Mega Man & Bass
The final three games of the classic (not X, not Battle Network, but just plain Mega Man) series were curious cases. While the previous six were released for the NES, as well as five alternate games on Game Boy, Mega Man 7 made the move to Super NES, and Mega Man 8 jumped all the way to Playstation. The next, and currently final, game in the series - Mega Man & Bass - returned to 16-bit, yet managed to take with it some tricks from the Playstation.
RockMan & Forte was released in Japan for the Super Famicom in its waning days, but never made it to Western shores until more recently, when it was ported to the Game Boy Advance. The games are essentially identical, aside from the fact that the GBA version automatically saves at checkpoints in case of battery problems, and the Super Famicom version is, quite obviously, only in Japanese. Also, as should be implied, the SNES has certain performance advantages (graphical resolution and sound quality) over the GBA.
As is the norm with most remotely-modern Mega Man games, MM&B begins with an introductory stage. Set in the Robot Museum, the player (as either Mega Man or Bass) comes upon a robotic disturbance of sorts, and discovers that the robot King is trying to steal robot plans in order to create the world's most powerful machines. King is bent on destroying humanity for the sake of the robots, even if he must get rid of Mega Man, Bass, and ProtoMan (repeatedly) in the process. Of course, King has eight robot master minions whom you must defeat after going through their respective stages, using their powers against successive enemies until finally gaining access to King's fortress and confronting the menace himself.
Mega Man & Bass is rightfully classified as part of the classic series, retaining the gameplay that has been shined and polished through it, but also adds Bass into the mix for a surprising amount of variety. In the beginning, the player chooses a character to play as - Mega Man or Bass - and plays through the game as that character, going through robot master stages and confronting the bosses at the end, as usual (rather than the old password standard, however, Mega Man & Bass has four saved game slots available). Mega Man can do all the things he's learned in his previous games - jump, shoot, charge a shot, slide, take a robot master's power, call his faithful robot dog Rush (among other robotic helpers), and collect bolts to purchase powerups from Auto. But Bass brings some interesting new moves to the party - he can't shoot while moving, but he can fire in seven directions while standing still or jumping; Bass can't charge his buster either, but he can shoot it very rapidly; he doesn't slide, but he dashes (can't move under obstacles, but goes faster); and he can double-jump, a rather neat trick. Bass can also take the robot masters' powers, and collect bolts to purchase upgrades (though some of his are different from Mega Man's). His own robot dog, Treble, can merge with Bass to become a powerful flying super-robot. But aside from their different abilities, Mega Man and Bass play identically, as they go through all the same stages (intro stage, eight robot masters, and a three-part final fortress), differing only slightly in the routes they must take at some points.
The graphics of Mega Man & Bass are quite impressive. You mightn't think that the Super NES would be capable of such smooth, eye-pleasing animation. Every character, enemy, projectile, environmental element, and background is drawn nicely and cleanly. The sound effects are great, and the music as per the Mega Man standard ranges from good to surprisingly addictive.
There are two key bits of replay in MM&B - playing through as both characters, and finding the data CDs scattered throughout the game. There are 100 of these CDs, and each one when viewed in the Database contains a picture and short details on a character from the Mega Man series. IceMan, Dr. Wily, Terra... it's hard to think of a character from the series that isn't here. Some of the CDs are near-impossible to get, but finding them all is quite an accomplishment and something else to do in the game.
Speaking of near-impossible, though, there is one important note to make - this game is frustrating at many points. Not necessarily because of challenging enemies or level design, but because of, for lack of a better term, the cheap factor. Oftentimes, enemies are placed in precisely the right location to get across a cheap shot, which will cause you to fall onto a spike trap, or drop into an endless abyss, or some such thing; basically, it can be a frustrating venture. The bosses range from simplistic to cheaply irritating themselves. Overall though, despite some moments when you might wish you never started playing, Mega Man & Bass is a solidly enjoyable game.
Progress: Complete