Toshihiko Horiyama, Naoshi Mizuta and Akari Kaida - Megaman and Bass (1998)

 

Composer: Toshihiko Horiyama, Naoshi Mizuta and Akari Kaida
Console: SNES / GBA
Game Release Date: 1998-04-24
Bootleg Release Date: 2021-07-26

Ripper: Someone on KHInsider
Runtime: 45:03, 30 Tracks

Despite the fact I am past the one-year anniversary of the blog I have just been busy and uninterested in writing. I do have something planned for 1 year but I will wait until blog post number 52 to release it. Anyways here is another soundtrack! 

Megaman and Bass was a SNES game that also had a GBA port. It was one of the last SNES games ever made and it shows. It's a typical Megaman game, fight a bunch of robot masters and then Wily. This one however is slightly different. In this game you get the option to also play as Bass. Bass plays slightly different from Megaman. He has omni-directional aiming, double jump, dash and a way higher damage-per-second count. The only downside is that his bullets do less damage. The game also features tons of collectibles with lots of lore about various characters in the Megaman universe. It's well worth it to go back levels and try and collect them, discovering secret passages only available with certain weapons. 

I played the games years ago first on the GBA. It was one of the first games I ever emulated. I was drawn into it as I quite liked Bass' character design. Megaman had always been okay but I preferred X and never even touched the NES games. So I booted it up in VBA and gave it a shot. And I really didn't like it. For one, to dash you had to double tap left. And I hated that. So much so that I just believed it was a crap game for years and years after that and gave up. Now, at the time I also didn't know much so I was not made aware of the SNES version having a dedicated dash button and being completely better than the GBA version in every way. Aside from a dedicated dash button the game also had higher quality music and a bigger FOV. I can't believe I hadn't heard of the SNES version being different until years later. I can't imagine a scenario I would even recommend the GBA version. Just crap. I hate games that do double tap to run (looking at you Minecraft). 

That rant aside, the game is excellent. The levels are vibrant and challenging but not fuck-you levels of hard. You have a life system but you can buy extra lives and upgrades in the store. If you run out of lives you just have to re-do the level and it's enjoyable enough that I didn't mind redoing levels multiple times. The best boss had to be Astro-Man. Beating him with Bass was extremely satisfying and I spent a bit of time learning his patterns. I played the entire game on Bass. Megaman is cool but as I wrote earlier, X is much better. Plus Bass' double jump and all-directional shooting is far better than the little movements that Megaman can do. I don't even mind much that Bass' bullets do less damage. 
This was also one of the last games I ever played on my Ouya around the time the entire service shut down. My Ouya still works and I know about the preservation project, I just have no reason currently to use it. Maybe in the future. 

I haven't played many of the Megaman games, truth be told but I would easily put this game above the first few Megaman X games. Command Mission is still leagues ahead of this one though. 

The games music was composed by Toshihiko Horiyama, Naoshi Mizuta and Akari Kaida. The three of which are all veteran composers at Capcom. Horiyama has composed for several Megaman games as well as at least one of the Phoenix Wright games. Mizuta has done lots of work with various Final Fantasy games, Parasite Eve, Blood of Bahamut. And, Kaida has done work on Capcom games Bio Hazard / Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Breath of Fire. The three have definitely gotten around. 
The music not typical of the Megaman series and is way jazzier and downbeat than the other games. It is downright trip hop at points and I love it. Astro Man's stage is literally pure ambient, almost new age music with a beat. It's glorious. It also has these woodwind samples that really elevate the track. 

The rip below is a re-tagged and modified version of the KHInsider version with correct cover art and all the ID3 tags included. The quality is v0. Enjoy! 

Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvYmRoQ1dCRGEjYlVXV1duVHJlWFNqWHI3LWRHTy1DYWU1LThQeVVyQWVDMWk1NnBNYUstUQ==
p@ss: forteandgospel