Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chōsensha

Rockman & Forte:Mirai kara no Chōsensha
Game Information
Developer(s):	Bandai
Publisher(s):	Capcom
Series:	Mega Man classic
Platform(s):	WonderSwan
Release date(s):	Bandai WonderSwan August 5, 1999
Genre(s):	Action / Platform
Mode(s):	Single Player

Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chōsensha (ロックマン&フォルテ 未来からの挑戦者, Rokkuman ando Forute: Mirai kara no Chousensha, lit. "Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future") is a video game in the classic Mega Man series. It is considered to be a “sequel” to Mega Man & Bass due to its naming, and was developed by Bandai under license by Capcom and released in 1999 for the Bandai WonderSwan.

Overview

Like in Rockman & Forte, the player can choose to play as Rockman (Mega Man) or Forte (Bass). Once again Rockman can charge his shots and slide while Forte can fire in seven directions (straight up, straight forward, or any diagonal) with a rapid-fire arm cannon, do a double jump, and dash. This time, however, Rockman and Forte each get different Special Weapons from the Robot Masters they defeat. Rightot's (Auto’s) shop returns with some of the items from Rockman & Forte, but now Reggae and Tango are available for Forte and Rockman respectively.

Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chōsensha only has eight stages. After finishing the opening stage, five stages are selectable initially, including the opening stage. The first four selectable bosses are (from top to bottom) Dangan Man, Konro Man, Aircon Man and Komuso Man. Defeating all the bosses will unlock the Clock Men, and after defeating them, Compass Man and then finally Rockman Shadow.

Story

From the game's opening scene:

The Dimensions attack Symphony City

The year is 200X. A group of robots 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 was a robot like Rockman. He was said to be a dark and wicked person completely obsessed with destruction. Rockman, who heard this news at Right's laboratory, took off to the scene despite being under maintenance. At the same time, Wily saw the dark Rockman, and to ascertain the mystery he sends Forte to the city. Just who is this dark Rockman really?!

• Rockman Shadow: "My name is Rockman Shadow! I am a robot with great power. I won't forgive those who don't obey me!"
• Rockman: "Stop your harming of everyone! Who the heck are you? How can it be you look just like me?"
• Forte: "I've come to end the life of Rockman who I hate to this day, but somehow this situation is different than usual."
• Rockman: "Forte, I don't have time to be concerned with that now. I must hold back those robots!"
• Forte: "Ch! It can't be helped, Wily's laboratory is near this city. I won't carry out our war of attrition here!"

For the time being, the two had to set aside their differences and face the new threat of the Dimensions. After defeating all of them, they face their leader, Rockman Shadow. He briefly discusses Quint, a version of Rockman that previously came from the future but was captured and customized by Dr. Wily. Depending on which character confronts him at the end, he will give a different version of his origin, but in the end he will be put out of his misery, revealing that he wanted to be destroyed in order to stop his destructive desires.

Note: The year is given in the game as 200X, but this is most likely either a typographical error or a continuity error, as Bass/Forte made his debut in Mega Man 7, which took place in 20XX.

Bosses

Intro Stage Boss: Grey Devil

Robot Masters:

Name	Weapon	Weakness
Dangan Man	Rockn Vulcan (Rockman) and Forte Vulcan (Forte)	Barrier Wind and Forte Cyclone
Konro Man	Flame Shower (Rockman) and Flame Mixer (Forte)	Rockn Vulcan and Forte Vulcan
Aircon Man	Barrier Wind (Rockman) and Forte Cyclone (Forte)	Flame Shower and Flame Mixer
Komuso Man	Doppel Crash (Rockman) and Doppler Attack (Forte)	Barrier Wind and Forte Cyclone
Clock Men	Time Switch (Rockman) and Time Bomb (Forte)	Barrier Wind/Forte Cyclone and Doppel Crash
Compass Man	None	Barrier Wind/Forte Cyclone and Doppel Crash

Final Boss:

• Rockman Shadow

Item shop

Dr. Right (Dr. Light) and Roll run a shop and create items in exchange for Screws that can be found throughout the stages. All the items are available to purchase from the beginning. Dr. Right is the shopkeeper in Rockman's story, and Roll in Forte's story.

Except for the Super Buster, Hyper Buster, Energy Balancer, Energy Saver, Super Recover and Super Armor, all items can be used only once, which means they need to be purchased again after usage.

