Mega Man & Bass

"Capcom finally brings over a great, classic Mega Man game.."

When I found out this game existed, I wanted to play it as soon as possible, since my love for side-scrolling Mega Man games is high. Of course, with no stateside release, my dreams were shattered. I have played the game before on ROM, but my dissatisfaction with playing a Mega Man game with a keyboard kept me from playing it to my full enjoyment. When I heard Capcom was actually going to release the game stateside after the announcement of them porting it to the GBA, I was ecstatic. Now, that the game is in my hands, I can go on with my life.

****GAMEPLAY****
Traditional Mega Man gameplay has returned to the GBA, only you get to choose between two different characters this time around. At the start, you choose between Mega Man or Bass, who was featured in Mega Man 7 on the SNES. Mega Man plays like he always has; he has his Mega Buster (can be charged) and his usual slide. Bass, on the other hand, can't walk while firing, has a double jump, has the ability to dash and can fire diagonally and up. Very different fighting styles for both characters, I must say.

Instead of being able to choose from all 8 robots at the start of the game (after the initial stage), you get something that sort of resembles a tournament bracket. After you defeat a robot, you get the opportunity to fight the next rung in the robot line (it appears that way). Whether or not you can try to fight the last boss after only defeating two robots is unclear, since I have not gotten that far yet (game is hard).

A nice, little quirky addition to this game is something called CDs, which you can find located throughout the various stages. There are 100 in total, and though they don't directly affect gameplay, they do give information on the robots from the previous Mega Man games. It is fun to see what they say about previous bosses you may faced in the past games.

****GRAPHICS****
This game doesn't win any awards for its visuals, though they are pleasant to the eye. The character models are done well and so are the stages. As always, the stages in Mega Man & Bass, as is always the case with a MM game, vary greatly and offer a great view of numerous sceneries. Not bad for a GBA game.

****SOUND & MUSIC****
Again, MM & B doesn't win any awards for the audio part of the game, though they don't make you immediately turn the volume down and listen to something else.

****CONTROLS****
One of the gripes I have, only while playing as Bass, is that it's difficult to dash with him. They could have assigned the dash button as either the R or L buttons, since they don't seem to do anything at all. Capcom could have learned from Konami's Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on this aspect. Otherwise, I have nothing else to complain about concerning the controls; they seem to be very responsive.

****REPLAYABILITY, LONGEVITY & DIFFICULTY****
Whee! This game has challenge and will test your skills as an action/platformer gamer. Of course, some players will have to take their times to adjust to Bass' style of gameplay, but the game is still difficult. On a scale of one to ten, with 10 being ''OMG! THIS IS INSANE!,'' I'd rate the difficulty of MM & B at a 6 or 7.

The only REAL replayability I see this game having is the ''pick up and play'' idea, meaning just picking it up one day and playing it for fun. The longevity for this game definitely comes in the CD collecting, since you will have to play through the game with both characters to get all 100.

Fans of Mega Man should already have this game in their collections, since this is not one to disappoint them. Other people might want to rent the game (if that's possible) before purchasing, but you'll probably end up buying it down the road.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/03, Updated 03/23/03