Mega Man & Bass

"Basically overdone"

Late comer to the feast.

In the year 1999, my brother spotted and bought a copy of Mega Man X 2 on the Snes for me, partly because it's a comparatively rare game, but mostly because he's a generous chap and he knows I have a thing for the old School 2D plat formers. Even though I'm not one of those people who'd been blasting a path through the adventures of Mega Man and his dynastic successors since 1987, I was still captivated by the game. Levels that needed lots of exploration, a host of baddies small and large to feed my Buster fire to, it was right up my aortic artery.

when I bought a Gba player for my Game cube some years later, I was quite excited by all the 2D style mega Man games it would allow me to lay my greedy little mitts on. Mega Man and Bass was one of these, the first game I'd ever played featuring the original portly little blue bomber created by Doctor Light. While the game certainly features much of the rich, sweet cake of gaming goodness we know and love from Mega Man. There were also several bitter currents of gaming nastiness, the question is, were there more currents than cake? and can I say so in fewer than several million words?

Rent a plot!

the plots of the later original Mega Man games tend to turn into a long running comic book that would even make Stan Lee run for cover. In this chronologically last of the series, the human world faces a new threat in the mysterious robot King who wants to start a robot revolution and destroy all humans. With his latest gang of robot masters (that modeling shop should really be more careful who they sell there robot Master kits to), King attacks the Robot museum, steals some Data Cd's from the famous roboticist Doctor light, acquires a fortress (again presumably from the evil villains accessories catalogue), and waits around for the player to reach the last level of the game and actually get some plot with him.

Mean while the sickeningly good Mega Man teams up with Evil doctor Wiley's creation Bass, a robot obsessed with being the strongest. Having nothing else on their diaries for the next few days they plan to take out King as a way of passing the time.

Predictably of course, Mega Man's old foe Doctor wily turns out to be behind the plot, what a surprise! which also explains King's rather odd motivation which looks as if it's been copied and pasted from the darker and much more interestingly plotted X series.

the plot to this game is one of the most horrible yet! I'm only glad Mega Man's sister, roll didn't manage to get herself kidnapped somehow, though in her position as shop keeper she's hardly being a Bastian of female equality. After the comparatively interesting plot of Mega Man 8, why have Capcom gone back to the old stale wily plotline? Whichever Capcom employee had this idea back in 1996 with the Japan only Snes original needs their head examining, preferably with a large hammer and some clever nails! in short, even for a Mega Man game, the plot is one of the most generic and dreadful creations of utter industrial strength standardness I've ever had the misfortune to see.

Shiny icing.

we're all familiar with games like Rise of the Robots which are all glitz and no go, and while it's a truism that good graphics do not a classic make, it still helps. Mega Man and Bass was originally a Snes game, so playing on the Gba player the graphics loosely resemble those of Mega Man seven. colors are used well, environments are bright and vibrant and enemies look as if their moving rather than just waggling a still sprite across the screen at you. There are slightly fewer cunning uses of lighting than in the Blue bomber's only Snes outing (I'm not counting the X games as they have a very different graphical feel to me), but in general this isn't a problem.

While it's no Donkey Kong country or Mega Man X3, the graphics are like a decent Hollywood actor, they get the job done and look nice doing it.

I'll crush you like a tin can! crunch!

The sound in the game is much like the graphics, appropriate but not particularly special. There are the usual gun firing noises along with robotic clunks and explosions. Some of the sounds felt a little high pitched and squeaky to me, more like nes effects than Snes or other Gba games, but I'm not going to quibble over this. there was however a lovely noise in Mega Man seven when you hit a boss that for some reason got removed in favor of a crackling noise. Why! oh why! capcom!

A bit of voice acting would have been rather nice, even just the odd battle cry or grunt as in the mega Man Zero series, but I suppose that just shows this is a fairly accurate Snes port.

Nooooo! not again!

The music in the game is I think, actually an improvement over the Snes stuff. Not that the tunes are particularly different but despite the Gba's reduction in sound producing capability, the samples used for the instrumentation seems much more diverse. the music is the normal Mega Man semi-rock techno mix, with non of the more orchestral sections you find in the X games. The music does highlight each environment I suppose, but even for a game music aficionado like me, the music of the original Mega Man series does sort of run together. Any Mega Man fan will recognize some of the tunes that get pumped at them, particularly that ever tacky, ever present, now rather annoying opening stage theme.

News flash! Blue bomber looses place in decathlon!

So, Game play! the meat and potatoes, the main event, the heart of every game. for some, a precious secret wonder hidden in mediocrity like a hazel nut in a topic bar, for others the one missing screw in the DIY shelves that would have made a good game. Also if you haven't gathered already, a subject worthy of much discussion.

the first thing we'll be discussing is the Mega man formula. It runs like this:

choice divided by number of levels plus boss plus weapon times number of levels plus final levels equals game!

to translate, choose your boss, pound him (it's nearly always a him), into tiny little atomic bits, grab his weapon and defeat the boss which is weak to it. Repeat for all bosses then move on to the tougher final levels.

Personally I happen to like this formula, it gives you a lot of choice, a lot of weapons to play with and more levels to explore at the start of the game than in most 2D platform shooters accepting Metroid. If you don't like this formula, you won't like Mega man pure and simple and should probably steer clear.

Now as to the actual nuts and bolts of game play, as you can probably guess by that subtle title, Mega Man and Bass has a choice of characters for you to play. You can play the noble virtuous and rather strangely soprano Mega Man with his obsessive concern for justice, huge chargeable gun of extreme enemy pounding and slide. alternatively we have the dark and moody Bass, who's equipped with a double jump and dash maneuver, an eight way machine gun like weapon and a crop of the most beautiful hair you'll see outside a shampoo advertisement.

