One month later after Lan Hikari and his NetNavi MegaMan defeated WWW and foiled their plans in the first game, the duo were enjoying the peace they help brought until news broke out that a new "Zero Virus" is running rampant throughout the Internet and infecting user's NetNavis. Soon afterwards, Lan received a concerning E-mail from his classmate Mayl Sakurai, informing him that Roll hasn't returned from her errands. From there, the duo began to investigate the cause of the recent viral outbreak and who's responsible for it while searching for a way to treat the infected NetNavis (and for Lan, make good on his opportunity to get out of homework).
Whereas the main Battle Network series are RPGs, Network Transmission harkens back to Mega Man's 2D side-scrolling roots while mixing in some elements from the Battle Network games. Lan can jack MegaMan in to various places with an Internet connection in ACDC Town where MegaMan can run, jump, shoot, and slide Ă la classic Mega Man, however, MegaMan's own MegaBuster is nowhere as powerful as the original Blue Bomber's (until later on) and instead combat is focused on using battle chips. Whenever MegaMan enters a stage or the Custom Gauge is filled, players can draw a certain number of battle chips constructed from a deck, which they can be used to attack enemies, heal you, repair the terrain, render yourself impervious to the enemy's attacks, or call in other NetNavis to assist in battle, and like in Battle Network games, certain battle chips can be combined to create devastatingly powerful combos. Battle chips can be found either throughout the game through enemy drops, collecting data cubes, or purchasing from shops in the real and virtual worlds. The game features sprawling levels that encourages exploration to find items strewn about such as data cubes, loose zenny, and power-ups that can increase MegaMan's fighting capabilities.
This game's storyline was loosely adapted into the Rockman Beast+ anime series.
Trope routine, set! Execute in 2.5D!
- 1-Up: In this game, BckupChps extends how many lives MegaMan can start out with when entering the cyberworld.
- 2½D: The game uses 3D graphics but Network Transmission's gameplay is 2D like in the classic Mega Man games.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Players can jack out of a stage at any time without losing any of the items they have collected as long as MegaMan is not in a boss battle and while he's grounded. Lan will also advise MegaMan to jack out before he runs out of Backups (i.e. lives).
- By setting a "Default Chip" in their folder with the Z button, players can guarantee getting the desired chip between draws, but they are limited to how much MB the Default Chip can use until they can gather some RegUPs to raise this limit.
- Each chip has a finite number of uses while in the cyberworld, however, if players have other spare chips to use, they can construct a new folder of chips at the expensive of waiting for the Custom Gauge to recharge and draw chips again.
- The Net Battle Simulator at the Park features rematches with many of the game's bosses after beating them the first time to ensure the players are not screwed from getting certain chip drops from them. The only exception to this is Zero, whose Navi chip can be earned by finding the Zero Virus's source code before fighting him.
- Arm Cannon: Apart from MegaMan's trademark MegaBuster, certain weapon chips such as the Cannon, Shotgun, and V-Shot will turn MegaMan's arm into a cannon.
- Arms Dealer: Higsby and his NetNavi NumberMan sells battle chips and other beneficial items to Lan and MegaMan in the real world and cyberworld, respectively.
- Assist Character: Roll and the boss NetNavis can be called by MegaMan by using their respective Navi chips where they will perform a special attack against enemies and retreat afterwards.
- Asteroids Monster: The Puffy mini-boss in Water Works Comp 3, a giant-sized version of the MiniPuffy that breaks up into four smaller Puffies and said smaller Puffies break up into four even tinier Puffies.
- Attract Mode: If players wait long enough at the Title Screen, the game will play a short gameplay demo of the Outnet, Net on Fire, and Garden Comp stages. In the Japanese version, however, a short clip of the anime series' first opening credits can be seen as well.
- Big Bad: In this game, it's the Professor, an assistant of Dr. Wily who sought to pick up where he failed with the help of the Zero Virus.
