Rockman Battle & Fighters for the Neo Geo Pocket Color is a compilation of the two Japanese arcades, Rockman: The Power Battle and Rockman 2: The Power Fighters, and was one of the last releases for SNK's little system. The story begins after Rockman 7, where Dr. Wily sets out to defeat Rockman (Megaman outside of Japan) once and for all by bringing back all the past bosses for Rockman to fight.
Gameplay & Control You begin by choosing one of the two games to play. In both games you can choose to play as either Rockman, Bass or Protoman, with a robot named Duo also playable in the second game. Each has a different set of moves and weapons which mixes up the fun. In Power Battle, you select from one of three sets of six bosses to battle, each from Rockman 1-3, Rockman 4-6 and Rockman 7. In Power Fighters the bosses are totally random. As you battle, and after you defeat, an enemy they drop little orbs you can collect that raise your health, special abilities or points. With the analog control stick the game controls just like it were the arcade versions. The A button controls your firing while the B allows you to jump, with a combination of the two used to execute attacks like slides.
Graphics & Sound The graphics has to be one of the high points of the game. The backgrounds are very colorful and nicely detailed, and there is no slowdown. And while all the characters are restrained to only 2 sprites of color, they retain their original 8-bit look. One of the nice surprises was the menu layout and graphics which are nicely designed despite that they are entirely in Japanese but it is still easy to navigate. The music is also retains its originiality because its the original music from the original games.
Replay Value With the ability to play with up to four characters per game, each with their own abilities and advantages, you will be coming back and again and again to replay this game. The games itself have quite a bit of length to them for arcade games and its really nice that Capcom included both arcade games for this port. Also, when you defeat one of the bosses, their information is stored and can be viewed from the main menu, though it is entirely in Japanese. Unforunately while you can link to another NGPC you can only transfer data and not play against each other, which would've made this game golden.
This is an excellent game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color with near perfect ports of two great arcade games. Even though both these games are now unlockable features in Megaman Anniversary Collection, this is a must have for fans of the series that are on the go or for collectors. The only things holding this game back from total greatness is the language barrier, rarity and price, and the lack of a vs. mode, despite the fact the game supports the link cable.
