[played on original SNES hardware as Mega Man]

I think it’s fair to say that Mega Man & Bass is probably the most disliked Classic MM game by a wide margin. It’s gained quite the reputation for being an incredibly tricky and punishing experience, and in a series that’s known for being difficult, that’s saying a lot. When I was going through the series last year, I wasn’t initially planning on playing through MM&B, but eventually did give it a go as Bass and stopped right at the penultimate stage out of frustration. But something funny happened recently. I got the urge to play the first few stages as Mega Man just to see how he felt, and it ended up really clicking! A few days later, I made my way through the whole thing in just a few sessions, and had a pretty good time! And now I’m gonna talk about why this incredibly challenging game was a whole lot of fun for me.


Mega Man as a franchise was already solidified by 1998, but MM&B makes a few changes and additions to help it stand out. The first of which being that you get to play as someone besides the Blue Bomber: his rival, Bass! Instead of having a slide and charge shot, Bass gets a MMX-like dash, double jump and a rapid-fire arm cannon that can be aimed in any direction, although it can’t initially shoot through walls and does pitiful damage against bosses. The other big feature of MM&B is that, like I said at the start, it’s really difficult. But honestly, I thought it was still fairly manageable! I’ll get more into specifics when I talk about the levels, but there’s quite a few elements that can help you tip the scales, the first of which being Auto’s shop. It’s an interesting fusion of how it was in 7 and 8; bolts have returned to being enemy drops, but a lot of the items you can buy are equipable, and they include enhancements like taking less damage, saving more energy when using Robot Master weapons and dealing double damage when you’re near-death. These can really come in handy, and given that you’re able to swap between them at any time, switching things up when the situation calls for it can help a bunch.

Another useful asset comes in the form of the various Robot Master weapons, which are a really solid bunch! Ice Wall’s a great mobility tool, Wave Burner’s an excellent close-ranged option for weaker enemies, Spread Drill and Remote Mine do plenty of damage, Copy Vision can help reduce button-mashing and Magic Card’s useful for snatching goodies from hard-to-reach places. Overall, it’s an excellent selection of weapons, and due to how the stages are laid out (in a grid system where beating one unlocks the path to another), you get more of an opportunity to use them since you’ll be guaranteed to have them for certain levels.

Now we get onto the stages, which I thought were really good! They’re certainly challenging, but they never feel impossible as either character; so long as you use a bit of patience, memorization and utilize everything in your arsenal, you should be able to get through most of them without much issue. It also helps that they’re not too long, so getting a Game Over doesn’t feel like a massive setback (and for me, it helps me become even better at remembering the layouts and obstacles so I can smoothly get through next time). And in traditional Mega Man fashion, there’s a ton of variety which makes every level feel distinct and unique, which is an element of the series I really enjoy!

Unfortunately, there’s quite a dip in quality when you get to the Fortress stages. I don’t think they’re as bad as people say, but they feel a lot sloppier and way more frustrating than the regular levels. It feels a lot closer to the type of game I hear MM&B be described as, which is a shame.

Now it’s time for the presentation, and I’m probably gonna gush a lot because I adore how this game looks and sounds! You can tell Capcom really had a grasp of the hardware by 1998, and they absolutely knocked it out of the park. The graphical style definitely takes cues from Mega Man 8, but it doesn’t even look like that much of a downgrade; everything’s still colourful and immensely detailed. In fact, I’d say it’s on-par with a lot of the Sega Saturn’s 2D games in terms of fidelity, which is really impressive for a console that was first released in 1990! The soundtrack’s also great like usual, with a ton of catchy and melodic tunes. My personal favourites are probably the Robot Museum, Cold Man, Magic Man, Tengu Man and Pirate Man themes.


Despite the general reception, I really liked MM&B! I guess it’s not too surprising given my love of intense difficulty, but I’m so glad I found this much to love, and as such, I think this is a new favourite in the series for me! I’ll have to do a proper playthrough as Bass someday (and find all those data CDs), but that probably won’t be for a while. Overall, if you’re fine with really hard games and are patient enough, I think you might find something to appreciate in this one!

[played on real 2DS hardware]

A series I’ve really started appreciating more over the past few years is Mario. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I ever hated Mario or anything, but I didn’t understand what made the mainline titles so revered and iconic until fairly recently. Learning about the design mentalities and how each game tackled them has given me a newfound love for the series, and it’s been fun replaying the entries I’ve played through this new lens, as well as the ones I hadn’t played before, such is the case with Mario 3D Land. I did give it a go last year but couldn’t really get into it. It just felt so… bland and uninspired, but readjusting my lens and trying to appreciate all the things it did first made it properly click, and I had a blast running through it recently! And like usual, I’m gonna talk about it!


Instead of being a collectathon like every 3D Mario since the Nintendo 64, 3D Land takes a different approach. It goes back to the roots, being a more direct adaptation of the gameplay from the 2D titles that made Mario a household name; there’s no hub worlds or stars/shines to collect here, you’ve got 8 worlds with 4-5 linear stages to complete. It doesn’t sound all that innovative, but 3D Land takes full advantage of the premise to deliver some really fun design! Enemies like Chain Chomps, Bullet Bills and Rocky Wrenches are completely recontextualized to fit the new perspective, and seeing all the ways the developers adapted these elements was part of the fun for me!

A very good example of this is with the power-ups. The Fire Flower’s a fairly obvious choice, but the returning Tanooki Suit is a genius inclusion; the tail swipe’s a very effective way of defeating enemies, whilst the hover allows you to line up jumps easier. There’s only one fully new power-up in the form of the Boomerang Flower, which also fits the game design of 3D Land really well! It just doesn’t get used very much, and feels overshadowed by the Tanooki Suit.

With all these unique elements, you’d hope the level design is good enough to support them… and fortunately, it is! In my opinion, Nintendo really started to perfect their design philosophy for Mario levels during this era, which involves introducing a new gimmick (whether that be an enemy or specific type of platform) and constantly iterating upon it throughout the stage, before finishing it off with one final send-off and moving onto something else for the next level. 3D Land adheres to this philosophy very well, and does an incredibly good job with it! They also play around with camera angles a lot to really make things feel unique, whether that’s giving you a top-down view like the old Zeldas, a side-scrolling view like 2D Mario, or fixed angles that really help to give the stages a sense of scale. It’s all fantastic stuff, and really takes advantage of this being a regular 2D Mario game but in 3D!

I don’t really have much to say in regards to presentation, it’s about what you’d expect from a 2010s Mario game. The graphics are very saturated and colourful, which means they really pop on the 3DS’ tiny screen. They do play it a little safe in regards to world/level themes, but I don’t really mind too much when they all look so good. I have even less to say on the soundtrack but it was good too, there’s a few remixes of SMB3 tracks with some originals sprinkled in, and it’s all good stuff!


In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting to love Mario 3D Land as much as I did! It’s such a charming little entry in the series, and while there isn’t much of a reason to return to it when 3D World exists and basically perfected the “2D Mario in 3D” formula, there’s still plenty of uniqueness here if you know where to look.

I’m still fairly new to shmups, but one series has really managed to grip me, even this early on: Fantasy Zone. Sega’s main take on the genre has clicked with me a ton for whatever reason, which I think mainly boils down to the unique format and general lack of bullet hell sections, at least until the boss fights. The original’s a fun little time if rough in places, Super Fantasy Zone on the Mega Drive is brilliant, but my favourite in the series (and funnily enough, the only one I’ve managed to complete) is this game right here, the System-16 remake of Fantasy Zone 2! Developed by M2 and first released in their FZ collection on the PS2, I first played it through the 3DS port, and always have a blast whenever I pick it up again for an occasional run. It does so much right and absolutely perfects the formula, so I’m gonna talk about it for a bit!


The original Fantasy Zone 2 was released as a Master System title, and appropriately changed the format to better suit a home console. By comparison, the remake sticks a lot closer to the original game’s formula, but polishes it to near-perfection. For starters, Opa-Opa feels way more fluid to control; he doesn’t skid across the screen anywhere near as much when using the stronger engines, meaning I actually feel incentivized to use them instead of sticking to the Big Wings. There’s also some small additions that go a long way, like being able to take a hit whilst using a weapon at the cost of losing it, that make the game feel a lot more modern and approachable, especially if you suck at shmups like I do.

And to make up for the lack of multiple sections the original FZ2 had, this remake introduces Bright and Dark areas for each stage that have different benefits; Bright is generally easier but you gain less money from defeated bosses and bases, whereas Dark rewards you with more cash for defeated foes, but is a lot harder. I really enjoy how much replay value and strategy this adds, as you can make the game more challenging for yourself, but gain extra rewards in return. It also changes what ending you get, so be sure to keep that in mind (the only thing that changes is the ending cutscene, but there are some features locked behind it in the 3DS release).

But honestly, the thing I really love about Fantasy Zone 2 DX is the presentation. I absolutely adore 16-bit graphics and music, and this is easily one of the best in both those categories! To start with the former, this game looks beautiful! The environments and enemies are all so colourful and vibrant, it really makes the world feel alive. The soundtrack’s incredibly good as well, with each of the main stage songs being super catchy and also surprisingly emotional at points. It makes the events of the game feel fairly dire, which does make sense considering the subtitle’s “The Tears of Opa-Opa”.


So yeah, that’s all I wanted to say; I just replayed this game earlier, and wanted to ramble about it! Fantasy Zone 2 DX is a wonderful entry in an underrated series, and definitely worth a try if you like the previous games or have a 3DS. In fact, it might be my favourite 3DS title period!

I just hope M2 rereleases it on a more accessible platform someday, because more people really need to give this one a go.