adventure

Mega Man & Bass, often incorrectly called Mega Man 9 by those unfamiliar to it, was originally a Super Famicom game that was released only in Japan. The game never saw the light of day in the US until now. But is it worth purchasing?

The setup is your standard Mega Man fare. A new robot, named King, has desires to take over the world and become the most powerful robot there is. Mega Man, the blue android invented by Dr. Light, fights to stop King and restore justice. Bass, Mega Man's "evil clone" invented by Dr. Wily, has much more selfish reasons. Bass detests any robot being more powerful than he is.

While both characters traverse the same stages, fighting 8 bosses and then visiting a fortress, the experience is varied because the two control differently. Mega Man controls as he always has. He can walk, shoot directly ahead, slide, and power-up his Mega Buster to fire a more powerful shot. Bass, on the other hand, controls more like Zero does in the Mega Man X series. Bass can double jump and dash. He also has a multi-directional rapid-fire weapon. However, his weapon can neither shoot through walls, nor can he move while using it.

Both will need to pull every trick in the book to succeed against the eight Robot Masters: Astro Man, Burner Man, Cold Man, Dynamo Man, Ground Man, Magic Man, Pirate Man, and Tengu Man. As usual, defeating one boss allows the player to use that boss' weapon, which happens to be a vulnerability for another boss.

This review fairly judges Mega Man & Bass against other Mega Man games. Like most Mega Man fans, I tire of magazines and publications nagging over the series lack of innovation. When you buy a Mega Man game, you know what to expect. Or, at least, you want to think you do.

GRAPHICS - While I wouldn't call them stunning, the graphics in Mega Man & Bass are crisp and clear. The game recycles a lot of sprites and animations from Mega Man 8, which was originally on the Playstation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the animation remains very fluid, particularly when compared to the visuals of Mega Man X6 where bosses were remarkably limited in animation frames. Of particular note, however, is the smaller field-of-vision. You simply can't see as much on the screen at once in the GBA version, and this leads to the majority of gameplay issues.

SOUND - The sound and music translated nicely from the Super Famicom version. The tunes are memorable and in that typical Mega Man style. The sound effects are mostly from Mega Man 7, but they work effectively.

CONTROL - Mega Man & Bass is weak in this regard, which is surprising considering Mega Man games are known for solid play control. The majority of quibbles belong with Bass. First, Bass' dash can only be executed using a double-tap left or right. This is against a more intuitive scheme of using L and R to dash, which Capcom used in Mega Man Zero. The fact that you must double-tap means Bass' dash is very unreliable because the game is finnicky in deciding between a dash or simply taking two small steps to the right. This is illustrated when fighting Ground Man as Bass. It is utterly pathetic to watch Bass get pounded by Ground Man's giant drill that emerges from the ceiling as he tip-toes pixel-by-pixel. Mega Man may control better, but it is clear that the stages were designed predominantly with Bass in mind. As such, the stages will gave Mega Man more grief. The lack of any configuration options whatsoever shows the lack of thought put into this title.

GAMEPLAY - This is where Mega Man & Bass falls short the most. The game is riddled with cheap hits and extremely difficult stages and bosses. The smaller field-of-vision I mentioned before leads to many deaths by enemies that lurk unseen off the top of the screen. Despite having unlimited continues, you are forced to run through the same stages ad nauseum to reach the boss, who will promptly execute you. The bosses are usually very quick and their vulnerability to other weapons is less than obvious (which of the bosses do you think the "Magic Card" works best against?). To put it bluntly, this game is frustrating and cheap. When you die, you feel it is because of a cheap trick instead of a mistake on your part.

OVERALL - The worst part of Mega Man & Bass is that, after 15 years of Mega Man as Capcom proudly touts, you'd think they'd have the formula down to an exact science. By now, one would hope for perfection. But instead, Capcom fails us again. With the quirky controls, frustrating gameplay, and ridiculous challenge level, this game is just bad. And between Mega Man & Bass and Mega Man X6, I never want to hear another fan whine about the games being "too easy" again. Thus, I give it the lowest rating I've ever given a Mega Man game - and that's saying a lot.

The story line for this game is a good 1.Mega Man Story: A robot named king goes 2 Dr lights lab steals 100 cds and then goes 2 the robot muesem. Mega Man is furious and goes after this King dude. Bass Story: Bass gets mad cause Dr Wily is not giving him credit for any work so Bass decides 2 help Mega Man find King and Kill him. Bass and Mega are totaly diffrent from each other. Bass has a rapid fire laser,double jump and a dash like MMX. He also has his wolf trebble where u can make a Super Bass when they both merge 2gether. Mega Man is still the same. He has Rush who can dig things up. Sorry no rush jet=(, Beat will drop a sphere that will make u invincible and eddie who throws u bolts and power ups. The 100 cds are cd's that hold info on past robots in the MM og series but just the main guys. This is really cool cause there are neat pictures of the previous robots from MM1-8,MM1-5 gb, wily wars and Mega Man and Bass. Oh ya 1 last thing there are 2 robots who make a come back in the game Tengu Man and Astro Man from MM8

MM and Bass is a very challenging game but is so cool if u get used to it and actually beat lvls. The first few days after i bought the game i was mad cause i got stuck on BurnerMan but after i beat him i was pretty good at the game. I highly recommend this game if u are a hardcore gamer.