Mega Man: Battle & Chase (PS1) Retro Review

MEGA MAY races on, quite literally, with our next retro review featuring Capcom's super fighting robot. But this time, he's Capcom's super racing robot with Mega Man: Battle & Chase on the original PlayStation.

Road Rage with the Blue Bomber

I remember back in the days of gaming magazines being the go-to source for news and announcements about games, and growing unbearably excited towards a little preview--it was maybe 1/8th of the page--of a newly unveiled racing game featuring the Blue Bomber. This game was Mega Man: Battle & Chase, and immediately upon seeing it in incredibly brief preview form, I was beyond hyped. I loved Mario Kart and other mascot racing games--still do--and I loved Mega Man--again, still do. It was a perfect storm for a game for a much younger me to be excited about.

Of course, my excitement would eventually turn into disappointment when Mega Man: Battle & Chase never released on the original PlayStation--at least here in North America. It had a final build--final PREVIEW build for magazines, at that--but it never saw a release here, instead releasing only in Europe and Japan. North Americans would finally get the chance to get behind the driver's seat as the Blue Bomber only when the Mega Man X Collection launched, with Battle & Chase as a bonus game included. 

You can bet your last Energy Tank that I jumped on that collection quickly, as a Mega Man X fan and as someone who waited YEARS to finally play Mega Man: Battle & Chase. Was my wait worth it? Well, yes! But, how is the game today? Is it still worth tracking down and playing? Mega May continues with my look at Mega Man: Battle & Chase.

Grand Prix is the main mode of Mega Man: Battle & Chase, and it's a series of races that can--apart from the final two races--be chosen in any order. It starts off with selecting between one of ten characters to race as. Each character, whether they be Mega Man, Proto Man, Roll, Bass, or one of several Robot Masters throughout the series, has their own reason for entering the Grand Prix and going after the multi-million Zenny prize. It's worth playing through the Grand Prix as different characters, at least once thru, just to see the epilogue for a given character. 

Mega Man leads the pack in his Rush Roadster.

Each character possesses their own vehicle, and in typical Mega Man-inspired fashion, beating other racers allows you to take one part of four from their vehicle: either a wing, an engine, a set of tires, and after all three previous parts are eventually taken through racing and winning against an opponent multiple times, the body of their vehicle entirely.

Oh, Quick Man, always so dramatic and not slow with the theatrics.

The body of each characters' vehicles is where their specific power lies. When racing against opponents like Ice Man, you'll contend with him dropping chunks of ice on the track and potentially blasting you with a freezing shot of energy, temporarily stopping your ability to steer. Through taking the body of Ice Man's vehicle upon racing and winning against him a fourth and final time, you can equip the vehicle's body part to use Ice Man's exclusive ability for yourself. 

Each character in Mega Man: Battle & Chase has two unique abilities. One is used normally, while the second needs the energy meter at the top of the screen to fully charge to use. Whereas Mega Man can pelt enemies and obstructions with normal shots of his Mega Buster, when the energy meter is fully charged, he can let loose and launch a charged shot, able to spin out opponents with a direct hit. Meanwhile, Proto Man can toggle where his famous shield rests, either on the front or rear of his vehicle to deflect attacks, while his Proto Strike can be used as a semi-homing shot on nearby racers ahead of him. 

Take your newly won parts and mix and match them as needed to give an edge on different tracks.

The other parts of vehicles apart from the body: wings, engines, and tires, are just as important, as they give different abilities as well, albeit passive ones. From Guts Man's Press Tires that prohibit slowing down over dirt and other off-road ground, to Quick Man's Dash Engine that gives great acceleration for a trade-off of average max speed, each part has its own pros and cons. Combining these parts into a chimera-like vehicle might look silly in aesthetics, but they're generally majorly helpful put into practice and use. 

Each opponent you face has their own home track with different obstacles and hazards to contend with. Roll's Streets track is the simplest with gentle corners and little in the way of obstacles, Quick Man's Ridge track is full of twists, turns, canyons, and water to race over, and Napalm Man's Arms Factory track is home to plenty of de-acceleration zones that slow you down upon riding over them as well as conveyor belts pushing your vehicle left, right, forwards, and backwards. Shortcuts aren't generally an option in these tracks, save for a select few of the 12+ tracks available. Either way, most are short and sweet, and that's good as these are all five-lap races.   

Time to drop some Bass on our opponents and drop the pretense--we've got a race to win!

Each time you beat the initial set of racers, Dr. Wily rears his bald head in. Two final races are unlocked, one after the other. If those are successfully beaten and the credits roll, you're tasked with playing through Grand Prix mode again as the same character, taking on the initial set of racers over again to unlock the Wily races. If you want all of the parts in Mega Man: Battle & Chase, you'll need to finish Grand Prix mode and do this process as a given character no less than four times. The aspect that stinks about this is that parts don't carry over between playthroughs with different characters, so if you want to start a new save file as say, Spring Man, after playing a file as say, Shadow Man, then you have to start all over. 

As for the gameplay itself, I initially found myself not really jiving with the steering or controls. My intuition with racing games, especially kart or mascot racers like Battle & Chase, is to drift around turns. Battle & Chase pretty much lacks a conventional drift option, so my intuition then told me to brake around corners to take them more sharply. This proved not the answer nor helpful either. Instead, it turned out that simply taking most corners at full speed was smarter than slowing down. The only time this was not the go-to solution was when going too fast would result in me slipping or sliding straight off the course, like on Ice Man's track and those dastardly chasms that litter parts of the track. By my second or third race, I started getting into a better groove, coming to terms with the controls and steering, and doing better in races. 

Some vehicle parts do better and worse on certain road--whether uphill, downhill, dirt, water, etc.

Another aspect of a lot of kart and mascot racing games is that of items. Mega Man: Battle & Chase goes a different route with these much like it does with driving and drifting. Items are not handled by racing over panels or through item boxes like other mascot racing games. Instead, there's a bit of a creative touch to items. By defeating Mega Man enemies like well-known Mega Man minions like Metools, sprinkled and scattered along the track, a counter ticks down. Once it hits zero, your racer of choice gets an item through a roulette. Now, this counter generally starts at 10, but certain items used on yourself for a positive outcome or items used on you by your opponents for a negative outcome, can make the counter to get an item shorter or longer respectively. It's a clever and innovative approach to items, and it works rather well in theory and practice.

Quick, Quick Man! Cross that finish line, as Guts Man's breathing down your neck.

At any rate, the items range in offensive and defensive capabilities. Some affect your opponents while others assist you. From helpful invincibility that speeds you up a la Mario Kart star power, to items that temporarily stop your opponent from attacking or strikes them all with a halting bolt of lightning, the items are quite useful. 

And there's some strategy in item usage, too. While you might want to hold on to a particular item, you can only hold onto one item at a time, and if you do so, any enemies you defeat won't tick down the counter. It's wasted effort there. So, there's indeed strategy in when to use an item and when to hold onto it. 

Outside of the Grand Prix mode and the 48 parts available to mix and match your ride with, there is a Versus Mode as well, available for two players to race each other and any CPU opponents you might like as well. Tracks not seen in the Grand Prix mode are available here, as are characters like Dr. Wily and the super-difficult-to-unlock Duo of Mega Man 8 fame. These two are unplayable within the Grand Prix mode.

Mega Man: Battle & Chase presents a simple graphical package. The visuals are suitably colorful, crisp, and character and vehicle models are well done, all said. Meanwhile, the tracks--the playground upon you race on--are less of an appealing part of the package. They're really low-resolution and multiple parts of tracks see routine clipping as an issue. Nothing game-breaking or fun-destroying, but prominent all the same. 

It is, however, especially cool that the game is split up between three views. The map of the track sits in the bottom-right corner, while the main racing takes place on the upper half. The lower-left corner generally shows your rival as well as any special action in the race. This is especially nifty when you drop a bomb on the track, and when your rival approaches it, you can see it detonate and send your rival flying into the air.  

Here, we get a secondary view of Ice Man, who is obviously stunned Shadow Man is beating him so badly.

The audio got a downgrade when compared to the Japanese original version. Now, don't get me wrong--the music and sound effects are fantastic. Heck, Roll's theme here will be familiar to anyone who played Marvel vs. Capcom. The downgrade comes from a lack of commentary that plays during races in the Japanese version that simply isn't present in the English release. No doubt the budget and cost would have risen from translating all the spoken dialogue and voicing it, but it can still be disappointing, if even slightly.

Mega Man: Battle & Chase is without a doubt one of the more overlooked entries in the Blue Bomber's storied series of games. Of course, not releasing in a major part of the world would do such a thing, and that is unfortunate, too. Battle & Chase is brimming with charm, is a unique and more importantly, fun take on the mascot racing game, and I'm sure if more people got to play it, they'd find a lot to like about the game, too.

[SPC Says: B-] 

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (Multi) Prologue Demo Trailer

Ahead of its release next month, the Zelda and Ys-like HD-2D game, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has a brand-new demo--this time for everyone--now available. This Prologue allows players to begin the opening of the game and carry over their save to the full release of the game when it launches on all current platforms June 18, 2026. For now, enjoy this trailer from Square Enix.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (NS2) - "An Appetite for Discovery" Trailer

Like this past week's Kalanoro preview, we haven't seen too many trailers posted on SuperPhillip Central in the longest time. In fact, it's been several years! Let's change that up with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, a cozy platforming-adventure game that takes Yoshi and puts him into a tome to discover all sorts of unique creatures and the ways Yoshi and players by extension can interact with them to solve environmental puzzles. This trailer showcases some of that ingenuity put into practice. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book releases on May 21.

Decline's Drops (PC, NSW, XBS) Review

We now turn our attention away from Mega Man for a little bit for a review of a game that's been on PC via Steam and itch.io for a bit and has only recently released on consoles, specifically the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S. This game is Decline's Drops, and despite its name, you might find yourself INclined to play this game after reading the SuperPhillip Central review!

This platformer's got some serious punch

Decline's Drops stars Globule, a mute wooden puppet who one day is tending to her lovely garden when all of a sudden, said garden is destroyed! Thus, Globule sets out to discover the perpetrators and their whereabouts to rightfully deliver some justice through her giant punching glove fists. The story is pretty scarce overall (a plus for me, as in a platformer I want to get straight to the action without much in the way of interruptions), save for the opening and ending cutscenes, and dialogue during boss battles, but the game does a nice job of providing a satirical take on concepts like pollution and corporate greed without feeling ham-fisted.

Take the gameplay of Super Smash Bros. and combine that with the platforming and secrets of Yoshi's Island, and you somewhat get an idea of what Decline's Drops is all about. Globule has her aforementioned punching gloves to bash and beat baddies to a pulp with a myriad of moves, from simple short jabs to more powerful "smash"-like attacks. All of these can be combined to jostle, juggle, and jam enemies into submission. 

No time for a rope-a-dope, so just punch that chick into submission, Globule.

Globule even has a Smash Bros-like dodge used to evade enemy attacks at the last moment, as well as being able to use the same evasion move in midair to reach higher or further away areas. Regardless, she'll need all the strength and moves in her repertoire she can muster, as the six worlds in the game pit Globule against all forms and sizes of foes, including those in rooms sprinkled about the levels where all enemies must be defeated before she can move on.

Dodging can not only be done on the ground to avoid attacks, but also in midair to move higher and farther, too!

Levels are wonderfully done, offering plenty of verticality a lot of the time, a multitude of secrets that are smartly hidden but also well telegraphed to not give players a sense of "well, how was I supposed to find THAT?!", and lots of exploration. Yes, you can simply run from point A to point B to clear levels, but exploring them and discovering their cleverly laid secrets and optional areas really gives you a fuller appreciation of these levels. 

Bounce off these streetlamps with care, Globule, or else you'll find that oil's well doesn't exactly end well!

And, goodness, do the levels house some masterfully placed secrets. As stated, secrets are telegraphed well to the point of not being unfair, but also requiring real observance of Globule's surroundings and environments to discover. I'm referring to fake walls that have the telltale signs of being able to be broken through, or ones that require Globule to make a running start so she can eventually transform into a big blue fist to smash through otherwise impenetrable blocks.  

The main optional collectible in Decline's Drops reminds me a bit of the previously mentioned Yoshi's Island and its five Smiley Flowers per level. These take the form of Heart Fragments in Decline's Drops, and you guessed it--there are five per level as well. Most are located in out-of-the-way or hard-to-find or reach locations, while others are inside specific chests, requiring passwords to open. These passwords are situated on nearby signs and come in the form of hitting the chests in specific directions in a specific pattern (aka up punches, down punches, punches from the left, punches from the right). This is where I found that sometimes my punches wouldn't land as planned. What I mean by this is that sometimes Globule would punch twice, fouling up the chest's password in the process, or Globule would smash the ground instead of simply punching downward once. 

When given enough runway to speed across, Globule can transform on
 command into a giant fist to smash through certain objects and obstacles!

Either way, gripe aside, whereas collecting all Smiley Flowers in a world in later Yoshi games unlocked a secret level in the world they were collected in... well, that's actually the same case in Decline's Drops! Instead, a more difficult platforming-filled level known as a Vanitas opens up once all Heart Fragments are obtained in a given world. These seldom host checkpoints, require careful, cautious, precision platforming, and can get the palms mighty sweaty, too! Take it from me. They're enjoyable challenges all the same, however.

Otherwise, another collectible of the optional variety in Decline's Drops' levels is that of a red key. Collecting this and finishing the level with it brings about a post-level mini-game where you pilot Globule in a big blue glove form (she takes on a somewhat similar form when underwater) as you race through a labyrinth of corridors, pathways, and boost pads to beat a pod to the finish line. Winning these races unlocks new color pallet choices for Globule, and once all the races have been won, they net a bunch of Drops, the currency of the game.

There are a wide variety of platforming challenges and enemy types to contend with throughout Decline's Drops and its carefully and cleverly crafted levels. For instance, there are rails that send Globule grinding along their path which she must switch between with caution, Donkey Kong Country-like cannons that fire our puppet protagonist out (and hopefully not into peril) with proper timing, switches and levers that need to be activated to open up gates and doors, and sequences where Globule must make haste and retreat from a pursuing wall of pollution or else find herself instantly defeated. There are also ample opportunities for the game to shine in both its platforming and punching, throwing in puzzle elements, too, such as hitting floating yellow blocks with arrows on them. The direction Globule hits one of these blocks in, sends it flying in that direction until it smacks against a solid object. There are even plenty of puzzles that require you to get these blocks from one destination to another to open locked doors and reach new heights. 

Mind the rails, mind the gap, mind the pollution--heck, just mind EVERYTHING, Globule!

Fortunately, despite all of the trials and tribulations Globule faces on her adventure, checkpoints are fairly common throughout Decline's Drops. Therefore, repeating large portions of levels is seldom a common happenstance. That said, later levels do get incredibly challenging in both battles and platforming tasks. That isn't to say they require a professional's rank of platforming prowess to progress in the latter half of the game, but you will occasionally get stuck. 

This is especially true for the bosses, which pit you against one of the six Hydra heads in battle. These end-of-world levels, like any game worth its weight, relies on witness boss patterns, acclimating to them, knowing when to go in to attack, and knowing when and how to dodge each boss' offensive advances. These battles will take not just part of your cunning, but pretty much all of it to come out unscathed--or at the very least, the victor. I did appreciate the level of challenge of the bosses, and each time I failed, it was because I didn't properly dodge attacks or got too greedy. It was always on me, and never the game.  

The first Hydra to fight. "Hi, 'Dra! Why so angry?"

Fortunately, there are ways to assist Globule and the player in general on their adventure. An in-game shop run by a genetically-engineered ape named Serge houses a host of helpful trinkets and tools that Globule can spend her fiercely fought and hard-earned Drops to purchase. Only one particular trinket can be equipped at once to Globule, but these range from boosting her special attack, doubling her health, turning all of her special attacks into massive fireballs, and providing hints as to locations of the game's hidden goodies--to name a handful of helpful wares.

Decline's Drops is a rather meaty game all-in-all, coming in at around 10 hours for me, though I was methodically going through levels to make sure I collected every Heart Fragment along the way to unlock and complete the Vanitas levels, and also played through the final optional seventh world, complete with its own challenges, platforming perils, enemy types, and yes, a true final boss. I didn't, however, opt to aim for all of the time trials, and thus take on going after all of the gold times which seemed far beyond my level of play (and honestly, far beyond my level of commitment to the game either). That said, the option is there to add even more replay value and longevity to Globule's journey.

The art style of Decline's Drops is marvelous in presentation and appearance. The entire adventure is seemingly hand-drawn, and the first world definitely brings about an aesthetic reminiscent of Yoshi's Island, which was much appreciated to me, as a fan of that game. Future worlds offer the same beautiful hand-drawn goodness, offering detailed environments, backgrounds, easy to parse areas visually, and fluid animations all-around. Musically, I found the soundtrack to be very good. In fact, I am eager to purchase it on the artists' Bandcamp page to further support it, and that's not something I do often! Nevertheless, the soundtrack is full of memorable and rather nifty and neat themes that I will enjoy listening to outside of the game.

Decline's Drops is most certainly a looker with a charming, gorgeous hand-drawn delight of an art style.

While I wouldn't raise Globule's glove up and claim she and her premiere adventure are the undisputed champions or anything like that, I will say that Decline's Drops certainly surprised me with its high quality in precision platforming, engaging combat, and copious secrets in its well done level design. This mishmash of Super Smash Bros. gameplay and Yoshi's Island-like level design is one that I certainly enjoyed and can see myself coming back to in the future. Minor aggravations and gripes did pop up, and the difficulty of the game may be off-putting for many not used to Smash Bros. and its particular style of melee gameplay (and heck, even for those who ARE used to it). Overall, though, if you can dig a gorgeous hand-drawn 2D platformer with plenty of personality, charm, and character, as well as lots of action and platforming goodness to adore, then definitely "drop" what you're doing to take on the drop of a different variety with Decline's Drops.

[SPC Says: B+] 

SuperPhillip Elsewhere on the Web

Greetings, everyone! If SuperPhillip Central isn't enough video gaming content from yours truly, please consider checking out my YouTube, Instagram, and Bluesky accounts, where I post and sometimes cross-post from SPC!

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