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An awesome game - it's about time it was released here!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: May 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In 1998 in Japan, the ninth game in the "Classic NES" Mega Man series was released, Mega Man And Bass. Unfortunately, the game didn't get an American release until 2003 - five years later! It's a shame Capcom delayed this game so long. But at long last, American gamers have a chance to play the "lost" game in the series. Read on for my review of Mega Man And Bass.

PROS:
-THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME IS THAT YOU CAN PLAY EITHER MEGA MAN OR BASS! Mega Man plays just like his Mega Man VII counterpart, but Bass plays pretty different. He has automatic rapid-fire, but his shots can't go through walls and he can't move while shooting. Likewise, Bass can dash and double jump.
-THE ITEM REPLICATOR IS BACK, AND IT'S THE MEGA MAN VII VERSION! You can collect bolts and take them to a shop and use them to get new items. This feature is one of my favorite things about the series, and I'm glad to see it back!
-THE CD COLLECTION ASPECT IS A GREAT ADDITION. Hidden in the game are a hundred CDs. Hunting these down is kind of a "side quest" that makes the game all the more entertaining. Every one of them represents a character in the Mega Man universe.
-THE PLOT IS PRETTY GOOD. In this game, one of Dr. Wily's robots has a mental breakdown, and because of it Mega Man and Bass must join forces to stop him.
-THERE ARE FOUR SAVE FILES. This is convenient, because you can have at least one save file as Mega Man, and at least one as Bass.

CONS:
-TRANSFERRING THE GAME TO THE GAME BOY MEANS SACRIFICING ROOM TO MOVE AROUND ON THE SCREEN, AND SOUND QUALITY. Because of the lack of visibility, you'll find yourself dying from spikes more often than you'd like to. Likewise, the audio takes a major hit in quality.
-THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION SEEMS RUSHED. While playing the game, you'll come to realize that whoever translated this game didn't do all that good of a job.
-THE DIFFICULTY LEVEL IS EXTREMELY HIGH. King's Fortress is a nightmare zone - especially Zone Two. Don't expect to beat this game unless you're a game master.
-THE TITLE IS HORRIBLY MISLEADING. Why didn't Capcom just call this game Mega Man 9? That would have made more sense.
-THE GAME USES MEGA MAN VII'S WEAPON ENERGY SYSTEM, NOT MEGA MAN 8's. In Mega Man 8 your special weapons refilled every time you died, and there was a number assigned to how many times you could use the weapon. Not so here.
-YOU CAN'T PLAY AS PROTO MAN. What does Capcom have against the poor guy? His role here is limted, and mostly consists of him getting injured.
-THE CHARACTERS ARE OUT OF PROPORTION WITH ONE ANOTHER. If you don't believe me, look at the characters when they're next to each other - the poor proportioning may surprise you!

OVERALL:
You may find this hard to believe, but this is my personal favorite entry in the Mega Man series. It's just a shame the game didn't get a North American Super Nintendo release, because the Game Boy's small screen hurts the game somewhat. Still, I'm not complaining. This is an excellent port of the game, and I recommend it to any Mega Man fan.

Mega Man and Bass- great game but not perfect

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: April 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Okay, to start off Mega man and Bass is a great game. Interesting fact: this game was one of the last (possibly the last) game made for Super Famicom, which is the Japanese Super Nintendo. You play as either Mega Man (a classic game character) or Bass, his somewhat evil rival. Mega Man has all his trademark moves: jumping, sliding, Buster shots (charged and normal) and boss weapons which are obtained by beating bosses, of course! Bass has a double jump, dash (like in the Mega Man X series) and his Bass Buster only shoots rapid fire, but he can shoot in all directions (even diagonals) except down. Also, Bass cannot fire while moving and canot shoot through walls (like Mega Man) without a power-up. Power-ups are purchased from Auto (called Lightott in the manual, either the manual is totally screwed up or they changed his name.) Some examples are the spike helmet and the Energy Balancer. To buy items, you need screws, which you can get from destroying small robots throughout the levels. There are eight robot masters, two are from Mega Man 8, they are Tengu Man and Astro Man. To get to each boss, you must play through their level and finally fight and defeat them. Each boss is weak against another boss's weapon you can obtain, for example The Wave Burner is Pirate Man's weakness. The coolest bonus to this game is the 100 CDs. They are buried in the ground and can be in hard-to-reach places. It is fun to collect them all and read data about your favorite Mega Man characters. If you like platform games or Mega Man in general, this is a must-buy for you. The only downside to this game is that there are no Energy Tanks so beating the bosses is somewhat harder. Mega Man and Bass has tight play control and a pretty good story line, except for the fact that Proto Man gets chopped up in the 1st level, I mean, he deserves to be a playable character, for cryin' out loud! This game has given me hours of fun, and if you buy it you will enjoy it too.

