Mega Man 3

"A fine game, worthy of note - 9.1/10"

Note: That my score is 9.1/10, not 9/10, but GameFAQs severly limits my preferred 101-point scale to a simple 10-point scale, so I am forced to round.

Welcome to my Review, for Mega Man 3.

Mega Man 3 is, as the title would suggest, the third game in the Mega Man series. It is a fine game, not the best, not the worst. Almost the worst, but still a fantastic, and Class-A act (that fact just goes to show that the Mega Man Original Six are a fantastic set).

Anyways.

Graphics – 10/10

Once again Capcom tops everything seen before on the NES with the latest in the Mega Man series. Sure, some stages (like Spark Man) still are monochrome, just plain black in the background, but at least it has interesting looking platforms. Anyways, most of the Stages look like they came out years, not a lone year, after Mega Man 2. Most Stages have beautiful backgrounds, like Magnet Man and Hard Man. Snake Man has an indoor section is a green area, and then an outdoor section in the air-and there you can see a vast improvement over its similar in nature Air Man from Mega Man 2. Gemini Man has an awesome psychedelic background that is sweet, it has blackness with crazy blue lines on it. It looks positively sick. Foregrounds, too, are dramatically improved. As has already been mentioned, Spark Man has a cool one-everything looks digital and weird. The snakes on Snake Man's Stage look really good and have nice textures. The supposed grass on Top Man's Stage looks about as real as it gets on the NES. Mega Man himself still has the same old sprite set, but somehow looks more fluid, as if they added some more sprites. Enemies are looking better these days, too. Much more detail is present. Plus, they are much larger. On Hard Man's Stage, behemoths like the Bickii and Pickleman Bull tower over our small hero. Hard Man himself towers over Mega Man as well-gone are the days when Mega Man could match up in height to every single boss. Over in Snake Man's Stage, the Snakey (and how is that for an original name?) is attached to the pipes which look like snakes fires out pellets as big as Mega Man's head. The Snakey's heads are about as tall as Mega Man, too. On Gemini Man's stage, the Penpen Maker's are giant penguins which dominate the screen they are on. The Metall's too, get a huge makeover-the Giant Metall (another original name!) on Needleman Revisited's Stage are six or seven times as tall and wide as Mega Man. On the whole, the graphics here are just magnificent.

Sound-Music – 9/10

The music in Mega Man games is always top-notch, and Mega Man 3's music is by and large some of the best of the NES in 1990. The incredible thing is, it is actually worse than the majority of the Mega Man games on the NES. It just goes to show, again, that the Mega Man Original Six are a great series, through and through. In this game, not every tune will blow you away, but quite a few are awesome. In other words, most of them will. Needle Man, Magnet Man and Gemini Man all have Stages with fantastic music qualities, and Snake Man and Shadow Man and Spark Man are not bad. Hard Man is quite bad, and Top Man's is some of the worst found in the Original Six games. Dr. Wily's music is not the best, but it is very good, with Dr. Wily Stage 3 leading the pack. The Stage Select screen's sound is the best of the Original Six (and thus all Mega Man games). Boss music is up to snuff, and is great, with the Wily boss music topping the regular Stage boss music. The music here, on the whole, is quite awesome, and does Mega Man proud.

Sound-Effects – 7/10

The sound effects here are great, and some are recycled from Mega Man 2, which is in and of itself not a bad thing, just not very original. Some are bad, some are good, and some are excellent. On the whole, they are average and do Mega Man proud, but they are nowhere near as great as the music in this game. That, I suppose, is to be accepted from video games of this day, and even today-the music is almost always more memorable than the sound effects. Understandably.

Storyline – 8/10

A step up from Mega Man 2's “Dr. Wily has created eight more robots,” which is expected from the first sequel. The story here is centered around the creation of a peace-keeping robot called Gamma, created by Dr. Light and, supposedly, Dr. Wily, who has claimed to join the good guys. They have made some Robot Masters (eight, of course) to help, too. Of course, the whole thing is a lie, and Dr. Wily escapes, and Mega Man must fight. Also, Proto Man appears periodically to fight you, for “training.” He also appears as Break Man. This marks his debut appearance. However, for all this big, long story, it all comes down to the same as Mega Man 2: Fight 8 Robot Masters, move on with your life. Thus, it has a good backstory, but not good development, or even showing it in the game (supposedly there are crystals and things like that).

