The Blue Bomber takes to the Road!
Mega Man: Battle & Chase is a spin-off title to the Mega Man (Classic) series, developed for the PlayStation in 1997 by Capcom. Among many other titles in the series, it would remain outside of North America until being included as a bonus unlockable in the Mega Man X Collection for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube in 2005.
Battle & Chase itself is an in-universe racing show, where the winner is awarded an amazing cash prize of 10 Million Zenny. Mega Man plans on entering the race to win the prize money, and help Dr. Light repair one of his computers which broke after a lightning storm. However, many other competitors are also racing to collect the prize money.
Playable racers are as follows:
- Mega Man
- Roll
- Proto Man
- Guts Man
- Ice Man
- Quick Man
- Shadow Man
- Napalm Man
- Spring Man
- Bass
- Dr. Wily (Versus and Time Trial only)
- Duo (Versus and Time Trial only)
Tropes include:
- Ash Face: Getting hit with a Lightning Droid's attack will briefly change the racer's face into this.
- The Cameo:
- Quick Man's ending has him heading off to find and challenge Battle & Chase's previous champion, Turbo Man.
- On another level, the secret parts are homages to other Robot Masters; the Hammer Body refers to Knight Man, the Retro Engine refers to Turbo Man, the Sky High Wing refers to Gyro Man, and the Blade Tires are a reference to Slash Man.
- Cap: The highest speed in the game is 600 km/h, which you usually see when going over an Accelerator Panel. Napalm Man's Device Engine can make the Accelerator Panels' effect last longer.
- Charge Meter: A meter in the upper-left corner of the screen fills on its own. Pressing R1 when it's anything but full will use the Car's default skill. A fully charged meter flashes blue, and will execute the Car's Charged Skill. (Example: Mega Man's car body can fire buster shots. At full meter, it fires a Charge Shot that can make other racers spin out.) Getting spun-out will immediately empty your meter, and a certain item in the roulette can block it for several seconds. Shadow Man's Hayate Wing makes the meter charge faster.
- Competitive Balance: Everyone's parts have their own strengths and weaknesses, which they make use of on their home tracks.
- Easter Egg: Clearing the game as Roll without losing a race will treat players to a karaoke performance where Roll debuts a new song of hers, "Kaze yo Tsutaete." This song would go on to become Roll's Leitmotif in various appearances inside and outside of the Mega Man series, most notably serving as her theme in both Marvel vs. Capcom and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
- Final Boss: After clearing out all the other racers, Dr. Wily appears and steals the prize money, forcing you to race him to take it back. Anyone who didn't choose Bass as their racer will need to take him out first.
- Forced Transformation: If you lose a race as Shadow Man, he has his body turned into a log. It wears off on him afterward, though.
- Frictionless Ice: Zig-zagged. You can drive over it just fine, but trying to turn sharply will cause a spin-out. Ice Man's tires are designed to let him function over ice, and Roll's tires disable sharp turning.
- Lethal Joke Character: Roll completely lacks any sort of buster and her only attack is a spin jump when fully charged that only hits at physical contact range, while her turning and general stats are fairly mediocre. She can also straight up leap over entire obstacles on the race course, granting her shortcuts and tricks no other racer can pull without her parts. With her jump and other parts intermixed, she can outright have some serious Magikarp Power.
- Meta Power Up: The Tripler item, which gives triple the power or duration of the next item you obtain.
- Mooks: Mettaurs, giant Mettaurs, Baccones, and many other foes will dot the racetrack. Each one defeated takes a point off the Item Roulette; the Giant Met counts as 4 points. Napalm Man's Counter Wing adds +1 to each foe felled, triggering the roulette faster.
- Nitro Boost: The Yashiki item functions as a Super Star, granting invincibility and putting your vehicle at the second-highest speed for a few seconds.
- No Campaign for the Wicked: The Robot Masters and Bass each have their own ending if chosen, while Dr. Wily is restricted to Versus and Time Trial modes only.
- Optional Boss: After completing Grand Prix mode once, there is a chance the Black Troops will interrupt your race to challenge you, comprising of black recolors of the Roadsters, Sniper Joes and Yellow Devils. Defeating them will unlock one of four secret parts (which are hidden in select tracks), and they'll even tell you of some secret moves.
- Power Copying: After defeating a racer in Grand Prix mode, you can obtain one of their car's four parts: The Body, Wing, Tires or Engine. This encourages mixing and matching parts to give yourself an edge in the race. Post-credits, you can even take one of Wily's parts!
- Secret A.I. Moves: Averted. Beating the Black Troops will have them tell you of some secret tricks, like being able to hop over mines, and certain car bodies have an extra skill the player can use. However, some of the extra skills fall under Guide Dang It!, requiring experimentation or a guide to figure out. They also require strict timing to pull off.
- The Smurfette Principle: Roll is the only female racer. Plum is one of three announcers for the show, but sadly she and the other announcers were excised for international releases.
