


The only thing Bass is missing is his double jump, which I assume Capcom left out for fear that it would break the game too much. He has automatic rapid-fire a dash move that, when combined with a jump, sends him flying about twice as far as a regular jump and the ability to fuse with his wolf-dog to form a flying, spread-shot-shooting version of his former self. He can shoot in any direction other than straight down. Imagine if the next live-action Star Wars project featured Jar Jar Binks, but instead of being fully CG, he was now a guy in a suit and his “mesa no bombad” dialog was replaced with Chewbacca-inspired guttural fish-grunts, and you’ll get the idea of what it’s like for me to see Bass in Mega Man 10.Īs for how he plays, Bass has most of the moves he had in Mega Man & Bass. That may not mean much to Mega Man non-fans out there (who are reading this for some reason), but for the rest of us, seeing Bass go retro is a big deal. He finally “fits” with the Mega Man world that I grew up with. Though his design is still a little overcomplicated compared to Mega Man and Proto Man, this is still the most palatable version of Bass I’ve seen yet.

Though I’d imagine that he’s not all that psyched about it himself, the anti-hero of the Mega Man universe has now officially traded in his oversized hands and feet for a gigantic head and fat little belly. The purple bullets are gone, the facial scars aren’t as prevalent, and most importantly, Bass has gone 8-bit.

Everything about the guy - the permanent snarl, the unnecessary facial scars, the purple bullets - screams “trying too hard.” Bass isn’t quite as bad as Shadow the Hedgehog when it comes to being “h4rdc0r3,” but he comes close. I enjoyed Bass in Mega Man & Bass, but enjoying and respecting aren’t the same thing. While just about every Mega Man character in the pre- Mega Man 7 games has a certain timeless simplicity to them, Bass is clearly an overly detailed, attitude-packed child of the mid-’90s. I see him as the Poochie of the Mega Man series: a Scrappy-Mega-Man-Doo that Capcom brought in to try to make the original Mega Man games feel “current” and “hardcore” in the 16-bit era. First off, I’ll tell you that I’m not a fan of Bass.
