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] 

Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP) Retro Review (2026)

It's time for something a little extra special as we approach the end of MEGA MAY.

While Mega Man: Powered Up is a remake of the very first Mega Man game, this review is essentially a remake of the very first review I ever wrote. This was before SuperPhillip Central even came to be back in June 2008! And while I only published my original Mega Man: Powered Up review on SPC in 2009, the review itself is indeed older than the site, debuting around 2006 or so! 

Here's the old review as posted on SPC in all its "glory" (for lack of a better term)! We all have to start somewhere, and I'd like to think I've become a better writer and moreover a reviewer since then.

That all notwithstanding, I wanted to revisit one of my favorite Mega Man games, and in turn, that found me revisiting my reviewing past. All the same, here's my 2026 review of Mega Man: Powered Up!

Powered Up, and ready to Rock.

It was at one time where in every direction you looked, boom! There was a Mega Man game in sight. We didn't know how good we had it, really, as nowadays, Mega Man releases are limited to the sporadic retro collections and the even rarer brand-new release. One Mega Man game that hasn't been included in such a retro collection is one that definitely has fallen through the cracks over the years: Mega Man: Powered Up, a PlayStation Portable release.

Mega Man: Powered Up is a remake and somewhat of a re-imagining of the original Mega Man. The most apparent difference is the chibi aesthetic applied to the game, but there is a lot more added to this spirited remake. In fact, there is SO much more to it.

Right away, upon starting the game and a save file, you get the choice between three difficulties: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Easy provides additional makeshift platforms to allow the more challenging jumps in the game to be less stressful and difficult. Normal is the default difficulty, of course, and how someone who isn't a beginner with the Blue Bomber should enter the game. Finally, Hard Mode adds to an already challenging game by boosting the damage Mega Man takes from enemies and hazards. 

See how a boy became a Mega Man in Powered Up's brand-new opening stage.

Mega Man: Powered Up introduces an opening stage, not present in the OG Mega Man game. This is a glorified tutorial, sure, but it also shows how a boy named Mega became a super-fighting robot named Mega Man. It also shows the comically evil Dr. Wily stealing all of Dr. Light's robots to be commanded under the balding villain. 

Levels feel more compact due to the PSP, but they're just as enjoyable.

From there, the traditional Mega Man way reveals itself. That is, you select between one of eight Robot Master stages to begin with. Each stage houses its own theming, locale, challenges, hazards, enemies, and of course, at the end of a given stage, the Robot Master you must do battle with in a boss fight. Due to the wider real estate of the PSP screen, as well as the larger character models incorporated into Powered Up versus the NES original, stages are more compact and scrunched in appearance. They're still designed similarly across both games, but visually they're a little different due to the above reason.

Special effects like these cute explosions add to Powered Up's chibi-style charm.

The original Mega Man only included six Robot Masters before the standard eight would be featured in future installments. Mega Man: Powered Up adds two brand-new Robot Masters into the fray: Time Man and Oil Man, each with their own stages. Whereas Time Man's stage takes place in a clock tower with electric pendulums to avoid, as well as the possibility to frustratingly fall to a previous level of the stage, Oil Man's stage occurs in an oil refinery, complete with slippery puddles of oil that will send Mega Man falling on his butt if he's not careful.

Oil Man and Time Man are the new Robot Masters on the block, 
and their stages are just as wonderfully designed as the original Robot Master stages.

The Robot Master battles that occur at the end of each of the eight initial stages are more complex than the NES original. Each battle plays out similarly at the start to the battles seen in the original Mega Man, but as a Robot Master's health enters low territory, a new move will be added to their arsenal. From Cut Man throwing a massive boomerang, to Bomb Man chucking a big bomb with a large, explosive radius to it, these moves add some fun, albeit dangerous curve balls to those who think they know the OG Mega Man like the back of their hand.

Cut Man's living on borrowed time, so his desperation attack cuts to the chase!

Furthermore, and one of the coolest additions to Mega Man: Powered Up among a host of many awesome additions, is the ability to play as all eight Robot Masters, each with their own unique abilities. Bomb Man tosses bouncing bombs, Fire Man launches pillars of flames, Ice Man lets loose freezing chunks of ice at foes, etc. These Robot Masters become playable if you defeat them as Mega Man with his Mega Buster only instead of any special weapon. 

Playable Robot Masters like Bomb Man? It's an absolute blast!

Yes, true to the series's penchant, defeated Robot Masters give Mega Man their primary special weapon. For instance, Guts Man's Guts Arm allows Mega Man to lift up certain blocks and chuck them away at baddies. These can be cycled through with the PSP's shoulder buttons or selected from the pause menu, in case you'd rather take a breather and select a weapon when you're not inundated with enemy attacks. 

Also, true to the series's penchant, there's generally a recommended order for taking on the Robot Masters due to all of them being weak to a given other Robot Master's special weapon. Whereas Cut Man's Rolling Cutter slices through Bomb Man's bombs (and Bomb Man himself) with ease, Ice Man is no match for and gets quite the shock from Elec Man's Thunder Beam. Though, I found the order to fight the Robot Masters initially didn't matter since I wanted to unlock each Robot Master as a playable character. Thus, I took each on with Mega Man's Mega Buster exclusively. You can imagine how much of a challenge this could be, however!