Originality – 9/10

At first, the game may seem like rehash, especially if one is not acquainted with the storyline. You fight 8 Robot Masters. You then move on. To…not Dr. Wily. You now have four more Stages to do-in any order (this also marks the only time in the Original Six in which you are presented with a choice of Stage Order beyond the basic Robot Masters). They are harder versions of some of the earlier Stages, where you fight classic Mega Man 2 Robot Masters-2 per stage. Then you go on to a short fight against Break Man/Proto Man, before heading to Dr. Wily's castle. This thus marks the beginning of the Mega Man Original Six trend of having levels between the Robot Master Stages and the Dr. Wily fortress, and this is refined over the next three games into perfection. Also, two new characters make an appearance (which is something Mega Man 2 can not claim), Proto Man, as has been stated. Also, you now obtain Rush, a robotic dog sidekick, who allows you do things, similar to the Items in Mega Man 2, but with considerably more original names (Rush Whatever vs. Item-x). Finally, a new slide move is obtained, which is great, and adds another level to the gameplay. However, the Stages and actual gameplay are still platforming, with only a few extra quirks added.

Play Control – 10/10

Once again, the latest Mega Man game (for when it was released it, obviously and of course, was), features perfect, spot-on control. Whatever you tell Mega Man to do, he will do. Also, with the addition of the slide move, this marks the first Mega Man game in which a “combo” is available-two buttons pressed simultaneously to do things they could not by themselves, in this case, Down+A does the slide that has been mentioned.

Gameplay – 10/10

The real reason to consider playing a game is the gameplay, which, if great, can compensate for poor graphics and other production qualities such as sound (on the opposite note, even a game with stellar graphics and sound is worth nothing if the gameplay is horrendous). Fortunately, Mega Man requires no compensation in either of those regards, but, regardless, even if it did, which is does not, the gameplay is perfect, as usual. There are now a record 967,680 ways to complete the game. Yes, almost a million. This is because there are the usual 40320 ways to go through the eight Robot Masters, and then 24 ways to go through the remixed stages, and multiplying those together, we get the colossal amount there is (8! * 4! = 967,680). Anyways, beyond the sheer number of ways to play the game, there is the classic Mega Man gameplay beneath it. The general principle is this: You can do the eight Robot Master Stages in any order you wish. The trick is to find the right order, because each Robot Master is weak to the weapon which another possesses-this is a Mega Man hallmark. That is how it works. Of course, you start with just the Mega Buster, and everyday weapon. Soon, your arsenal will be full. With various Rush powers to collect (through defeating Robot Masters, as well), the gameplay goes from a standard platformer to an epic and multi-layered adventure. The Robot Masters themselves are somewhat cool-with Spark Man and Hard Man being the coolest, and Top Man and Needle Man being the bottom of this barrel (they are both based on ridiculous ideas, particularly Top Man). They are about as cool in order as this game is-fifth of the six. Just like that stat though, that is not a bad thing, because the Mega Man Original Six are a constant source of good thrills and awesome gameplay and cool Robot Masters. The new slide maneuver (which has been explored and commended for its controllability in the above section already) is useful in gameplay. In some places, you will need to slide under a low jutting edge. This is alright, but the obvious and not the best idea. You can, however, use it to slide under enemies, which is really cool, and a great idea. On the whole, the gameplay is best-in-class, as usual.

Length – 10/10

The longest of the Original Six, at 19 Levels, this game is the longest, as the first game had 10 levels, the second 14, and the final three had 16 apiece. The reason this game has so many levels is that it is, as has already been mentioned, the first to have levels between the Robot Master's a Dr. Wily's Fortress. It has 5 such levels, whereas the next three game have 4 (mind you, the Break Man Stage of this game is just a simple fight, nothing to lose sleep over), and, also, Dr. Wily's Fortress has six levels, not four (like Mega Man 4, 5 and 6), so it gets more levels there as well. On the whole, this game does not get boring at all, and it features an immense length, too.

Replay Value – 6/10

Unless you want to try all the near-million ways to play through the game, there really is no reason at all too. There is no score system (as there was none in Mega Man 2) to go by, which is too bad, but we have moved on. You can try to time yourself and go for a record, but only a select few people actually care about this and then go through with it. Some elite players will try to go for a no-hit (self-explanatory) and/or pacifist (never shoot, except against bosses) game, but this is not for the general public. However, you may want to play again just for the sake of it, because this game is so fine.

Final Verdict
+ Excellent graphics that improve over Mega Man 2 dramatically
+ Great Music in Needle Man, Gemini Man and Magnet Man Stages, and all around
+ Sound effects get the job done
+ Interesting storyline concept
+ Play control, as usual, is perfect
+ Gameplay is still perfect, and evolved from Mega Man
+ New slide maneuver is great and is implemented well into the gameplay
+ The longest Mega Man game of the Original Six
+ Same great base Mega Man gameplay concept
+ Proto Man/Break Man is a great and interesting new character
+ Rush is a good addition and de-generic-ifies the Item-x's from Mega Man 2
+ First Mega Man game to have Stages between the Robot Master and Dr. Wily ones
- Some music, particularily Top Man's, is bad (Top Man's is terrible)
- Sound effects are merely average
- Same base Mega Man concept
- Replay value is limited in the extreme

* Final score is not an average

Final Score: 9.2/10
Excellent, Kevin's Choice, Platinum Award

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/07