Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Do you like Capcom games? Ones which feature different coloured robots? You do?!? Excellent! Then this may just be of interest to you. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Mega Man & Bass

Price: GB £6.29, EU €6.99 
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Released: 2003
System: GBA
 
Mega Man has had an illustrious history which all started on the NES back in the day, which continued with several fruitful SNES titles to boot; so it would have no doubt been a blow to any Nintendo only console owners when Mega Man 8 saw its release on the Playstation in addition to a Sega Saturn version as well, however in Japan they ended up receiving Mega Man & Bass for the SNES whereas the rest of the world had to wait a little longer for this, the GBA remake. Our story starts as an evil robot called King is attempting to take over the world, so Mega Man is trying to save the day while Bass is out to prove that he is the strongest robot overall.

This sets the difficulty levels nicely as all you need to do is choose Mega Man if you want a relatively straight-forward playthrough as it keeps things simple only supplying you with a charge shot plus a slide move, choosing Bass however will give you multi-directional rapid fire, a quick dash technique and a double jump ability as well. It's important to note these different difficulties as the level design tends to be a touch on the unforgiving side featuring a plentiful supply of enemies along with awkwardly placed hazards; even someone jumping into the series for the first time can see that Bass has a clear advantage but at least the Blue Bomber is still there for veterans who wish to grind through the game.

Mixing things up further only three Robot Masters can be fought from the start, as you defeat each available boss more are then unlocked which makes it easier to seperate the wheat from the chaff as it were in terms of difficulty; sadly though the encounters themselves aren't exactly the best I've seen in a Mega Man game, indeed if anything they all seem to rely on cheap tactics more than anything else which is a shame as you'll need more luck than judgement to win these battles so keep those Restore Points handy if you want to avoid frustration. While the controls are solid as ever, the level design is a bit of a mixed bag as due to everything looking very zoomed-in it can be difficult to ascertain where deadly drops or spike pits are, not to mention the very sneaky enemy placement which will likely often leave you cursing the game on odd occasions.

Even though the sprites are a little on the large side all of the visual elements are very nicely designed indeed probably owing to its original SNES roots so you have a game which is well up to 16-bit standards if not slightly above at times with an incredible amount of detail put into the background in particular in addition to some rather creative enemies. Sadly the music is something of a letdown, I can't compare it to the Japanese SNES original but I can't help but feel that the original soundtrack would have been better than this surely? With that said it's all perfectly functional, just not up to the same spectacular standard set by earlier titles.

If you're looking for another Mega Man title to play having finished all of the other games available on the VC then you really can't go far wrong with this, it's still a well made game with a decent amount of replay value thanks to one hundred hidden CD's - which unlock Robot Master character bio's plus series history - hidden in the stages requiring at least two full playthroughs in order to obtain them all. For anyone who has yet to play the spectacular Mega Man X or even Zero series though I'd advise playing those first; also it would seem that we must be nearing the end of Mega Man titles released on Nintendo systems soon, it would be interesting if Capcom were to find a way to release titles released on other platforms such as Mega Man the Wily Wars released solely on the Sega Megadrive but alas probably a pipe dream along with Mega Man 64. There's still plenty of Mega Man available on the VC and in this game alone to keep the average gamer entertained for a good while, also let's not forget about Mega Man Legacy Collection for the 3DS which is sure to provide another avenue to enjoy more Mega Man goodness.

Verdict: Mega Man & Bass are a duo not to be taken lightly.  

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!