The playable Robot Masters each have their own version of the game's story to play through with different voiced dialogue as they meet each other Robot Master in their stage, which was something I did not expect but was positively surprised by. Furthermore, the stages in general have all-new areas and alternate paths that only specific Robot Masters can reach.

Not only that, but unlike the original Mega Man, where once you beat a stage, you couldn't return to it, Mega Man: Powered Up's stages encourage you to replay them with obtained special weapons and Robot Masters due to the fact that they contain brand-new items in them called construction kits. These come in pink and yellow forms (enemy and scenery packs, respectively), and these unlock new customization and construction options in Powered Up's coolest feature: the stage creator.

Construction kits are housed and hidden in all manner of locations in levels, encouraging replays.

Yes, with packs earned throughout Mega Man and his friends' adventures, you can create your own stages within Powered Up. It all starts with choosing a specific enemy pack and scenery pack and then letting your imagination take over. The included tutorial is a great help, and the tools to design your own stage are really intuitive, too, and easy to use. You can even select which character or characters you can play as, which Robot Master awaits at the end of your custom stage, include how much health your playable character starts with at the beginning of the stage, what special weapons they have to utilize, and of course, you can give your stage a name. At the time of release you could even share your stages online and play others', which was a mighty cool aspect of the game.

Make your own masterpieces come to life in Mega Man: Powered Up's in-depth stage creator. 

Mega Man: Powered Up is an immensely meaty Mega Man game. With the dozen or so replayable stages to play and beat on all three difficulties, including as each Robot Master (and the game keeps track of this for completionists out there), the in-depth mega-cool stage creator, a slew of special challenges focusing on different special weapons and abilities, and a multitude of unlockables, Mega Man: Powered Up will keep you playing for a looong time. 

It's also a dang difficult game. Despite taking a lot of influence and inspiration from later Mega Man games, what Mega Man: Powered Up does not give the player is that of E-Tanks. Those wouldn't be introduced until Mega Man 2. These health-restoring tanks made a lot of future Mega Man games more manageable, but in Powered Up, they're not present at all. Thus, while you do have an inviting, cutesy chibi anime aesthetic with Mega Man: Powered Up, the difficulty of the game couldn't be any less welcoming comparatively to the art style!

Mega Man: Powered Up is positively flooded with chibi-style charm!

That said, the challenge is always fair. Sure, sometimes you'll be thrown for a loop and a given stage or boss might present a "gotcha" moment to you, but through determination, perseverance, patience, and little bit of rote memorization, too, you'll find a way to overcome the myriad challenges and obstacles thrown in your path. 

All of the additions, from the lovely art style, voiced characters, stellar presentation, awesome remixed tunes, to the gameplay inclusions like playable Robot Masters, new areas and alternate paths in familiar stages, and the superb stage creator, prove that you can teach an old robot new tricks. And you can do so in a mega magnificent way, as Mega Man: Powered Up does. The level of difficulty might be off-putting to a fair amount of players, but for me, I absolutely adored nearly everything about this re-imagined remake. It's a damn shame the game was not a success for Capcom, as I would have definitely loved to see later installments get the remade Powered Up treatment.

[SPC Says: A-] 

Mega Man: Battle & Chase (PS1) Retro Review

MEGA MAY races on, quite literally, with our next retro review featuring Capcom's super fighting robot. But this time, he's Capcom's super racing robot with Mega Man: Battle & Chase on the original PlayStation.

Road Rage with the Blue Bomber

I remember back in the days of gaming magazines being the go-to source for news and announcements about games, and growing unbearably excited towards a little preview--it was maybe 1/8th of the page--of a newly unveiled racing game featuring the Blue Bomber. This game was Mega Man: Battle & Chase, and immediately upon seeing it in incredibly brief preview form, I was beyond hyped. I loved Mario Kart and other mascot racing games--still do--and I loved Mega Man--again, still do. It was a perfect storm for a game for a much younger me to be excited about.

Of course, my excitement would eventually turn into disappointment when Mega Man: Battle & Chase never released on the original PlayStation--at least here in North America. It had a final build--final PREVIEW build for magazines, at that--but it never saw a release here, instead releasing only in Europe and Japan. North Americans would finally get the chance to get behind the driver's seat as the Blue Bomber only when the Mega Man X Collection launched, with Battle & Chase as a bonus game included. 

You can bet your last Energy Tank that I jumped on that collection quickly, as a Mega Man X fan and as someone who waited YEARS to finally play Mega Man: Battle & Chase. Was my wait worth it? Well, yes! But, how is the game today? Is it still worth tracking down and playing? Mega May continues with my look at Mega Man: Battle & Chase.

Grand Prix is the main mode of Mega Man: Battle & Chase, and it's a series of races that can--apart from the final two races--be chosen in any order. It starts off with selecting between one of ten characters to race as. Each character, whether they be Mega Man, Proto Man, Roll, Bass, or one of several Robot Masters throughout the series, has their own reason for entering the Grand Prix and going after the multi-million Zenny prize. It's worth playing through the Grand Prix as different characters, at least once thru, just to see the epilogue for a given character. 

