Rockman and Forte Mirai kara no Chōsensha

Plot

Like other games in the Rockman series, Rockman & Forte Mirai kara no Chōsensha takes place in the year 20XX. A group of robots from the future calling themselves the "Dimensions" attacked Symphony City, a city where people and robots lived in peace. Though without any witnesses, the one leading the Dimensions with overwhelming power is a robot that appears similar to Rockman (Mega Man in the West), who calls himself "Rockman Shadow". He is said to be a dark and wicked person completely obsessed with destruction. Rockman, who hears this news at Dr. Right's (Dr. Light in the West) laboratory, ventures to the scene despite being under maintenance. At the same time, Dr. Wily sees the dark Rockman, and to ascertain the mystery he sends Forte (Bass in the West). Eventually Rockman Shadow and the Dimensions are defeated and their plans put to rest.

Gameplay

Similar to the previous game, Rockman & Forte (which was eventually released as a Game Boy Advance title in the USA and in Europe, Mega Man & Bass), two characters are available for play: Rockman and Forte. Rockman plays in his traditional manner, where Forte deviates, as in the previous game, with a rapid fire standard weapon that cannot be fired while moving as well as the ability to dash (similar to the characters in the Rockman X series) and double jump. A notable difference in gameplay is that the "Robot Masters" in this game do not exhibit a short period of invincibility after being damaged, allowing the player to continuously damage them where possible. Also of note, a feature unique to the WonderSwan was a third set of controls located above the traditional directional controls which allowed some games to be played with the screen oriented vertically. When selecting Aircon Man, the player was required to change his or her grip on the device, as the stage had to be played vertically. Finally, unlike previous games in the series there are only five weapons to be obtained as opposed to the traditional eight; Compass Man did not surrender a weapon to the player upon defeat.

The Bolt system also returns allowing either character to purchase helpful items to be used during gameplay. Each character has access to both universal items like extra lives and exclusive items such as Rockman being able to summon Rush, Eddie, Tango and Beat while Forte can summon Gospel (known as Treble in the West) and Reggae (a bird-type support robot that last was seen in the 1993 Famicom game Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise).

Reception

Rockman & Forte Mirai kara no Chōsensha was not well received ." Jeremy Parrish of 1UP.com called it the worst Mega Man game ever.