Now Capcom were obviously thinking this would add a huge amount of diversity to the game, the blue bomber is a bit lacking in the jump department but can slide under a boss's attacks and do major damage while Bass waltzes happily through levels but ---- yeah you get the general idea. The problem seems to me one of extremes. Mega Man has quite obviously missed out on time in the robot gym since his last outing, and his jumping abilities are --- well pants.

Bass on the other hand emulates Alid Jones with his ability to jump in mid air, but can't run for toffee. His dash is activated by a double tap, and while as a mortal Combat and golden axe fan I've got no problem with double tapping, this is one of the worst example I've ever seen. If you try to out run a threat from above You'll frequently just mince forward a couple of steps and end up getting whacked in your beautifully coifed head. why in the name of all that's fair couldn't capcom have given us a dash button!

with weaponry however, the two heroes are much more evenly matched. Mega Man has his powerful chargeable Mega Buster which he can run and fire at the same time but only in two directions, while Bass (who despite his hair hasn't mastered multi-tasking), can rapid fire his Bass buster in seven directions (not straight down), while standing still. Both characters acquire the same weapons from bosses, so are fairly equal when it comes to enemy destruction. So ultimately choosing between the two players comes down to the question of is jumping or sliding more useful? Now normally such a question would need some careful thought and consideration, a weighing up of strengths and weaknesses, an in-depth pondering of any particular player's preferred style of dodging etc. thankfully, this game removes all need for such analyzing. one single factor can be used as the foundation of all your player choice judgments. what is it you ask?

Mega man's! jump! is! crap!!!!!

Now let me explain, the good blue bomber who in previous games hopped with the ease of a well born muscular frog from platform to platform has, in this game the approximate jumping power and aerial grace of an arthritic elephant with three broken legs. With the character differences it seems Capcom were planning to go for something along the lines of Mega Man X 4, with Zero and X well and truly balanced out. In reality Mega Man is just purely and simply out jumped.

the level design here is puzzling. Not to say it's bad or confusing, just full of puzzles! These include playing Simon with a shooting plasma cannon, running the gauntlet of moving spears and lots of fun with invisible platforms. Perhaps more than any other Mega Man game, even Mega Man 8, this game features a greater variety of little tasks for you to perform to get through each level. now I like this sort of element in a game, it adds the need to use your brain as well as your favorite buster finger, but in some places in this game I did think some of the puzzles were a bit excessive. the spear gauntlet I mentioned for instance, involves split second timing and is nearly impossible with Bass and his quirky dash move.

then we come to the bosses. Now once again, I love bosses. to go hand to hand with a huge nasty piece of work, with only your wits, pattern recognizing skills and whatever weapons you have on you to save you from the bad game! over! It's classic! In this game though, as with many other elements the bosses have been put into overdrive, chiefly because of the weaknesses of the two main characters. Mega Man's arthritic little hop is about as much use in avoiding damage as a paper shield, where as Bass's rapid fire pea-shooter of a buster rivals little David's sling for it's use as an effective weapon.

Of course since both character's get the same weapons after defeating each boss (unlike X 4), you'd think that Bass would have a significantly easier time once you'd downed your first Robot Master. No! even with the correct weaponry, these bosses are testicle grindingly difficult. There attacks are hell to avoid, and they drink up your energy like a fine wine. Now you might think I'm exaggerating, and that a bit of patience will get you through. While I'd not deny this, I will say that if I compare them to other Mega Man bosses they're certainly tough, I believe of the nastier Zero series baddies can hold a candle to them as far as difficulty goes.

Don't let me give you the impression that everything's doom and gloom in this game though. One of my favorite elements is the shop where you can buy power ups and items. unlike the shop in mega Man 7, you do actually have to buy the items, you can't just collect them all in other stages. However gathering enough bolts from defeated foes is a pleasant little diversion from the horror of the boss fights, and will only take you a comparatively short time. The shop sells a really diverse range of parts from a shield that protects you from one touch of spikes to extra weapons and attacks employing the two heroes cybernetic canine companions, rush and Treble. This adds a nice bit of diversity to the game play.

No review of Mega Man and Bass would be complete with out a mention of the Cd system. As I said when we were discussing the little bit of text that pretends to be a plot, King has stolen Doctor light's data Cds. While steeling data is probably a good idea, since knowledge is power, King doesn't seem to have made much use of his ill gotten gains (maybe his cd player won't play that format?). for whatever reason, the Cds have been left lying around all the stages of the game for the two charactors to collect. Some can be found by bass, others by Mega Man, some with both. Now other than a pointless treasure collecting exercise for game veterans to brag over what's this for? simple, when you acquire a Cd you can look at it in the Cd data base and get some nice art work and facts about various Mega Man charactors. all the classic series friends and foes are here, from the obvious to the obscure. It's a fun little diversion for any Mega man nutter like me, though probably wouldn't be of interest to the casual gamer.

Back to Basics.

so should you get this game? well if your a Mega Man nutter, I'd say yes. the puzzles can be fun, the Cds are great to look at and you might even have a chance at defeating the bosses given enough practice and cursing.

If your just a casual gamer though, this probably isn't the Mega Man for you. Go and try one of the Zero or X series games instead, or better still grab the Anniversary Collection for the Gamecube or Playstation 2, which will transform you into a Mega Man nutter over night. then, and only then, should you think about getting this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/05