Pleasing, but it shows Capcom is lazy.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The story this time around is that a robot named King has taken over Wily's fort and has 8 robot masters attacking the world. You can play as either Mega man or Bass. Here are the pros and cons

Mega man- His weapon is more powerful than that of Bass and has the option of charging to triple times the power.
Jumping is ok and it gets you around. He can slide, which gives you the ability to go under small areas or evade an attack.
His power-ups are just right if not useless. The two most useful powerups are the high speed charge and the auto charge. Forget everything else.

Bass- Three shots from his buster is equal to about one uncharged shot from Mega man. It is weak. You cannot move and fire at the same time, but while standing you can also fire above your head or into the right or left hand corners.
Bass can double jump, which makes things easier. He cannot slide, but dash. It is only used for evading. It is useless!!!! It states you have to tap the D-pad twice in one direction to get him to dash, but I see no results after 20 and after absorbing every attack around me trying to do so.
His power-ups are great. You can make your shots go through walls. Double your bullets power without charging. And even fuse with your dog. YOUR DOG!

In the game, you choose a boss and go through their stage and at the end, kill them. Upon defeat, they give you their special weapon and give you the ability to use it. The power levels on special abilties are equal between Mega man and Bass.
TIP: Each boss has a weakness. A certain special weapon. The good thing now is that you can tell when it is the right one. The boss will physically react by such moves such as stopping in mid-air or splitting in half.

As a side quest, you can collect cds which contain info on robots from Mega man's past. The problem is you may never get them all. Some are just immpossible to actually touch without dying. It is quite interesting though.

As the title suggests, Capcom is getting lazy.
1. This Mega man game is not innovative to the other 8 exactly like it.
2. They recycled two bosses from Mega man 8, Astro man and Tengu man. That is beyond lazy.

You may need help. If you are a newb, you will die hundreds of times. Mega man is HARD! Just stick with it.

I recommend it.

The original Blue Bomber (and his rival) hit the GBA at last

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rockman and Forte aka Megaman and Bass has been on the japanesse Super Nintendo since 1998. In august 2002 the game was remade for the GBA (I bought the import version since I had no idea it would ever hit american shores) Now to the niddy gritty...

Story: After MM8 the world was at peace again. Until a mysterious and powerful robot named King came along. King wants to start a robot rebellion, destroying all humans. So King trashed Dr. Light's lab and a robot museum he then steals 8 robot blueprints from Wily's lab. Megaman, enraged by King's actions goes to the museum to confront him. Wily sends Bass to find out what King is up to and get the robot designs back. When either robot battles his way through the museum he sees King talking to Blues/Protoman. Protoman attacks King but the mighty robot cuts Protoman in half with his axe. (Protoman after noticing Megaman or Bass is there teleports to Lights lab) King then notices Rockman/Megaman or Forte/Bass thinks very little of him and sics the Gren Devil on him. After the Green Devil is defeated both robots know what to do: As Megaman stop King! As Bass defeat King stopping him from taking your chances of becoming the strongest Robot in the world! (of course Bass has to beat Megaman before truely claiming this title like that'll ever happen...)

Gameplay-5
Ok for all you kiddies out there who don't know this is the first Megaman he started his spin-offs the darker more forboding MMX, The digimonish alternate version of his series Battle Network, the obnoxious Megaman Zero and the god awful Megaman Legends. All the original Blue Bomber has is jump, shoot, slide and of course charging his buster for a more pwerful blast. Dr. Wily's bot (and Megaman's rival) Bass {play MM8} has multiple shooting range, double jump, and dash and Bass' dog Treble can fuse with him giving Forte I mean Bass the ablity to fly. Obviously Bass is easier to play as than Rockman/Megaman has it harder but it's more fun that way.

Music-5
Best Music for the original series. Best music: Boss Battle and Tenguman's stage

Graphics-5
Surprisingly this was the graphics on the SNES but it looks like the playstations MM8 game. Very vivid colors. But on an Original GBA you need to find a good light source. But with the SP coming out you'll see how beautiful this game looks.

Replay-4.5
You can collect 100 CD's which King scattered to complete the Megaman Series data base (it gives you a nostolgic feeling seeing all the characters/robot masters/Megaman killer robots in all ORIGINAL MM games (It's cool to see EXE made them look so much cooler.)

Overall: Get this game it's worth the buy.

Far too difficult and frustrating to be fun...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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 Missing Link

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Megaman and Bass, originally released in 1998 (after Mega Man VII to correct the reviewer below, so this is NOT the japanese Mega Man VII, it really is the ninth one in the classic Mega Man series) never made it to the states. The speculation is because in 1998, the Super Nintendo was no longer as popular in the United States and the world belonged to the Sony Playstation instead. It was availible on emulators and one could import, but aside from that, the game didn't see an official release in the states until 2003 when it came as Megaman and Bass (Rockman and Forte in Japan).

One of Dr. Wily's robots has gone insane and Wily has somehow lost control of him. Now it's up to Megaman and Bass to stop him. The two now find themselves working together.