- Big Damn Heroes: One happens at the climax of the game: just as MegaMan is surrounded by Scuttlests, but Mayl, Dex, Yai, Chaud, and Higsby along with Roll, GutsMan, and ProtoMan arrive on the scene to hold off the horde of viruses and Roll gives MegaMan a last second HP and chip recovery before taking on LifeVirusR.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The Sword chips and its variants will turn MegaMan's hand into an armblade like in the Battle Network games. Some variants can slice horizontally or vertically, and Sword chips variants come with elemental properties. ProtoMan and Zero can also use an armblade.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The game's English release has some spelling errors and typos due to being translated in-house by Capcom themselves. Some sentences are lacking punctuation to separate some words, causing some lines of dialogue to run off into another. One line from an e-mail by Dex and some of the dialogue in "alternate" ending has been hit with grammatical errors.
- Bottomless Pits: Similarly to the classic Mega Man games, some stages will feature bottomless pits and falling into one is certain death.
- Book Ends: The game's story begins with Lan feeling bored at home but happy about the peace that he and MegaMan brought after stopping WWW's schemes from the first game, followed taking advantage of Mayl's request to help her find Roll as an excuse get out of doing homework, much to MegaMan's chagrin. The game closes in a similar fashion, with Lan being bored at home but happy with the peace he and MegaMan brought back after stopping the Professor's attempts to pick up where Dr. Wily left off, followed by Lan overhearing his mom having problems with the oven not working when she was making deserts. Lan, again, uses the opportunity to jack into it to fix it as an excuse to hold off studying for an upcoming school test.
- Boss Rush: One happens just before the actual final boss battle takes place, the Professor sics "upgraded" clones of FireMan, GutsMan, NeedleMan, IceMan, BrightMan, QuickMan, ColorMan, and ElecMan at MegaMan back-to-back, only for Lan and MegaMan to come up on top and prove the fakes are nothing compared to the originals.
- Broad Strokes: Despite taking place after the events of the first game, the events of that game are very lightly touched upon in this game as a follow-up to its story.
- Build Like an Egyptian: The Legendary WWW Area, an ancient Egyptian ruins stage filled with elaborate traps using spikes and/or crumbling platforms that give way upon standing on them, and it is also the home of PharohMan.
- Call-Forward: In the ending, Lan reads an article about how armors can only go so far and how fighting styles themselves have to change in order to keep up with new virus types, referencing the Style Change system of the second and third game.
- Casino Park: The Arcade Comp stage takes place in a casino/amusement park area, complete with roulette wheels, playing cards, bouncy bumpers, and checkerboard patterns. There's a small section that features a slots machine where players can gamble 500 zenny for a chance to get a battle chip.
- Charged Attack: The Hold-type; MegaMan's MegaBuster lacks this ability at first, but once players spend PowerUPs on its Charge stat, they can use a charge shot Ă la classic Mega Man. The charge time for a fully-charged is very slow, but increasing the Charge stat even further can speed up the charging time considerably.
- Climax Boss: The true source of the Zero Virus is encountered and fought in the depths of the Zero Account, which will only be accessible once Lan and MegaMan fight their way through no less than three sequential dungeons and the bosses that rule them.
- Collision Damage: Just like in other Mega Man side-scrollers, coming into contact with an enemy will hurt MegaMan.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Some of the items found in the game uses color-coding to differentiate their value/importance.
- Data cubes come in four colors: green data cubes can contain a randomized chip or zennys but can respawn between visits of the stage unlike the others; blue data cubes have pre-determined items and some can contain valuable items such as HPMemory or chips; purple data cubes are locked and require an Unlocker (which can be purchased from Higsby's shop) to obtain their contents, but often holds pre-determined power-ups similarly to the blue ones or rarer chips; and yellow data cubes are important key items required to advance further into the game.
- Zenny coins come in three colors: bronze are worth 50 zenny, silver are worth 150 zenny, and gold are worth 500 zenny.
- Combination Attack: Certain Program Advance Limit Breaks feature MegaMan teaming up with another NetNavi.
- By combining Guard + DashAtk + GutsMan, GutsMan appears to use MegaMan to deal Grievous Harm with a Body by turning him into a Fastball Special.
- By combining CustSwrd + VarSwrd + ProtoMan, MegaMan teams up with ProtoMan for a team up attack.
- Combining HiGuard + Z-Saber + Zero together will have MegaMan and Zero team up for a powerful counterattack.
- Combos: By combining three certain chips together in a specific order, the chip combination will give MegaMan the ability to perform a Program Advance, combining the three chips to perform powerful attacks and sometimes grant him buffs. The Z-Cannon for example, which combines Cannon + HiCannon + M-Cannon, gives MegaMan temporary invisibility and unlimited M-Cannon shots. There are 14 possible Program Advances in this game.
- Cosmetic Award: With the completion of any Boss Battle against a Navi in the story, a figurine of that boss will appear in Lan's room. While they individually are quite small, by the time Lan's collected all sixteen of them they've taken up quite a lot of space.
- Cyberspace: Outside of Lan's room and looking at the map of ACDC Town, the entire game takes place in the cyberworld, however, some stage areas can have their own unique stage themes such as PowerPlant, Bank, and Garden Comp areas, while some others are deliberate graphical representations of computer hardware (e.g. the Global Area) or the Internet (e.g. Outernet, Undernet).
- Dash Attack: The aptly-named DashAtk chip, which MegaMan puts on a Birdy helmet and charges into enemies in front of him. QuickMan also uses a dash attack his primary attack.
- Deflector Shields: Some of the later enemies in the game such as the Yart and their kin as well the Scutz enemies found in the Undernet are protected by an elemental shield that is impervious to any attack other than elemental attacks that can break their damage threshold or the element they're weak to. MegaMan can gain -Aura suffix chips that grant a similar effect. The Barrier chip also provides a deflector ship that can grant immunity to one attack.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: Played straight with MegaMan's MegaBuster and some weapon chips such as the Cannon and Shotgun types, however, there are some chips such as the 3-Way that fire a 3-way spread shot. The V-Shot and similar chips can attack enemies lined up diagonally in a row.
- Double Jump: There's a battle chip that can grant this ability, but despite its name, it can allow MegaMan to jump multiple (up to 10) times in the air as long as he has the MP and chip stock to pull it off.
- Early Game Hell: Players who are not versed in Battle Network's combat system will likely find themselves struggling with dealing damage to enemies with just the MegaBuster alone, along with the limited supply of chips on hand from the beginning and MegaMan's low HP/MP stats. Then there are the game's first two bosses, FireMan and GutsMan, whom can deal a lot of damage to players with their attacks early into the game, while GutsMan's GutsPunch and GutsQuake attacks are swift and brutal unlike his classic counterpart.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Similar to the mainline Battle Network games, Fire beats Wood, Wood beats Elec, Elec beats Water, and Water beats Fire.
- Emergency Energy Tank: The Recov chips can heal MegaMan's HP by a fixed amount while the Mini/Half/FullEnrg sub-chips heals by a percentage of maximum HP (Mini: 20%; Half: 50%; Full: 100%). MPCharge similarly recovers all of MegaMan's MP.
- Energy Weapon: Apart from the various energy-based weapons players and some enemies and bosses can use, the Bank Comp stage features the instant death lasers from Quick Man's own stage from Mega Man 2.
- Eternal Engine: The PowerPlant Comp stage, an electrical power plant area that is identical to Elec Man's stage from the first Mega Man game, right down to having the electric beam traps from that game.
- Extreme Graphical Representation: This being Battle Network, this is par for the course, but this game manages to bring the cyberworld representation into 2.5D.
- Eye Catch: At the end of each stage or beating the bosses in the Net Battle Simulator, players are treated with an eye catch image from the game, which changes the further players get into the game.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Fire, Water (which is sometimes involves Ice), and Elec elemental, and this game also features FireMan, IceMan, and ElecMan.