Mega Man leads the pack in his Rush Roadster.

Each character possesses their own vehicle, and in typical Mega Man-inspired fashion, beating other racers allows you to take one part of four from their vehicle: either a wing, an engine, a set of tires, and after all three previous parts are eventually taken through racing and winning against an opponent multiple times, the body of their vehicle entirely.

Oh, Quick Man, always so dramatic and not slow with the theatrics.

The body of each characters' vehicles is where their specific power lies. When racing against opponents like Ice Man, you'll contend with him dropping chunks of ice on the track and potentially blasting you with a freezing shot of energy, temporarily stopping your ability to steer. Through taking the body of Ice Man's vehicle upon racing and winning against him a fourth and final time, you can equip the vehicle's body part to use Ice Man's exclusive ability for yourself. 

Each character in Mega Man: Battle & Chase has two unique abilities. One is used normally, while the second needs the energy meter at the top of the screen to fully charge to use. Whereas Mega Man can pelt enemies and obstructions with normal shots of his Mega Buster, when the energy meter is fully charged, he can let loose and launch a charged shot, able to spin out opponents with a direct hit. Meanwhile, Proto Man can toggle where his famous shield rests, either on the front or rear of his vehicle to deflect attacks, while his Proto Strike can be used as a semi-homing shot on nearby racers ahead of him. 

Take your newly won parts and mix and match them as needed to give an edge on different tracks.

The other parts of vehicles apart from the body: wings, engines, and tires, are just as important, as they give different abilities as well, albeit passive ones. From Guts Man's Press Tires that prohibit slowing down over dirt and other off-road ground, to Quick Man's Dash Engine that gives great acceleration for a trade-off of average max speed, each part has its own pros and cons. Combining these parts into a chimera-like vehicle might look silly in aesthetics, but they're generally majorly helpful put into practice and use. 

Each opponent you face has their own home track with different obstacles and hazards to contend with. Roll's Streets track is the simplest with gentle corners and little in the way of obstacles, Quick Man's Ridge track is full of twists, turns, canyons, and water to race over, and Napalm Man's Arms Factory track is home to plenty of de-acceleration zones that slow you down upon riding over them as well as conveyor belts pushing your vehicle left, right, forwards, and backwards. Shortcuts aren't generally an option in these tracks, save for a select few of the 12+ tracks available. Either way, most are short and sweet, and that's good as these are all five-lap races.   

Time to drop some Bass on our opponents and drop the pretense--we've got a race to win!

Each time you beat the initial set of racers, Dr. Wily rears his bald head in. Two final races are unlocked, one after the other. If those are successfully beaten and the credits roll, you're tasked with playing through Grand Prix mode again as the same character, taking on the initial set of racers over again to unlock the Wily races. If you want all of the parts in Mega Man: Battle & Chase, you'll need to finish Grand Prix mode and do this process as a given character no less than four times. The aspect that stinks about this is that parts don't carry over between playthroughs with different characters, so if you want to start a new save file as say, Spring Man, after playing a file as say, Shadow Man, then you have to start all over. 

As for the gameplay itself, I initially found myself not really jiving with the steering or controls. My intuition with racing games, especially kart or mascot racers like Battle & Chase, is to drift around turns. Battle & Chase pretty much lacks a conventional drift option, so my intuition then told me to brake around corners to take them more sharply. This proved not the answer nor helpful either. Instead, it turned out that simply taking most corners at full speed was smarter than slowing down. The only time this was not the go-to solution was when going too fast would result in me slipping or sliding straight off the course, like on Ice Man's track and those dastardly chasms that litter parts of the track. By my second or third race, I started getting into a better groove, coming to terms with the controls and steering, and doing better in races. 

Some vehicle parts do better and worse on certain road--whether uphill, downhill, dirt, water, etc.

Another aspect of a lot of kart and mascot racing games is that of items. Mega Man: Battle & Chase goes a different route with these much like it does with driving and drifting. Items are not handled by racing over panels or through item boxes like other mascot racing games. Instead, there's a bit of a creative touch to items. By defeating Mega Man enemies like well-known Mega Man minions like Metools, sprinkled and scattered along the track, a counter ticks down. Once it hits zero, your racer of choice gets an item through a roulette. Now, this counter generally starts at 10, but certain items used on yourself for a positive outcome or items used on you by your opponents for a negative outcome, can make the counter to get an item shorter or longer respectively. It's a clever and innovative approach to items, and it works rather well in theory and practice.

Quick, Quick Man! Cross that finish line, as Guts Man's breathing down your neck.

At any rate, the items range in offensive and defensive capabilities. Some affect your opponents while others assist you. From helpful invincibility that speeds you up a la Mario Kart star power, to items that temporarily stop your opponent from attacking or strikes them all with a halting bolt of lightning, the items are quite useful. 

And there's some strategy in item usage, too. While you might want to hold on to a particular item, you can only hold onto one item at a time, and if you do so, any enemies you defeat won't tick down the counter. It's wasted effort there. So, there's indeed strategy in when to use an item and when to hold onto it. 

