Rockman & Forte

Quint, from Mega Man II, having decided he’s really annoyed at having been beaten so thoroughly (not to mention quickly) by Mega Man, is back with a vengeance...and a few Robot Masters to boot.

(I’m only kidding; I don’t know what the plot of this game is yet.)

Essentially, someone took Rockman & Forte for the SNES, added a new plot and new stages and enemies, and reworked it all for the WonderSwan. I believe the game was made by Bandai instead of Capcom, and it’s somewhat lacking in the quality department. Certainly it’s better than the PC games, but the Game Boy games are better still.

Some notes on the game play:

• Continue points are after the stage mini-boss. That means if you die before defeating the mini-boss you have to start over from the beginning again.
• After you defeat a stage, the portrait of the boss on the stage select screen alters to reflect this.
• You have to flip the game system sideways at times, and play viewing the screen that way.
• When you defeat an enemy, all of its shots and what-not disappear as well.
  

  Screen shot from Sean.
• Your weapons aren’t refilled between stages or lives, only on continue.
• Weapons stay equipped when you die, although the subscreen always defaults you to your Buster.
• If you press jump while on a ladder, rather than just letting go of the ladder as in every other Mega Man game, your character actually jumps upward, then starts to fall.
• Your shots can actually travel between screens if you trail them fast enough (such as by sliding after them repeatedly). You can use this to hit some bosses before their health meters fill, but it doesn’t actually do any lasting damage to them.
• Different bosses have differently-sized life meters.
• Opening the subscreen changes the music.
• Choosing “Save” quits the game.

A lot of the information on this page comes courtesy of Sean, including many of the opinions of the game, since I have played only about half of it.

Portions of this review were contributed by Sean.

Play Control:

Screen shot from Sean.

There are zero comfortable ways to hold the WonderSwan, fewer for the WonderSwan Color, and this game expects you to use two of them. That said, the controls work. Ladders are implemented a little differently, leading to difficulty grabbing them in some cases, and some caveats getting off them (you jump upward rather than releasing when you press jump while holding a ladder, and you can’t stop at the very top of the ladder without getting off). Also, a double-tap dash for Forte, ala the X series, would not be amiss.

Graphics:

The graphics are detailed to the point of excessive use of dither, but they are completely static and contain almost no contrast no matter how you set the contrast dial on the game system. This makes trying to discern what’s going on and where you’re going a real eyesore.

Animation:

The character sprites look goofy but move fairly fluidly (kinda reminiscent of Mega Man 8 in that respect). The higher screen resolution is put to decent use with the humanoids, and bosses generally have a few more frames of animation than the standard stand/walk/jump/shoot. It’s the minor enemy sprites that really pull this rating down. Even the Mets and bats manage to look strange...

Music:

A lot of the tunes are from the SNES game although the sound hardware isn’t as good here.

Sound Effects:

Most of the effects sound like high-pitched beeps. Even just not interrupting the music—and each other—would be an improvement. They added additional sounds to activities which don’t play sounds in most other games (such as climbing ladders)...which just makes it even more noticeable that the sounds keep overriding each other.

Plot: N/A

It’s not fair for me to rate the game’s plot until I actually translate it.

Difficulty: (hard)

You do have saved games and continues and other things helping you out, but even so, this game is generally more difficult than it’s worth. Add to that an absolutely wicked learning curve and this spells a pretty high difficulty rating, even after factoring in pushover late-game bosses and ridiculously effective weapons and items. At least you can buy down the difficulty via attack upgrades and damage/energy reductions once you get past the first area.

Replay Value:

Screen shot from Sean.

There are two characters (who play very differently), the game gets a good deal easier once you learn it the first time, and pricing more or less prohibits you from trying out all items on your first game with either character. That said, the game is short, few stages have anything non-generic, and most have some point of frustration or other.

Polish:

Pretty much everything worth mentioning was taken from the SNES game. Although the way the boss portraits change on the stage select screen is cute.

Overall: 65%

Generally an okay game. Better than the PC games and a little better than the Game Gear one. But even the worst Game Boy game beats this one, I think, even if the Game Boy does only have four colors.

There isn’t a strict cycle in this game (especially for Forte), so these orders are only suggestions. You may find another order easier if you can get a toehold in by beating one of the other bosses first instead.

Rockman

Screen shot from Sean.
• Konro Man (use DC or RB)
• Aircon Man (Use FS)
• Komuso Man (use BW)
• Dangan Man (use BW or DC)
• Clock Men (use BW)
• Compas Man [sic] (use DC)
• Rockman Shadow (use DC or RV)

Forte

• Aircon Man (use ?? or FB)
• Dangan Man (use FC)
• Konro Man (use FC)
• Komuso Man (use FM)
• Clock Men (use FC and double-jump)
• Compas Man [sic] (use DA)
• Rockman Shadow (use FC)

Screen shot from Sean.

Yellow Devil (Intro stage)

Stand on the center block in the floor, to the side of the block that is farthest from the Yellow Devil’s current position. You want to have your foot right up against the line on the floor. If you’re over the line, or if you’re too far to the other side of the block, you’ll get hit. Whenever the Yellow Devil moves across the screen, jump him, then get on the other side of the block on the floor and fire away. (With Rockman, jump before shooting a charged shot to ensure the blob doesn’t absorb it before it reaches its target.)

