Collection essentials #221: Rockman & Forte / Mega Man & Bass (SNES)

This is a rather peculiar game. After the several Mega Man games I covered this past week were released, Capcom made the next mainline Mega Man game for the next generation of consoles, complete with updated (but still 2D) graphics. You’d figure that the Blue Bomber would be leaving behind the previous generation by then, as almost literally every other franchise was. Instead, Capcom decided to make this game for those who had not yet upgraded to the latest hardware. It’s technically a spinoff game, but basically plays like another full-fledged entry in the main series. And it also uses the graphics from the aforementioned next-generation Mega Man game that had already come out, and recreates them stunningly well on the old hardware. The game never released outside Japan, as support for old consoles back then typically died off much quicker in other countries, and almost literally nothing was released for SNES outside Japan by 1998. (There was a port on a future Game Boy system that saw an international release, but that’s an inferior version of the game)

Mega Man & Bass has its title because Bass, an antagonist from Mega Man 7, is a playable character in this game. Upon starting a new game, you get to choose between the two, and the story varies a little depending on who you pick. And their abilities are quite different, too. Mega Man plays like you’d expect, but Bass plays more like Mega Man X, and additionally has the ability to shoot his basic shot in eight different directions as opposed to the usual left and right only. The tradeoff is that Bass’s firepower is weaker than Mega Man’s. There are optional collectible items scattered throughout the game and some of them need to be obtained with a specific character. 

There are some things to be criticized with Mega Man & Bass. I felt like the game was really designed around Bass’s abilities, and playing as Mega Man felt like a real uphill climb. The game in general can get a little hard in a way that’s frustrating. Two of the robot masters are recycled from the previous Mega Man game, so there are some points lost for lack of originality there. 

It’s tough to say where I’d rank Mega Man & Bass in the series. I feel like I’d have to play through all the Mega Man games again if I were to rank them properly. It certainly frustrated me at times, but overall my memories of playing it are fond. I also could have put more time into this one, as I only played all the way through the game as Bass and didn’t bother trying to collect everything. But I certainly may at some point, and I consider this cool late-lifespan Super Famicom game as an essential.