 Ssssssssssssss. One of the more fascinating entries in the The Super Nintendo Slash추 Lacan library is Rachman and Forute otherwise known as Mega Man & Bass, released in 1998 although it didn't come over to North America until it was ported to Game Boy Advance in 2002. So, wait a second. Who's this bass guy? Where'd he come from? Is this game part of the normal Mega Man series? Well, apparently, it's considered a quote unquote, second version of Mega Man VIII since it uses a lot of that game's assets, including three of the bosses, Astro Man, Tengu Man, and the Green Devil. The story takes place about a year after Mega Man 8, but before Mega Man 9, so it's kinda sorta like Mega Man 8.5. The thing is, though, while this game uses the same art style of Mega Man 8, it's got the same viewing perspective of Mega Man 7, so in other words, it's a bit more zoomed in with a little bit less screen real estate. Now, you might recognize base, he was introduced in Mega Man 7 along with his trusty wolf treble. He's Dr. Wily's version of Mega Man, so to speak, only he's uh, sometimes evil, and sometimes not. He's supposed to be Mega Man's ultimate rival, but occasionally they do team up to fight a common enemy, hence this game, where you have to take down a new robot villain named King. You even get a scene where Proto Man shows up to try and stop him, but he gets sliced in half for his trouble. Man, I hate when that happens. You get three lives with unlimited continues to get through a series of levels, but the typical Mega Man structure is mixed up a bit here. After completing the opening stage, you gain access to three of the eight total robot master levels, Cold Man, Astro Man, and Ground Man, and what becomes unlocked next depends on which of those three you defeat. Once you defeat one of the second tier robot masters, that opens up what's called a Crystal Gate, where you use robot master weapons to unlock the final part of the game. Mega Man and base are both playable characters with different skill sets. Mega Man has a charged shot and a slide, and he eventually gains access to some rush abilities that you buy in a shop, and that's about it. Base, meanwhile, can shoot in every direction except down, he can rapid fire if you hold down the Y button, he can dash, dash jump, and double jump, and he eventually gains access to some treble abilities. Gee, I wonder which character I should pick. Now here's the funny part about this game. According to Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, he wanted to make a Mega Man game intended for younger players who didn't have access to 32-bit systems yet, hence why this game was created for Super Famicom of all things, all the way in 1998. Well if that's the case, then why the heck is this game so freaking brutally difficult? Seriously, if the goal was to make a game for younger players, then they missed the mark by about 9,000 miles, because holy crap this game is hard. Just to give you one example of how this game is set up, your boss weapon energy does not automatically refill when you use a continue. What is that? What makes it even harder is that if you make the mistake of playing as Mega Man, he can't double jump and he doesn't have access to a lot of rush's abilities until later, which you kind of need to make any sort of progress in this game, but ultimately let's face it. It doesn't matter who you pick, this game is so freaking difficult. You gotta hop on balloons without hitting these insta-death spikes, you got crap coming out of the ground, out of the ceiling, you got flying enemies coming in from offscreen in a moment's notice, you got this insanely overpowered fire attack coming at you, what the hell is that? You got enemies that just appear, I guess? I mean seriously, did they skip some animation frames here or something? Like I said, playing as base does definitely help since he can double jump, but the sheer amount of nonsense you gotta deal with, especially all the insta-death spikes. The boss fights aren't much fun either, Dynamo Man freaking heals himself during battle. I mean come on, that's like a final boss style move, you're just freaking Dynamo Man, who the hell are you? You shouldn't be able to do that, this is like if you're playing Griffey baseball and someone like Greg Gagney has a 10 for power. Burnerman in particular apparently went to the Crash Man School for annoying jerks, he's like 10 times faster than you are and a massive pain in the ass to fight. Oh and let's not forget the fact that you finish the game with 4 massive boss fights filled to the brim with insta-deaths everywhere that you're expected to finish with just 3 lives. I will say I did enjoy using the boss weapons, so at least this game has that going for it, I mean if nothing else, using playing cards as a weapon makes you feel like gambit, so that's pretty cool. Now I think what the developers were hoping would mitigate some of the difficulty here is through this store where you can buy upgrades, you collect bolts for currency so you can get yourself energy tanks, weapon energy tanks, a quick charge shot, a faster dash, even stuff like auto recover which slowly replenishes your health meter. But what the heck good is that when this game is nothing but insta-deaths? And hey, you can also pick up CDs on the ground that tell you stuff about Mega Man stuff, so yeah, that's, you know, kinda cool I guess. If you think you'll find any respite playing the localized version of this game, Mega Man and base for Game Boy Advance, you are sorely mistaken. Your character sprites are way way too huge for the screen, the camera is zoomed way too far inward, and you can't see a freaking thing. That's a recipe for disaster when you're dealing with nothing but insta-death traps. Here's the thing though, you can perceive this as a negative review and yeah it kinda is, but it's only negative when compared to other Mega Man games. Mega Man has practically become its own genre over the years to the point that it's a fool's errand to compare Mega Man to other action platformers. I mean, for example, Rockman and Forte looks amazing, the sound design is great, the music is, well it's not as fun as Mega Man 7, but it's still got some great tracks, and the controls and hit detection are all still great and spot on. It's all the stuff that people have come to take for granted when it comes to Mega Man, but the thing is, what separates a great Mega Man game from a blah Mega Man game is all the other stuff, like Mega Man 3 or 9 or X or X2, those games feature some awesome level design, some fun secrets to uncover, some really fun boss fights and boss weapons, and challenge that comes about organically through clever arrangements, enemies, and bosses. Unfortunately, Rockman and Forte just doesn't have that, does that make it a bad game? No, it just makes it a really disappointing one by Mega Man standards, but I don't think it's completely irredeemable. I mean, if you approach this one like you would a game like, say, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, where you just die a thousand times until you memorize all the traps and patterns, and if you're into that sort of thing, then yeah, this game would be worth checking out, but that's not what makes the Mega Man series fun, that's what's disappointing. So is Rockman and Forte better than the average action platformer? Yeah, definitely, I mean, I'm playing this over stuff like, you know, Robocop vs Terminator, Arrow the Acrobat, Spawn, hell, maybe even the Super Star Wars games, but am I playing it over Mega Man X or Mega Man 3? Nope, no chance. I guess I'd slot it alongside Mega Man X3. Yeah, they're disappointments, but they still have plenty of positives that will put them above many other games. Just make sure to adjust your expectations accordingly. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.