Mega Man 3

Mega Man 3
Dr. Wily is always watching." — SomecallmeJohnny
Protagonist(s): Mega Man Genre(s): Platformer Platform(s): PlayChoice-10 Nintendo Entertainment System PlayStation Mobile iOS Android Release Date: Famicom/NES JP: December 24, 1988 NA: June 2, 1989 PAL: December 14, 1990 PlayStation JP: September 2, 1999 Mobile phone JP: April 1, 2005 NA: August 19, 2008 Android & iOS WW: January 5, 2017 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom (Japan & North America) Nintendo (Europe) Country: Japan Series: Mega Man Predecessor: Mega Man 2 Successor: Mega Man 4

Mega Man 3, also known as Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily?! in Japan, is a platform game developed and published by Capcom.

Plot

After his plans for world domination fail for a second time, Dr. Wily seemingly reforms and joins forces with Dr. Light to create a robot named "Gamma", who is designed to keep things peaceful. But a group of robots known as the "Robot Masters" steal the crystals needed to power Gamma up. Mega Man is tasked to retrieve the crystals with the help of a robotic dog named "Rush".

Why It Rocks

1. It follows the traditional eight number of initial stages Mega Man 2 had and weapon obtainment system.
2. There's strategy to easily defeating the bosses, because each one are weak to certain weapons. It's also the first game in the series where every single Robot Master can be defeated with their own weapons during their rematches in the boss rush.
3. A whole cast of new Robot Masters to defeat. The new Robot Masters are different from the other games' ones since there's not a Robot Master that's based on an "earth element" (like fire or water) which makes it unique. For example, Top Man is based on a toy and Gemini Man is based on a constellation of the same name.
4. Great and useful weapons such as: Search Snake which creates snakes that climb walls and damage enemies, Gemini Laser which ricochets when touching the walls, Shadow Blade a more balanced version of Metal Blade from the previous game, Magnet Missile a homing weapon and Hard Knuckle a weapon that deals massive damage and can be moved up and down.
5. It introduces the new sliding ability, which allows for new strategies and raises speed-running capabilities, and this ability would be kept in future games, except for Mega Man 9 & 10 which were designed to be like Mega Man 2's successors (Proto Man being the only character to be able to slide in both games) but would be brought back in Mega Man 11.
6. It also introduces Rush, Mega Man's robotic dog and first member of his animal squad. Rush can be used in many situations to help the player:
   • Rush Coil allows the player to reach higher places by jumping on it, which makes a coil appear on his back propeling Mega Man.
   • Rush Jet transforms Rush into a flying sled that Mega Man can ride in all directions (in later games he would just move forwards and only be moved up and down) to skip sections or big death pits, although it is very broken, see the Bad Qualities section for more information.
   • Rush Marine transforms Rush into a submarine that, when riden, can move on water and fire plasma shots. When used on ground it is not useful since it can only move by jumping continously and the player will much likely not want to use it.
7. The Yellow Devil makes a return as one of the bosses in the Wily stages, but he's much easier this time around.
8. Proto Man, Mega Man's older brother, debuts on this game, with an interesting backstory. He appears in stages challenging Mega Man to see how strong he is, helping him to advance in Gemini Man's stage, challenging him one more time before going to Wily Castle dressed as Break Man and helping Mega Man to escape from the collapsing Wily Castle. His whistle also became common in later games before he teleports in.
9. When defeating the eight Robot Masters you revisit Shadow Man, Spark Man, Gemini Man and Needle Man stages which were invaded by a mysterious robot known as Doc Robot, thus the stages have an aspect of being destroyed and have changed layouts and enemies. Doc Robot appears absorbing the data and special weapon of a Robot Master from the previous game and fights like it.
10. Awesome soundtrack such as Spark Man Stage Theme, Proto Man Theme, Snake Man Stage Theme, Shadow Man Stage Theme and the best theme in the game, The Intro
11. The ending. We don´t spoil you so go and defeat Willy yourself!

Bad Qualities

1. Just like its predecessors, the U.S. cover art is awful, although it has improved a bit.
2. Some of the weapons are not very useful:
   • Spark Shock can only paralyze enemies for a short period of time and doesn't actually deal damage at all.
   • Gemini Laser, although a very good weapon, can most of the time miss the target and you'll have to wait until it stops bouncing to use it again.
   • Needle Canon is just a rapid fire Mega Buster and it doesn't deal a lot of damage
   • Top Spin is a melee attack, not only is it hard to hit enemies with it due to it's short range, it also only works when Mega Man is jumping. You will also most likely be hit by the enemy or boss you want to hit while using it.
3. Rush Jet is broken: due to his all direction movement, he can be used instead of Rush Coil and waste less energy. Not only that, there's a famous glitch that allows you to use Rush Jet wasting very minimum weapon energy by jumping constantly since while on air you don't waste Rush Jet's energy.
4. The Dr. Wily stages are easy and underwhelming.
5. It is possible to get stuck in Gemini Man's Doc Robot stage by running out of energy for Rush Coil and Jet (although you're much likely not going to run out of it). After the first Doc Robot, going through the door will leave you in front of a wall that you must go through by using Rush Coil/Jet but if you can't use them, you're forced to restart the game or get a game over. Same goes for Needle Man's Doc Robot stage.
6. The final fight with Gamma can be done in less than 40 seconds due to his second phase being able to be defeated instantly by using Top Spin, arguably one of the, if not the worst weapon in the entire series.
7. The bosses take a lot more hits than they did in Mega Man 2, but you don't take nearly as much, making the ratio rather unfair.
8. The Doc Robot bosses are pretty hard, especially Doc Wood Man and Doc Quick Man.
9. A few of the Robot Masters are really tough to defeat, like Shadow Man, although he was toned down in later games that featured him as a boss.
10. The logic of the weaknesses of the bosses, at this point, is just completely gone (For example, the Hard Knuckle against Top Man or the Top Spin against Shadow Man.)

Reception

Mega Man 3 was well received when it was originally released, and has enjoyed tons of praise over the years. Videos

Trivia

1. It is known that many Mega Man characters are named after musical genres (like Rock, who, when combined with Roll, becomes "rock n' roll") or features (like Beat), however, Rush's exact namesake is unknown. His name is likely a reference to Canadian progressive rock band Rush.
2. The Wily Castle bosses are supposed to be improvements over Mega Man 1's:
   • Kamegoro Maker fights in a water area, much like CWU-01P.
   • Yellow Devil MK-II is, obviously, based on the original Yellow Devil and since the player is now able to slide, it is not as hard to fight as in the first game.
   • Holograph Mega Mans are an improvement over Copy Robot although they don't copy Mega Man's ability (but still swap to the same colors).

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