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Mega Man & Bass
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Game Design Hayato Tsuru Manabu Takemura Producer Keiji Inafune
Composer(s)	Kirikiri-chan Naoshi Mizuta Akari Kaida
Platform(s)	Super Famicom, Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	Super Nintendo Entertainment System JP April 24, 1998 Game Boy Advance JP August 10, 2002 NA March 10, 2003 EU March 21, 2003 AUS March 21, 2003
Genre(s)	Action / Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E [1] CERO: A PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G
Media	32-megabit cartridge

Mega Man & Bass, known in Japan as Rockman & Forte (ロックマン&フォルテ, Rokkuman ando Forute^?), is a game in the original Mega Man series.

The original Super Famicom version of Rockman & Forte was released exclusively in Japan in 1998 and was one of the final third party titles for the console. During development, the game was labeled "ROCK8.5" [1]. It was released later for the Game Boy Advance, the only version of the game to be released overseas.

Story

In the year 20XX, after a year of peace since the emergence of the "Evil Energy" on Earth and its use by Dr. Wily to build powerful robots to take over the world, a new villain arrives who goes by the name of "King." King breaks into Dr. Wily's lab and then the Robot Museum to collect the the data blueprints for the creations of Dr. Light.

Dr. Light tells Mega Man that he must go at once to the Robot Museum and put a stop to King's plans. However, Proto Man is the first to arrive at the scene. King divulges his plan to him; he desires to create a utopia in which robots will rule the world. To accomplish this, King seeks to create an invincible "Mechanoid" army using the data and invites Proto Man to join him. Proto Man refuses and attempts to attack, but King counters and slices his body in half. Proto Man then teleports back to the lab for repairs. King escapes with the data.

Meanwhile, Bass, Dr. Wily's most powerful creation, is upset at King proclaiming himself to be the most powerful robot in the world. Bass decides to prove that he is the strongest of them all by defeating King.

Thus Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass all set out to find and defeat King, but only one will succeed...

Gameplay

The gameplay is mostly identical to earlier games in the series, except that the player can choose to start the game as either Mega Man or Bass. The chosen character is used by the player for the rest of the game and cannot be changed. Like Mega Man 8, saved games are used.

Like in previous games, Mega Man's abilities are the charged shot and being able to slide. Bass is able to fire his arm cannon at all 45-degree angles except straight down, but cannot shoot while moving. His arm cannon fires very rapidly, and cannot pass through walls unless a certain upgrade is obtained. Bass is also able to double-jump (jump a second time in mid-air), and dash along the ground, which lets him cross great distances by doing a dash-jump. Thus, Bass is more suited for the levels, while Mega Man is better for boss battles due to his charged shot (the bosses turn invincible for a brief period after being hit, making Bass's rapid-fire useless). Mega Man and Bass get the same weapons upon defeating Robot Masters.

The stage structure is different from other games in the series. After the introduction level, the player can only choose between Cold Man, Astro Man and Ground Man. Defeating Cold Man unlocks Burner Man and Pirate Man; defeating Astro Man unlocks Dynamo Man; and defeating Ground Man unlocks Magic Man and Tengu Man. Defeating all eight bosses opens the way to King's Fortress.

CDs

Distributed throughout the introduction and Robot Master levels are a collection of data CDs, which contain info on many prominent characters in the series, including the Mega Man Killers from the Game Boy games, the Stardroids from Mega Man V and the three Robot Masters from Mega Man: The Wily Wars' Wily Tower portion known as the Genesis Unit ("Mega World Corps" in Japan). Collecting them all does not unlock anything. Most of the CDs are hidden, either behind obstacles that need to be destroyed with a special weapon, or accessed with a certain ability. It's impossible to collect them all on a single playthrough, as some require Mega Man's special abilities to reach, while others require Bass's special abilities. CDs collected in each playthrough are permanently collected, and remain unlocked after beating the game.

The English release of the Game Boy Advance game was plagued with a good deal of nonsensical words and phrases in the CD Database.

Bolts

In a similar fashion to Mega Man IV (Game Boy), Mega Man V (Game Boy), Mega Man 7, and Mega Man 9, enemies often drop bolts after they are destroyed (as opposed to Mega Man 8, where the bolts are limited), and these can be exchanged for various items and upgrades. Some items and upgrades differ for each character. For instance, Mega Man uses Rush for searching items, while Bass can merge with Treble in order to fly.

Similarities to Mega Man 8

Many graphical assets and other elements created for Mega Man 8 were re-used in Mega Man & Bass, more so than the standard similarities between consecutive Mega Man games.

• Animation on common sprites such as Mega Man himself and the Metools is recycled from Mega Man 8. It is much more fluid and cartoonish than in the previous Super Famicom game in the series, Mega Man 7.
• The recurring humanoid enemies called Gorislys that throw various round projectiles appear in both games.
• Robot Masters Astro Man and Tengu Man are re-used, along with some enemies from their Mega Man 8 stages, though the stages themselves are very different.
• Ground Man's stage uses elements from Sword Man's stage such as the Inca-style stone totems and the moving spiked poles.
• Cold Man's stage makes use of the igloo-like bricked ice blocks and the machines that make and eject them, first seen in Frost Man's stage.
• Magic Man's stage is very similar to Clown Man's stage. It retains among other elements the locomotives, the small toy soldiers (in the foreground as enemies and in the background striking bells) and the large bouncing cat-faced drum.
• Pirate Man's stage is water-based and similar to Aqua Man's. The floating nautilus robots appear in both stages.
• Dynamo Man's stage uses color-coded destructible blocks like those in Grenade Man's stage. The stages themselves are similar in color and style.
• The forest setting of Burner Man's stage is similar to that of Search Man's.
• Dr. Wily uses the same vehicle in both games: a skull-ship with a death ray in its mouth and a bouncing buzzsaw.

Game Boy Advance port

Released in 2002 in Japan, and in 2003 in North America, Europe, and Australia, Mega Man & Bass for the Game Boy Advance was the game's North American and European debut. This version is almost completely identical to the original Super Famicom version, though certain instruments of the soundtrack have been toned down due to the fact that the Game Boy Advance uses a combination of software sound and the four sound channels carried over from the original Game Boy which when not used correctly, provide fairly weak sound quality.

The game is largely unchanged from the Super Famicom version besides the story to accurately depict it to follow Mega Man 8, an auto-save feature and some bug fixes: occasional sprite flickering and music corruption due to too many sound effects being played at once have been corrected. Additionally, due to the lower resolution of the GBA's screen, players were forced to view the game from a zoomed-in perspective and as a result were unable to see many pitfalls that were visible in the SFC version (such as spikes in Tengu Man's stage).

References

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

Mega Man & Bass
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	SNES  April 24, 1998 Game Boy Advance  August 10, 2002  March 10, 2003  March 21, 2003  March 21, 2003
Genre(s)	Platform
System(s)	SNES, Game Boy Advance
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Preceded by	Mega Man 8
Followed by	Mega Man 9
Series	Mega Man

Mega Man & Bass (ロックマン&フォルテ, Rokkuman to Forute ^?, Rockman & Forte) is a game in the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom. The third game you can play as Bass, uses graphics from the previous game, and takes place between Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 9. It was released in Japan for the Super Famicom in 1998, being one of the last third-party games for the console. Approximately 4-5 years later, it was re-released for the Game Boy Advance. During development, it was known as "ROCK8.5".

Artwork

Super Famicom box art.

Game Boy Advance (Japanese version)

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