Outside of the Grand Prix mode and the 48 parts available to mix and match your ride with, there is a Versus Mode as well, available for two players to race each other and any CPU opponents you might like as well. Tracks not seen in the Grand Prix mode are available here, as are characters like Dr. Wily and the super-difficult-to-unlock Duo of Mega Man 8 fame. These two are unplayable within the Grand Prix mode.

Mega Man: Battle & Chase presents a simple graphical package. The visuals are suitably colorful, crisp, and character and vehicle models are well done, all said. Meanwhile, the tracks--the playground upon you race on--are less of an appealing part of the package. They're really low-resolution and multiple parts of tracks see routine clipping as an issue. Nothing game-breaking or fun-destroying, but prominent all the same. 

It is, however, especially cool that the game is split up between three views. The map of the track sits in the bottom-right corner, while the main racing takes place on the upper half. The lower-left corner generally shows your rival as well as any special action in the race. This is especially nifty when you drop a bomb on the track, and when your rival approaches it, you can see it detonate and send your rival flying into the air.  

Here, we get a secondary view of Ice Man, who is obviously stunned Shadow Man is beating him so badly.

The audio got a downgrade when compared to the Japanese original version. Now, don't get me wrong--the music and sound effects are fantastic. Heck, Roll's theme here will be familiar to anyone who played Marvel vs. Capcom. The downgrade comes from a lack of commentary that plays during races in the Japanese version that simply isn't present in the English release. No doubt the budget and cost would have risen from translating all the spoken dialogue and voicing it, but it can still be disappointing, if even slightly.

Mega Man: Battle & Chase is without a doubt one of the more overlooked entries in the Blue Bomber's storied series of games. Of course, not releasing in a major part of the world would do such a thing, and that is unfortunate, too. Battle & Chase is brimming with charm, is a unique and more importantly, fun take on the mascot racing game, and I'm sure if more people got to play it, they'd find a lot to like about the game, too.

[SPC Says: B-] 

Mega Man X5 (PS1) Retro Review

We continue this month of Mega Man--MEGA MAY--with the fifth entry of the X sub-series. Mega Man X5 was meant to be the end of the X sub-series, but as we know, that did not come to pass. Was that good thing or a bad thing that X5 wasn't the final note from the franchise? Let's find out with the SuperPhillip Central review!

To X or not to X; that is the question.

It's decidedly a difficult challenge to review games in a vacuum, particularly games within a franchise's own series. When you've reached the fifth installment of a series, or in Mega Man X's case, sub-series, you have certain expectations you have to live up to. Mega Man X5 was originally planned as the finale of the X sub-series. For better or worse, the games continued after X5. With that and with reviewing games in a vacuum in mind, Mega Man X5 delivers a stellar and steady amount of action that one would want from the X sub-series, but it also stumbles as a sequel to even its most recent at the time predecessor. 

An encounter with Sigma after the intro level of the game sets the stage and events that transpire in Mega Man X5. The Eurasia space colony is headed towards Earth, which would result in the spread of the Sigma Virus at best, and the annihilation of the planet's population at worst. With little in the way of recourse and options, the Maverick Hunters hedge their bets on two plans: 1) a lunar cannon to destroy the colony before it can make contact with the Earth, and 2) having someone pilot a shuttle to crash into the colony, again before it destroys Earth. Either way, both plans require Mega Man X and Zero to enter into one of eight stages to secure the necessary materials for either operation to get off the ground, both figuratively and literally. 

Better Eurasia than Uranus heading towards us! (...I'm SO sorry.)

Mega Man X5 indeed takes a different approach to its formula. Yes, you still have eight stages at first to choose from, but the game highly encourages you to play the Maverick stages containing the necessary equipment to be used for the Lunar Cannon first. There's also a time limit, too. Every time you beat a stage or get a game over and switch stages, an hour ticks down until the colony is set to crash into Earth. The time limit given isn't too taxing or much of a concern, as you really have to try to have the countdown hit zero (the number, that is, not the Maverick Hunter). 

It's hard not to be reminded of Mega Man X4 when a starting select-able armor for X is
the Fourth Armor, directly from, you guessed it, Mega Man X4!

Even still, upon collecting the first four supplies needed to launch the Lunar Cannon, there's no guarantee it will work. In fact, most of the time you'll find the Lunar Cannon plan fails, thus it goes to plan B which is the manned shuttle option. The latter plan requires X and Zero to, of course, enter the other four Maverick stages. Generally, the shuttle will work, but there still is a chance of failure, however slight. 

Mega Man X5 is an interesting game, for sure, with its structure and story, but it's also a game that when coming off the superb, excellent Mega Man X4--one of my favorite entries featuring the Blue Bomber, period--it feels like an immense downgrade. Taken by itself without X4 in the equation, it's a quality entry to the franchise. However, most of Mega Man X5's players probably won't jump directly into this entry, thus X4's baggage will always be there.

X marks the spot for action, and you get plenty of that in Mega Man X5.

