Mega Man 3 (1990)

Just finished reading this.

This book mixes in interspersed chapters a description of a complete run of Mega Man 3, the history of the development of the game (and the Mega Man franchise in general) and details of the author's life in the context of his love for this game and the NES library in general.

It is a short and informative read. I, who describe myself as a Mega Man fan, learned many things I didn't know about the development of the saga. But overall it's not the best of the Boss Fights books. It has some errors and exaggerations that bothered me a little, but I'm still going to read more books in this series.

Beat in slow motion 30 frames per second mode. I vaguely recall playing this as a kid but no idea how far I got. I first went after top man because that was the dumbest concept there. He was easy to beat. Next I went for snake man because I figured top crushes snake. That was not true but the top spin did help somewhat. The biggest problem with the spin was that it did not prevent contact damage, limiting its usefulness. The snake shot crawled along the floor and up walls, making it great for lower elevation enemies. I next went for shadow man as I figured search snake would counter stealth. No, but he was weak to top spin. The shadow star was awesome, being able to be shot straight, up, and diagonal up, and returning like a boomerang. It was very useful for hitting higher elevations. I figured shadow would counter light so spark man was next. I was right. The spark shot was just a variant of the standard shot. Next was magnet man since I figured electricity would mess up magnetism. Right again. The magnet missiles were homing but cost a lot of energy. It was a toss up whether magnet would counter needle man or hard man. I went for needle first and was wrong. He was tough to defeat as I used magnets and then snakes. Again his shot was straightforward like the basic shot. Then I did hard man who was the correct choice for magnets. His punch was a slower straightforward shot. Last was Gemini man, who had the most difficult stage and was the toughest boss so far. He was weak against snakes though so I kicked his ass. His shot was straightforward but could bounce off walls at odd angles.

I think the best order would be: top, shadow, spark, magnet, hard, snake, Gemini, needle.

Then were the 4 revisited stages with the bosses from Mega Man 2. And here I was thinking the platforming in this game was much easier than the last. It was cool to fight the previous bosses using new weapons, trying to figure out which were the best. Though since none of the new weapons hard countered them, they were a little tougher than before. Especially quick man was one of the hardest bosses in this game, the bastard. Then I beat the rest of the bosses without too much trouble, heavily favoring the shadow shuriken for its ability to shoot up. Overall the weapons in this game were a little less fun than the previous because most were simple straight shots with no aiming. I prefer more versatile things, like the shuriken, metal blade, snakes, bubbles, leaf shield and homing missiles. I did use a few E tanks throughout the game, finishing with 9. I especially liked how weapon energy was not restored between the final stages, making rationing and going for energy restore items more important.

This game was a bit better than Mega Man 2, with less obnoxious platforming, more interesting platforming (from the flying jet, though I never used the middle rush form for a boat), and much more content. The enemies and bosses were also better designed and more fun to fight, and the slide was very handy.

9.2/10

I found this game overall about equally as good as Mega Man 2 (review). It has some issues, but also improvements in a few key areas.

The main 8 levels and bosses are all a bit more even in quality, and have a more consistent challenge level throughout. My complaint in #2 about bosses feeling trivialized at times was not as much of a thing here. Some stages may have benefited from a bit more length, but there were some cool little ideas, like the magnet enemies actually pulling you off the ground. Music and visual designs in these levels are also mostly very nice.

There are also a few other small improvements here and there, such as a better weapon select menu and a new sliding mechanic that's used well throughout the game.

Your arsenal of weapons feels better than the one in MM2, but not massively so, still dragged down by stuff like Top Man's ability which feels awkward to use. Sadly, once again the final boss makes you use the crappiest feeling stuff, but usually you can avoid it and use more fun stuff like the Gemini Man weapon.

My enjoyment of the game dipped a bit when returning to it this weekend after completion of the 8 main stages earlier in the week. The content in this second half of the game repeats ideas with a higher difficulty, and doesn't really add a ton of stuff I found as memorable or fun as the first half. The pacing feels a bit stretched as a result, while in the early goings it felt great.

