Mega Man & Bass

"Megaman and Bass form a unholy alliance to drive you nuts"

Rockman & Forte, released 24.4.1998, is one of the most mind baffling games out there. It was only released in Japan, which admittedly is not a practice unheard of, but the real kicker is that it was released on SNES. Okay, SNES might be one of the finest consoles ever made, but it was freaking 1998! SNES was pretty much dead by then. Ergo, about 3 people bought the game.

When Capcom finally realised that the stupidity of their decision threatened the very fabric of reality and decided to undo the atrocity by re-releasing the game worldwide, it was already 2003, and PS2, Gamecube and X-Box formed the home console market. Nobody would bother to buy a 16-bit game for a 128-bit system, so Capcom was sort in a bind with it. Fortunately, there always was Game Boy Advance, the number 1# platform for outdated, re-released SNES junk.

Finally, we westerners are privy to one of the most monumental exercises of insanity known to man.

OVERVIEW:

It's a Mega Man game, so basically player beats the living hell out of robot masters and takes their lunch mo... uh, weapons. It is just more linear.

CATCH:

You can choose between Mega Man and Bass (not fish!!!), who have different abilities. You must travel via paths, making this game more linear. Also, there are CD's scattered around stages that contain information of all the characters and robot masters in the entire history of classic Mega Man.

GRAPHICS:

Combine the style of MM8 with the technical standards of MM7, and you get a game that quite doesn't look as good as either of those games. But that is like saying "This Ferrari isn't quite as fast as the Lotus Esprit". In other words, it still looks better than most GBA games.

SOUND:

The music is nothing special. I have not played "Rockman and Forte", but I presume its music has higher technical standards. Same goes for sound effects.

GAMEPLAY:

It probably is the logical course of action to start this section, given this game's title, by comparing the Blue Bomber and Dark Lord.

First of all, Mega Man. Well, he can jump, slide and charge his buster, in short: exactly what you have came to expect from our blue midget of justice.

Bass, who serves as a link between classic Mega Man and Mega Man X, can dash and double jump, giving him distinct edge on the mobility department. He doesn't completely rip off his red successor, and uses a Contra-style machine gun that can shoot in 8 directions. He can't move while shooting.

So basically Capcom repeats the same mistake than in X4: they give all the cool, new stuff to Bass, while Mega Man remains the same. Bass is so much better, too. His mobility is really helpful, and he can merge with Treble for flight, even further increasing his mobility. Rush, in the other hand, can search for buried CDs (more of them later), which we all can agree, is not even nearly as cool as turning your master into a messianic, flying angel of destruction.

Some of you might point out that the Mega Buster is powerful and doesn't make the operator a sitting duck, but the Master Weapons are the same for both, so it doesn't help.

The cruel conclusion is that, Mega Man, lacking in novelty factor, charisma and
usefulness, gives no compelling reason to use him. Bass wins, simple as that.

For some reason, this game is rather linear, as you only can choose from 3 robot masters at the beginning. When you beat one, 2 or 1 more robot masters are unlocked. I simply see no reason for this.

The stage design is quite varied and is full of puzzles. Normally, this would be great, but the stages are just cheap. There are many sections that require near-perfect timing. The stages are excessively long, too. The temple of trials (or something of that direction) is still a cool idea.

Stages are littered with CDs that contain character and robot master data. The database consists of all robot masters and characters in classic Mega Man history, even the obscure ones. Too bad that there is too little information on each subject, and you are likely to learn more about them on Wikipedia or something. Lots of them can be only got by Mega Man, but who will bother to?

CHALLENGE:

If you ever hear somebody telling you that MMX3/MM7/MMX6/MMZ is the hardest Mega Man ever, they are lying. I have beaten Mega Man X3 roughly 10 times and for some ungodly reason, Mega Man X6 once with X and twice with Zero. I can say with fair confidence that Mega Man & Bass is the hardest Mega Man game there is.

With Bass, the game is about as punishing than having your crotch destroyed with a hammer. With Mega Man, replace the hammer with a morning star. Don't believe me? Well, for example, not only that you don't have any E-tanks, Dynamo Man can heal himself, which makes him frustrating as hell.

But to truly understand the genitalia destroying horror of this game, I must take you to the most excruciatingly difficult part of the game. It's a stage where you first fight a tank, then a plane (while maneuvering from tiny platform to another), then you fight a guy twice. And, after beating them, they all combine in to a extremely frustrating, merciless machine of death. There is some recovery items in between them, but they are inside of treasure chests and some of those chests turn out to be mimics who attack you. But the worst part is that there are no continue points. So if you die, regardless of when and why, you have to start the entire (insert expletive) stage all over again, all over again, all over again, all over again, all over again... (high-pitched, elongated screech of terror ensues as the player slowly succumbs to insanity).

So, yeah, I can quite confidently say that this game is the hardest Mega Man in existence. I have beaten the game once (with out cheating, no less) with Bass, and have not bothered with Mega Man.

STORY:

A robot named King steals robot data from the robot museum, and uses the data to build his army of robot masters (6 new designs, 2 updated designs). Mega Man and Bass set out to stop him.

It's the typical Mega Man plot, with a utterly predictable twist. It suffices as such, but is hardly engaging.

LONGEVITY:

With two playable characters and tons of CDs to collect, one would presume long lasting gaming experience, but playing as Mega Man is not fun and the CDs don't contain enough information to be considered interesting.

CONCLUSION:

Mega Man & Bass offers us a view to an alternative reality, where madman David Lynch directs Mega Man (hey! that actually rhymes). It just is an insane port of an insane game (and I don't use the word "insane" as a euphemism for "awesome", I use "insane" as a euphemism for "sheer lunacy").

Since the Mega Man & Bass is pretty much Bass's show, Capcom could have named it Mega Man Bass, and made it in to a Contra-style shoot 'em up, where Bass fights endless hordes of enemies and gigantic bosses. There could be also some Gradius-style side scroller stages for Cavalry (Bass & Treble merged together). It would have been bit unoriginal and simplistic, but would certainly have been damn sight funnier than this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/18/06