Essentially, Mega Man X5 is a case of "what if we took Mega Man X4... and made it worse?" Because that's what Mega Man X5 feels like. Level gimmicks and mechanics from Mega Man X4 such as Dark Necrobat's gravity flipping was seen in X4's Cyber Peacock stage, and it was done better there. The bike segment seen at the start of Volt Kraken's stage was done already in X4's Jet Stingray stage, and yes, it, too, was done better there. In fact, with the latter example, you can actually die in Volt Kraken's stage before the word "Ready" disappears! Whoever decided to have a bottomless pit that players have to manually jump over to start a stage before you're actually asked by the game if you're "ready", needs a lesson in acceptable game design. 

Other stages incorporate their own unique and exclusive to X5 mechanics and gimmicks. Burn Dinorex's stage, for instance, takes place in a volcano, where players start descending down into its depths. Eventually they stumble upon intermittent eruptions in the form of walls of instant-death flames. The only salvation here is to hide behind clearly marked sections of wall to avoid them. It's a clever mechanic and one that is quite exciting to contend with.

Other mechanics don't fare so well. Take Tidal Whale's stage. No, seriously, please take it, as it's not good. It's a tedious auto-scrolling stage where you're at the mercy of the auto-scroll and the sunken battleship either pursuing you or you giving chase to. Either way, it's a slow, plodding pace, and that'd be okay if it was a one and done deal. Instead, if you want to collect everything in the level, you have to play through the majority of this stage no short of three separate times! One to beat the stage normally, another to reach Dr. Light's capsule, which of course requires the special weapon you earn from this stage's boss, and a last run-through to climb the spikes housing where the stage's Heart Tank rests. 

Tidal Whale's stage plays a remix of Mega Man X2's Bubble Crab's level music... 
Unfortunately for Mega Man X5, it's another reminder of a better X game.

Mega Man X5 changes up how Dr. Light's capsules function, the first time in the X sub-series, as well, and also how future entries would handle them. Instead of getting a part for a new piece of armor and being able to use it immediately, you have to collect all four parts of the armor first before being able to assemble and use it as needed. There are two armor sets in Mega Man X5, and the first, the Falcon Armor which gives X the ability to temporarily fly over short distances, is required to get a fair number of pieces of the second armor, the Gaea Armor. This Gaea Armor can climb and touch spikes without the instant death that any other character would succumb to by touching a spike, but X also cannot use special weapons when equipped with the armor. Needless to say, there are plenty of places that require the Gaea Armor and require backtracking to previously completed stages to reach otherwise inaccessible goodies and items.

Instead of supplying X with a usable armor part immediately, Dr Light requires all 
four pieces of a given armor set to be obtained before using it.

Outside of capsules, there are the standard eight Heart Tanks (these bolster the amount of your maximum health) to optionally obtain in Mega Man X5, one hidden in each Maverick stage, and usually each require a special weapon or armor to reach. There are also two Sub-Tanks, which serve as health-restoring items that must be manually used within the menu, one Weapon Tank (weapon energy-restoring tanks), and some other collectibles that can add to the replay value as well of the game. Not only do they serve that purpose, but they also come in clutch for making this difficult game less so. Or, rather, they at least give the more novice or inexperienced players more of a fighting chance.

One of the eight Mavericks to battle, Burn Dinorex (I refuse to use the absurd North American names) heats up!

Let me interrupt my griping by saying that I know I'm giving a lot of crap to Mega Man X5, and that is purely because it's coming off such a phenomenal entry in the franchise, X4. Trust me when I say that X5 is still a highly competent and capable entry... even as I now continue to bash it some more. 

Coming off of Mega Man X4, you can't help but see how much the budget took a hit with Mega Man X5 as well. Long gone are the beautiful, cheesy-voiced anime cutscenes that were quite impressive for the time--heck, still are. Instead, what you get are slideshow cutscenes, with next to nothing in the way of animation. There's limited voice work, which further disappoints. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of interruptions to the gameplay as well. Alia is a character that serves as an operator of sorts to X and Zero while they're on the field, and she is sort of a quasi-Navi (a la The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) in how she interrupts you from figuring out things for yourself. But instead of a "hey, listen" and optionally see what Navi has to say, Mega Man X5 just stops you dead in your tracks to have slow text boxes of mostly obvious information pop up. 

What's a guy-a gotta do to get-a this Gaea armor? Well, find all four Dr. Light capsules, of course!

That said, with all of those gripes (and yes, there were many), Mega Man X5 is indeed a worthwhile entry. It did introduce some good things to the sub-series, such as the ability to crouch, for one, which makes dodging and avoiding enemies and their attacks much easier. There are also wires of both the vertical and horizontal variety that X and Zero can cling to in order to cross otherwise impossible chasms and reach higher heights. Awesome stuff, truly! These two added abilities put together with the tried and true run, gun, jump, and dash gameplay of previous Mega Man X games makes X5 almost play better than ever. X and Zero have far more utility available to them.

X and Zero can cling to similar ropes/wires like these to move up and down them for some added mobility.

This doesn't make the game any easier than past installments, though. Mega Man X5 is still very much a challenging game even on one's best day. But things like collecting Heart Tanks, Sub-Tanks, the lone Weapon Tank, and Dr. Light's generous armor upgrades, make for some things that definitely level the playing field, so to speak, in X and Zero's favor. 

On its own, Mega Man X5 is another X-cellent entry in the series, and the last entry in the series until X8 that was of a high quality, in this fan of the Blue Bomber's opinion. Of course, it's difficult to ignore X5's predecessors and review the game in a vacuum. With the sub-series' past as a point of context, Mega Man X5 did let me down back when and somewhat does now. As time has gone by and gone on, I've come to appreciate Mega Man X5 more, flaws and all. It may be a bit of a step down from past entries, but it also can stand on its own two feet as an enjoyable game all the same. 

[SPC Says: C+] 

Mega Man Legends (PS1) Retro Review

We're beaming down into a planned month of Mega Man retro reviews here at SuperPhillip Central. It's Mega May, and first we're exploring Kattelox Island with Mega Man's very first full 3D outing: Mega Man Legends. A PC port and a Nintendo 64 version called Mega Man 64 would later release, but this particular retro review covers the PS1 original. Let's get to it and kick this month of Mega Man off right!

Dig into a legendary mega-sized adventure

It's no secret that Sony wanted to distinguish itself from the competition upon entering the console market with its original PlayStation. It's also no secret that 2D games, such as the ones that Mega Man proudly was prominent in, weren't exactly welcomed with the most open arms on Sony's highly capable 3D gaming machine. Instead, Sony and PlayStation greatly encouraged and pushed for developers and publishers to enter the realm of 3D games. 

A year prior to Mega Man Legends, we saw Mario super successfully make the literal and figurative jump to 3D with Super Mario 64. Just under a year later, Capcom's Mega Man would attempt to do the same. No doubt making the leap to 3D for a lot of gaming franchises saw plenty of growing pains. I'm looking your direction, Sonic, but others did so with amazing gusto. 

1997's Mega Man Legends saw the Blue Bomber dive into full three-dimensions for the first time, and it's one of those games that stands somewhat at the middle of the road successes in properly transitioning from 2D to 3D. That said, it's certainly more of a success than a failure.

After a mission to pick up a rare Refractor Shard goes swimmingly, Mega Man Volnutt, Roll, and the rest of the small but loyal crew of the Flutter airship find themselves crash landing on Kattelox Island. Seems the lack of maintenance and TLC on the Flutter finally caught up with the little ship that could. In order for the Flutter to take to the skies again, another Refractor Shard is necessary, but in the meantime, Mega Man and friends have to contend with a group of pirates known as the Bonne Family, as well as deal with a hidden danger underneath Kattelox Island itself.

One such Refractor Shard that Mega Man and the Flutter crew of Diggers search for high and low.

Right away I was incredibly impressed by how well the story was put together. The voice acting in cutscenes and interspersed here and there is superb, though the sound balance can make some voice quieter comparatively to everything else going on. The lack of subtitles here is a downside, for sure. On the music end, Mega Man Legends contains a lot of catchy themes, with Apple Market, Uptown, the Support Car, Main Gate, and the Ending Credits' themes being my personal favorites of a lovely soundtrack in general. Conversely, the ambient soundtrack for the underground sections of the game do a fantastic job of making you as Mega Man feel intensely isolated.

The character models are relatively simple, but boy, does Mega Man Legends do a lot with so little!

For a game released in 1997, before The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time set a new standard for 3D action-adventure games, Mega Man Legends is darn impressive for what it does with what little it has. For instance, even though the game utilizes a limited amount of polygons, it does so in a way that characters are surprisingly well detailed, and moreover, they're exceptionally expressive. The way characters express emotions and have different looks on their faces is just amazing. Draw distance is equally impressive, with environmental objects and geometry in the distance using a mist-like cover that goes away the closer Mega Man approaches.  

From a gameplay point of view, this was before Ocarina of Time's Z-targeting, and while Mega Man Legends has its own form of locking on to enemies, it must be done while Mega Man stands in place. Further, the lock-on targeting in Mega Man Legends will automatically lock on to the closest enemy, so if you're targeting a faraway foe, and another one enters closer into your range, Mega Man will target that one. Frustrating, for sure, especially depending on the scenario and situation. That said, this feature can be turned off and on within the options menu at the player's leisure.

Run and gun, Mega Man! Run and gun like your life depends upon it.

Additionally, the lack of a second analog stick for camera control and aiming makes things feel clunky, even at the time of release. Instead, the left and right front shoulder buttons are used for moving Mega Man's focus left and right respectively. Pressing the Circle button will quickly turn the camera to where Mega Man currently faces, which is paramount in certain contexts. 

Mega Man Legends follows a different approach to its structure compared to pretty much every non-RPG Mega Man game. There are no levels that can be chosen in any order, there's no ability to copy or learn defeated enemies' powers--it's an action-adventure game at its heart instead. It starts as somewhat linear, but opens up soon enough, allowing players to access more parts and portions of Kattelox Island, including the interconnected underground, the most dangerous part of the island itself.

The underground connects to the surface of the island in multiple ways. It's a network of labyrinthine rooms and passages full of mechanical enemies known as Reaverbots, as well as plenty of treasure to seek out. After all, that's what treasure hunters known as Diggers do, and that's what Mega Man Volnutt is! As players progress through the story, new parts and pieces of the underground open up, either because of access to new surface level areas or new equipment for Mega Man is earned.