If you've played Mega Man VII (or even Mega Man 8 on the playstation) then the gameplay is virtually unchanged. The difference being you can choose to play as Mega Man or Bass. Mega Man, I'm sure most everyone knows about. Bass controls differently. He's got a burst fire weapon instead of the standard buster that Mega Man has. He can't run while shooting, but he can aim diagnal and fire upwards. He can also double jump and he can dash (the dash looks like it does in the Mega Man X series). The two differ so much that the game is a completely different experience depending on who you play it as.

Upon completing the game start level, the game quickly uses the Mega Man formula. You'll be able to choose which bosses you want to go defeat. The only difference really is that you can only choose between three at first, and once you defeat one of them, pathways to new bosses open up. There's also a shop. When you defeat enemies, they might drop bolts. You can use bolts to buy Mega Man and Bass special abilities.

This game, however, is not an easy game. Even Mega Man veterans will have some trouble with this game. Some of these levels are killer. Even worse, when porting this game to the Gameboy Advance, they didn't bring things down to scale. Many areas are compressed, and don't fit in the screen right. This leads to several deaths which could be avoided otherwise had things been brought to scale. This alone makes the game much harder than it actually has to be.

Also, the sound quality just isn't all that great. This I'm also guessing suffers from being ported to the GBA. I listened to the SNES original soundtrack not too long ago, and it sounds drastically different from this. They are the same, but coming from the GBA's speakers, it just doesn't sound nearly as good. In short, the soundtrack just doesn't sound great.

Overall it's a good game, but if you can find a translation of Rockman and Forte on an SNES emulator, I say go for it. It'll look better and it'll sound better. Megaman and Bass is not by any means a bad game, just one that didn't get ported over as well as it could've. An already hard game is now harder on a handheld.

Mega Man & Bass!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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

Original Japanese version of SNES's Mega Man 7

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For all you gamers who are too young to remember the original Nintendo, or maybe even Super Nintendo systems - the days when the Mega Man franchise was still great - I feel compelled to set the record straight.

First of all, this wasn't the "ninth" game in the series, but actually the seventh. The Japanese games went by the name Rockman (Megaman's true name before being "Americanized"), and in Japan they gave their sequels subtitles instead of just slapping Roman numerals on the name like in the U.S.A. If you ever find an old Super Nintendo system and a copy of Mega Man 7 at a garage sale and play it, you will see that all of the same bosses from "Mega Man and Bass" appear in the game. The only differences are the boss names and the configuration of the order in which the levels are played.

Therefore, this game was never "lost", isn't really "new", and is really the seventh installment in the original Mega Man (or Rockman) story line. Mega Man 8, the last game in the original Mega Man versus Dr. Wily story-line (to date, anyway) came out much later on Sony Playstation (or PSOne as it's called now).

Rest assured that no "Lost" game or "Mega Man 9" has ever existed. Hopefully, maybe though, Capcom will come back to their senses and return to the series that made Mega Man what it used to be. All of these new incarnations and spin-offs (Battle Network? Zero? Command Mission - what the heck is this crap) are ruining the franchise, regardless of what gamers who are new to the series may think. They have most likely never played a real Mega Man game, and think that these Zeros and BattleNetworks are awesome because that's all they've ever known.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for that elusive Mega Man 9 to come along one day - the new Nintendo DS or PSP systems would be great platforms for Mega Man 9 if you are seeing this Capcom
Until then, if you want a GBA Mega Man game that's actually good and worth playing, get this one. Mega Man 7 - errr... Mega Man & Bass.

EXCELLENT GAME BUT IT'S TOUGH...IT'S STILL COOL!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: April 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS GREAT.. REGARDLESS OF WHAT EVERYONE BEFORE ME SAID.
YES THE GAME IS TOUGH...BUT IF U FIND THE RIGHT BOSS WEAPON TO
KILL THE OTHER BOSSES THEN THE BOSSES ARE EASY... YES YOU WILL DIE ALOT.. BUT THAT MEANS THAT ONCE YOU PASS A LEVEL YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING..

SO IF YOU WANT A CHALLENGE THEN GET THIS GAME.. IT'S FUN AND THE GRAPHICS AND MUSIC ARE GOOD TOO... THE CONTROL IS EASY TOO... NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE..IF YOU HAVE SOME PATIENCE THEN YOU WILL DO GOOD IN THIS GAME..OKAY GO GET IT.. IT'S JUST AS GOOD AS THE OTHER MEGA MAN'S TOO... OKAY HAVE FUN..!!

Very Difficult but Very Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is a fun game for me, but it is also a terrible and frustrating game to others. It just depends. If you have played others in the series, then you will like it. If you are new to the Mega Man games, then you have to ask yourself: Am I a person that will laugh or say "oh well" when I die many times on the same boss?
Or will i scream and throw a humongous raving fit....... and my GBA?
This is because this is a very hard game. You die instantly if you hit spikes and you dont get health increases. You can choose from two playable charracters (Megaman or Bass) and each has special attributes. Megaman tends to be easier on Bosses while Bass has an easier time on the levels. All in all, a GREAT game if you don't get frusterated very easily.

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