RockMan & Forte

"Battle is my forte!"

This game was HARD. VERY hard. It took me quite a while to beat this, and half as long just to beat King's stage.
But for this, I honor Capcom.

MegaMan games have always been close to my heart, and after finally finding a copy of the Super Famicom RockMan & Forte, I nearly cried for joy. And for good reason:

GRAPHICS: 10/10

Aaahhh. RockMan 8 sprites on the Super Nintendo! ...or at least similar sprites. You see, even though the sprites from RockMan 8 were from the Playstation (and a whole lot of the enemies were from RockMan 8, too. Like the RoboWhales, Slider Penguins, etc. etc.), they still look awesome!
Another thing to note is that the stages are very colorful and great-looking. Creativity comes in as well - Forte's shots don't sink into the wall, but bounce off (if my memory serves), RockMan's teleportation beginning is great, etc. These graphics are awesome.

MUSIC/SOUND: 10/10

Yup. That's a 10. Even though the tunes and/or sounds are taken from (or remixed from) RockMan 7, they fit in very well into the theme. Even though the sounds are mostly just plain explosions, shield-like sounds (tink!) and shootin' sounds, or the famous ''dew dew dew dew'' sound of a Robot Master disinigrating, the sounds are still fitting into the MegaMan theme, while at the same time sounding awesome.
The music is also very well-done. One of my favorites is actually AstroMan's stage, along with the basic Intro Stage (Green Demon). Boss Battle themes are as expected - dramatic and techno. Excellent stuff, this music.

GAMEPLAY/STORYLINE: 8.5/10

I'll now break away from the constant ''10''s because of the basic plot. King, a large robot that is the latest creation of Dr. Wily's, is responsible for the breaking-in of a Robot Museum and the robbery of several robot plans (those of which are BurnerMan, GroundMan, ColdMan, MagicMan, PirateMan, DynamoMan and two returners, AstroMan and TenguMan) to create a so-called Robot Army. Dr. Right (US Dr. Light) and Dr. Willy (US Dr. Wily) summon Rockman and Forte to destroy King (but Rockman and Forte are still rivals; therefore they don't work together). The same old storyline (altered a bit), but you get to use TWO robots! Joy!
The gameplay is basically the same as the past RockMan games, but you get to choose which Robot you want to play as. Each of the two fighters has his own pros and cons (e.g. Bass can shoot in several directions, but can't shoot while running) and either one is a good choice to play as. Also, you start with THREE (that's right. not eight, but THREE) stages to choose from, and as you beat each stage, two more pop up (with the exception of AstroMan). The weapons are used more than just attacks, however. For example, Magic Card can be used like a boomerang, retrieving items behind a wall or from a distance.
Control is the same as any Rockman game, one button to charge/shoot, and one button to jump. L and R can switch weapons without going to the WEAPONS screen, and you can even use items that you've bought from Rightot with Screws (e.g., ESCAPE item that teleports you out of the stage and into the stage select screen).
And in case I haven't gotten the point across yet, this game is haaard. VERY hard. All the rest of the RockMan games were tough, but this...aack. There are NO Energy or Weapon tanks, so you'll have to conserve energy. The Boss battles are challenging, especially those such as DynamoMan, AstroMan, and BurnerMan. You'll REALLY need their weaknesses to beat them.

OVERALL: 10/10

Woo hoo! Another great RockMan game. I'm glad that Capcom has kept the tradition of platform-style RockMan, and this game defines RockMan. A challenge this may have been, but it was all worth it - and it was fun, too! This game is definitely a must for RockMan fans.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03