- Fixed Damage Attack: Every attack from the player, as well as attacks from enemy and bosses deals a fixed amount of damage. The offensive chips the player can use also shows how much base damage they can deal to enemies. Stage hazards such as spikes deal a fixed amount of damage, and unlike the classic Mega Man games, they won't instantly kill the player if they have enough HP to survive the damage.
- Forced Tutorial: The first thing players are greeted with when entering the cyberworld at the beginning of the game are Lan and MegaMan teaching players how to use the battle chips to combat the enemies and some advice on how to use some of the situational ones such as V-Shot to take down groups of enemies all at once.
- Gameplay Grading: This game carries over the Virus Busting Level grading system from the Battle Network games, but as a hidden grading system when fighting stage enemies. The Net Battle Simulator, however, keeps a record of your highest Virus Busting Level for the NetNavi bosses. Players are graded based on how quickly they defeated the enemy/boss and how many hits where taken, if at all, and the overall Busting Level determines the which chips can be dropped. From highest From lowest to highest: 4, 6, 7, 9, and S.
- Genre Throwback: Network Transmission is one to Mega Man (Classic), and features many elements done in the classic style.
- MegaMan's jumping physics imitate classic Mega Man and he even has a similar animation.
- The game uses a simplistic visual style that evokes the look of earlier 8-bit games while using 3D graphics.
- Some stages are overt duplications of classic Mega Man Robot Master levels, featuring their familiar (and sometimes infamous) stage hazards.
- Some of the game's music are also remixes of stage themes of certain Robot Masters ("Net on Fire" is a remix of Fire Man's stage).
- Numerous viruses in the game are directly adapted from classic mechaniloids, such as Sniper Joe and Heavy Joe.
- Gravity Screw: The Strange Grav Area stage features the gravity flipping mechanism from GravityMan's namesake Robot Master stage in Mega Man 5, along with "G" blocks that increases gravity when underneath them. The No Grav Area stage has low gravity Ă la StarMan's stage from the same game.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: By combining Guard + DashAtk + GutsMan, GutsMan grabs MegaMan and then hurls him at his opponent. Despite being thrown right into an enemy, MegaMan doesn't take any damage himself during the attack.
- Heart Container: The HPMemory increases MegaMan's maximum HP, while MemUP similarly raises his maximum MP and RegUP raises the capacity limit for setting a Default Chip by 8 MB. All of these items can be found in certain blue/purple data cubes scattered throughout the game, while some of the HPMemories and MemUPs can be purchased from NumberMan's shop in the Outer Net after a certain point in the game.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Throughout the game, the Big Bad of this game has been using the Zero Virus to fuel his schemes only for it to backfire in the "true" ending route after the LifeVirusR was defeated by Lan and MegaMan, giving Zero the opportunity to use the existing viruses to track him down and an authority figure from The Center to arrest the Professor.
- HP to One: Getting hit by the bubbles dropped by LifeVirusR's second form will bring MegaMan's HP to 1 in an attempt to kill him off via Collision Damage.
- Informed Equipment: MegaMan can outfit himself with different elemental armors to cut their respective elemental damage by half, but they do not change his outward appearance.
- Interquel: Network Transmission's story takes place after the first Battle Network ended and leads into where the second game would follow.
- Invisibility Cloak: The Invis chips as well as the DropDown and PopUp chips, which not only turns MegaMan partially invisible, it also renders him invincible to enemy attacks and stage hazards, but unlike StoneBod and its variants, he can freely move and attack while invisible.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Net on Fire stage, which was Den Area 3 until FireMan was attempting to burn the place to cinders complete with lethal lava is flooding the area and many references to Fire Man's own stage from the first Mega Man game. Once FireMan has been beaten, Den Area 3 returns to normal as the fire has died down and the lava is cleared up.
- Life Meter: The HP meter, represented by the yellow meter to gauge MegaMan's HP.
- Locked Door: Various places in the cyberworld are gated off by security cubes and most of them requires a specific LnkCode to unlock them, some of which can only be found lost in certain areas or given out as the story advances.