The game unfortunately has significant pervasive slowdown issues, a major damper on the feel of combat and platforming. Some official re-releases might fix this. On an emulator with the sprite limit removed and overclocking enabled, I still had some issues here and there, but those tweaks did improve it from the original unpleasant experience I was having.

Mega Man 2 is an easier entrypoint if you want to go back to the classics of this series, but definitely don't sleep on this one if you enjoy the formula that 2 sets up.

(This is the 22nd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

I've abandoned, checks notes, 13 of the 22 games I've played so far. It's the nature of games in 1990. Many were designed to be unbeatable within a rental period, so the devs made their games annoyingly (or if you played these back in the day, endearingly) difficult.

Never have I however actually "rage quit" any of the previous 12 games, until I've played Mega Man 3 that is, a platformer developed by Capcom and initially released for the NES on September 28, 1990. I found myself extremely frustrated throughout my entire time playing this. The only time I was really vibing with the game was when I didn't move and just listened to the amazing soundtrack. Maybe that's a bid too harsh, but we'll go over everything one by one below, so you understand where my frustration comes from for a game that does plenty right as well.

STORYTELLING

While I call this the "Storytelling" section, it really is a review on storytelling, but also the plot itself, the characters and how they interact with each other. And as far as characters go, this legendary series has introduced a couple pretty important ones for the series in Rush, the robot dog that helps you jump to higher surfaces in this game, and Proto Man, who shows up in almost every level for a quick battle to test your skills. He appears to what has to be the most satisfying whistle sound I've ever heard.

The setting and the plot here are not explained in the game, only in the manual, and actual advancement of the plot only happens much later into the game. The set up goes like this: Two scientists are working on a "peace-keeping project" and need a few more energy crystals to finish their work. They send Mega Man to collect them, but Mega Man will have to face a bunch of bad guys to get to them.

This comes from the short conversation printed onto the manuals. In-game, you simply see a screen with Mega Man in the middle of a 3x3 display, with each of the other squares showing a portrait of a boss. You can freely decide which level/boss you want to face first and will be brought back here to select the next once you're done. All bosses have unique looks and abilities, but they don't talk and they don't taunt or something along those lines for them to have any personality, unlike Proto-Man, who's part in the story gets explained the further you go.

Overall, the story that is here has a bit more than your average one, where you get some text at the start and at the end of the game, but nothing in between. Here, you get nothing at the start, but a bit more towards the end with a nice little twist.

GAMEPLAY

First of, we gotta address the performance in this game. I thought it was due to my emulator but no, the game has lagging issues throughout and it really is irritating. Obviously it wasn't such a big deal back then, as it was sold over a million times, was placed 3rd in the Nintendo Power Awards for 1990 and got 9/10s and 4/5s from many magazines at the time. By today's standards, or even by my comparably lower standards for 1990 games as part of this challenge, a game that requires so much precision just got that much more frustrating to play when every time you used a specific weapon that shot multiple projectiles, the screen would lag significantly. This would happen when too many enemies where on screen at once as well.

But in general, the timing and precision required just was a bit too much for me. Not only that, but the game forces you to stand still, step back, wait for an opening and take a precise shot multiple times per level, or you'll be having a bad time. Add to that the amount of cheap hits you get in this game by things like clouds popping into frame just as you jump into mid-air, leading you to miss a platform fall to your demise, and it just wasn't an enjoyable time for me for most of the time. There was also a moment where I managed to avoid all clouds, only for the platform beneath me to clip Mega Man in an unfortunate way and torpedo him dozens of feet into the sky before dropping him out of the screen.

With all of this however, I managed to beat all levels at some point, but I just couldn't beat the bosses a lot of the time. I'd say it's lack of skill on my end for the large part, but also exposes some of the game's flaws again. Once more, I have to mention the poor performance of this game, which made using many of the weapons you collect by beating bosses a chore. It's not like many of these are effective per boss anyway, but have the game lag when using almost all of these also messed with my timing, which, as a new player, I suck at to begin with. With your basic starter weapon, the battles just are very tough because you have to dodge so many things at once and find an opening to attack yourself (with little damage output). It doesn't help that this is another game where you cannot turn your character until he finishes his attack animation, and when you press attack 0.001 seconds before you press turn, he will shoot in the wrong direction as well. Some of you might say this is fair, you might be right, but it just didn't translate to fun to me.

