Deadlock Reviews: Mega Man: Battle and Chase

Well, this is a little late. Yes, I know I did the review for the Megaman X Collection's first parts already, and said I'd finish it with MMBaC. Hear me out for this late review.

Alright, for starters, this game has little plot. It's essentially the plot of every mascot racer: Tournament blah blah blah, everyone is suddenly friends blah blah blah, we go racing for a MacGuffin. Really, there's absolutely nothing wrong with such a concept, but it can get kind of annoying how it's literally the same every time a series goes this far.

Getting to the actual game, it has a roster of 10 playable characters and two unlockable characters. There are 12 tracks—3 of them multiplayer exclusive—and 3 bonus tracks made for the unlockable characters.

Let's just say that for a PS era Kart Game, this game is rather long. I spent a total of 50 hours playing this game total, all of which trying to beat the game as all of the characters, unlocking tracks, and applying upgrades.  And in case you didn't read that part correctly, yes, I said it. You can apply upgrades in a Kart Racer in the PS era.

I started off with Bass for my first Grand Prix. After beating the first race, I was given the option to steal a selected part from the defeated opponent (even if there are up to six other racers on the track, only 2 of them—you and the boss—will be actual characters), then I was able to replace my kart's part with the new piece.

Each Kart has a unique set of parts, and each part has a unique attribute assigned to it. Some of these assignments can be negative, like Roll's Anti-Drift tires, for example. In addition, each character's kart (the frame of which cannot be changed) has a special ability assigned, which can be charged. A notable example is Spring Man's kart, the Surprise Boxer, which has two springs mounted to the side of it. Pressing the attack button when the meter isn't charged will make his springs switch direction, allowing his to either bounce off of walls (which can save your life) or repel other players shots when charged. The charged form lets you literally punch the person in a jack-in-the-box fashion, depending on the direction you set it too.

In addition to that, the game still has a range of universal power-ups that can change the way the game is played. Some powers induce invincibility and speed, and more obscure ones include a power up that gets rid of the opponent's ability to use their special.

You have the option to select a track outside of Boss races, much like a typical Megaman game. Each race has a set of "drone" racers so it's not as boring, and said drones have abilities of their own.

The primary thing that I noticed was the game's steep learning curve. Seriously, this game is brutally difficult.  Even though I'm a Mario Kart Double Dash veteran, this game was a daunting task to beat.  Each race has both environmental- and opponent-based obstacles to make sure that the entire race is debacles. The notable obstacle I faced was the Bass stage, where there were walls that had to be shot through just to go past. This was easy as Megaman and, well, Bass, but was a little more difficult for Protoman, and the others were beyond hard. That's alright for me; I like hard games. But if you're one of those guys who like it easy, or just right/casual, you're in for a beating.

It's safe to say that anyone should see this coming, though. In order to even play this game, you need to beat Megaman X-X3. This took awhile, being new to the series at the time.  It can be said that it's "worth the work", but if you were looking to chill after going to the trouble, this isn't for you.

Graphics. Let's talk Graphics. First, we all know this is a PS game, and the PS is renowned for having…meh graphics, so I'm not going to compare it to any game in particular. Let's just say that I'm impressed with the graphics the game does have. It's not crisp and clean by any means, but it looks great for its time, and the framerate is pretty good, too. It's actually confusing why the devs canceled the localization in the first; this game is a must-have for Megaman fanatics, and just plays well overall. Their excuse was "that there were plenty of mascot racers already". Why would that be a problem? Mascot racers are fun, and this game rival Mario Kart in terms of playstyle.

Overall, this game is a classic take on a classic series that was supposed to be played on a classic console. With very little flaws in its mechanics or graphics, this game may be the only reason you get the Mega Man X collection in the first place, if you already own the games it contains.

Megaman: Battle and Chase: A+

DD's Mega Man reviews

X collection Part 1-X Collection Part 2- X Collection Part 3

- Don’t waste your time reading my post, you’ll just get crushed anyway. Plus it’s by a Muslim.

LOOK WHO CAME:

Drifting Deadlock   

Inquisitive Raven   35

Wes Tacos   24

DeadMoon   14

Agent9   9

LaTerry   9

Uber Mashu   8

Khalid Eternal Nigh   7

Dan Roemer   4