- The Lost Woods: The Garden Comp stage's first half, resembling a sprawling forest with lots of tall grass obscuring some of the game's enemies. The later half, however, is opened-ended and littered with Fungus Humongous.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Guard, ShldGard, and HiGuard chips will have MegaMan pull up a shield in front of him for a brief period of time, and if the opponent's attack connects, it coverts their attack into a shockwave that hurts them in return. The shield-bearing SniperJoe enemies from the classic Mega Man games make an appearance in this game, and some bosses such as BrightMan and ProtoMan can pull a shield of their own and counterattack the player.
- Magikarp Power: MegaMan's MegaBuster starts out woefully weak early in the game to encourage players to use the chips to fight enemies similarly to the mainline Battle Network games, and like those games, collecting PowerUPs can upgrade the MegaBuster's Attack (attack power), Rapid (number of on-screen bullets), and Charge (enables the charge shot and increases charge speed) stats, turning it into a capable weapon that can deal a moderate amount of damage.
- Mana Meter: The MP meter, which is represented by the green meter and is consumed when using battle chips.
- Market-Based Title: The game was originally called Rockman.EXE Transmission in the Japanese release.
- Mercy Invincibility: Taking a hit from enemy attacks or stage hazard will provide brief invincibility frames complete with Flash of Pain, but unlike most Mega Man games, the i-frames are very short in this game. Bosses also have mercy invincibility frames whenever they're struck by an offensive chip, but not when shot by the MegaBuster.
- Metal Slime: In a certain area in the Legendary WWW Area, MegaMan can fight against a dog-like Mole/Mole2, a rare enemy with a lot of HP that pops up of different spots in the room and will only appear for a certain amount of time before running away. Successfully defeating the brown-colored Mole can reward a Recov300, the strongest Recov chip, while its pink counterpart rewards the PopUp chip, the strongest Invis type chip.
- Money Spider: Defeating enemies can sometimes reward zenny coins of varying value.
- Multiple Endings: Players can either receive an "alternate" ending if they did not pick up the Zero Virus's source code before fighting Zero and renders his Navi chip unobtainable. Conversely, getting this item beforehand will put players on the path of the game's "true" ending.
- Mythology Gag: Many areas and enemies are based directly on Classic stages and mechaniloids.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: Played with. The Professor's ultimate endgame was to rebuild the Life Virus and start up a war, recycling Wily's plan from the first game. He even vows that he'll just try and make it again once you beat the new Life Virus.
- Non-Elemental: The Neutral Element, which has no advantage or disadvantage against the other four elements.
- Nostalgia Level: The Blazing Internet and Bank stages are clear throwbacks to the classic Fire Man and Quick Man stages.
- Not Worth Killing: Unlike other encounters where you can win against Bass, this fight ends with Bass only taking some Clothing Damage in losing his cloak. He decides not to bother after this and lets MegaMan go.
- Off Screen Villain Dark Matter: Averted in comparison to the rest of the series. The Professor recovered Zero and the virus from the remains of WWW on his own. His scheme for the entire first half of the game was about getting the cash through fake vaccine sales to fund remaking the Life Virus.
- Optional Boss:
- If players managed to get every Navi chip in the game, the player will be greeted with a new e-mail by Mayl about a rumor of a lost area in Den Area 3, which will lead them into a boss battle with Bass.
- The game fakes you out at one point where it makes it seem like you're about to fight Protoman and Chaud, but the heroes avoid Poor Communication Kills for once and just talk it out. Afterwards you can go back and challenge Protoman to a proper battle, but it isn't required to beat him to complete the game.
- Palette Swap: Some common enemies can be found from one place early in the game with stronger variants later with a different color palette, which also applies to the chips based off them.
- Permanently Missable Content: If players did not find the Zero Virus's source code before fighting the Climax Boss, then neither his Navi chip nor the good ending will become available to the heroes.
- Previously on…: The game opens with Lan and MegaMan battling the LifeVirus and ultimately putting an end to WWW's schemes, followed by text explaining how they were enjoying the peace they brought.