To explain the game more objectively to wrap this up, you pick a boss on the select screen and go through a few-minute long level to face him. If you win, you get the boss' power and can use it in future boss fights. The way you go through these is optional, but unless you are really patient, you will not want to face bosses with the wrong powers and have them take too long. Some bosses can be killed in a few hits with the right weapon for example.

Most levels have a fight with Proto Man as well, you have your dog Rush that lets you jump to higher surfaces and you can collect items that give you points, health and 1 Ups.

This was my first Mega Man game to play and the difficulty in addition to the terrible performance did leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I will obviously try out future Mega Man games and considering how popular the series is, I'm sure I'll enjoy some of the future releases much more than this one.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE

No voice acting. The sound design I found to be pretty average for a game from this year, I've certainly heard them all in other games already. The MVP in this game for me is the soundtrack, which ranged from good to amazing throughout. Even if you didn't play this game, but you enjoy 8 bit soundtracks, this game's OST is definitely worth a listen. It already starts with the intro theme, it continues with the oh-so satisfying Proto Man whistle which I already mentioned, and then you got an individual track per stage as well. My favorite definitely was the Spark Man track (and on a soundtrack that has so many bangers, I think Spark Man's track still stands out a lot).

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN

The game looks pretty good in my opinion. Each boss has his own individual level, often with a unique theme. Shadow Man's level for example has a part where the stage darkens from time to time and the only thing you can see is the enemy coming at you. The Hard Man's level features rocky terrain, Spark Man has placed obstacles charged with electricity everywhere and Gemini Man's world offers two settings. Sprites look pretty good as well.

ATMOSPHERE

The game is supposed to take place on mining worlds. Now I don't know what that means, because most of the stages didn't really look like they were used for "mining" purposes, but disregarding that, most feel pretty atmospheric, but mostly in a cheery sense. Even the darker levels have cheerful music playing in the background, which makes sense due to the style and target group of these games. But due of that, it does waste some of the potential to create a more exciting and diverse atmosphere. Whenever the levels are colorful and cheery-looking as well however, the music fits very well.

CONTENT

On the surface, this appears to offer a lot. A bunch of boss fights, a little bit of storytelling, multiple different weapons and even the ability to choose the order of the fights yourself. In reality however, all of this is not only overshadowed by the regular lag issues, but there isn't as much here overall.

If you like Mega Man games and played these before, you maybe don't mind the lag by now. If a fellow newcomer to the series were to choose Mega Man 3 as their entry however, I don't know how many of that sort would be willing to stick with this.

Being able to choose boss fights randomly is correct, but I'd assume that unless you are very skilled, you will not be able to beat them in any order you want, but will have to rather rely on picking specific ones earlier to get specific weapons to make future boss fights that much easier. The weapons themselves do offer some variety, but since you can mostly use the basic weapon during the actual stages (where I personally died to gravity the most) and only need to use specific ones when you face bosses, I don't feel like they have as much purpose as I would have liked to see.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN

As I mentioned above, being able to choose one of 8 bosses to start is cool, but you'll need to choose a much more specific order to get through this game in all likelihood. I also don't like how the stages themselves are designed in a way that you'll be taking cheap hits a lot and enemies pop into frame in a lot of unfortunate situations (like when you are mid-air), which forces you to anticipate this by jumping forward and back. Not only that but you're forced to stand still and wait a lot to be able to damage the enemy or at least walk pass without taking damage (if you're precise). Overall I found the game a bit too hard in the wrong places to find much enjoyment out of it, though I did like how each level had its own style and many of its own, unique challenges.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION

The game innovates in a few pretty notable ways from Mega Man 2, namely introducing your companion Rush and giving you the ability to slide. The stages are also a bit longer (and I believe there are more stages overall as well), but other than that, the game doesn't do much else and is pretty similar to Mega Man 2, which I assume is what fans wanted in the first place. From what I've read however, Mega Man 3 is less adventurous with the design of stage challenges, bosses and weapons, which sounds like a step back to me.

