Rockman & Forte [Mega Man & Bass] (SFC) Retro Review

While I don't foresee us ending our time with the Blue Bomber until the next time MEGA MAY rolls around in 2027, we'll be taking a brief break from Capcom's super fighting robot for a little bit, at the very least.  

Let's wrap up MEGA MAY with a special review--an import-only game from the Super Famicom is our review subject: Rockman & Forte. Mega Man and Bass see themselves as a pair of playable characters in this super-late Super Famicom release, which would eventually make its way westward on the Game Boy Advance years later. Maybe we'll check out the GBA port another day! For now, here's the SPC review of Rockman & Forte!

Am I all about that Mega Man & Bass?

Originally, Rockman & Forte (translated to Mega Man & Bass) skipped the West entirely and only released in Japan. The game was a late life Super Famicom game, releasing in 1998, pretty much two years after the Nintendo 64 launched. Thus, Capcom saw no real reason to release it in the West. We wouldn't see the game on our shores until much later on the Game Boy Advance with a localized version of the game. Although the lack of screen real estate made an already extremely difficult game even harder.

Lovingly given the moniker "Mega Man 8.5" by fans due to it being a stopgap between the previously released Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 9 (also using a similar visual style, as well as including two Robot Masters from the former), Rockman & Forte puts players in control of either Mega Man or Bass. Each plays differently to the other, possessing advantages and disadvantages to each other as well.  

Familiar foes, gimmicks, and visuals alike appear in Mega Man 8.5--I mean, Rockman & Forte!

For instance, Mega Man can charge up his Mega Buster to unleash a charge shot, great for dealing more damage to enemies. Bass, however, has a machine gun-like spray of bullets that he fires. These are notably weaker, and cannot go through walls like Mega Man's Mega Buster's shots can. Though Bass can fire upwards and diagonally, something Mega Man's shots cannot do. 

Bass has already won, as he has the high ground.

Mobility-wise is where Mega Man and Bass differ on a significant level as well. Bass can double jump, which makes his campaign a little easier at least when getting around stages. Mega Man has a single jump, which means you really need to jump with precision and look before you leap. 

One reason it's best to play with carefulness and caution is because Rockman & Forte is not an easy entry in the series. Heck, Mega Man as a franchise is no cakewalk in general, being tough on its best days. However, Rockman & Forte takes the difficulty dial and cranks it all the way up to extreme levels. Deaths were quite common in my playthrough, whether that be from taking too much damage or more often than not, coming into contact with a bottomless pit or instant-death spikes. 

Even the opening stage, something that usually is pretty breezy in most Mega Man games containing them, almost feels like the designers expect you to be a seasoned Mega Man player. Enemies that can hit you into instant-death lava, spike traps, and let's not forget to mention the wind in the final section that blows against you as you make death-defying leaps over a bottomless pit as enemies fire at you. It's rather ridiculous for an opening stage and makes a daunting first impression.

The Green Devil feels like a nice respite after that killer of an introductory stage!

An aspect that makes Rockman & Forte so challenging is that you take great amounts of damage from enemies, and especially the Robot Master bosses. I was amazed by just how much enemies, their bullets, and attacks hit both Mega Man and Bass like trucks. Sometimes all it took was five or six hits from full health to end up being eliminated in battle. 

Fortunately, there are some ways to mitigate the punishment Rockman & Forte unleashes on its players. Auto's shop is home to various power-up parts and items like extra lives that can be purchased with bolts collected in stages. These parts range from one that doubles the amount of health recovery, one that lowers the amount of weapon energy used, one that halves damage, and one that allows you to exit previously cleared stages. Though, so many of these--especially the latter two--feel like they should be the default to begin with and available from the get-go instead of being required to buy them. Just more proof that Rockman & Forte is punishing to the player.

While Bass can't shoot through walls without a special part,
this enemy is a sitting duck for Mega Man as he pelts it from the safety of this ladder.

Furthermore, Rockman & Forte follows Mega Man 8's example by not having E-Tanks whatsoever, something that past Mega Man games aside from the very first NES original possessed. While Mega Man 8 was definitely manageable without E-Tanks, here it seems like an absolute joke (and an unfunny one at that) that they're not included. Again, it's way too easy to die in Rockman & Forte, between how much damage Mega Man and Bass take with default equipment and the numerous perils and hazards in stages.

