The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Rockman & Forte

You know what? Before starting this long line of Rockman games in my Project, I used to think, like many other Rockman fans: "Capcom should pick up the regular Rockman series again and make a real Rockman 9 or sumthin", but now that I've replayed Rockman & Forte, I'm not so sure anymore.

Let's face it, what with the rather dreary Rockman 8, and now this game, the series has really gone to the dogs, and I fully understand if Capcom doesn't want to bother anymore. They're probably afraid of what they'll do next.

In fact, I dare say that even this game was a bit of a gamble, since there's one thing about it that doesn't really make sense. Rockman 8 was released on PSX and Saturn with the cutscenes and the theme songs and the colorful graphics, but THEN Capcom decided to perhaps give one last nod to their Old Fans and release the sequel Rockman & Forte, on SNES again! WTF YO!? That doesn't make any kind of marketing sense whatsoever, unless they wanted to keep it cheap and see how much money they could still make with it.

I was impressed to see that the sprites have lost nothing in quality with this big step backwards. ALL enemies in this game, apart from 6 of the 8 bosses, were taken directly from Megaman 8 and they look exactly the same on SNES.
Backgrounds are a bit less detailed and colorful though, there have to be concessions somewhere. Music isn't that much worse either, but that's because Rockman 8, even on CD, sucked quite large balls.

The point of this game is that this time Megaman's not-so-eternal rival Forte/Bass is also playable. Forte controls distinctly differently from Megaman, and he has his own weak points and Fortes (I'm going to run this pun into the ground. INTO THE GROUND I TELL YOU!). He has a double jump and a buster that can shoot in 8 directions, whereas Megaman has his charge shot and a Slide to get through narrow Hallways. There is good balance between the two, and it is kinda cool to be able to play with Forte, but the problem is that the game itself is just not good.

It's a terrible cash-in, obviously, with all these re-used sprites and bosses, and it's bloody annoying and frustrating as HELL. For added replay value, the game has 100 Data CD's hidden across the stages. Each CD contains information on previous Megaman Bosses and characters, which can be viewed in the Data Screen or whatever it's called. It's a nice idea, but for fans only, and some CD's are extremely hard to get, not to mention those that are invisible and buried at places where noone would EVER think to look.

The story, as if it matters, is that there's this robot called King, who's started to go on a rampage against the Human Race because he thinks there's no need to live in peace with Humans, so he's rebelled against basically EVERYONE, and now Dr. Tomas Light and Dr. Wily have joined forces (through Megaman and Forte of course, don't expect these old geezers to ever do anything) although only an idiot would think that Dr. Wily was NOT behind it after all this time.

It's a completely unnecessary addition to the series, one made ONLY for fans, since it has many many references to older Megaman games, but even fans will have a hard time liking this one, because it's just NO fun.
It's a very nasty tone to end the Megaman Series on, but at least it doesn't leave me wanting more. Great job, Capcom. A 6 for you.




In more interesting news, I have expanded my collection once again!
Never mind the fact that I have a back-log as big as my Ego (big), as a True Gamer, you just keep buying and buying games. AND BUYING.
I'm no idiot though (never mind what the doctor's say), so I only buy games that are cheap, usualy below the 30 dollar/Euro or 3000 Yen barrier, which has today left me with: Killer 7.
After reading rather a lot of negative reviews from Gamesite, but basically having people who DO know what they're talking about telling me it's actually really good has caused me to buy it anyway.

The store clerk told me I was more than likely going to loose sleep over this game (in a positive way) so that's promising. And I already LOVE the visual style, so who knows what will come of this. More on this soon!

posted by Ingen! @ 4:02 PM