REPLAYABILITY

Not as much replayability as I would have thought based on the boss structure, but still more than your typical 1990's platformer.

PLAYABILITY

It works, but the constant lag/slowdown just makes it an unpleasant playthrough for a lot of the time, especially since I don't bring any of the enthusiasm that someone who maybe has played the earlier versions back in the day, or some of the later more refined versions.

OVERALL

My experience with Mega Man 3 was ultimately disappointing, though I will remember it fondly for its soundtrack. And even though I didn't like a lot about the gameplay, I did enjoy other parts of it and I can see how people enjoyed both this, and later entries a lot, so I'm still looking forward to playing all the other 60 Mega Man games that have come out since. Next one on the list is Mega Man: Dr Wily's revenge on the Game Boy, which came out in July, 1990.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME

• Tobar the 8 Man for GamePro, Issue 16 (Nov 90): "It's got everything that a great video game should have: incredible challenge, exceptional game play, stunning graphics and some nifty weaponry."

I'm not quite sure how to express how much I love this game. I finally finished it recently and I must say, along with 6 it's easily my favourite Mega Man game.

Story 6/10

Gameplay 8/10

Robot Master/Boss design 6/10

Special Weapons 7/10

I'd like to add that I think the story is quite good. When you have the context, the ballad of Blues really is quite bittersweet, such a beautiful ending. I might be a little biased, but I definitely think this is the best MM game (well at least from 1-6, I haven't played the rest though, so don't quote me on that).

Once again, reviewed on legacy collection for switch.

As a direct sequel to Mega Man 2, MM3 is legitimately pretty good. They've managed to fine tune the boss design to a pretty great level, with difficult tactics required that expressively use your movement and slide dash. The level design is just as good as the previous, with very interesting locales that give you opportunity to use your other robot powers.

It still falls into a major polish trap with certain sections cutting the framerate so awfully that precision platforming is obnoxious unfortunately. Mods can fix this (and there indeed are ones out there) but overall it's still probably the least polished entry so far. The music is also a step down from the previous game, and the last sets of wily levels are very restrictive.

Overall, it's a good action platformer still worth playing. Definitely recommend, even if I prefer MM2 just a tad more. (7/10)

History:

Aw yeah,. now things are getting real! Mega Man 3 is my earliest gaming memory. Running through Magnet Man's stage, that "foosh!" sound whenever a hidden block would appear. When I think Mega Man from the NES era my first mental image is always Snake Man's stage for some reason. I remember renting this game constantly from the local grocery store or all places before finally owning a copy. Incidentally, the copy I own is the copy I had as a child! I had lent my cousin my copies of Mega Man 2 and 3, and Kickle Cubicle. Another cousin came up and visited recently, and sure enough he had those games on him! My name on the boxes and everything!

Expectations:

Sigh... I remember beating this game multiple times. Hell, I beat it on the super horrible Gamecube Mega Man Anniversary collection. I mean, it wasn't horrible per se, but the jump and shoot buttons were effectively reversed, so it was like some kind of sadistic hard mode. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not feeling all too confident that I'll be able to beat it again after all these year. Sure as hell gonna try though!

Day 1:

Feels like home again. When I first got this game back I dabbled with it but this will be my first time attempting a clear in well over 10 years. I vaguely remember Snake Man being the guy I started with, so that's where I started this time.

This stage feels EXACTLY like I remember, though I'm finding I'm having an easier time getting through it. I died once towards the end of the stage when you're jumping across the towers, but otherwise it wasn't so bad.

Then the boss happened...

Complete failure. I don't think I even got him down to half health. I'll take this opportunity to say that while I understand Mega Man does use passwords, I can't recall a time I've EVER used them, and always considered this the kind of game where you beat it in one sitting.

Regardless, I had to try something different, and went with Spark Man. It seems like killing any of the bosses with your Buster Cannon is nearly impossibly in this game! Still, after a couple tries I was finally able to get him down. Spark Shot (or whatever) in hand, I was then able to easily take out Magnet Man!