After the surprisingly challenging opening stage is complete, the screen containing the eight Robot Masters becomes available. However, Rockman & Forte starts you off with only three to choose from. Conquering one of the stages unlocks up to three more stages that branch off from the Robot Master you beat. It's a clever arrangement and one I'm surprised no future Mega Man game incorporated. 

Defeating Bass? S'No, man, I don't think so.

The stages themselves are overall well designed. There's the underwater sunken ship of Pirate Man's, where later in the level you enter into various bubbles, controlling them as they float upwards as you avoid spiked mines and other obstacles that want to burst your bubble. There's Burner Man's jungle stage, where upon entering the indoor base, you encounter fake floors that can send you falling a level below if you're not observant enough. Then, there's Magic Man's stage, similar to Mega Man 8's Clown Man, full of toy trains that carry you across the tracks (and bottomless pits) to your destination. 

One of the really enjoyable and entertaining parts of Rockman & Forte is how you're encouraged to replay stages. Throughout levels are collectible discs scattered about, some out in the open, but most are hidden or require some prodigious platforming to collect. A lot require the special weapons earned from defeated Robot Masters, like pushing Cold Man's pillar of ice across a bed of spikes while using it as a makeshift sliding platform. Of course, some are also only accessible to Mega Man with his slide ability, while others are only available to collect by Bass with his double jump or ability to temporarily fly with Treble a la Rush Jet. Either way, collecting these was fun as they encouraged exploration, seeking out secret areas, and more importantly, each disc collected gets added to an in-game database housing information about various Mega Man characters and Robot Masters. There are 100 discs to discover in all, so this adds to Rockman & Forte's replay value.

Of course, your level of longevity with Rockman & Forte will last as long as your patience stays intact. This can be an overwhelmingly frustrating game with its extreme difficulty, and nothing speaks to that more than the final trio of stages once the initial eight Robot Masters are routed. 

Mega Man 8 Robot Masters Astro Man and Tengu Man return to exact their revenge in Rockman & Forte.

These stages take place in King's Palace. King is the primary villain of the game, on a crusade to "rescue" robots, including the eight Robot Masters he stole from the introductory robot museum stage to serve as his faithful subjects. Needless to say, these stages ramp up the difficulty to insane levels. The main reason for this is again, dying is way too easy. The second of three stages is practically three levels in one, and losing against the first battle with King results in getting kicked back all the way to the start of the section of stage and not directly before the battle, y'know, like pretty much every other Mega Man game in existence would handle it. 

Yes, checkpoints are few, and when you lose all your lives (do note how I didn't say "if"), you have to start all the way back from square one, the very first King's Palace level. It's a horrendous endurance run with some super tough, incredibly easy-to-die boss battles and plentiful instant death traps sprinkled throughout. 

Rockman & Forte might not welcome with its extreme level of difficulty, but it definitely does with its presentation, offering gorgeous sprite-work reminiscent, of course, of Mega Man 8. Character sprites and level environments are insanely detailed, looking absolutely incredible with rich, vivid, and varied colors. It's not a perfect package, as the frame-rate can certainly hitch when a lot of enemies and bullets appear on screen at once. This is most apparent when playing as Bass with his showering spray of bullets. Musically, Rockman & Forte features a superb soundtrack with memorable, sublime, and catchy songs that present themselves as real earworms. I absolutely enjoyed hearing the themes within the game.

For the longest time, Rockman & Forte was my white whale when it came to the Mega Man series. It was one entry that I simply could not beat--albeit that was with the Game Boy Advance port. Finally, yes, finally, I managed to roll credits with this Super Famicom original version. Now, whether that was worth the decades-long struggle is something I'll have to wrestle with for a while here, but overall, Rockman & Forte has the bones of a good game. It's sizable level of extreme difficulty will put off most players, and heck, even many tried and true fans of the Blue Bomber. There's a lot to like here, but then the game proceeds to punish you for playing it. Rockman & Forte is a game I entered wanting to love, and did actually love starting out, but then I ended up with only really tolerating it by the time I rolled credits.

[SPC Says: C]