Under Kattelox Island rests a maze of rooms, halls, enemies, traps, and treasures. Dig carefully.

Mega Man gets plenty of help from his crew throughout his adventure. Data the Monkey serves as a talking save point and recovery spot, as well as a hint-giver if players get confused on where to go next in the game. Meanwhile, Roll helps out by outfitting a busted van into a support car, able to fast travel to already unlocked locations around Kattelox Island. She also can turn discovered items and combine them into new weapons and gadgets for Mega Man.

This latter aspect of Roll's abilities is absurdly awesome. There are just over a dozen different weapons and pieces of equipment Roll can create with her whiz kid know-how, from rocket launchers and grenades to boots that allow Mega Man to jump higher or an adapter that grants Mega Man the ability to equip more custom parts that can increase his attack, energy, range of attack, and firing speed as long as the parts are equipped to him. The weapons can also be upgraded in various ways like attack power, energy, and special abilities, though this of course costs Zenny, the currency of Mega Man Legends (and a lot of Capcom games at the time, for that matter) to perform.

Even though Mega Man's got some serious explosive firepower courtesy of Roll,
sometimes it's best to retreat and fight another day.

Mega Man will need these new weapons, equipment, and upgrades as well, as he'll contend with all kinds of enemies and bosses in his adventure. Between giant inventions from the Bonne Family pirate group, the main villains for most of Mega Man Legends, to massive Reaverbots within the underground and at points that guard Refractor Shards, Mega Man and furthermore players will need to be properly outfitted for the battles that lay ahead.

This boss is all "bombs away" while Mega Man is all "I'm going away" from all those explosives!

Going back to the camera and auto-targeting, it can be quite difficult to jump and move around to avoid attacks while setting up spots to engage in Mega Man's own style of offense, all the while attempting to position the camera by holding the L1 or R1 shoulder buttons to spin the angle around just right. Really, it's like rubbing your tummy while patting your head... while juggling! It's rather clunky, completely convoluted, and can get mighty frustrating as well. This isn't a Mega Man game where you can just pelt foes with Mega Buster fire as you stand around. You have to be delicate, you have to get the right angles, and you absolutely cannot be greedy. It will cost you and by extension Mega Man otherwise.

Bad doggies! Don't you dare bite Mega Man's shiny new helmet!

Outside of following along with the story, reaching specific plot points, and battling bosses, Mega Man Legends features ample amounts of side activities to optionally take in and accomplish for some nice rewards. Various shops, especially the parts shop, house wonderful parts for Mega Man's Mega Buster, as well as jackets to increase his defensive capabilities (though these can be prohibitively expensive Zenny-wise) and items that can increase his maximum health. Side quests open up as the story progresses, such as saving downtown from a bomb threat, helping a trio of kids build up a makeshift hideout, and assisting a museum curator with museum donations. All of these and then some reward players with Zenny, new parts, items that Roll can used to build new weapons and gadgets, and more.

Mega Man Legends isn't too lengthy of an adventure, lasting about 6-10 hours depending on how much you try to complete, whether that be side quests or earning Zenny to purchase the more expensive items and upgrades within the game. Upon rolling credits, you have the option to play through the game in Hard Mode, boosting the amount of hits and damage enemies take and give respectively. If you manage to beat that mode in under six hours, an "Easy Mode" unlocks where Mega Man gets many of his upgrades immediately and all Zenny earned is massively multiplied. Thus, if the idea of beating the game twice to unlock an omnipotent Mega Man sounds enjoyable to you, that option for some added replay value is there. Otherwise, the standard game is more than fun and interesting enough as is.

Despite its growing pains, especially when it concerns the camera, targeting, and somewhat stiff movement, Mega Man Legends serves and served as a successful first 3D outing for the Blue Bomber. The amount of charm within the cast of characters, Kattelox Island and its inhabitants, and game in general is off the charts. I'm still amazed by how emotive characters were for a game released in 1997. If you can deal with some occasional jank, some periodic clunkiness, and some frustrations every now and then, you'll get great and charming action-adventure game featuring Capcom's famous super fighting robot.

[SPC Says: B-]

Goof Troop (SNES) Retro Review

While not the first review I had in mind for my return at SuperPhillip Central for 2025, Goof Troop ended up being an enjoyable romp once I finally knocked it out of my backlog. Let's quantify just how MUCH of an enjoyable romp it was with my retro review of the Super Nintendo's Goof Troop.

"A Goofy Game"

This past week saw the 30th anniversary of "A Goofy Movie", so I opted to dive back into the past and play a game sitting in my Super Nintendo backlog for decades now: Goof Troop. Interestingly enough, Goof Trip on the SNES was one of Shinji Mikami's (of Resident Evil fame, and many other Capcom classics) first projects. While it's a short experience, either alone or with a co-op buddy, Goof Troop is also quite a sweet one, too. Let's dig in because good GWARSH, is this game worth looking at!

Goof Troop's story is simple, and like the adventure itself, short and sweet. Spending a lovely afternoon fishing off the coast of Spoonerville, Goofy and his son Max spot a pirate ship of all things sailing towards them. Upon closer inspection, Goofy and Max spot their neighbors Pete and his son PJ aboard the ship. It's a regular pirate kidnapping! (Well, as regular as that is in Spoonerville, at least!) Goofy and Max hightail it into a small boat and paddle for all they're worth to catch up, but it's for naught. They arrive at an island where the pirate ship has docked, and now the search for their fellow neighbors and friends is underway!