- Point-and-Click Map: From Lan's room, selecting the Map from the PET menu will present a point-and-click map of ACDC Town where he can jack in MegaMan to various places to explore the cyberworld, visit Higsby's shop, or enter the Net Battle Simulator.
- Point of No Return: Lan and MegaMan will warn the player the link that leads into the game's final bosses in the Undernet will not allow them to jack out from that point onward.
- Power Copying: Unlike the classic Mega Man games, players are not limited to gaining only signature moves from bosses in this game (although their signature attack or assist attack can be dropped), but players can obtain chips from enemies and use their attacks as well.
- Rare Random Drop: Similar to the Battle Network games, defeating enemies can sometimes either reward players with zenny or their chip based on their performance. Chip drops from bosses are also determined by the player's performance, which can net them either their weapon chip that MegaMan can use (e.g. IceMan's Ice Slasher, GutsMan's Guts Punch) or their Navi chips. Green data cubes can also have randomized loot between visits and their contents vary depending on the stage.
- Real-Time Weapon Change: Similarly to some of the later side-scrolling Mega Man games, players can cycle between the five drawn chips in real-time with the L and R buttons, however, players can also press the Stand-By button (X button by default) to pause the game and cycle between chips.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The Old Area stage, which takes place an in ancient ruins not unlike Sword Man's stage from Mega Man 8 and even hosts his NetNavi Alternate Self.
- Sinister Subway: The second half of the Vacant WWW Comp stage, taking place in an abandoned and dilapidated subway station crawling with Rattys, Spookies (when triggering the alarm systems), and Snappers. ShadowMan also resides in this stage.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The later sections of the WaterWorks Comp, which has been frozen off by IceMan and turning it into a Winter Wonderland on the Internet, complete with slippery frictionless ice and snow from Ice Man's own stage from the first Mega Man game.
- Smart Bomb: GravityMan's Navi chip has him instantly delete smaller viruses on screen.
- SNK Boss: ProtoMan, unlike the other bosses, can hit like a truck with his attacks, instantly teleport in MegaMan's general direction, and any attempts to attack him will have him teleport and retaliate or use his own shield to counter it with a shockwave.
- Space Zone: The NoGrav Area takes place in space similarly to Star Man's stage from Mega Man 5, complete with low gravity platforming, space ship viruses, and StarMan as the boss.
- Spikes of Doom: Present in this game similarly to classic Mega Man side-scrollers, however, unlike those games, they are not a One-Hit KO if players touches them, instead they deal a high amount of damage if they have enough HP to survive.
- Stock Sound Effects: The sound of MegaMan's Cannon charging sound from the opening FMV uses this this DeLorean
Time Travel sound effect from Back to the Future, and some NetNavis such NeedleMan uses this sound effect their introduction FMVs. - Taken for Granite: The StoneBod chip will have MegaMan turn himself into stone to become invulnerable to enemy attacks, but he cannot move or attack while petrified. IronBody and MetalBdy does the same thing but with iron and metal instead respectively.
- To Be Continued: After The Stinger from the game's true ending, players are greeted with the text: "To Be Continued...In MegaMan Battle Network 2".
- This Cannot Be!: This game's Big Bad reaction to MegaMan defeating LifeVirusR.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Undernet, the darkest recesses of the Internet which serves as the final area of the game and where the Professor resides.
- Video-Game Lives: Unlike the main games of the Battle Network series, MegaMan will start with a handful of extra lives whenever he jacks-in to the cyberworld. On top of that, distributed throughout the stages are a handful of collectible backup chips, which will not only give MegaMan a 1-Up but permanently raise the total capacity of his lives.
- Video Game Sliding: MegaMan can slide on the ground just like in the classic Mega Man games, which can be used to slide under some enemy attacks and obstacles or slide through narrow gaps.
- The Virus: In Network Transmission, its plot revolves around the outbreak of the "Zero Virus", which has been aversely affecting the functions of NetNavis infected by it, along with a shady vaccine dealer selling fake vaccines containing a Navi-hacking program that causes Navis treated with it to go berserk.
