Megaman as a franchise has always been weird for me. I've heard plenty of great things about them, but my actual experience ended up more on the side of what I read on Nintendo Power about how 9 was a real controller toss-inducing game. It always just kind of felt tedious and clunky, as if I was just trudging through so-so levels until getting to a boss who was either absurdly difficult or uninteresting and basic depending on if I had the right power.
While I never really enjoyed the games myself, or even played them for quite a while, honestly, I checked out lots of discussions online, mostly YouTube reviews. I heard plenty of people gas up the X series as the "perfect video game" and whatnot, although just this year I played some and found for me they ranged from fine to whatever the hell X2 was. One thing I remember was Somecallmejohnny's big lineup of Classic Megaman reviews. Besides how he emulated Mega Man 7 to see the funny ending, the only thing I really remember is a pretty common Internet adage: that Mega Man & Bass was quite a bad video game.
Yet through some mix of ironic adoration and genuine curiosity, I finally checked it out, and I guess I don't agree this time. I never really felt it was as terrifyingly frustrating as people had made it out to be (aside from Burner Man, who yeah, is pretty abysmal). For the other 7 Robot Master stages, while I could see some parts that sort of look unfair, those parts never really got on my nerves. Most of the allegedly bad enemy placement was rare, and a minor nuisance at best. Sure, if I were examining it piece by piece, like my miserable stint reviewing mediocre Mario Maker levels, I would agree that maybe they shouldn't start a disappearing block section over a pit of spikes with no indication of the timing. But these moments always felt surprisingly fleeting and not too awful to overcome.
And I felt it was worth it to get past those minor hurdles because the rest of the game was pretty tight. There were just a lot of inventive setpieces, although I'll admit to not having enough Mega Man knowledge to determine how much of this was just lifted from 8. Most of the levels had this intuitive sense of flow to them. Like, I remember seeing something about how those platforms in Astro Man's level raise you up into spikes you can't see, but when every other platform of the sort tried raising you into spikes, I figured out what was going on pretty quick and didn't even die there.
That sense of understanding the levels is something I've never experienced in this series until now. This felt like the first time that using Megaman's tight controls to get through each of the levels made sense to me. When I played the X series, it just kind of felt like I was scraping by, barreling through everything without really getting what was going on. Maybe the levels were just involved enough to force me to finally think about them deeper, and really get into Megaman's slow, methodical pace, I'm not really sure. Having those tougher levels probably also helped my interest, since as I've said before, Megaman's bosses never really did anything for me. Although, once I did consider that I could probably beat Ground Man with no powers to put off Burner Man for as long as possible. For all people have said about how replayable this series is thanks to acquiring weapons in different orders, this is, in a running theme of sorts, the first time I've ever felt that urge.
Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows for this game. Aside from the Burner Man in the room, the endgame follows pretty typical Mega Man fare of going downhill real quick. King Stage 2 is too long with four bosses, even if I thought that King Jet everyone is so riled up about wasn't even that bad. Plus the Wily boss is annoying, especially considering you would need to replay the boss rush if you game overed. There's also the matter of the game not saving your progress in the King levels if you turn off the console, but let's just say we have the technology to make that a non issue.
Overall, Mega Man & Bass was a great time, and I'm glad I finally developed that level of appreciation for the series that I've seen so many people have. There's still a lot of the rough edges I've experienced throughout the series, but for helping me finally get Mega Man, I definitely respect this game. The world is just full of surprises sometimes, I guess.
(played as megaman)
While I never really enjoyed the games myself, or even played them for quite a while, honestly, I checked out lots of discussions online, mostly YouTube reviews. I heard plenty of people gas up the X series as the "perfect video game" and whatnot, although just this year I played some and found for me they ranged from fine to whatever the hell X2 was. One thing I remember was Somecallmejohnny's big lineup of Classic Megaman reviews. Besides how he emulated Mega Man 7 to see the funny ending, the only thing I really remember is a pretty common Internet adage: that Mega Man & Bass was quite a bad video game.
Yet through some mix of ironic adoration and genuine curiosity, I finally checked it out, and I guess I don't agree this time. I never really felt it was as terrifyingly frustrating as people had made it out to be (aside from Burner Man, who yeah, is pretty abysmal). For the other 7 Robot Master stages, while I could see some parts that sort of look unfair, those parts never really got on my nerves. Most of the allegedly bad enemy placement was rare, and a minor nuisance at best. Sure, if I were examining it piece by piece, like my miserable stint reviewing mediocre Mario Maker levels, I would agree that maybe they shouldn't start a disappearing block section over a pit of spikes with no indication of the timing. But these moments always felt surprisingly fleeting and not too awful to overcome.
And I felt it was worth it to get past those minor hurdles because the rest of the game was pretty tight. There were just a lot of inventive setpieces, although I'll admit to not having enough Mega Man knowledge to determine how much of this was just lifted from 8. Most of the levels had this intuitive sense of flow to them. Like, I remember seeing something about how those platforms in Astro Man's level raise you up into spikes you can't see, but when every other platform of the sort tried raising you into spikes, I figured out what was going on pretty quick and didn't even die there.
That sense of understanding the levels is something I've never experienced in this series until now. This felt like the first time that using Megaman's tight controls to get through each of the levels made sense to me. When I played the X series, it just kind of felt like I was scraping by, barreling through everything without really getting what was going on. Maybe the levels were just involved enough to force me to finally think about them deeper, and really get into Megaman's slow, methodical pace, I'm not really sure. Having those tougher levels probably also helped my interest, since as I've said before, Megaman's bosses never really did anything for me. Although, once I did consider that I could probably beat Ground Man with no powers to put off Burner Man for as long as possible. For all people have said about how replayable this series is thanks to acquiring weapons in different orders, this is, in a running theme of sorts, the first time I've ever felt that urge.
Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows for this game. Aside from the Burner Man in the room, the endgame follows pretty typical Mega Man fare of going downhill real quick. King Stage 2 is too long with four bosses, even if I thought that King Jet everyone is so riled up about wasn't even that bad. Plus the Wily boss is annoying, especially considering you would need to replay the boss rush if you game overed. There's also the matter of the game not saving your progress in the King levels if you turn off the console, but let's just say we have the technology to make that a non issue.
Overall, Mega Man & Bass was a great time, and I'm glad I finally developed that level of appreciation for the series that I've seen so many people have. There's still a lot of the rough edges I've experienced throughout the series, but for helping me finally get Mega Man, I definitely respect this game. The world is just full of surprises sometimes, I guess.
(played as megaman)