Logically speaking, this game is not good for the most part. It is way too unfair, essentially requires you beat the robot masters in a certain order, and also has insane screen crunch on the GBA(which is the only version I’ve played). But I love it, 33% for nostalgia reasons, 33% for “I get to play as Bass” reasons, and 33% for “Holy fuck this OST rocks” reasons(seriously the intro stage theme might be my favorite song from any MegaMan game). It being so unfairly hard makes me feel a weird pride that I ever beat this game at all, let alone when I was a kid.

First of all, I think it's strange that this game isn't in the Legacy Collection 2 giving the fact that it is canon on the Mega Man lore and somehow important to the classic series, especially MM9 and MM10 (although it's the classic series so the lore doesn't matter that much)
I know it isn't an numbered game on the series and there are many people who dislike it, but c'mon, it's still part of the canon and future main games mention, shows events or even uses elements of it, and if X6 and X7 are on the X Legacy Collection, this one could be on the classic collection too, even if it was on Legacy Collection 2

As the game by itself, I've heard some bad things about it, and not like it was with MM7 and MM8 (Just for have an idea, the way I've heard some people commenting about this game was giving an impression that this was at least the X6 of the classic games). Because of that, I've played expecting an terrible game with shitty level design, but it turned out that wasn't the case. I mean, for me at least it still bad, but not like I've heard some people say it is

I've played just the SNES version, but with both Mega Man and Bass, and I can confirm that the level design really isn't good. Most of it looks like that it was made with Bass in mind and then they did little tweaks on it to adapt for Mega Man, and even for Bass it still have some moments that you will take damage no matter what you do

Speaking of the stages, I have a little problem about them recycling some themes and enemies from MM8. Some enemies like the bats, the Sniper Joe and the Met I don't mind being reused since every game have them, but for common enemies I don't remember a single one that was original from this game, and the ones that got some type of tweak got worse since it spams the attack or just have one that insta-kills you. About the stage themes, basically every single one have the same theme from MM8's stages, some times even reusing gimmiks from those stages (Cold Man/Frost Man, Burner Man/Search Man, Pirate Man/Aqua Man, Ground Man/Sword Man, Magic Man/Clown Man and Dynamo Man/Grenade Man)
Not only that, but for some reason they decided to reutilize Tengu Man and Astro Man also from MM8. You could say it is because King is "reviving" old robot masters (just to be clear, this game got released after MM8), but the problem is besides those two and Green Devil, NONE of the bosses and mid-bosses came from another game, they're all made just for this game. I can get Green Devil since it's an variation of the Yellow Devil, and this boss keeps comming back every time (although the Green Devil from this game is very easy since it appears on the intro stage), but why Tengu Man and Astro Man?
Also, Tengu Man even have the exact same moveset and arena from MM8. At least Astro Man is completly different although having some similar attacks, but Astro Man is litteraly the same fight, only excluding his weakness
I understand that Capcom made this game because MM8 didn't released on the SNES or any Nintendo platform before the Switch, so I can forgive the stages having the same themes and enemies, but reusing Tengu Man and Astro Man really doesn't make any sense for me

The bosses got me a little divided. Most of them aren't bad, but there are some that really gave me a hard time because the attack was unavoidable or I couldn't see it (even when I was playing the SNES version)
King's second form is a special case btw, because playing as Mega Man it was very unfair since he destroyed some platforms that I needed to be on to survive, and the next one was too far away, but with Bass he was a joke because I've just spammed the upgraded "machinegun" buster that he have without worring about anything, and if the boss destroyed an platform, I could just use the double jump and survive. I'm aware that it have an exclusive attack when playing with Bass, but I was so broken that everytime he was going to use it I broke the crystal that would shoot it, so I don't even know what the attack was
The way the game does Boss Rush is also something that I don't like. Basically it's like MM1 and X1 where you fight an boss, then you proceed a little of the stage, then repeat this process until you defeat all 8 instead of going to a room with 8 portals and choosing freely which one you will fight. This is more an personal preference of mine than an real problem, so I don't think is that relevant, but I think it's good to at least comment about it

Last but not least, like MM8 it doesn't have Energy Tanks or Weapon Tanks
The only way you can refill your weapon is usning an upgrade where you will refill it by taking damage, but the ammo you get is fixed, so how much damage you recieve doesn't matter (unless the damage you take makes you die. In that case you don't refill anything)
Now energy with Mega Man is by using an upgrade and keeping completly still, but the problem is that it takes a long time to refill all your health because it regens one bar each 5(?) seconds, and since you can't jump, shoot or take damage if you don't want to stop, you cannot use it on an boss at all. And with Bass? Well, you can't. The only way he regens health is the traditional way with enemy drops or with items that are on the stage. At least the alternatives from MM8 are great substitutes, but the ones from this game are another story

With all that said, the game still have some positive points. The music is great like always, and the graphics are really well done. Although I miss some animations that the enemies had, it still a great conversion from it's PS1 counterpart, and it doesn't feel weird at all on the console

