Mega Man & Bass

"Honestly.. A crime against everything Megaman..."

Ah, the latest, but far from greatest MegaMan game in the series. I feel that I can say this, because chances are, I've been playing MM games longer than anyone reading this, and if I haven't then we've been playing them just as long.

When I first saw this game, there was a bit of a mis-conception of it... Well, firstly it comes after MM8, so logically it would be MM9 right? Well... no, its not. But many people thought it was, which made me think for a second, I mean, even though it is not MM9, it did come after MM8. And while it was PORTED over to the GBA, it was originally for the Snes (Well, the JAP Snes anyways). But enough rant.. time to rate this crime, er game.

Game Play: 8/10

Right, so I mean, as a hardcore fan of the entire MM series, I find the game play in this game to be a bit similar to the previous MM games, with the regard that MegaMan is a little less Mega in this game, and a whole lot less, after you have played as Bass. Trust me, if you have never played this game before, or are just about to, play MegaMan first. Assuming that you have played previous MM games, you'll find that he plays very similar, but with a few new ''twists''. By this I mean, his inability to jump more than five feet off the ground. MegaMan used to be an All-Star highjumper, what the heck is this crap? He can jump about half the height he could in previous games... His slide move is virtually untouched, as it has been since MM3. His charge move, again is practically untouched, not like it needed a new make over or anything. And he looks, well, to put it simply, they made MegaMan look stupid in this game. Please, keep in mind that the game becomes near impossible to play after using Bass. Which brings me to the next area, Bass and his Game Play...
Well, when you saw Bass, did you think you would be controlling something like the Bass from MM7? No, I suppose they made him a bit better in this game. Got rid of the stupid flat beam shot he had, with its even less appealing powered up version, and gave him a very GattlingGun-ish blaster, which I must say is actually very good despite the fact that when you are using it you become completely immobile. He has a dash function, that makes MegaMan's slide look and feel like garbage, and he can shoot in 7 directions, as well as a nifty double jump. Actually, now that I think about it, aside from his gun, he is alot like playing Zero from MMX(4-6). But to recap... If you plan on playing this game as BOTH MegaMan and Bass at somepoint, play MegaMan first. I find it hard to play as MegaMan now, after davleing in the greatness of Bass...

Sound: 4/10

Ok, really.. What is this. Like, you would figure that 16-bit sound would sound alot better! The sounds are ok, but the music is.. Horrible!! Its gets annoying, the kind of annoying that sticks in your head even hours after your done playing. The music is a bit.. well, crappy(for lack of a more accurate word) I must say. The sounds are correct, it sounds like your shooting a blaster, it sounds like that enemys explode right. But, the music, I can't get over how ANNOYING the music really is..
To the point at which I say it bothers me, it really does..

Graphics: 10/10

What can I say? I find it hard to say anything bad about the graphics. Its great, considering that this game came from the Snes Origianlly. Which seems to be a popular thing with the GBA anymore, you know, porting old Snes games onto it.. but yeah, the graphics are great, smooth, not pixilated atall. And the animation is fluid. It looks great. This games strongest point.

Story: 7/10

Ok, so maybe MM games don't have the best story, but this one actually has a bit of a new twist, and I mean twist in a good way here. They decided to make yet another one of Wily's creations defect. Which doesn't seem to be a new theme, I mean, what is this, 3 now? Well, only 3 if you count ProtoMan as Wily's creation, even though he is Wily/Light Creation... but thats beyond the point. The story takes a new direction in MM games, and aside from a few mistakes, mostly grammar mistakes, its a fairly decent story line.

Controls: 8/10

They controls are simple, regardless of what system you are playing this on, Snes or GBA. The only downfall for this on the GBA is that it lacks the amount of buttons that the Snes controller had, so its a double tap for Bass' dash.

Difficulty: -10/10 and by -10 I mean incredibly hard...

The game difficulty in a way, ranges, depending on the character you play as. But basically, the game starts off easy enough, though the first level is a bit annoying. The boss is the easiest thing you will EVER find in this game that has boss status. After this you go to the first robot master. Cold Man is really not that hard, he as a simple pattern and is defeated easily. After him, you start comming up against bosses like Burner Man, who will totally humiluate you, put even Veterans to shame, and make it look like you just started playing these type of games yesterday. The difficulty is increased by BurnerMan, and another boss, Dynamo Man. These two bosses make this game, not hard, but impossible without some type of serious dedication or cheating... Ok, BurnerMan is just impossible to hit with the weapon he is weak against, and Dynamo Man has an ability Capcom robbed from the player. Seeing as how they took out the all Mighty E-Tank, they felt it would only be fair to give DynamoMan the ability to heal himself, and you can only stop him by destroying BOTH sides of his healing machine. Which usually realtes to him going from near death to almost full power. And Dynamo Man being the last Robot Master if you follow the correct order, it only gets harder and more frustrating.

Replay Value: 2/10

You might want to relive this insult again as the other character, or you might want to collect all the CDs, but dont. Unless you want to see all the pictures from all the bosses of all the MM games. Honestly its not worth your time, its pretty clear all they did was put work into the pictures on those CDs. The quotes are STUPID and whats on the rest of the card doesn't even make sense half the time.

Overall: 5/10

I really expected more of a MM game. And I'm sorry if I come off as being something that maybe is just mad because they can't beat the game, or something to that effect. Well heres news for you. I have beaten the game, and without cheating too. And you know what else? I really haven't played it since then.

To Rent or to Buy:

Rent it first, as with EVERY other game, Try Before you Buy. You might like it if you rented it, in which case you've spent about 4-6 dollars on the rental fee. However how would you like to spend the $48 on the game and then find out you don't like it? Try Before you Buy is my only suggestion...

Game Play: 8/10
Sound: 4/10
Graphics: 10/10
Story: 7/10
Controls: 8/10
Difficulty: -10/10 (Hard, remember?)
Replay Value: 2/10
Overall: 5/10

Total Score: 4.25/10
Rounding off to the closest whole number equates to a total score of 4/10.

The game is not that great, and really its a insult to the MM series.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/03, Updated 04/25/03