Once the simple slideshow series of scenes with text is finished, the game proper begins and it wastes no time getting you into the action. I was immediately reminded of a cross between Nintendo's fabled The Legend of Zelda series and the oft-overlooked Shigeru Miyamoto Game Boy masterpiece Mole Mania of all games in what Goof Troop was reminiscent of gameplay-wise. You move in between different screen-wide rooms in a top-down perspective, defeating enemies in indirect ways, solving puzzles, collecting keys, and making your way to the boss of each of the game's five levels.

Everything in Goof Troop is better with a buddy, but solo play is enjoyable too!

Goof Troop features indirect combat, with Goofy and Max picking up objects like planters, vases, and barrels, for instance, and using those to chuck at foes to defeat them. Alternately, blocks can be kicked, sliding across the ground to slam into unsuspecting enemies in their path. This is also used for various block-sliding puzzles, too, which are a nice reprieve from the action.

There's no water in sight, but this particular pirate just walked the figurative plank anyway!

Of course, aiming is important when chucking objects, and evading foes' advances is paramount, too, as either protagonist only has a set amount of health in the form of hearts and lives to utilize. However, copious amounts of fruit not only add hearts to their overall health, but if you get over six hearts, your character earns an extra life. Pink diamonds flat out bestow an extra life, whereas rare white gems reward Goofy and Max with an extra continue, if all their lives get spent. 

One aspect of Goof Troop's health and lives system that I liked and disliked was rationing hearts. What I mean by this is that as stated, getting more than six hearts on health from picking up fruit means, yes, you do get an extra life, but your health goes back to zero hearts. Meaning that if you take damage afterwards, you immediately lose that life you just earned. This is fine while exploring levels, but in practice with bosses, dying means you come back with zero hearts, which means you're a one-hit wonder and death comes quickly, making it quite easy to fly through lives while battling bosses. 

Regardless, those aforementioned white diamonds handing out continues and a password system where you input five objects (diamonds, bananas, cherries, etc.) to return back to the stage you last left off at makes for a lack of headaches entirely. Plus, as mentioned previously, the game isn't a lengthy endeavor whatsoever--offering five stages that will take most players less than two hours to run through.

This room requires Goofy and Max to press down all four buttons in each corner of the room.
Time to put your thinking caps on and sliding-block-puzzle mastery to the test, friends!

Goof Troop can either be played alone or with a second player in some very fun co-op action. The former features the ability to play either as Goofy or Max, and the difference between the two is that Goofy is stronger and can defeat bigger foes in one throw, whereas Max requires at least two thrown objects to defeat the biggest of baddies in levels, but has slightly more speed than his ol' dad. 

In single-player fun, Goofy or Max have two item slots to pick up useful tools like grappling hooks that can pull objects and items from faraway locations, planks that can be used as bridges, bells that can be rung to lure enemies to their location, torches to light up otherwise incredibly dark areas, shovels to dig up treasure, and keys to open locked gates. In co-op, players each have one item slot, so there's some strategy involved between players to decide who takes what. Also, players can toss objects between one another. Pressing the pickup/throw button has either Goofy or Max hold up their hands. This is required to catch objects, either thrown by enemies or by their co-op buddy--otherwise they're either take damage or in the case of friendly fire, they'll get temporarily dazed.

Max plays a game of catch with this pirate while his proud dad Goofy watches on.

At the end of each stage and in the spirit of games of yore, a boss battle indeed awaits. These generally require moments of downtime between dodging a boss' attempts at attacks, while picking up objects to throw at the big baddie while they are vulnerable. These are the most action-packed and challenging places of moment-to-moment gameplay with Goof Troop understandably, so it's not uncommon to soar through lives during these encounters. 

This second-stage boss really cooks (especially if a torch hits poor Goofy or Max).

After the game's five stages are complete within the span of about two hours or less, the game's ending greets players and the adventure is complete. One aspect of Goof Troop that I can see players enjoying is speed-running stages and the game in general, as at the conclusion of each stage, the total time it took a given player or pair of players to get through the stage gets displayed--although not recorded for posterity or anything like that. The total tally of all stages gets shown at the end of the adventure, too, so attempting your best to speed through the game is something I can see for some much needed replay value. Otherwise, Goof Troop would have been a good "rental" back in the day, and nothing more.

That said, Goof Troop on the Super Nintendo's adventure is one where the gameplay holds up so remarkably well, it can be enjoyed either solo or with a co-op partner (and each playthrough is unique depending on the vibe and teamwork you display between your co-op buddy), and speed-running opportunities offer plenty of entertainment to be had. Is it a game you'll rack up dozens upon dozens of hours enjoying? No, not at all--but is it a stellar puzzle-adventure game all the same, worth checking out if you have the method or opportunity to do so? As the Goof Troop cartoon's theme concludes, "Ba-da-ba-bop-ba-doo-doo-bop! *deep voice* YEAAAAAH!"

[SPC Says: B]