs. Behind it are the bathrooms and crew quarters. We can talk to all of the passengers on board, and most of them will spend the flight preoccupied with their own little worries and expectations. Talking to Lan’s seat-mate will prompt him to give us a Repair L. There’s a TV screen at the back of Economy that we can jack in to. Inside is a Bug Frag and a Sub Chip dealer:
- Mini Energy – 50z
- Full Energy – 400z
- Sneak Run – 200z
The next section forward is Business class, which contains fewer people than Economy. Examining the curtains by the side room nets an HP Memory. First class only has two people, an old woman and a black man who’s apparently a rapper, and the place is decked out like it’s Air Force One or something. Beyond that is the cockpit and we just…walk right in. The captain’s totally cool with Lan just hanging around over his shoulder until turbulence hits, and he has to go back to his seat to buckle in. After that’s settled, we have to go around and talk to every passenger on the plane. There’s no real reason for this, though one passenger, a doctor, gives Lan a Silver Fist E. There’s a lot of padding in this section with little reward until the inevitable incident kicks in. After this is done Lan returns to his seat for lunch, but ends up with a stomachache and has to make a beeline for the bathroom. While inside he overhears a flight attendant and an Official discussing a giant spider they found in the luggage. Lan wonders if it’s poisonous, which admittedly could be trouble on board an in-flight plane. So he and Megaman decide to go see if any of the passengers know anything about bugs.
As luck would have it, there’s a grubby-looking guy in Business who’s a member of Electopia’s Insect Society. Despite having a unique design, he’s never given a name, so I’m just going to call him the bug guy like Lan does at one point. Based on the description that Lan overheard, the bug guy identifies the spider as a red-eyed wooly spider from Netopia, which is said to be highly poisonous. Right on cue, someone screams, and upon running over to the back room behind Economy we find that the Official from before has been bitten by the spider. Fortunately we now know that there’s a doctor on board, and fetching him saves the Official’s life. But now of course we’re faced with the problem of a poisonous spider wandering the plane. How did it get on board, you ask? Apparently a scientist smuggled it onboard. How irresponsible of both him, and of the baggage screeners.
And now it’s up to us to catch, so might as well ask for the bug guy’s assistance. He’s understandably alarmed at the prospect of a red-eyed wooly spider on the loose, and so agrees to help us with a trap. We’ll need a container of some sort, a stick, a piece of string, and some whiskey, as that will function as a lure since it’s similar to the spider’s mating pheromones. The string can be got from the flight attendant in the back, the stick in the form of a set of chopsticks from an old lady in Economy, and the captain’s hat hanging up in the cockpit can substitute as our container. That just leaves the whiskey. The only guy on board with alcohol of any kind is the rapper, and since he thinks a kid like Lan is better off still suckling his mother’s teat we have to have a rap-off with him. Yep, a rap-off. If nothing else, the guy’s song is nothing short of amusing, so I’ll transcribe the lyrics for your reading pleasure:
Chicky-chick BABY! Make me go KABOOM! Can ya dig it LADY! Oh my Lovefire! Comin’ to ya SOON!
The next Tupac he ain’t, but by correctly repeating the song he hands us a bottle of whiskey. Returning to the bug guy with the materials we hear another scream, as apparently the spider has just dashed into First Class, so back we go. Once there the bug guy uses our items to set up one of those box traps where you use a string to pull the support out from under the box, trapping whatever it is you want to catch. The plan works, and we return back to our seat.
Several hours later the plane begins to near Electopia, only to begin shaking again. However this time it’s not turbulence that’s the problem, it’s a problem with the right wing’s engine according to the pilots. Yes, the plane’s computer network is infected, and since the Official onboard was taken out by the spider, the crew calls for any Net Battlers on board to help. That means Lan, so to the cockpit and into the plane’s network. Yep, the whole spider deal was just an excuse so that Lan alone could save the day.
