Gameplay in The Power Fighters is largely similar to that of its predecessor, including its controls, structure, and support for two-player cooperative play. The game once again features Mega Man, Proto Man, Bass as playable characters, along with a fourth character, Duo. In addition to jumping, firing buster shots, and performing dash attacks, as in the previous game, all characters have been given unique attributes and their own special attack, performed by holding up and releasing a fully charged buster shot. When the player depletes half of an enemy's health or uses a continue, Doctor Light's transport robot Eddie will appear and offer them an item to call a character specific helper robot: Mega Man summons Rush, Bass summons Treble, and Proto Man and Duo both summon Beat. These helper robots will perform special abilities until their energy is depleted, through special weapons cannot be used while they are active.
As in The Power Battle, there are three "stories" to choose from: finding Doctor Wily, saving Roll, and recovering the robot parts Wily stole from Doctor Light. Each of the three stories features a different set of six Robot Masters to fight, a unique power-up received partway through the story, and a different sub-boss fought prior to the final battle with Wily. Unlike the previous game, The Power Fighters lets the player choose freely between Robot Master stages, and provides hints as to their weaknesses. During battles, damaging the Robot Master will cause them to drop pellets, which can grant points or restore health or weapon energy. When a Robot Master is defeated, in addition to pellets, they will drop a capsule that grants their special weapon to whichever player picks it up. In later stages, Robot Masters will activate an "overdrive mode" after losing half their health; this will alter their attack patterns, granting them new moves and weapons or making them more difficult to hit.
Each character has a different epilogue that plays when the player completes the story, including one for each combination of two characters in co-op play. These epilogues frequently allude to events from other Mega Man games, including the appearance of Evil Energy in the then-upcoming Mega Man 8 and Doctor Wily's creation of Zero from the Mega Man X series.
Release
Mega Man: The Power Fighters was released in arcades in 1996, one year after its predecessor, The Power Battle.[3] An adaptation of both games, Rockman Battle & Fighters, was released in 2000 for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.[4] The arcade versions of both games would receive their first home console release in 2004 as part of two separate compilations. In North America, they were included as one of the ten games featured in Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox.[5] In Japan, the two games were given a standalone compilation release for PlayStation 2, titled Rockman Power Battle Fighters (ロックマン パワーバトルファイターズ).[6] Both games were later re-released as part of the Retro Station dedicated console in 2020,[7] and the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium compilation in 2022.[8]
Reception
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Neil Foster of Hardcore Gaming 101 spoke positively of The Power Fighters, believing it was more challenging and fleshed out than The Power Battle.[9] Alex Navarro of GameSpot, in his review of Mega Man Anniversary Collection, felt that The Power Battle and The Power Fighters were both worth playing despite their simplistic gameplay and lack of replay value.[5]
Four reviewers for the Japanese publication Weekly Famitsu scored the PlayStation 2 compilation of the two arcade games a total of 22 out of 40.[10]
References
↑ known in Japan as Rockman 2: The Power Fighters (ロックマン2・ザ・パワーファイターズ)
↑ Famitsu staff (August 13, 2004). クロスレビュー[Cross Review]. Famitsu (in Japanese). No.817. Enterbrain. Archived from the original on April 28, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
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