Mega Man 3
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| Mega Man 3 | |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Tokuro Fujiwara (producer) |
| Series | Mega Man Classic |
| Platform(s) | NES |
| Release date | JPN September 28, 1990 NA November 1990 EU February 20, 1992 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| 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. The image of Mega Man used in this game's boxart (with a slight touchup) was used as the basis for the boxart of both the North American version of Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge and for the DOS version of Mega Man as well. In the DOS version, however, the surrounding landscape and robot masters have been cropped out of the picture.
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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 his 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.
After Mega Man is victorious over the eight Robot Masters and the Doc Robots, he confronts and battles "Break Man". After the duel, he teleports out and returns to the lab, where Dr. Light 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 either Mega Man or 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 the ability to slide, which allows him to fit into gaps about half his size and "duck" to avoid 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 because you can have up to 9 Energy (E) Tanks.
This game also marks the first appearance of fan-favorite Proto Man.
The following Robot Masters appear in this game. The character designer is listed after the robot.
Note: Due to the relative instability of Top Spin, secondary recommendations are made for use against Robot Masters weak to that ability.
| # | Robot Master | Designer | Weapon | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Needle Man | Nobuhiko Akatsuka | Needle Cannon | Gemini Laser |
| 18 | Magnet Man | Nagashi Kii | Magnet Missile | Spark Shock |
| 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 |
| 23 | Spark Man | Mikihiro Suzuki | Spark Shock | Shadow Blade |
| 24 | Shadow Man | Takumine Yoshida | Shadow Blade | Top Spin |
When the Robot Masters are defeated, Mega Man next revisits four of their levels to take on various Doc Robots:
| Doc Robot | Stage |
|---|---|
| Metal Man | Spark Man |
| Quick Man | Spark Man |
| Crash Man | Needle Man |
| Air Man | Needle Man |
| Bubble Man | Gemini Man |
| Flash Man | Gemini Man |
| Heat Man | Shadow Man |
| Wood Man | Shadow Man |
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 |
|---|
| Kamegoro Maker |
| Yellow Devil MK II |
| Holographic Mega Man Clones (3) |
| Dr. Wily — Wily Machine 3 (Phase I) |
| Dr. Wily — Wily Machine 3 (Phase II) |
| Dr. Wily — Gamma (Phase I) |
| Dr. Wily — Gamma (Phase II) |
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. However, due to a bug, it is possible to charge, and use, the Rush Jet at any time after beating Shadow Man, even if Needle Man has not been beaten yet.
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, though Snake Man is more vulnerable to the Shadow Blade than 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. It bears the distinction of being the one weapon that can kill Dr. Wily in one hit. The Search Snake is the only other one that can damage him, though not to that extent.
[edit] Technical Info
Like other games in the Mega Man series (beginning with Mega Man 2,) the map of Dr. Wily's castle has its own theme music (the entirety of which is about 17 seconds long), though not all of it can be heard during normal gameplay, as the stage begins as soon as the "path line" is drawn on the map. The full theme can be heard in the game's NSF file. In the Wily Wars remake for the Sega Mega Drive, however, the music was ported incorrectly -- the first few seconds of the song are simply repeated, as can be heard in the game's sound test.
[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
- Mega Man 3 at the Killer List of Videogames
- Complete video from Mega Man 3 on archive.org
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