Items in common		Screws	Function
	Spare Body	200	Gives one extra life.
	Exit Parts	50	Allows the player to exit a stage that was already completed.
	Energy Balancer	150	When you pick up a weapon energy, the Special Weapon that has the lowest remaining energy will be refilled.
	Weapon Charge	300	Refills the energy of all the Special Weapons.
	Energy Saver	150	Special Weapons use less energy.
	Super Recover	200	It allows your energy to be recovered by a larger amount than usual.
	Item Presenter	50	When activated, a Party Ball appears in one area of the stage.
	Shock Guard	20	Protects from spikes once.
	Super Armor	300	Reduces the amount of damage inflicted.

Rockman's items		Screws	Function
	Rush Coil	100	Rush appears to allow Rockman reach high areas with the Rush Coil.
	Tango	200	Tango appears and rolls to attack enemies.
	Beat	300	Beat will appear and make Rockman invincible for a short period. While in effect, Beat will fly around Rockman damaging the enemies he touches.
	Eddie	150	Eddie appears and drops one item.

Forte's items		Screws	Function
	Gospel Boost	200	Gospel (Treble) transforms into a booster-adapter allowing Forte to fly for a limited time.
	Super Buster	300	Doubles the power of the Forte Buster.
	Hyper Buster	300	The Forte Buster shots can pass through walls.
	Reggae	150	Reggae appears and drops one item.

See also

• Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha Script
• Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha Damage Data Chart
• Mega Man II

Other Media

The tease for the adaption from Mega Man #20.

The Mega Man series from Archie Comics teased at an adaptation of the game in Mega Man #20, although the series went on hiatus before it could adapt the full storyline. This marks the first time Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chōsensha has appeared officially in a media outside Japan. Despite the fact, Ian Flynn stating that the game was off limits due to be being told he may not use the material. Though it's possible it could've been Quint as Ian Flynn stated that he had plans for Quint and also stated that the team can make their own line of Robot Masters.

Screenshots

Title screen

Symphony City being attacked by the Dimensions

Rockman, Rush, Forte and Gospel in the opening sequence.

Videos

Forte gameplay

Let's Play Rockman & Forte Jinzouningen no Naku Koro ni 5

WonderSwan Longplay 003 Rockman & Forte - Mirai Kara no Chousensha

Soundtrack-Intro Stage

Rockman and Forte Mirai Kara no Chousensha Soundtrack - Intro Stage

Trivia

Konro Man comic

• Mega Man ZX Advent references some bosses of this game as comic book characters. If the player can collect a certain Secret Disk, Konro Man appears in the cover of a digital comic book and is described as a walking stove hero. The Hunter Ray says he wants to create a comic book about a robot that fights with a folding fan in each hand (Aircon Man), and the item "Comic (Orange)" that can be obtained in Sharon's request is an action comic about two talking wrist watches (Clock Men).
• This is notably one of the few Mega Man games where Dr. Wily was not the mastermind behind the events or even a boss. He is, however, indirectly responsible for Rockman Shadow's existence, as he scrapped and abandoned him for being a failed prototype of Quint.
• This is the first Mega Man game to feature mini-bosses in all the Robot Masters stages, with Mega Man 11 being the second.
• The Robot Masters in this game do not have an invincibility period after being hit, allowing the player to continuously attack them if possible, though bosses have points in their attack patterns in which they are invincible.
• The Special Weapons in this game do a set damage against all bosses so every boss in the game takes the same amount of damage from a weapon, such as Barrier Wind/Forte Cyclone dealing 5 units of damage to every boss. Rapid hitting weapons deal less damage but easily drain the boss' HP.
• The player does not recover weapon energy between stages in this game.
• The game reuses many tracks from Mega Man & Bass, which were degraded in quality to meet the limitations of the WonderSwan.

Komuso Man after defeat.

• After defeating a Robot Master in the game, the Robot Master's portrait on the stage select screen changes to show him in a defeated pose to reflect this.
• This is the only Rockman licensed game mentioned in the book R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works.
• The player can only have a maximum of eight lives in this game as opposed to the traditional nine.
• Enemies in this game resemble enemies from the Mega Man X series as many are insects, along with Batton Bones being common throughout stages. It is possible that the enemies fought are early-production Mechaniloids from the future.
• Strangely, many of the Robot Masters in this game have Japanese names, most likely due to the fact that this game was only released in Japan.

External links

• Official page
• Translation of Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha
• Site with information about Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha
• Review of Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara no Chousensha
• Fan translation by NickDC on Romhacking.net
• Concept art gallery