Mega Man & Bass

The Good
Anyone who's seen this site should know one thing: if it says Mega Man, I'm THERE. Be it Classic, X, Legends, or Battle Network, I'm a long time supporter of Mega Man and all those related to him. But there was one game I wish made the cut to the U.S. back in 1998: Rockman & Forte for the Super Famicom, billed by those who played it as the nastiest Classic game to ever come out.

Yeah, it's nasty. No, the game doesn't suck. I mean nasty as in not pulling punches. Read on.

A new robot named King has stolen information from Dr. Light on his previous works and all the data he could find on Dr. Wily's robots, and now Mega Man must get it all back. Imagine his surprise, however, when he finds out that Bass, his long-time rival, wants to get rid of King, too! But Bass is doing it for the sole purpose of proving to Wily just who's the strongest (as if we expected different from Bass).

So, in a move from Mega Man X4, you can play as either Mega Man or Bass, and when you start a game with one or the other, you're stuck with them throughout the whole game, until you start another save. And you'll need to, because you need both Mega Man's powers and Bass's to find all 100 CDs that King stole from Dr. Light.

Anyway, moving on. Mega Man is his same old self as usual. He can call upon Rush, charge his Mega Buster, slide, and can also use items that Bass can't. Bass, on the other hand, has dropped his imitation Mega Buster in favor of the new Bass Buster, which has extreme rapid fire capability. And like X and Zero, Bass dashes instead of slides, which is mostly useful for increasing your jumps. And like Zero, Bass also can double jump, which can save his neck many times, and can call Treble, his robotic dog, to form the Gospel Booster (which incidentally is his fighting armor from Mega Man 8) to jet across huge chasms.

The Wily Robots, with the exception of two returning robots, are quite interesting, if not REALLY nasty and mean. But enough points can be had for the return of...TENGU MAN!!! ^_^ (So I'm a Tengu Man fan, so kill me. :p)

Now, I must mention the graphics, sound, and music. The graphics are absolutely amazing!! This is a 16-bit system, mind you...yet the sprites are from the 32-bit Mega Man 8, or in the same vein. And the animation is completely intact! It's shocking to see what a system can do when you push it to its extremes! Although Mega Man looks a bit silly in this game, Bass looks pretty damn good, and of course his new animations are smooth and solid. The music is in itself quite good, with lots of decent variety in the tunes, but as for sounds...

The Bad
You knew I was gonna say something bad about the sounds, right?

Yes. They're from Mega Man 7, so you get the pea shooter Mega Buster shot sound. But thank God that Mega Man has no Super Adaptor here, because I don't need more of the "farting straw" sound again!

But there's one other thing about Mega Man & Bass that people either will love or hate: it's hard. Brutally, unforgiving, ball-busting HARD. You get NO E-Tanks, and unfortunately Mega Man gets the shaft in most of the stages, since a lot of them seemed more designed for Bass than Mega Man. Plus fighting some of the bosses (especially Burner Man and Dynamo Man) will have you eventually huddled in the corner crying for your mommy. Capcom didn't pull any punches in the difficulty here, and it shows. You HAVE been warned!!

The Bottom Line
Mega Man & Bass (a.k.a. Rockman & Forte) is quite...strange, putting it mildly. An odd hybrid of several Mega Man and even X games, the game stands as, simply stating, one of the best of the Classic games, even though it'll make you cry like a baby.