Knowing when to stop is of paramount importance when it
comes to safe guarding a legacy. Outstay your welcome and you tarnish the
reputation of previous games. It’s always best to leave an audience wanting
more. Many game series have been accused of ‘jumping the shark’; milking the
franchise just that bit too much by churning out too many sequels. ‘Mega Man
and Bass’, while certainly not a half arsed quick cash in, is undoubtedly a
sequel too far for the Blue Bomber. It is the sixth Snes game to carry the ‘Mega
Man’ branding and were it not for a brief foray into the ‘Soccer’ genre’ ‘Mega
Man and Bass’ is universally considered the worse ‘Mega Man’ game on the
system. It’s a game that has been designed without enjoyment in mind, a
deliberately obtuse and brutal game that unsurprisingly isn’t that much fun to
play. Fortunately it’s a game that most haven’t seen, as it never saw a Super
Nintendo release in the west and were it not for a Game Boy Advance port would
probably have by now been forgotten.
You have to wonder if in 1998 even Japan wanted another
‘Mega Man’ game on the Super Famicom. Gamers had at that point been enjoying
‘Final Fantasy 7’ for a year. It’s almost two years after ‘Mario 64’
revolutionised gaming and eighteen months after the PlayStation’s ‘Mega Man 8
‘. As series producer Keiji Inafune put it “bringing out a new title on the
Snes was a little backwards at the time”. On the plus side as it was one of the
last Capcom published games released on the Super Famicom it was made
by experienced hands that could show off exactly what the console is capable of.
For me though, ‘Megaman and Bass’ isn’t as attractive as
either the ‘X’ games or ‘Mega Man 7’. Without black outlines the characters
look less precise and charming. An anime aesthetic appears to have been dialled
back in favour of slightly more realistic proportions, which I believe is a
misstep. The reason for this is probably because the vast majority of the art
assets were taken from the Playstation game ‘Mega Man 8’. With the transition
to 32 bit machines, perhaps Capcom wanted to show an audience that ‘Mega Man’
games were still relevant. Characters are larger than they have ever been, with
more frames of animation and more colours to each sprite. Levels have scenery
passing in front of the characters and animated backgrounds; all technically
impressive but the slight problem is that these graphical ‘upgrades’ damage
game play. Platformers require precision especially when you have to do timed
jumps across vanishing platforms with little margin for error. When you press a
button you need Mega Man to leap and then you need to know exactly where to position
him on screen so he lands on a platform. The more complex a character avatar is
the harder it is to read quickly and consequently the harder it is to
successfully judge jumps. There's a reason the series returned to its 8bit
roots when ‘Mega Man 9’ and ‘Mega Man 10’ were released on modern systems. It’s
not down to purely nostalgia it’s also because pixel perfect precision works
better with simpler character sprites.
Graphics should enhance an experience, not hinder a game’s
functionality. Therefore while ‘Mega Man and Bass’ may look like an attractive 32
bit Play Station game on the Super Famicom, I really would prefer it to look
like a beautiful 16 bit Super Famicom game.
The musical score for ‘Mega Man & Bass’ was less a
collaborative effort and more a collection of songs from familiar 16 bit
composers. Naoshi Mizuta and Akari Kaida
rather than create tracks together, composed their own songs individually.
Despite Kaida later working on the soundtrack for ‘Mega Man 10’ the music in ‘Mega Man & Bass’
successfully captures the theme of each level, yet fails to be memorable. Nothing
is offensive, but nothing particularly stands out, which for a ‘Mega Man’ game
is somewhat of a let down.
While the ‘Mega Man’ games are usually applauded for their
exceptional music and visuals, they are best known for their non linear
structure and creative boss battles. Typically a player can choose any level to
start from and at the end of each is an enemy robot master. Beating this boss
gets you his weapon, which a different boss, on a different level is weak to.
Much of the enjoyment therefore comes from trying to determine which boss is
weakest to which other boss’s weapon. Its fun determining the best order to
complete the levels in and obviously this starts with working out which boss is
weakest to Mega Man’s default weapon. Deviation too far from this established
game structure always leads to a poorer game and ‘Mega Man and Bass’ has
changed things in two crucial ways. Firstly, you only have a choice of three
stages to pick from at the start. Considering all eight need to be completed to
finish the game, it really makes little sense to limit the player, even if the
other five levels open pretty quickly. Limiting the initial line up limits the
amount of exploration needed to find the best stage to approach with your
starting abilities. Likewise, the thrill of finding a Robot Masters Achilles’
heel is diluted since the combination of weapons against foes is reduced.
Not that it matters much though, as it quickly becomes
apparent that only Cold Man can be beaten with Mega Man’s simple Master Buster.
Trying to face any other robot master using just the default weapon is
pointless, they can’t be beaten. They all hit too hard, can’t be dodged and have
such random movement patterns that it’s impossible to find an opportunity to
attack. Playing as Bass only makes things worse.
As the title suggest players have a choice of character to
play as and this is the first game in the ‘Mega Man' series that you can finish
without having to ever play as the Blue Bomber. Each character has its own
style of play. Mega Man is true to the original character design; he can run,
jump and slide but, as is tradition, he can’t shoot in any direction other than
sideways. Bass is a little more dynamic with the ability to rapid-fire in any
direction and to perform double jumps. He echoes Mega Man in the ‘X Games’ and
interestingly, many of the levels in the game seem to be primarily designed for
Bass and his specific skills. However while you may progress through the stages
easier as Bass, as soon as you reach a boss its clear how physically weak he
is; only three shots from a robot master will kill him. His default weapon is less
powerful too. One minute of constant bombardment is required for Bass to beat a
boss. Mega Man struggles less, but both characters will only win if you use the
weapon that a Robot Master is weak to, (which Mega Man or Bass can both collect
from other fallen level bosses).
These are (with the exception of Blizzard Buffalo in ‘Mega ManX3’) the hardest Robot Master fights seen in a ‘Mega Man’ game, yet you must
get the tactic to defeating them right first time. Losing a life may return you
at the checkpoint right before the boss’ room but it doesn’t reset your ammo.
Subsequent attempts at all but the first boss therefore become impossible,
since you no longer have the energy to use the only weapon that can defeat them.
This forces the player to return to the beginning of a stage, doing anything else
is suicide. This would be fine if the levels were enjoyable, but they are
sadly some of the worse seen in a ‘Mega Man’ game. They are filled with awful
enemy placement that hampers progress to such an extent that deaths often feel
unfair.
Getting over tricky spike pits is in previous games felt fun and satisfying; showing a mastery of the game. However in ‘Mega Man and Bass’ success too often is down to random chance. You can perform every jump across vanishing blocks perfectly, yet still be killed by an enemy that unexpectedly drops from the ceiling just at the point when you are about to successfully land the final jump. In Burner Man’s stage for example you can die on in spike pit simply because you fell through a hole in the floor that you couldn't see. Similarly Astro Man’s stage sometimes requires you to fall off the bottom of the screen to progress the level. This would be fine if at other times, in the same level, doing this didn’t mean instant death. There is no way to tell if a fall will kill you or not without experimenting and the punishment for getting it wrong is being forced back to the start of the irritating stage.
Getting over tricky spike pits is in previous games felt fun and satisfying; showing a mastery of the game. However in ‘Mega Man and Bass’ success too often is down to random chance. You can perform every jump across vanishing blocks perfectly, yet still be killed by an enemy that unexpectedly drops from the ceiling just at the point when you are about to successfully land the final jump. In Burner Man’s stage for example you can die on in spike pit simply because you fell through a hole in the floor that you couldn't see. Similarly Astro Man’s stage sometimes requires you to fall off the bottom of the screen to progress the level. This would be fine if at other times, in the same level, doing this didn’t mean instant death. There is no way to tell if a fall will kill you or not without experimenting and the punishment for getting it wrong is being forced back to the start of the irritating stage.
These levels are long, relentless and peppered with screen filing bosses that can end a robot life in one hit. Worse still one boss forces the player to continually leap over platforms, while the screen intermittently blanks out. You can die simply because you can’t see where you’re meant to be jumping. This boss is called the "King Plane", which is at least appropriate as it sounds a lot like the expletive that you will be screaming.
It’s not a tricky game it’s an unfair one. I pride myself on
being good at ‘Mega Man’ games, having beaten the majority without cheats. Yet I
can’t progress too far in ‘Mega Man and Bass’ without abusing emulator save
states and using an infinite energy Action Reply code. Even with both of these
the final end off game battle and the bosses that precede it were still
frustrating and near impossible. Unavoidable instant deaths in a boss fight
should never be part of a game’s design, even hits that take three-quarters of
your life is too much in a game without Energy Tanks and no quick way to heal
yourself.
According to Inafune, ‘Mega Man & Bass’ was intended for
younger players who still owned a Super Famicom and did not have the means to
experience the latest ‘Mega Man’ game on the newer more expensive Playstation.
"When we made the shift in hardware there were many children who couldn’t
play ‘8’" Inafune once said. “Even though ‘X’ had opened its world up on
the SNES, the original series only went to ‘7’ on that console. That’s why we
decided to bring out another title for the Snes that was based on ‘8’, for
them.” If this was the case, his advice to make the game "as hardcore as
possible" really makes no sense, since I doubt even the most patient child
could ever finish the game.
Not that finishing the game is worth it though as
the story is ludicrous, even by ‘Mega Man’ standards. A robot by the name of King has made a declaration that
robots should rule over their creators since they are “superior to humans in every
way”. To achieve his goals of killing all humans, he has gathered an army
of robots to start a rebellion; though
it’s not a very inventive revolution as two of the robots he is using are
lifted directly from ‘Mega man 8’. Doctor Lights sends Mega Man to stop King
and Doctor Wily sends Bass (most likely just to get the fortress back that King
seems to randomly be living in). Mega Man and Bass are not really acting as a
team therefore, but individuals with a shared goal. At no point do they cross
paths and the game should really have been called 'Mega Man OR
Bass’. A better design choice would have been to grant the player the ability
to switch between the two in the same way that you can summon ‘Zero’ in ‘MegaMan X3’. You would of course have used Bass for the levels and Mega Man for the
boss fights, but just this simple idea would have solved a lot of the games
problems. It would have essentially doubled your energy, making the game as a
whole half as hard. Levels would have been less frustrating since they are
designed for Bass anyway. Meanwhile Mega Man’s charged weapon and stronger
armour would have made the boss fights more palatable. Death would have been
less of a constant looming inevitability.
Indeed, I found that to have most fun with the game I simply
had to give up trying to complete it. I only really enjoyed the game when I instead
focused on the sub-quest; collecting the hundred CDs that are hidden across the
levels. When collected each CD rewards
the player with biography data on a Robot that Mega Man has beaten in a
previous game. Pretty much the entire cast in the ‘Mega Man’ world up to that
point are included, even some the strange lesser-known robots like the planet
themed bosses found in ‘Mega Man 5’ on the Game Boy. The information on each is
silly; no one needed to know that Ice Man doesn’t like hot baths, but for long
term fans it’s a great embracing the series’ long history. The majority of the CDs
can't be obtained without acquiring specific weapons which means you'll have to
come back to the same level multiple times to collect them all. It’s a far more
fun and exciting way of playing especially as a lot of these weapon upgrades
are more creative that a simple projectile palette change.
It can never be a good sign, when you have to ignore what
you’re supposed to be doing and find your own fun in a game. If we play games
to relax and enjoy ourselves, why would anyone decide to play through a game that been
deliberately designed be unfair. Infune said that “the two phrases [he] used a
lot during development were “you’re going too easy [on the player]” and “isn’t
there something harder you can do?”. It wasn’t his best direction. ‘Mega Man’ games may be infamous for their
difficulty but this is usually presented as a fair challenge. ‘Mega Man and Bass' is arbitrarily hard. A good
game introduces a challenge to a player then rewards them for completing it
successfully; the bigger the challenge the bigger the reward. ‘Mega Man and
Bass’ tasks the player with insurmountable obstacles and should you manage to
overcome them the reward is more often than not an unexpected death rather than
praise.
To play this game though (especially in English on the Super
Nintendo), you have to put the effort in. There’s very little chance that this
game would be anyone’s introduction to the ‘Mega Man’ games. It’s fair to say
the only people playing it on anything other than the Game Boy Advance re-release,
have taken time to get it and clearly want to play it. They are probably like
me, they love 16 bit ‘Mega Man’ games and simply want some more. But these very
fans are the ones who should be most cautious. Is it worth playing a game you
know to be “one addition to the series too many” just to say you’ve played all
you can? Or is it best to leave the memory of the other titles untarnished?
Much like the developers of ‘Mega Man and Bass’ it’s important to know when to
stop.
The collector in me is glad I have all the ‘Mega Man’ games, but the gamer in my heart wishes I had
never experienced it. Sometimes it’s good to not go for that last E Tank as to
get it means throwing yourself on that instant death pit of spikes.
Do you ever think you’re trying to like a game simply
because you went to so much effort to get it? Somehow by playing it for longer,
the endless search for it can be justified, as can the money you’ve spent. I
stopped enjoying ‘Mega Man and Bass’ after about four Robot Masters, yet I kept on
punishing myself until King’s fortress. Looking online reveals that these aren’t
even the last levels of the game, but I’m happy to never see beyond them as the
journey to the true end is not an enjoyable one nor is the narrative resolution
worth the effort.
As mentioned this game was never released on the Super
Nintendo outside of Japan, yet I am playing on an English language cart. This
is because I am playing on a Time Walk Games reproduction; a translated version
of the game that looks exactly like the game would have done were it for sale
in the US. Finding this game (still shrink wrapped) was not an easy task as
Time Walk Games no longer make Reproduction carts. I could not buy directly
from them but what I could do was buy from a fellow collector who had a spare
un-opened copy.
The excitement I felt
when I received this game was greater than I had ever experienced buying any
game from eBay. When it arrived it felt like being transported back 20 years,
back to a time of youth and childlike enthusiasm. I held it in my hands and just
gazed at it. I was momentarily mesmerised by a wash of nostalgia, not for the
game itself but for owning something brand new, that I had never played before.
I toyed with the idea of not undoing the shrink wrap, but that felt wrong
somehow. This game had been made by the wonderful team at Time Walk to be
played and enjoyed; it was just a shame that I could only do half of this. I
think in actual fact I got most pleasure from simply seeing the game for the
first time, complete with its meticulously designed instruction book, poster
and box.
I had obviously heard a great day about Time Walk (having
written about their closure for the Retro Collect website) but the words of
other’s did not do justice to just how good the reproductions they made
were. It’s probably for the best that
they are no longer trading. Having seen ‘Mega Man and Bass’ I would love to own
their entire catalogue of reproduction carts and I would imagine 90% of them
would be more enjoyable to play than this game.
I often joke with fellow collectors that I “enjoy a good box
more than the game” but it was without question true in this case. ‘Mega Man
and Bass’ is a game I am thrilled to own as it means I own every ‘Mega Man’
game on the 16bit Nintendo machine, but I doubt I will ever have the
masochistic urge to play it again!
If you wish to get the Japanese original; 'Rockman and Forte', check on Solaris Japan as often they have a game in stock cheaper than the final price it goes for on eBay. The also have a few gadget that removes any worry of getting charged extra at customs, so they're worth a look.
If you wish to get the Japanese original; 'Rockman and Forte', check on Solaris Japan as often they have a game in stock cheaper than the final price it goes for on eBay. The also have a few gadget that removes any worry of getting charged extra at customs, so they're worth a look.
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