Not only that, but the gameplay itself it's fenomenal. Mega Man's controls are the same, but the moveset they gave to Bass with the double jump, the "machinegun" buster and the dash (that reminds me of X's dash) makes play with him a great time, even better then how it is on MM10.
I thought the fact he stops to aim when shooting would be a problem, but no, it actually helps a lot more since the level design was almost 100% made thinking about him, and when you get the upgrade with stronger shots or bullets that go through walls, it's even better and quicker to complete

The CDs are also an great addition. I got all 100 of them, and they're very well hidden and fairly challenge to get. The only two that I have a problem are CD 15 and CD 100, since you need to protect Rush for him to get the CD but sometimes it's impossible to do it because your shots doesn't reach the enemy or it spawns exactly where Rush is
I also like that you need to play with both Mega Man and Bass to get all the 100 CDs, and although your save with Mega Man isn't the same one that your save with Bass, the game remembers every CD you got with one of the characters. I don't know if it does that because it reads which CD you got on each save file or if just keeps on the game's memory, but it's a great feature

Lastly, although I think some upgrades that the game sells are useless, most of them (especially the permanent ones) helped me a lot through my journey. The energy balacer and S. Booster saved me a lot of time, both H. Charge, F. Shield and S. Shots made it more easily for me to kill enemies, Treble is great to use just like he is in MM10 and the CD Finder and Roll's W. Monitor and Scanner helped me a lot to proceed with the stages and find the CDs (although I was looking an online guide, so I didin't used W. Monitor).

It's sad that I can't see it as a good game, but at least it can still be fun (unless you play the GBA version). I dare to say that even being worse than MM9, I would probably go back to MM&B more since it's more unique and doesn't feel like an big downgrade from the past games

Mega Man & Bass is a pretty small and unobtrusive spin-off of the classic Mega Man series of games, but it might as well be the weirdest game in the series that still bases itself after the classic run-and-gun platformer gameplay. It is a very late stage of the "retro" era of Mega Man, seen as it was a late SNES title and games like Mega Man X through X4 were already coming out, it kind of makes you wonder why did they even bother making this?

It's not like a very good game, it also doesn't feature a whole ton in its story and gameplay and overall it just an awkward title between the X and Classic series (You get to play as Bass which is pretty much just a watered down X, but you can opt for normal Mega Man 8-like gameplay when choosing Rock) with pretty meh level design and boss fights.

Something of note is that the powers are pretty cool and somewhat innovative from the common Mega Man 2-like power ups (like having knock-off versions of the Leaf Shield or Metal Blade in every game), and that there is a vast shop with a lot of things to exchange bolts with. But there is only a few you can have as passives while you're only allowed to have one activated at a time, so most of the times unless you're trying to get it all collectables you're usually just gonna stick with two or three that aid you in different ways, sometimes even necessary too because holy hell this game can get tough sometimes.

In pure Mega Man fashion, this game is sometimes very unforgiving, but it's not really so hard that when you beat it you actually feel good about it, it's just kinda frustrating since there's actually not a lot of pick ups for your health or energy, kind of falling into that micromanaging hell most classic Mega Man games suffer, and that 8 managed to solve by being a fun time. This one didn't learn from all that and just decided to do its own thing.

Most new Robot Master are okay, and its interesting how many others came back from 8 further putting the idea that this is just an alternate take on 8, but some of the new designs are pretty cool like Burner Man or Cold Man and I can give it some merit for that, but overall I can only recommend if you've already experienced all of the numbered entries and somehow want more, because it really is just more Mega Man.

na minha lista de ansiedades que rotacionam mensalmente, a que me foi escolhida pra quando joguei esse jogo foi o medo de pessoas mais inteligentes que eu. sabe, pode parecer bobo, mas é paralisante pensar que alguém sabe mais coisas que você e você não tem a menor ideia de entender a cabeça dela, de compreender ela, de participar num mesmo nível de discussão. eu me considero bem burrinha indiferente se as pessoas maravilhosas da minha vida dizem o contrário, talvez porque eu sei demais como minha mente funciona, como eu vou pegando cada caco de informação pra formar um todo, como eu falo as coisas vindo apenas de intuição, o que de certa forma é um tipo de inteligência, mas não a tradicional, não a que eu percebo nos outros. basicamente, eu não fui instruída em debate e discussão, eu vivo no limiar do conhecimento e é um milagre que qualquer coisa que eu fale faça qualquer sentido.

só que as vezes essas pessoas mais inteligentes nem sempre são isso, as vezes elas são más, seja consciente ou não. e essa maldade faz parecer que elas sabem de algum segredo profundo, inalcançável, a renegação do senso comum e enxergam o mundo pelo que ele é. essas pessoas também muitas vezes são traumatizadas.

mega man & bass é um jogo do mal, ele não só é do mal como otário e filho da puta. não sei se a ideia era ser uma versão estendida do 8 só para os verdadeiros, mas ele é do mal. e como toda coisa que é do mal você vence e fica melhor em combater de pouco em pouco. o inicio é desgastante, mas de repente você está bem armada e confiante.

até que essa pessoa procura puxar o mal inteiro por uma ultima vez, tanto que você perde o eixo e a esperança. mas quem vence uma, vence todas morra dr wily desgraça de castelo 2 gigante tnc

(não sei se vou terminar com o mega man se eu terminar eu aviso não vai mudar nada além de que o mega man é mais baby eu sou meio bass pq eu tbm sou um tanto do mal sem escrúpulos a diferença só é que eu gosto de tudo e choro fácil)

Update: Terminei com o Mega Man ele é péssimo, o mundo é cruel demais pra ele

I know mega man games tend to have the problem of the endgames falling off hard, but holy shit, it's really evident here. Most of this game, while not that great, still is pretty fun to play, and handles it shop and part equip system in really neat ways, and I like at least half of the bosses. And even the ones I don't like still have cool designs. But holy shit man, every boss in the King Castle Stages just suck, for multiple reasons.

