So, the fifth instalment of the Megaman Battle Network series makes its first appearance onto the DS. Is this the ground breaking Megaman Battle Network game that the series had needed so much, or is it just another Capcom Cash Cow?

Well, to make things straight, I'm going to answer the most anticipated question - Megaman DS is just the two GBA version incarnated onto the DS with a few gimmicky features. These features include the use of the Touch screen for Navi change and various other features, a few exclusive DS chips and the ability to insert any previous Megaman Network games into the Game Boy Advance slot and download a few chips onto your DS save, which is actually quite a handy feature for veterans of the series. For you that are new to the series, let me explain to you what it is.

Basically, Megaman is your little 'Pet' to put it. He's inside a little computer you have called a 'PET' which you can use to access the internet, and delete viruses. These viruses on the 'Net, are what you have your battles with. The battles let you use the classic Megaman 'Buster' to fire at with enemies, and use a Charge shot, which an increased amounts of damage when charged. You also get data 'Chips' which are little programs that you can upload to Megaman in every 10 second interval of a battle, to help him out. These chips vary from the basic 'Cannon' which is just a more powerful version of the buster, to 'Navi' chips, which are chips of certain characters and bosses you have encountered. Each chip is unique, may it be a panel destroying chip, or recovery.

Your battle exists in an 18 block battle field - You have 9 blocks and the enemy has 9 blocks. Of course, you can get chips which allow you to steal and destroy some of the enemy blocks, therefore hindering their movement, and they can do so too. Each chip also has a certain attack area, so you have to decide which chips not just do the most power, but which attack the most efficient areas.

Megaman Battle Network 5 has added something completely new to the series, which hasn't been in any of the previous versions - Liberation missions. You get to join up with some of the big names from the Megaman series (New and Old) to eventually get to the end and beat the boss.

In Liberation missions, each character can move as far as possible, but there are things called 'Dark panels' on the battle which hinder your movement and you must 'liberate' them, so you can get past them. In short terms, you just enter a virus battle when liberating an enemy square. Each Navi on your team, has a special liberation move, which will eliminate a certain amount of dark panels in a certain area, but this uses up 'Order Points' which are very limited, so you have to try and think how it's quickest and most efficient to get to the Boss at the end of the Battle field. If you get it done in a certain amount of turns, you get a special Navi Boss chip!

But the thing is, even though I applaud Capcom for trying new things like these Liberation missions, they feel more like a chore than something fun. Before you even get to do the Liberation mission, you're ordered to go to a certain place on the 'Net to meet up, but then something happens, and you have to 'Jack Out' and then go all the way again, and it takes a long time. But it's much easier on the DS version, with a Map on the bottom screen which is actually much more useful than it sounds.

On Megaman 5, you can now actually play as 6 different Navi characters on each version, which is a handy and unique feature, as you can switch between navis in the mid battle, by simply 'tapping' them on the Touch screen. But Soul Unison from Megaman 4 has still been included, and each soul you get, is of a playable Navi, so it kind of defeats the purpose of keeping Soul Unison in play.

All in all, Megaman Network 5 is different to previous instalments of the serious, but not necessarily better.