Mega Man 3
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| Mega Man 3 | |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Series | Mega Man Classic |
| Release date(s) | JPN September 28, 1990 NA November, 1990 EU February 20, 1992 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | NES, IBM PC |
| Media | 3-megabit cartridge, floppy disk |
Mega Man 3, known as Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? (ロックマン 3 Dr.ワイリーの最期!? Rokkuman Surī Dokutā Wairī no Saigo!??, lit. "Rockman 3: End of Dr. Wily!?") in Japan, is a video game that is a part of the Mega Man Classic series. For the Game Boy game, see: Mega Man III.
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[edit] Story
In the year 200X Dr. Wily claims to have reformed and works with Dr. Light on a project to build a peace-keeping robot named "Gamma." However, the eight Robot Masters that the two scientists had designed in order to help maintain peace go berserk and make off with the eight power crystals. Once again, Mega Man is called into action, but this time with a trusty canine companion named "Rush," to go after them and retrieve the crystals, located on various mining planets in space.
Proto Man (DRN-000; known as "Blues" in Japan), Dr. Light's first creation, also finally returns after a year in hiding to "train" Mega Man by dueling him in various locations throughout the blue-bomber's (Rockman's American nickname) journey, but if Mega Man comes out the winner, he will open up the path forward to him. Proto Man disguises himself as "Break Man" prior to the Dr. Wily Stages (otherwise he is undisguised).
Upon defeating the main Robot Masters, four new levels open up, which are new versions of the levels they replace. Overall, these new levels are similar to the levels they replace, except much harder, for instance the new Spark Man level, features a fall down a spike-lined shaft. In these levels, Mega Man is confronted by new robots called Doc Robots (one about half-way through the level, the other at the end), which take on the abilities of the Robot Masters of Mega Man 2.
When Mega Man has victory over the eight Robot Masters and the Doc Robots, he then confronts a version of Proto Man known as Break Man. He then teleports out and returns to the lab. Dr. Light runs out and tells him that Wily has stolen Gamma and, of course, that Mega Man must pursue him immediately before he can wreak havoc with the massive war machine. Mega Man goes to Wily's new Skull Compound and, after defeating some new foes (including several clones of himself), he faces Gamma, who is under the control of Dr. Wily. Upon defeating him, the fortress begins to destabilize. Parts of the ceiling fall on Mega Man and Wily, but a red figure descends through the dust and rescues Mega Man. Wily has seemingly met his demise.
When he awakes, he finds himself in Dr. Light's lab. Dr. Light explains that he found Mega Man lying there when he came in. He then wonders aloud who brought Mega Man there, but before he has even finished his third word, a whistle splits the air, leaving no doubt in Mega Man nor Dr. Light's mind who was responsible for saving Mega Man. It appears that Proto Man is not evil after all.
Dr. Light takes Mega Man to a work table where he shows him a notebook that is filled with designs of Proto Man, confirming that Proto Man was the prototype master robot, and Mega Man's "brother", so to speak.
[edit] Gameplay
Mega Man 3 is the third game released chronologically in the series. It features several enhancements on the previous games, including:
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- the introduction of Rush, a robotic dog that doubles as a spring (Rush Coil), a submarine (Rush Marine), and a jet (Rush Jet);
- Mega Man now possesses a slide, which can fit him into gaps about half his size and "duck" projectiles;
- With more than four additional stages and eight more regular bosses after defeating the Robot Masters, this is the longest of the NES Mega Man games.
- The difficulty of the game is lessened due to the fact that you can have up to 9 Energy (E) Tanks.
This game also marks the first appearance of helper robot Rush and fan-favorite Proto Man.
