Out of nowhere, SNK has released the NeoGeo Pocket Color game Mega Man Battle & Fighters on Nintendo Switch, retailing for $7.99. The game originally launched exclusively in Japan back in 2000, featuring visually simplified versions of Capcom’s arcade fighting games Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. (These two arcade titles were recently re-released as part of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.)
Mega Man Battle & Fighters offers you a selection of four distinct playable characters, including Mega Man, Proto Man, Bass, and Duo, and you will battle 40 bosses drawn from the first seven Mega Man games. For a bit of extra replayability, there are 36 types of character data that can be randomly obtained from winning battles, filling out a database. Although, the Nintendo Switch release of Mega Man Battle & Fighters is still in Japanese for its international debut. Additionally, a digital version of the NeoGeo Pocket Color instruction manual is included, which is typical of a classic SNK release on Nintendo Switch.
Trading functionality is understandably disabled, but otherwise, this is the full Mega Man Battle & Fighters experience on Nintendo Switch, and you can check out the launch trailer below.
Elsewhere in the world of Mega Man, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection will launch in 2023 on everything except Xbox. A larger-budget new Mega Man title is also in development at Capcom, according to a leak from 2020. Capcom has never officially acknowledged the game’s existence or what exactly it is, but it has gone by the monikers Rockman Taisen and Mega Man Match in leaks.