The stages they're attached to are pretty fine all things considered, it's just each fight in one way or another is way too annoying or hard for some really stupid reason, either because it's invincible for most of the fight and brings things to a crawl, tries to potshot you or trip you up in the worst ways possible, or just says fuck you to your health and tanks it.

If we're counting where I think it stands, I think it's about as good as 4, if not a bit worse without accounting for the King Stages, because I at least think Wily still has a good boss fight in this game, and I do like the normal stages and bosses enough to give it. But without it, it's only above 9 and 10 because they pissed me off more than just being annoying to play. I get this game is hard, but it's hard for bullshit reasons when you get to the king stages. And that's fucked up.

Btw, I should stress that I have tried both characters, a bit as Mega Man going to Burner Man, and then resetting as Bass for the game. I think it's pretty fun as both of them, but I like the Double Jump that Bass has. It's just pretty handy for a Mega Man game.

Anyways, this would be the last game I needed to beat for my Classic Marathon, so for one last time (for now), here are my Robot Master Boss Rankings:

8 - Burner Man
7 - Ground Man
6 - Astra Man
5 - Tengu Man
4 - Cold Man
3 - Pirate Man
2 - Magic Man
1 - Dynamo Man

Playing as Bass was great. His speed with dashes feels very good since Mega Man has been nothing but extremely slow in all of his games. Double jumps are pretty good too.
I did miss Mega Man's slide and charge shot but I get that each character should have their own special traits of course.
I didn't really like the stages that much though. Lots of annoying enemy placement kind of ruined most stages for me. I did like discovering the many secret areas however.
And I don't know why exactly but this game kinda feels like a fan-made game instead of an official game. It just feels... off.
Most bosses were alright. But there were a few extremely annoying ones like Dynamo Man and Burner Man. And of course the Plane boss.
When I encountered the Teleporter room, I was so glad that for once I didn't have to do a boss rush. The usual boss rush Teleporter room is something else entirely in this game. However, the devs just couldn't resist putting in a boss rush anyway. I did not appreciate that fakeout.

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

The last Megaman game in the “true” Megaman series, this actually came after Megaman 8, and leans towards its slightly more realistic style, instead of the much more cartoony look that MM7 had. I mean seriously, compare the way Megaman looked in both games. Honestly, guys.

I haven't gotten into this game much, but my roommate has, and he tells me that Astroman is a total bastard. The cool thing about this game is that you can play as either Megaman or as Bass. Both have different characteristics, which makes playing each character a really different experience. Like, Megaman can charge his blaster, and Bass can fire in all (eight) directions. Pretty neat? Damn right it's neat.

Made the mistake of playing this on the worst possible experience with the GBA version and as Mega Man, but because that's the experience I had this is how I'll be rating it. I genuinely wish they just didn't have Mega Man as an option cause stages were clearly balanced around having Bass to the point sometimes you need the ice wall powerup just to make basic jumps as Mega. Guys will go on and on about how "it's meant to be harder" and act like higher difficulty means a game can't have faults, but I've played a lot more conventionally difficult games and the difficulty here is just frustrating more than a challenge to overcome. King knight stages my absolute beloathed

I really need to play the SNES version since I've heard it is much better but for now this game isn't very good. I've also only played with Mega Man who is apprently the worse character so yeah I need to replay this one day.

I actually really like the OST for this game. I always hear about the GBA curse but idk, I guess I've never really felt what was wrong with it.

Time for the skill issue section. I feel like there should be more checkpoints, I eventually needed to save state because I'm a fake gamer but I never really like long gaps between checkpoints, feels like artificial difficulty. Some bosses are really annoying like Burner Man, he is just the worst. Level design is mostly okay and I really like the new robot master designs, just wish they were all original. There were just way too many frustrating moments in this game even though most of the platforming was pretty fun.

Peak mega man game, definitely the hardest of the classic games but immensely satisfying. Both characters, despite what a lot of people say, are really balanced and have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Plus has a collectable system which encourages you to play the game twice with both characters.

The weapons in particular are great and there's a lot of crazy stuff you can do with Ice Wall and Lightning Bolt in particular. Ice Wall allows you reach higher areas, and has a niche technique where you can jump off it and switch to another weapon for the height advantage in a boss. And lightning bolt lets you stay in place on the screen which has a great use in a lategame boss fight. The game's expanded shop system and it's different approach to the level select makes it feel really fresh and new in comparison to other Mega Man games.