The following Robot Masters appear in this game. The character designer is listed after the robot.
| # | Robot Master | Designer | Weapon | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Needle Man | Nobuhiko Akatsuka | Needle Cannon | Gemini Laser |
| 18 | Magnet Man | Nagashi Kii | Magnet Missile | Spark Shock or Shadow Blade |
| 19 | Gemini Man | Yoshihito Hattori | Gemini Laser | Search Snake |
| 20 | Hard Man | Kazuhiko Oguro | Hard Knuckle | Magnet Missile |
| 21 | Top Man | Yasushi Konjiki | Top Spin | Hard Knuckle |
| 22 | Snake Man | Yuhjiro Ishitani | Search Snake | Needle Cannon or Shadow Blade |
| 23 | Spark Man | Mikihiro Suzuki | Spark Shock | Shadow Blade |
| 24 | Shadow Man | Takumine Yoshida | Shadow Blade | Top Spin (2nd: Hard Knuckle) |
Note: The second-best weapon is listed with Top Spin due to its instability.
When the Robot Masters are defeated, Mega Man next revisits four of their levels to take on various Doc Robots:
| Doc Robot | Stage | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Metal Man | Spark Man | Magnet Missile or Hard Knuckle |
| Air Man | Needle Man | Magnet Missile or Spark Shock |
| Bubble Man | Gemini Man | Spark Shock or Shadow Blade |
| Quick Man | Spark Man | Gemini Laser or Search Snake |
| Crash Man | Needle Man | Hard Knuckle |
| Flash Man | Gemini Man | Needle Cannon or Gemini Laser |
| Heat Man | Shadow Man | Top Spin (2nd: Shadow Blade) |
| Wood Man | Shadow Man | Needle Cannon or Search Snake |
After defeating all the Robot Masters, the Doc Robots, and Proto Man (as Break Man), Mega Man is forced to face what are considered to be the final bosses.
| Boss | Weakness |
|---|---|
| Kamegoro Maker | Shadow Blade |
| Yellow Devil MK II | Hard Knuckle |
| Holograph Mega Men | Search Snake |
| Dr. Wily - Wily Machine 3 (Phase I) | Hard Knuckle or Spark Shock |
| Dr. Wily - Wily Machine 3 (Phase II) | Hard Knuckle |
| Dr. Wily - Gamma (Phase I) | Hard Knuckle |
| Dr. Wily - Gamma (Phase II) | Top Spin (2nd: Search Snake) |
Mega Man 3 was re-released as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection in 2004. This game was also released with 16-bit graphics in 1994 as part of the Sega Mega Drive game Mega Man: The Wily Wars.
In addition to acquiring Shadow Man's Shadow Blade and Needle Man's Needle Cannon, Mega Man is rewarded with the Rush Marine and the Rush Jet, respectively.
The following cameos take place in Mega Man 3:
- All of the abilities of the eight Robot Masters featured in Mega Man 2 are reproduced separately by each of the eight Doc Robots, accompanied by a hologram of the respective imitated Robot Master hovering briefly over the Doc Robots at the beginning of each fight.
- The boss of the second level in Wily's Fortress is a remodified "Yellow Devil" (Rock Monster) from the first Mega Man.
- The boss of the third level in Wily's Fortress features a Mega Man clone and two holographic images of Mega Man. This is similar to the use of a Mega Man clone as a boss in Wily's fortress in Mega Man.
- In the fourth level of Wily's Fortress, leading up to the transporter room, there is a decrepit monster who attacks by throwing rocks in the style of Guts Man.
- Gamma also bears a strong resemblance to Guts Man.
Each of the games in Mega Man 2-6 feature a room with transporters to defeat all of the Robot Masters again. However, in the majority of these games, after defeating the Robot Masters a second time, a ninth transporter appears, leading the player to battle a vessel controlled by Dr. Wily. Mega Man 3 is one of only two exceptions to this (the other is Mega Man 6). After defeating the Robot Masters in the transporter room, a gateway is opened identical to the gateway which leads to the boss chamber in other levels, but instead of leading to a boss chamber, it leads to a series of weapon charging capsules, an energy tank, and a transporter. Upon entering this transporter, the level is complete.
The final two levels of Wily's Fortress are the simplest levels of the game, with the exception of Break Man's level. Each features two rooms: The first simply involves a collection of power-ups, but no monsters, and the second features the boss. The first of these two bosses is believed to be Dr. Wily, but is revealed to be merely a mechanical puppet. The second of these two bosses is the actual Dr. Wily controlling Gamma, the "peacekeeping" robot.