Some of the photos from this game came out remarkably horrible, likely due to the bright colors on black backgrounds.

I quickly made through half of the robot masters.

Shadow Man's stage was so much cooler than I remember. Yes the falling platforms killed me more than a couple times, but the stage was actually really well made. I also find myself using my abilities in the stages MUCH more than I used to, which is to say at all. Magnet Man's ability during the parachuting enemies section at the end of invaluable.

Shadow Man's shurikens at the ready I was able to take my revenge on Snake Man, and Gemini Man and Needle Man didn't put up much of a fight either.

After that I had to retread some old stages. I completely forgot about this part.

These levels SUCKED, I mean they were good, but they sucked. This is the point in the game where I started throwing the controller and swearing at the TV. The stages were brutal and the bosses were all kinds of rough. I think I used two continues in each stage. Equally awesome is that if you die at or before the first boss in any stage (there's two in each) you start at the beginning of the level rather than the boss corridor!

I did finally, somehow, get through all of them.

As a kid I used to LOVE Proto Man. Why? Well because he was red, and had a cool visor and a cape! As an adult I obviously love him for exactly the same reasons, but I think having some dialogue scattered throughout the game could have worked wonders. Just some text exchange before fighting a boss, and in each encounter with Proto Man, I think it would have gone a long way.

Anyway, after beating Proto Man I was taken to a familiar castle...

Yeah, this definitely triggered some memories. Navigating Wily's castle was easier than I remember, or perhaps it's just easier than it was in Mega Man 2 and that's what I'm remembering. Regardless, the Turtle Dispenser died after a couple Top Spins. The golem was a bit harder, taking a couple tries as my first attempt had me starting on low health. Couple hard punches to the eye took him out though. The Mega Man clones can apparently be one-shot with a Top Spin, so that was cool. Then I found myself here...

I always loved this gimmick, but the bosses were no easier the second time around. Even worse was that I wasn't at full energy for all my weapons and I still had to conserve some of it for the following fights.

After beating all the Robot Masters a second time it was off to fight Wily's first incarnation. Snake Man's weapon makes short work of the cannon beneath Wily's robot, but I'm just not able to get the shot off on Wily himself. After a couple failed attempts, and finding myself running low on snakes, I resort to cheating using Rush. After phase one I hop on Rush Jet and just take shots at Wily until he goes down.

A fake! Naturally.

It looks better on the TV... In front of me is the door to the actual final boss. Another two phase fight where the first phase is laughably easy. Shadow Man's ninja stars destroy Gamma's head, and when Wily takes over a couple Top Spin dives add another game to my list!

Conclusion:

I'm actually a little surprised I was able to beat this game again! It's weird dissecting your childhood memories of one of your favorite game franchises, but here goes. Mega Man 3 is still absolutely amazing. The music, the level design, the ultra precise platforming. It nails all of it. The graphics for this game are actually really nice considering the NES' limitations, particular in the color pallet, though it's probably the laggiest game I've played so far. Mega Man games have always been very difficult, and this one is no exception. There were multiple time I thought I had hit my wall, but I always managed to break though it, often only just barely.

The game's still as fun as it ever was, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that said difficulty is still fair. I would often yell shenanigans after what felt like a series of cheap deaths, but I was always able to learn and refocus, and eventually overcome it. I know lore in the Mega Man games was never really important to the series, at least not for a long while, but I found myself becoming interested in multiple facets of the story. I wanted to know more about the Robot Masters, and Proto Man, and the Wily/Light relationship without having to resort to outside source material. It would be very interesting to see a remastered or re-imagined version of the first six Mega Man games on PSN or something.

Still, this game is simply timeless, and I could easily see myself coming back for it in another 10 years.

Liked:

- High, but fair, difficulty makes you proud of your accomplishments.
- Excellent graphics and music.
- Excellent level design and airtight controls.
- The game is just extremely fun to play.

Disliked:

- Would appreciate some in-game narrative to add some context and background to your mission.
- Lag-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g

Personal Score: