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Mega Man & Bass Game Review

Mega Man & Bass is a 1998 platform game developed by Capcom for the SNES. It was the spin-off entry in the mainline Mega Man series.

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“Bass, why must I fight you?

We’re not enemies!“

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This was the ninth main Mega Man game that basically functions as Mega Man 7.5. It is usually thought that the seventh entry is the only SNES game, but this spin-off was also released on that aging platform by 1998. Though there was a remake on the GBA, I played the original version myself. It got pretty good reviews, but for me it is by far the weakest entry in the main series due to a multitude of reasons.

The foremost reason has to be its brutal difficulty. Now, all of the games in this franchise are immensely demanding, that goes without saying. But the issue here is that the difficulty isn’t justified. It isn’t rewarding to beat the bosses because the game requires of you to lose multiple times and still perhaps cheat or use some outside help. Why would you do that? Well, that’s because not only is the enemy placement so unfair, but the bosses move very irregularly, making most of these fights depend on your luck instead of skills, which was super frustrating.

It was also not a great choice by the developers to make Bass so much stronger than Mega Man. This choice was ridiculous. I played with Mega Man foolishly so and it was so damn hard. With Bass, you can shoot in multiple directions and you even have a double jump. The game is basically made to be played with him, so the inclusion of Mega Man himself felt redundant.

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Thankfully, the gameplay mechanics remained the same. The stage structure is different, but this still doesn’t change the core mechanic of eight bosses and the final Wily Castle composed of the repeated bosses and the last string of bosses, all incredibly hard to beat. The addition of the CDs as trivia was interesting, adding to some much needed replayability here. Everything also was pretty much the same here.

The stages aren’t particularly memorable. They are beautifully designed and quite colorful, but the terrible enemy placement at times made it overly difficult and unfair to play. Finishing certain levels unscathed was almost impossible, though the frequent health power-ups at least helped matters to a degree. Cold Man and Magic Man’s stages were the most pleasant in visuals and level design.

As for the bosses, most are incredibly hard. Cold Man is among the best bosses. He is rather difficult, but not unbearably so. You just take care of the cloud as quickly as it appears and you are good to go here. It’s a very well constructed boss fight. But Astro Man I absolutely hated. His movement pattern is too difficult to predict and the screen gets cluttered with his attacks, making the fight incredibly hard to get through.

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Dynamo Man is not too demanding, but the lightning attacks are too random, again exemplifying this game’s issue of randomization and unfairness. Burner Man can be hard with the regular booster, but with the right weapon he’s manageable. Pirate Man is forgettable. His bubble attack is the trickiest one. Tengu Man is almost impossible with the regular booster, but with the Spread Drill he is pretty easy to beat. Ground Man’s difficulty is just right. He is well designed and his attacks are not too annoying. Magic Man is frustrating, but with the special weapon he is doable.

As for the other bosses, Green Devil is interesting and unique, but too silly overall. Wily’s Castle is expectedly incredibly hard. I despised the Atetemino Proto. This type of boss was usually a highlight in the previous installments, but here he was beyond unfair and this is coming from a guy who is into hard platformers. The boss coming at you from the top and the down of the screen is bad enough, but that pulleyed platform was an atrocious idea that just did not work. It made this fight almost impossible to beat.

King Tank is actually well designed. It’s versatile, very fun to play and the difficulty is just right. King Plane is not great. It is a moving platform level and those are always frustrating. King has two phases. The first one is doable, but the second one can be very difficult. Overall, it’s a solid boss. Jet King Robo is typical and it’s crucial to beat him with the most energy possible to be ready for the last boss. Wily Machine has some problematic attacks, but with a lot of persistence, it is a manageable fight. Wily Capsule, on the other hand, is expectedly extremely difficult. Using the extra health at the right times during the fight is the way to go.

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The game runs pretty much like ‘Mega Man 7’, but it is inferior to that game due to the aforementioned difficulty. But the plot is pretty good and the Bass character was wonderfully used here. A lot of praise should be directed toward the graphics as well. Not only are the character designs expectedly strong, but the overall game looks polished and very pleasing to the eye. The score is reliably excellent and the game’s runtime is just right. I just wish that the level design was better and more forgiving.