[edit] Weapon Info
- This is the only Mega Man game in the Classic and X series in which the Robot Master weaknesses form two distinct cycles (Snake Man, Needle Man and Gemini Man are each weak to one of the other two's weapons) meaning at least two bosses must be fought using the Mega Buster.
- This is the second Mega Man game in which all the Robot Masters are distinctly weak to their own weapon. In Mega Man 2, many Robot Masters were also weak against their own weapons, most notably, Metal Man can be defeated with a single Metal Blade while playing in Normal difficulty.
- The Top Spin, gained from Top Man, is one of only five Robot Master weapons in the series that is used by colliding with the enemy (the others being Charge Man's Charge Kick in Mega Man 5, Quint's Sakugarne in Mega Man II (Game Boy), Pluto's Break Dash in Mega Man V (Game Boy), and Oil Man's Oil Slider in Mega Man Powered Up). It is capable of damaging enemies very rapidly, but Mega Man will often take damage as well during the collision.
[edit] Glitches/Cheats
- An obscure glitch in this game occurs in Gemini Man stage. Just before you scroll onto the screen to meet Proto Man, slide onto the screen and jump (especially with the super-jump capability on controller 2). If you jumped far enough, you will fall through the floor underneath Proto Man. This will give you the chance to hear the entire Proto Man whistle, and the music will remain stopped. The only other apparent change from then on is the penguins later on in the stage are replaced by random graphics from the game, such as the snake pattern from Snake Man's stage.
- Mega Man 3 for the NES is the only game in the entire saga where it is possible to cheat using the second player controller. If you hold up and the A button on the second player controller, enemies will slow down though some energy projectiles will only be slightly slowed down. Even more importantly, you hold right on the second player controller, Mega Man can jump super-high. If you abuse this you can jump into a pit while holding right and wait for Mega Man to die, after he dies just jump out of the pit and you are immortal as long as you don't pick up any energy powerups. - note that you can only use the arm cannon like this using a Rush tool i.e. Rush Coil. All other Master Weapons will funtion normally, but the arm cannon will not.
- A second obscure glitch enables you to acquire the Rush Jet without defeating Needle Man. After you defeat Shadow Man, you acquire both the Shadow Blades and the Rush Marine. In the (second) weapon select page, the three incarnations of Rush (Coil, Marine, Jet, respectively) are arranged vertically on the right column while the Search Snake, Spark Shock and Shadow Blades are on the left. The space to be occupied by the Rush Jet is therefore on the bottom right corner, below Rush Marine and immediately right of the Shadow Blades. After you have both of these, you can use the Control Pad to highlight the Shadow Blades, as if you were about to select them as your weapon, and then press right to highlight the empty space on the bottom right corner of the page, where Rush Jet would be. The Rush icon will appear on the far left of the weapon select page. Press start to come out of pause: the Rush icon will transform into Rush Jet and you will reappear wearing the red-and-white color scheme. There will also be an empty weapon energy column next to your life bar. Pick up any weapon energy refill capsule and you will be able to call on Rush Jet. In order to keep him for the remainder of the game, step on him and remain on him until one sliver of his energy is expended. Then "RJ" will appear on the bottom right corner of the weapon select page the next time you pause the game, with whatever energy Rush Jet has left. (It will refill completely after you beat the robot master of whatever stage you're on or you get Game Over.)
[edit] Artwork detail
- This is the first Mega Man game in the U.S. to have box art showing Mega-Buster as a part of his left arm. In the U.S. artwork for the two previous games, Mega Man carried a handgun in his left hand.
- Mega Man's pose in the "Got Weapon" screen is the same as the one on the Rockman 2 box cover.
[edit] Adaptation In Other Media
A very loose adaptation of the game was the storyline for the Captain N: The Game Master episode "A Tale of Two Dogs".
[edit] External links
- The Mechanical ManiacsThe Mega Man 3 team
- Mega Man 3 at the Killer List of Videogames
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