Mega Man & Bass

"The Best MegaMan game I've ever played! A "must have" for any fan."

There are no flaws. The Graphics are perfect, the sound is perfect, the music is perfect, the extras and replay... perfect. Of all the Megaman games I've played I always noticed several re-occurring flaws, like the fact that there was really no point to do 'puzzles' because you were only rewarded with a 1up, which is pretty useless. And the fact that there is really no reason to go out in a baddy-filled area and have fun shooting because you cant level up or anything. And that the buster eventually became useless, or demoted down to the 'last resort' weapon by the end of the game (like the dagger or punch/kick in FPS games). Or the fact that there was almost no replay. Or that you knew little to nothing about the Robot Masters, who are always the stars of the games. Or worst of all, the fact that you had to pause to change the weapons.

:: Improvements ::

All those annoying little things were fixed. Megaman and Bass takes the classic Megaman formula, from games like Megaman 1, 2, 3 ect and adds new features (and some barrowed from his spin-off games) This game has:

* A Pokedex like Index for Robot Masters, with 100 enterys, each with a full screen pre-rendered clean and clear anime concept-art-ish picture, a page of background info, a quote, his pros/cons and likes/dislikes.

* CDs (to fill the Robot Master index) 100 of them, litter all over the game, in cleverly hidden places and puzzles, excursions off the obvious path are normally rewarded with a CD, normally of a robot master similar to the sage's boss (Like DrillMan's CD is found in Ground Man's level)

* Rotate between weapons with the L/R triggers, while IN GAME, no pause screen. It even excludes 'tool' weapons like Rush and only cycles through the robot master weapons.

* 2 modes of play, as Megaman, and Bass, I'll get into this later. Each mode allows you to play through the same game twice, with an entirely different look, feel, and even levels.

* Screws move over Zenny, Screws are the currency of this Megaman game. Screws, dropped by robots (come in varying sizes, size determines value) can be traded in to Auto for weapons and upgrades, as the game progresses he gets more, the price is fair, not to low, not to high, and going out screw-hunting can be fun if the player knows a good spot to get in a long brawl with hordes of little robots.

* Upgrades, your Mega Buster can be upgraded, as well as your stats. By purchasing upgrades, the player can improve passive abilities like slide/dash speed and latter climbing speed. By purchasing equip-able upgrades other things can be improved, but only one at a time. You can have large balls of energy refill your health fully, or you can go into a 'rage' mode where you're weapons are stronger when you are near-death, or just improve on the buster, you can give it a more rapid speed, more power, or the ability to penetrate walls. Basically, think of all Samus's beam upgrades, but interchangeable in the pause menu.

:: Megaman or Bass ::

The game lets you play as two different characters, Megaman, and Bass. Megaman, is the classic design blue bomber we all know and love, with the regular Mega Buster, and his standard slide, charge and Rush. Bass is Megaman's sleek doppelganger who is temporarily teaming up with him to stop Robot King (the standard Megaman Game prelude-to-Whiley-villain). Bass can't charge up his buster or walk while shooting, but is able to shoot it at any angle. And like a gamer's external organs reacting to the sweet sound of an exploding Robot Master, Bass' gun fires in rapids spurts. Bass also trades the Megaman slide for a double-tap dash that, if jumped from results in a long-jump (but he cant duck under attacks or go into small holes like Megaman can with his slide). His most useful move by far is his double jump, in mid air tapping jump again will cause him to jump again, letting you reach places Megaman can't. Each character is so unique in movement that playing one, and then switching to the other, can be a bit of an awkward adjustment (like trying to double jump or dash as Megaman, or trying to slide as Bass). But it works out well, because you play as one at a time, from start to finish, each file has its character chosen and set in stone from the start, giving it lots of replay, because you can play the game twice as the 2 different characters, and the levels are designed to have slightly different paths and routes for each robot.

:: Game Stats ::

Music: 9/10
The music upholds the old Mega Man tradition or zany-yet-catchy tunes, the music never gets old.

Sound: 8/10
The sound is great, everything sounds the way you'd think it should, and all the classic effects are back (the 'Megaman-explosion' sound, the 'boss-stance-and-name-before-level-starts' sound, the 'got-energy' sound, ect)

Graphics: 11/10
This is where the game stands out above the rests the most vividly. The graphics. It looks great, beyond great, it appears as if every single frame of animation was hand drawn and painted and then scanned onto a computer. Megaman and Bass look and move like anime-ish cartoon characters, even the foes, like the hard-hats, have fluid and vivid animation. In the Robot Master Index, you get to see an almost-full-screen anime-ish 'poster' of the Robot Master. Megaman and Bass are big, and detailed, and so are their foes and environments, everything looks great.

Gameplay: 10/10
Each level has its own distinct strategy (''Memorize the paths'' ''Quick reflexive dodging'' ''Jump and avoid shooting'' ext) The strategy will then later relay over to the boss battle. The levels are very well done and clever, its hard to believe they can fit that many puzzles in such a seemingly simple engine. And few elements are just re-hashes from older games, there’s a lot of new stuff here, more then there normally is in Megaman Games.

:: Conclusion ::

A must have for fans of the classic Megaman games, a good buy for non-fans.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/03, Updated 06/02/03