Remember when I mentioned a chip's elemental affiliation? All chips can either be neutral or associated with some elemental force: water, fire, wood or electricity (Yeah, I know, not the traditional elements.) These elemental affiliations are important because depending on the foe you are battling, the weapon/Navi combination or the virtual terrain the battle is being fought on, these affiliations can make attacks more devastating or less effective. For example, a fire Navi wielding a fire weapon does more damage than if he were using a neutral weapon.

Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge is played either in a single-player story mode that has the player working his way up an increasingly-difficult tournament ladder or as a two-player game where the player may take the Program Deck he has built up and battle a human opponent over the GBA Link Cable. When linked, chips can even be traded between players to improve the odds of seeing the rarer chips.

The game interface is slick and easy to deal with. Control is really limited to making a bunch of strategic choices and the deployment of the Slot-In reserve chips. No real strain - even for the GBA's few controls.

Graphics and animation are particularly good for the GBA. Hell, put it on the GameCube's GBA player and really see how good they are. Sound is a little sparse, but there really did not need to be any more to make the game fun, so no real problem.

Some may say the gameplay in Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge is all luck. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While luck does play a small role, I found through experimentation that with an identically equipped Navi in three identical combat rounds, if he lost the first round he lost the next two. Using the same round, after reworking his program deck, if he won the first he won the next two. That to me says it is the strategy and not luck that plays the pivotal role.

But luck or strategy, this is one of those rare games where you'll hear yourself saying, "Wait a minute! I can do that better next time." or "I know what I did wrong. If I just move that chip here and that one there…" or "Dear, I'll come to bed just as soon as I beat this round of matches." It is minutes to learn and very difficult to put down. Any Mega Man or strategy-minded GBA fan will not regret picking it up.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've finished this review and I'm going to go back and play a few dozen more hours of Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge.