Mega Man & Bass

Mega Man & Bass, known in Japan as Rockman and Forte (ロックマン&フォルテ), is a side-story in the Mega Man classic series that takes place about a year after the events of Mega Man 8, but isn't officially "Mega Man 9". . It was originally released for the Super Famicom (SNES) exclusively in Japan in 1998 and was later ported to the Game Boy Advance and released in 2002-2003.

Release dates
Super Famicom:
 * Japan: April 24, 1998

Game Boy Advance:
 * Japan: August 10, 2002
 * North America: March 12, 2003
 * Europe: March 21, 2003

Overview
You choose to play as Mega Man or Bass. While Mega Man can charge his shots and slide, Bass can fire in 7 directions (straight up, straight forward, or any diagonal) with a rapid-fire arm cannon, do a double jump, and dash. The original Super Famicom version of Rockman & Forte was marketed exclusively in Japan. However, before the Game Boy Advance version was released in the United States, the Super Famicom version was translated into English and Italian through console emulation.

Mega Man & Bass doesn't use the standard 4 or 8 mission select system present in most Mega Man series. After finishing the intro stage, only four stages are selectable initially, including the intro stage itself. The first three selectable Bosses are (from top to bottom) Cold Man, Astro Man and Ground Man. Defeating the first will unlock Pirate Man and Burner Man, and defeating the third unlocks Tengu Man and Magic Man. Defeating the "middle" Boss, Astro Man, will unlock the last Robot Master, Dynamo Man (as well as Pirate Man and Tengu Man if they have not yet been unlocked). Lastly, defeating any of the five unlockable Robot Masters will open the Cyber Hatch area, which acts like the lock to King's fortress. Mega Man/Bass needs to use the Robot Masters' special weapons to open each of the 8 locks, enabling entry to the final stages.

Story (from the manual)
A declaration of crime...from the criminal!

A surprise declaration has been received...from the man who took over Wiley's base! The message reveals that the illegal trespasser is...KING!

King states that any robot who proves himself superior to human beings should rule the Earth!

King goes on to include a threat to steal the robot data from the museum.

Officials are taking the statements...and threats...with the most extreme seriousness.

Mega Man and Bass are sent out on the double to investigate...

Note: Dr. Wily's name is spelled "Wiley" in the 2002 Game Boy Advance instruction manual. Additionally, Dr. Wily is said to be 57-years-old in the Japanese manual of Rockman & Forte (1998).

Actual Story
Roughly one year after Duo's visit to Earth (sometime during the year 2015), a robot calling himself the Robot King appeared and began to recruit other robots to form a new Robot Army. He believed that robots were not meant to simply serve humans, but rather that they were superior and therefore should be the "masters of the Earth". Dr. Wily was ousted from his own newly completed skull compound and sought refuge at Light Labs and, as a result, Bass was sent alongside Mega Man to put a stop to King's rebellion. When King attacked the Robot Master Museum, Proto Man attempted to stop him, but King cut him in half with his axe and Mega Man and Bass sent him to the lab and confronted him. King withdrew, claiming not to have time for them, and left them to his subordinates. Once his army of Robot Masters was defeated and the cyberspace "Hatches" that locked his fortress were unlocked, the two made their way through his fortress, defeating two war machines along the way, and confronted him. None of their attacks appeared to phase him, so the newly repaired Proto Man came again, charged up his Big Bang Attack (even though it would severely damage his internal systems), and destroyed King's shield. Mega Man and Bass managed to defeat King and, upon his defeat, Dr. Wily appeared on the screen and asked King what was wrong with his "brain washing." He remotely repaired King and then King fled to another room and combined two previous war machines into a giant battle machine, but was defeated again and begged the two to stop Wily's ambitions. Mega Man and Bass then went to Wily's floor of the castle and put a stop to the madness. In the end, Mega Man was sad that an innocent robot was destroyed, but then he received a letter from King and found out that everything was all right. Bass, however, was mad that Dr. Wily had plotted against him, but Wily claimed he wanted to find out if King was stronger than he was. Proto Man teleported in, saw plans for a "King II" on Wily's computer, and then destroyed it, leaving the two to quarrel amongst themselves...

Bosses
Intro Stage Boss: Green Devil (back from Mega Man 8)

Robot Masters
Note: Both Astro Man and Tengu Man have returned from Mega Man 8 to join King's rebellion.

Fortress Bosses
King Castle:

Stage 1:
 * Atetemino Proto and Monking A

Stage 2:  Wily Castle: 
 * King Tank
 * King Plane
 * King
 * Jet King Robo (all three previous bosses combined into one)

Final Stage:
 * Rematch with Robot Masters
 * Wily Machine and Wily Capsule

Mega Man & Bass CD Database

 * Click here to see where the 100 CDs are hidden.

There are 100 CDs throughout the stages, each containing data from a important character of the original series (except some like Dr. Cossack, Kalinka, the 4 Dark Men, Doc Robot, Reggae...). Some CDs are very easy to find, while others can only be obtained by one character, as it may be too high for Mega Man or too narrow for Bass.

The English CD translations are considered somewhat nonsensical. One notorious example is Dr. Light's Bad Point, "Douchie".

Mega Man & Bass CD Data
Two heroes have joined forces to stop King's evil ambitions!

"Which hero is the best!?"

Good point: Good Rivals

Bad point: Agreements

Like: Their own policy

Dislike: King

Trivia

 * This is the first console game (aside from Mega Man 7's hidden two-player mode) where Bass is a playable character.
 * This is the only classic Mega Man game on the Super Nintendo that wasn't released in the U.S.
 * The game uses the art style of Mega Man 8, but with the lower resolution, zoomed-in playfield of Mega Man 7.
 * Mega Man and Bass was never meant to be Mega Man 9. Rather, it was considered to be "Rockman 8.5" by Keiji Inafune and Capcom, Inc. A snipet of unencoded text in the ROM's data also reflects this.
 * Originally, Mega Man and Bass was meant to be an "alternate continuation" of the Mega Man classic series that followed the events of Mega Man 8, but Mega Man 9's ending directly referenced the ending of Mega Man and Bass (as well as the endings of the other eight numerical games in the series).
 * This is the only non-numbered console game to be directly referenced in Mega Man 9.
 * There is a Japanese manga drawn by Izuki Koji based on this game.
 * Interestingly (and possibly coincidentally), the six different Robot Masters appear to be a throwback to the ones from the first Mega Man game. Not only are there six different Robot Masters to fight like in the first game, but these different Robot Masters also have similar weapons - either by element or by the nature of the weapon - to the Robot Master's from the first game. Here is a list of similarities as follows: Cold Man/Ice Man, Burner Man/Fire Man, Pirate Man/Bomb Man, Ground Man/Guts Man, Magic Man/Cut Man, and Dynamo Man/Elec Man.

Mega Man & Bass japanese commercial
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