Mega Man & Bass' Story is Absolutely Hilarious, and it's a shame it's so wildly misunderstood.
Near the end of last year I replayed Mega Man & Bass and 100%-ted it. Sure, the difficulty at certain points was very overturned, but it wasn't exactly something shocking or anything, so... I still ended up having a ton of fun by the end!
What did surprise me however, was its story. Past me remembered little of it beyond having some dude named King as the main bad guy, and Wily showing up at the very end as the true mastermind in classic Megaman fashion.
Turns out, I got everything absolutely wrong about the plot. And if most Mega Man Wikis are anything to go by, I'm not the only one that made this mistake.
To explain what I mean, let's talk about King.
To quickly quote megaman.miraheze.org, King "is a Robot Master created by Dr. Wily that wanted to rule a human-free nation". The general assumption I've seen about this guy in the fandom and even most Megaman Wikis is that the dude was a literal puppet king for Dr. Wily. And who would blame them? Wily did pull a similar stunt for Mega Man 4, 5 and 6, with Dr. Cossack, a fake Proto Man, and Mr. X respectively. So this development should be anything but shocking for anyone that's been into the series for a while.
The thing is, King for most of Mega Man & Bass' story is not that.
He's the main antagonist, and all his shtick of creating a kingdom for robots, separate from humanity, is genuine. Wily, as bonkers this might sound, is just the Final Boss.
The reason Mega Man & Bass' plot happens to begin with is because King straight up took over Dr. Wily's laboratory, and kicked him out of it.
The return of Wiley. Straight from the game's GBA manual: https://www.nintendo.com/eu/media/downloads/games_8/emanuals/game_boy_advance_8/Manual_GameBoyAdvance_MegaManAndBass_EN_DE_FR.pdf
Wait, Wily's on our side in this game?
Someone's been busy it seems.
For some reason, the localized script of Mega Man & Bass omits King attacked Wily's base and seized his resources as his own. Which is kind of huge, considering it is the in-universe explanation for why most of this game's enemy cast are returning faces from Mega Man 8.
Also, Wily's technically on our side for most of this game's story! Dude not having a home anymore explains why he sends Bass to clean his mess, and why he's willing to entertain a team-up with Mega Man to begin with. Heck, both in the original and localized script, Wily even thanks Mega Man for getting rid of King for him. 'Cause with King out of the picture, dude can resume his world domination shtick' right from his lab:
"But wait!", someone might ask. "Isn't Wily revealed as King's boss late into the game?."
This might not be what you think it is.
Not quite! As a quick recap, right before Wily berates a defeated King on his throne room's monitor for throwing the towel vs Mega Man/Bass, King reveals he can't be repaired conventionally because Wily, his creator (emphasis on this) placed an explosive fail-safe, likely to ensure the robot stays loyal to him (which uh... didn't quite work, as discussed by this point).
And as King complains to Wily that, and I quote, "Why do robots have to fight each other for the sake of the humans�", Wily seizes the chance and brainwashes him with a machine from distance, setting him again against either Mega Man and Bass one last time, all while the doctor goes back to his lab and resumes whatever he was doing before the whole mess started.
Wily at this point in the plot isn't revealing himself at the mastermind.
Wily, in truth, is backstabbing Mega Man/Bass.
He fully expected to see one of the robots destroyed by King, and was expecting the robot monarch to come out weakened enough to be vulnerable to his brainwashing machine. It was supposed to be a win-win to him. But this didn't really happen so King's gets roped into once last fight much to his dismay.
"Wait, Bass? Why would Wily want to see Bass destroyed?"
Bass by this point in the timeline has proven himself to be a loose cannon and not at all that reliable when it comes to following orders, so no wonder Wily's willing to get him disposed if he can get a proper replacement in exchange (or best case scenario, given a proper control chip). Of course, for this to be possible to begin with, Bass had to be left in the dark as for what actually happened and who King really is. So no wonder dude assumes Wily came up with a highly elaborated chicanery just to get rid of him and/or put him under control.
And with Bass coming up victorious, Wily's got no choice but to come up with an excuse for why his own creation shouldn't blast his face. Hence the whole thing about the King mess being a secret test all along, and that he can rebuild the guy again and have him team-up with Bass and become unstoppable (before Proto Man shows up and ruins that idea anyways).
It's Mega Man 7 all over again, huh.
So yeah. Mega Man & Bass's story is surprisingly far more complicated that it seems at first glance. The fact Wily's unintentionally responsible for the events of the story and that one of his own bots, nay, his strongest secret weapon at the time, turned on him and went to do his own thing, is hilarious.
Even Archie comics list King as one of the many things Wily thought he controlled that Mega Man had to save him from. Granted, this comic's a different continuity, but stillâŚ
That being said, Wily could've easily not been involved at all in the story, and the game could've ended with just King as the final boss. Not unlike how that Wonderswan Mega Man & Bass sequel(?) handled things (if the wikis are anything to go by, even a manga adaptation of MM&B cuts Wily's involvement from the story altogether). But I guess the grandfather clause was strong with the development team back in the day, so...
tl;dr: Contrary to popular belief, King is in truth a rogue creation of Dr. Wily, and does not like him. King kicking Wily out of his lab is what kickstarts the whole story and the whole premise of the game.
Huge thanks to hondoori for providing a script of the game. It came out very handy. It turns out that, beyond removing the mention of King taking over Wily's house, the story's script is largely the same as the original.
Also Mega Man & Bass re-release when.
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