A new battle for Mega Man

One of the most popular anime characters in Japan, Mega Man (or Rockman as he's known in his home country), started off life as a small blue robot. Doesn't really sound like a very exciting play toy but thankfully his inventor Dr Light decided to turn him into something a bit more powerful - a combat bot with an arm-mounted Mega Blaster (woo-hoo!).

So far so good you might think as Capcom announces its first Mega Man game for DS. But once again there is a problem, and this time it's one that's harder to overcome.

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team isn't an all new game taking full advantage of the DS' touchscreen and wi-fi capabilities. Instead it's a reworking of the GBA games Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Protoman and Team Colonel.

Huh!

So even if we'll be getting two games in one, they're old games from an old platform. Not so exciting. Capcom is promising some new bits and pieces however. There will be a wi-fi multiplayer mode and you'll also be able to power up Mega Man at certain points by shouting into the microphone. Also, if you have saved games from the GBA version of the game, you'll be able to carry over any chip data into the DS, which is a nice touch, even if it reminds us that we've spent £30 on two old games we've already played.

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team is expected to be released sometime in spring 2006.