If you get gelled, you’ll lose health gradually, so repeatedly hit fire to shake free. You can use jump to escape, but that seems to take longer, at least with Forte, thanks to his auto-fire.

Giant Hand: (Konro Man’s stage)

Stand on the far left and fire away. Eventually the hand will take out the floor underneath your feet but there’s a ledge jutting out from the wall that you can stand on. After destroying all of the floor the hand will come up and grab you, but if you keep jumping and firing usually you’ll defeat it before it kills you.

Octopus: (Aircon Man’s stage)

As Forte I stood underneath it and fired straight up. Don’t destroy the Mets; the octopus will just keep dropping more. Just keep jumping over the Mets’ fire while continuously shooting up. For Rockman, you need to bounce shots off the Mets to hit the octopus (this is actually pretty clever). It’s possible to avoid damage if you jump moments after the Mets do and don’t accidentally kill either of them.

Bug Copter: (Dangan Man’s stage)

If you stay in the center it’ll jump over you. You can also shoot its shots. It will switch sides whenever all its shots are gone. Take out two shots, then hit its lower section as many times as possible before it moves.

Screen shot from Sean.

Laser Cannon: (Komuso Man’s stage)

Generally it’s not very hard to dodge the lasers (be on the ground when it’s up, and on the opposite low platform when it’s down). However note that the cannon will switch sides of the room after five shots so don’t stand against a wall. Also, each laser takes off a good chuck of life—make sure you dodge.

Tank Robot: (Compas Man’s stage)

You have to shoot its head. Hit the head with whatever you’ve got when it’s up. Charged shots work decently. You’ll want the Super Armor.

Jumping Tank: (Clock Men’s stage)

As Rockman you can slide under its jumps. For Forte, FC works decently, and FV should be fine. Using your Buster will be a bit slow, and you may not have the life to spare.

Skull Crawler: (R-Shadow’s stage)

Hit the black nodule on its...er...head. Avoid clearing away its shots until it is on the far side of the room; they move slowly, and this will maximize your time to deal damage. Powerful weapons make things faster. DA with Forte can do wonders, but it may be a bit excessive.

Rockman Shadow:

He’s just a shadow of his former self. Ah ha! Get it? ...Never mind. Anyway, as a final boss, R-Shadow is relatively easy going, especially if you’ve bought into the various power-up items available. His saving graces as an opponent are that he moves around a lot, and he has his Sakugarne (the pogo-stick) for some attacks which gets him offscreen and leaves only his head vulnerable when he’s onscreen. He’s more challenging than Quint was, at any rate. DC/DA is a fair bet, but you might also get good mileage with RV as Rockman or (you guessed it) FC as Forte.

There aren’t any passwords; the game saves instead. Your current number of lives is saved with your game, but lives only go up to 8. (You’re currently using the 9th, apparently.)

Rather peculiarly, most items in this game are single-use only—even the items that are infinite-use in other games. In the shop, Rockman gets serviced by Dr. Light, while Forte gets serviced by Roll (??).

• 1-Up: 200 Bolts
• Exit Unit: 50 Bolts
  

  Screen shot from Sean.
• Rush Coil: 100 Bolts [Rockman only]
• Gospel Boost: 200 Bolts [Forte only]
• Tango: 200 Bolts [Rockman only]
• Super Blast: 300 Bolts [Forte only]
• Hyper Blast: 300 Bolts [Forte only]
• Beat: 300 Bolts [Rockman only]
• Energy Balancer +: 150 Bolts
• Super Capsule: 300 Bolts
• Power Generator: 150 Bolts
• Super Recover: 200 Bolts
• Item Present: 50 Bolts
• Eddie: 150 Bolts [Rockman only]
• Reggae: 150 Bolts [Forte only]
• Shock Guard: 20 Bolts
• Super Armor: 300 Bolts

General Tips

• Get used to the game as Rockman before you try to play as Forte. While Rock can pretty much just blast everything that annoys him, Forte has to rely on dodging a lot more, until he starts picking up Master Weapons. Forte’s weapons and items here are possibly the most brokenly powerful ones in the series, so the difficulty doesn’t stay up there for very long once you really get rolling.
• There are two types of slide passages: one-block and two-block heights. Both Rockman and Forte can slide or dash through the two-block passages, but only Rock can fit through the one-block tunnels.
• Many enemies and mini-bosses have an attack pattern of: (a) fire shots, (b) wait until all shots are gone (they’ve hit you or you’ve destroyed them), (c) turn invincible while moving somewhere else, (d) repeat. You can’t fire while you are being damaged or recovering from a shot, meaning your dodging skill is critical to having any time to land damage.

Rockman Shadow appears to be relieved to have been defeated, which saddens Rockman and irritates Forte. Forte seems to be upset that he didn’t really have a “real” challenge, and Rockman naturally is upset that R-Shadow dies.

In either case, Rock and Forte exchange words over R-Shadow’s grave before teleporting off. In the final shot, R-Shadow’s spirit flies off in a ball of light, presumably to a better place.

After the credits, R-Shadow is shown, alive, well, and sans helmet, alongside all the protagonists.