So, the Airplane Computer is a rather big place filled with many small pathways. There’s apparently a strong magnetic force in here, represented by red and blue streams that will either repel or pull Megaman around depending on which end he approaches them. In each area there are two control panels, one red and one blue, that will each remove all magnetic streams for the appropriate polarity, allowing Megaman to progress. Doing so, we eventually reach the control panel for the right wing engine, and to fix it all we have to do is examine the thing. However, with that fixed a new problem crops up, this time with the rudder. So we have to go and fix that too. We pretty much go through an entire laundry list of things that can go wrong with a plane, from the cabin pressure to the landing gear. In retrospect I’m a little surprised that the story, or at least the localization, didn’t try to sugarcoat or skirt around the fact that the plane was in danger of crashing given that this game didn’t come out all that long after 9/11.
At the end of everything we meet the culprit, Magnetman, who’s stolen something called the High Power Program to be used for the supernavi. His operator Gauss Magnets
◊, one of the passengers aboard the flight, is yet another Gospel agent. In fact, he’s the head of the supernavi development project. Lan wonders why a rich CEO would ally themselves with Gospel, so Gauss tells us his backstory. Long story short he’s jaded because he grew up poor and society at large didn’t do a thing to help them. To rub salt in the wound, his brother Jack was adopted into a rich family, while he had to dig his way out of poverty the hard way. Thus he wants to destroy the existing society and rebuild it, so it’s only natural that he’d be a part of Gospel. While the game doesn’t really tell us this, his brother is actually Count Zap from the first game. The anime goes into a little more depth with their relationship as they actually interact with each other there (as well as making Gauss a cross dresser for some reason). Obviously Lan and Megaman can’t have any of that, so to battle we go.
Magnetman
◊
HP: 1000
Element: Elec
Attacks:
- Magnet Missile – Magnetman sends a magnet down one row that can make a ninety-degree turn to track Megaman for 50 Elec damage.
- Magnet Hold – Magnetman creates a black ball of pure magnetism and sends it down one row that slowly tracks Megaman’s movements. It deals 50 Elec damage and paralyzes.
- N-S Tackle – A blue duplicate of Magnetman appears behind Megaman and the two Magnetmen charge, sandwiching Megaman between them for 200 Elec damage.
- Magnet Line – Magnetman turns one row of panels into magnet panels.
Finally, a Gospel Navi that’s an element other than Normal. And oh yay, yet another boss that stays in the back row. The first thing I recommend doing it to use Repair to eliminate the magnet panels on Megaman’s field ASAP since they’re right in the middle row, which can interfere with Megaman’s ability to dodge. Magnetman’s attacks are for the most part kinda slow, and without the center row of magnet panels they’re not too hard to dodge. N-S Tackle, on the other hand, is quite fast and deals a ton of damage. But since Magnetman has to have his blue copy on the field to use this attack, staying in the back column gimps it. Just be careful when trying to dodge his other attacks, since they’ll force you to step away.
Winning gives us 3500z.
With Magnetman gone the plane is returned to normal, and one “Damn it all to hell!” later Gauss is apprehended by none other than the bug guy. I’m starting to like that fellow. The plane is able to land in Den Airport without any further ado. There’s no one to meet us unlike in Lan’s dream, but we do get to see Gauss being led away by the authorities. It’s time to go home to ACDC.
Once we get to ACDC the point of buying the souvenirs becomes apparent. By talking to each of Lan’s friends he’ll give them one of them and receive something in return. Dex takes the Robo X action figure and gives us a Guts Punch D. Yai takes the broach and gives us 10000z, and we can now jack in to the statue in her mansion’s hallway for a Bug Frag. Mayl takes the ring (subtle…) in exchange for a Recovery 150 P. We can finally jack in to her piano downstairs for a Regular UP 1 and an HP Memory. Finally, there’s a boy hiding behind one of the north houses who’ll give us thirty Guard *’s, perfect for Chip Trader fodder.
And that’s all. It’s time for bed.
Virus Listing
- Magneaker
- These viruses look a lot like robotic grasshoppers or similar insects. They'll either dash down one row or fire gravity bombs into Megaman's area that'll prevent him from moving.
- Red UFO
- These little flying saucer viruses have two methods of attack. The first is to shoot a slow-moving Zap Ring down one row, and the other is to swoop down on Megaman and steal any chips or Program Advances that're in his attack queue.
Soundtrack
- Sky Travel
- The relaxing airplane music.
- Magnetic Airplane
- The eccentric Airplane Computer music.
Oddly enough Magnetman is the only Navi in the series other than Megaman and Protoman to have a face mask.
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