Part 63: Wario the Disgruntled Ex-Animal Trainer?

I've forgotten to mention, but instead of a Metroline, Cyber City has a LevBus. Flying cars have arrived to the world of Battle Network.



The only thing of note before the day ends and we head back to the Aquarium is that an email with the NaviCust arrives, along with an Extra Folder we can't modify.



Here's the only difference to the NaviCust. It's a significant one! You can now place programs outside the NaviCust frame by up to one row or column of blocks, so long as part of the program is still on the frame. Doing this, as you might expect, causes a bug, but once you get BugStop, this is effectively another pair of ExpandMemory upgrades.



Returning to the Aquarium, Mick is all pissy because we're late. Lan apologizes, but more importantly, time for some more Mick torment!



Penguins are probably heavy, a bit hot with all those feathers, and who am I kidding, I don't know the first thing about penguins except that this probably wasn't so pleasant.



And that guess would probably be right. And I'm sure 6th graders aren't exactly used to sleepless nights.



Being entirely unsympathetic, Lan begins teasing Mick, saying that he's looking more and more like a penguin by the minute. "Especially the mouth!"



Picking on Mick is fun, but let's actually go in and return the penguin.



Good, I can stop calling it "the penguin" now! The director of the Aquarium is right by the entrance, so the cutscene just launches immediately.



Just to nail it in if you hadn't figured it out already. Blackbeard terrified the animals with his brutal performances, and most likely physically abused most of them. His sprite even includes a whip on his belt. Plata fled, found Mick, and here we are.



Woo, free admission out of gratitude! I don't know why, but I like the Director even though he doesn't have a unique sprite or anything. Maybe because he's supportive, rational, and actually had the sense to fire the local maniac.



"It's...it's not like I liked that st-stupid penguin, okay!? _{We were just nice to each other...}"

Oh Mick.



Much like the Yoka Zoo, you have to check all the informational exhibits before anything progresses. And because this series has details at a premium, pay at least a bit of attention because the upcoming dungeon will require a bit of fish know-how.



The show goes off without a hitch. Fanny the Elephant Seal here just loves playing with the ball.



You know, I just realized, but this mugshot bears an uncanny resemblance to Porky Minch.



And yes, the redhead NPC is Blackbeard's replacement. Have to give the Director some credit for quick hiring.



And guess who's going to get that opportunity?



Lan, of course. Mick isn't allowed to have nice things. Torment!



Anyone with a younger sibling is probably smirking just like I am at this. Suuuuuure Mick's not jealous.



Have to make sure we say goodbye to our dear friend Plata, right? Aren't you enjoying yourself Mick? This Aquarium is just such fun.



Tooooorment!



Lan, no longer being the least intelligent cast member, is able to accurately tell exactly what Mick is feeling.



Confirmation!



Why are there bananas inside the alligator cage?



As Lan and Mick leave, they pass by Captain Blackbeard, who is obviously ready to initiate the next catastrophe.



Lan and Mick dismiss it as nothing. To be fair, Lan walked right by without noticing while Mick only caught a few words of Blackbeard's grumbling.



Tormen-



They do actually jump out of the fountain, but I missed it.



The aquarium is connected to the overall Seaside Town water supply for some reason. So if the sharks and piranhas are out...The old myth of alligators living in the sewers could come true! Oh god, "Yum yum eat 'em up" by proxy!



Well, this is marginally less dangerous than the zoo escape, at least the animals are confined to the water. Mostly. The problem will be for anyone at a beach or someplace else connected to the local water supply.

This is the MMBN world! They obviously have water treatment plants, Seaside Town has one, but why the animals would be able to enter it is anyone's guess. Still, I think people are reasonable if they panic over escaped sharks, alligators, and carp.



Batman villains never die unless they get mutated into a nonhumanoid form, silly Mick.



You get three guesses! Come on, anyone? I know you can figure this one out if you try hard enough! Mick and Lan rush back into the aquarium!



Much like Yoka Zoo, paths are blocked off by animals. It's less intrusive this time, though, there's nothing down that way anyhow.



Consider this Mick's redemption. He'll protect Plata and the others, but still, he's just a juicy little snack with a stick as far as the alligator is concerned!



The Director, who somehow got cornered in the alligator cage, tells us how to solve this. Obviously, the main computer has been tampered with, so we need to fix that. Once that's handled, the "feeding time" chime will get all the animals to return to their cages, as they've been trained to recognize it to mean it's time for a meal.



Before that, however, there's a nearby monitor I can Jack-In to get to SeasideArea2, then head back to SeasideArea1 and the Stuffed Toy Zone.



I was alerted by a kindly goon who was playing the patch along with the LP that there are unique chips that had been removed from the game available from S-ranking the special virus battles here. PunchArm F! I'm really impressed that the makers of the patch, MegaRock and Prof. 9, were able to re-implement all of this stuff!



Oh wow. Chips that directly change your buster's effects haven't been around since the very first game. MMBN1 had the "Buster__" series of chips, BusterSword, BusterBomb, BusterPunch, and BusterGuard. Fairly useless considering how you could have 10 copies of the same awesome chip instead of any of those, although they affected the basic buster. This chip replaces the charge shot with FirePunch, obviously.

PunchArm isn't the only chip in MMBN6 that uses this mechanic, although the only other two I know of are GigaChips. It remains to be seen how the other secret chips will behave, I'm looking forward to unlocking more special battles!



There's an invisible path on the lower area of SeasideArea1. Wow, talk about middle of nowhere. I'm not sure if you'd even be able to see this from anywhere else on the map.



Back to the problem at hand! The receptionist is gone, so the route to the main computer is open.



Mostly open. Fortunately, what have we learned before?




Time to go find wherever that ball wound up! It can't be too far away, we're right on the stage that the show took place on.



Oh dear. Jellyfish. Dozens of them!



Well, no way is Lan going in there. But we need to get in the computer room, so we'll be needing a solution fast.



Nksor! Just who we needed to see!



Being a master of vanishing, Nksor leads Lan out of the Aquarium. She's nowhere in sight at first.



Nksor directs Lan's attention to the other side of the area. How she even got up there so fast isn't explained.



Nksor, away!



Blink animation! Lan is just as confused about this as he rightly should be!



Now it crosses from "eerie coincidence" to "just plain eerie". How did that get there? Nksor works in mysterious ways, get used to that.



No prizes for guessing what the CopyBot is used for. Apparently they're waterproof as well!



Fanny's ball lures the giant Elephant Seal out of the way of the door. Letting us confront Blackbeard!



But his beard is grey and scraggly, the mustache is more prominent. Actually, he kind of looks like Wario.



I admit, the pandemonium he's caused is amusing from an outside perspective.



SkullMan(MMBN1), ToadMan(MMBN2/5), PharaohMan(1/2/NT), Ring(BCC), BrightMan(NT), DrillMan(MMBN3), and now DiveMan. All that remains of the original Dr. Cossack Robot Masters is DustMan, and he appears later on in Falzar version.



Gotcha!



Welcome to the AquariumComp. People in the thread note how aggravating this place is, one might think of it as the MMBN6 equivalent to GargoyleComp. Thankfully, no NinjaProg insanity awaits us here.



Three empty CompTanks here, Piranha, Sunfish, and Tropical Fish.



Scattered throughout the area are FishPrograms that have forgotten what they actually are. Find them all and return them to the correct tank, and the way to the next area opens. When you find them, they give you a hint about their identity.



This is why you should have been paying attention to the Aquarium exhibits. Fortunately, if you really need help, you can press L to take control of Lan again and go look up the exhibits.



And here's what makes this dungeon a bit tough. Sharks! When you take a FishProgram, sharks will spawn in the pathways you need to lead the FishProgram back through. If the FishProgram gets caught, it will be returned to where you first found it.

This dungeon combines the beloved gameplay elements of an escort mission with the equally beloved stealth gameplay. I actually don't find it very difficult, despite what the thread says. Sure, each FishProgram will take 1-3 tries, but that's a minor inconvenience. The encounter rate seems to drop while on the waterway paths anyhow.



Here's the first one I've found. Eat a whole cow, huh?



Cue the sharks. Really, much like GargoyleComp, I can't offer a direct walkthrough for the area. All I did was take the most direct route from the FishProgram's spawn point to the CompTanks, and if I got caught by a shark, I'd take a more roundabout path the next time. Really not that aggravating. A bit annoying, I suppose, but I guess this sort of thing just doesn't bother me that much. I might just be unusual, while this dungeon actually is frustrating for most people.



Having said that, I sure do have my share of close calls! I can't really tell much of a difference between the two colors of shark. There are brown sharks and blue sharks. The brown ones seem to move a bit faster, that's all I can tell about them.



3 rounds of fish later, and AquariumComp1 is dealt with.



I'm skipping the second area entirely because it's the same setup. 3 CompTanks. AquariumComp3 is the last stop in this mercifully short dungeon, you can see the boss skull panel right there.



GET AWAY FROM ME!



The Penguin FishProgram is tucked away in a corridor that requires making use of the same feature that the Zombies way back in the CastleComp in MMBN2 had: The sharks don't duck into side paths. Aside from that, there's not much to demonstrate about the area. Just run around trying various paths until it works. It's a trial-and-error dungeon.



Time to confront DiveMan.



DiveMan is similar to GyroMan in that they both kind of look like Transformers. That said, DiveMan is more of a "McDonalds Happy Meal Transformer" compared to GyroMan.

Either way, he has a pipe. Pipes are automatically great.



DiveMan's a distinctive fight, he's got a different feel than most of the bosses in the series. This is because he's got the unique gimmick of spending the majority of the fight "underwater", only surfacing periodically.



Ship-to-Shore Missile: Two missiles pop out of the floor and fly down their rows at MegaMan. This is a very basic attack, but it goes off constantly, and can muck up attempts to peg DiveMan with an attack. Later versions of DiveMan make this attack go very fast, so there's almost always going to be missiles flying around the field.



Why Do Emulators Hate Things That Arc: DiveMan's chest opens up and he fires two mines, one targeted near your panel and one randomly, I think. It's hard to tell because like all "lobbed" attacks in this series, the emulators can't display them.



Tidal Wave: DiveMan's signature, most impressive attack. A 3x3 surge of water in the middle of the field. Given that neither of his other attacks target the back column specifically, you don't really have much of a reason to move from it unless you need to make an attack.

And yes, I take screenshots while the battle is actually going on, that's going to result in quite a few 'hangtime' periods in videos.