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Capcom, one of the undisputed juggernauts of two-dimensional games, has been trying for quite some time now to shake one particular monkey off its back. That's the monkey that says, "Sure, Street Fighter and Rockman may be great games, but they are too old fashioned when compared to 3D games". Capcom took its first shot at 3D with the launch of Biohazard - a game of such immense quality that it no-one save Capcom themselves (or Square) appears capable of surpassing. In the more action-oriented genre, Star Gladiator was received with mixed results. Next was the release of Street Fighter EX, which is now one of the established stable-names in the home systems and arcades. Capcom is continuing its progress through 3D with the release Justice Highschool in the arcades. But these are all fighting games. How about something that strikes a balance between the atmosphere of Biohazard and the frenzy of Street Fighter?
In a rather unexpected move, Capcom chose Rockman, better known as Megaman to the West, for such a premise. The title they gave this game is "Rockman Dash", a playable demo of which was bundled in with Biohazard: Director's Cut. Rockman, better known for his hard-core platform exploits in both his own and the "X" series, as well as the one off go-cart game, now makes his debut in the 3rd dimension.
The game opens with a very unimpressive ocean scene with an airship hovering above, accompanied by one of the most long-winded narratives in recent history. To cut a long and tedious translation short, the world is being invaded by hordes of little yellow critters that look like lego men, and it is up to our intrepid robot adventurer Rockman to save the day.
In the opening level, Rockman can jump, shoot, climb up ledges, and explore the environment for various treasures. That's pretty much the gist of the entire game. When Rockman isn't fighting off the baddies, he'll be exploring the towns and conversing with the locals to find out how he can help in various ways. On the options end of things, Rockman has the ability to discover or purchase new weapons that can be fitted to his weapon arm.
"That's it?", I hear you say? Well, pretty much. But let's not forget that this is not too dissimilar to the likes of Tomb Raider 2.
The control interface of Rockman Dash has two marked differences from the Tomb Raider series. The first is that the focus of this game is not on exploration, but on weapons combat similar to Armored Core. The second is that rotations within the 3D plane are performed using the shoulder buttons. Pushing left and right on the directional keypad will cause Rockman to run left and right on the 3D plane. This slight variance in design, the latter in particular, must really have been an executive decision because it puts a new focus on the action of the game. I also raise this because I see it as the cause of some of the game's problems.
One problem is that Rockman is incapable of running in a circle or any other curved form. He must run in the squarish directions he is allowed by the keypad. Of course, this is useful when you are running in a maze-like area with multiple targets, allowing you to strafe quite easily. However, the inability to run in a curved motion makes the process a little too clumsy. Jumping is especially clumsy. Secondly, it is quite difficult to hit a target while you are in motion. For a guaranteed direct hit, players must come to a complete stop and then shoot. Alternatively, players can be facing in any direction, press the R2 button to automatically turn and aim at the target, and then shoot. But this must be done while standing still. Perhaps it is a combination of the fact that many of us have been spoilt by Tomb Raider's automatic targeting system, and the fact that it places more of a focus on shooting and avoiding your enemy instead of exploration that makes the complaint excusable.
The ideal choice would of course have been the free-roaming camera that is found in Nintendo's Mario 64, but no Playstation game has the benefit of that. The Tomb Raider interface offers precision, and Rockman Dash offers faster-paced action.
However, no matter which way you look at it, the controls are very choppy. Rockman moves too fast in some places, and oddly feels too slow in other places. The lack of precision in the ducking and weaving between obstacles turns confrontations from a precision shoot-out into a wild drunken turkey-shoot. I say turkey-shoot because the enemy AI is appalling.
Graphically, the characters animate very nicely, with anywhere between 20 to 30 fps, depending on the number of enemies on-screen. There isn't any noticeable slowdown, and on the whole, the game looks and moves quite solidly. There is the rare clip of a polygon here or there, and some fairly noticeable pixellisation, but nothing really of concern in the overall picture. Backgrounds and characters alike carry almost no texture mapping except where it is absolutely necessary, such as the eyes and mouth, or a door knob. Of course, this is to keep the game looking fresh and retain that anime-ish look. Unfortunately, without the detailed textures that Tomb Raider employed, it also looks very, very rough.
Combine the rough-looking graphics with the choppy control, and it doesn't create any good initial impressions. Persevere a little, and you just might get used to it. It still feels pretty solid, but it's not the best you've ever seen.
Sound-wise, Rockman Dash is nothing particularly special. Each of the levels have techno-sounding PCM tracks, while the out-door and town environments have a few ambient noises here and there. While the music is new, it's also of the very typical Rockman style. But even then, it's not quite as good as the music in the 2D Rockman games. The sound effects are your standard fare with shooting sounds, explosions, jumping, and so on.
In the end, Rockman Dash is an extremely average game that is recommended only to the die-hard fans of the little blue robot. Even then, fans may or may not be turned off by the fact that Rockman doesn't wear his trademark helmet. It also seems a little disappointing that Capcom did nothing to sweeten this package. There are no demo sequences or FMV cut scenes to speak of. Everything, plot and all, is conveyed in real time CG that uses sampled speech instead of the usual in-game text. And speaking of text, the game is filled to the brim with the stuff. All in Japanese. Indeed, it's definitely not trying to be trendy. It's a Slim-Jim bare-bones game. For fans only.