After Mega Man 2 went on to become a million seller it was inevitable at this point that Capcom would release a few more sequels, but they really went overboard. The topic of this review is part 3, and this is the first point in the series where things really felt phoned in to me. Mega Man 3 is a favorite for many fans, but in my opinion it is where the developers lost their focus. Even Keiji Infaune, who is credited with the creation of the franchise, didn’t like this title. In modern times we’ve learned that development for this title was rough, and it’s understandable because of this that they would struggle to re-create the magic. Mega Man 3 isn’t a bad game by any means, but the level design, new abilities, technical issues, and forgettable soundtrack make this one pale in comparison to the last. It’s really a shame too because the old charm returns in spades.
Mega Man 3 takes a slightly different route in terms of story. Dr. Wily has come to his senses and returned to Dr. Light’s side as his colleague. They’re hard at work on a new super robot for the purpose of maintaining peace, and their mechanical androids are working together to harvest the materials needed for the project. One day they all go haywire, and it’s up to Mega Man once again to defeat them. This time he’s up against one of Dr. Light’s other inventions called Proto Man who is a humanoid robot just like Mega Man. There’s actually a few plot twists this time around, and the scenario marks a noticeable upgrade from the last title. As you can imagine things are not quite as they seem and pretty soon the real villain rears his ugly face. Gameplay remains largely unchanged; you’re presented with eight different robot masters that each have their own stage, and you can choose the order in which to tackle them. This is a side scrolling action game where you rely on projectile shots, and accumulate new weapons as you defeat each robot master. It’s the basic Mega Man formula through and through, but they didn’t put as much effort in here.
You still begin with just the mega buster which fires the same pellet shaped shots. New to the series is Mega Man’s ability to slide across the floor. This is occasionally useful for dodging enemies, but it’s used mostly to slide under small passageways. This time you’re up against a rather colorful assortment of robot masters that include Spark Man, Magnet Man, Hard Man (you can tell they were really out of ideas for this one), Top Man, Shadow Man, Gemini Man, Needle Man and Snake Man. They’re all pretty out of place in my opinion, but if I had to choose my favorites I would pick Magnet Man and Gemini Man. The weapons you gain from them are actually pretty decent this time around, well, for the most part anyway. The magnet missile seeks out metallic enemies, and considering the fact that everything you fight is robotic this is very helpful. The gemini laser shoots a beam that reflects off of surfaces and it’s surprisingly useful. The shadow blade is like the metal blade but can be shot in all directions and it’s basically your go-to weapon for boss fights. Others like the hard knuckle, spark shot, and needle cannon are boring because they only fire a single shot forward. The worst ones are the seeker snake that travels along the floor, and the top spin which twirls Mega Man. These last two are basically useless except against the robot masters that are weak to them which is really unfortunate.
Mega Man 3 does away with the special items from the last title and instead replaces them with the Mega Man’s robotic dog Rush. Specific robot masters grant Rush new skills that are extremely useful in many of the levels. You can use him to gain altitude by transforming his back into a spring, ride on him as he flies through the air, and he can even change into a submarine (though this is only required once in the game). Some areas, especially in the final leg of the game, demand that you use these in order to proceed but I found myself using them mostly to generate shortcuts. What’s interesting is that Capcom introduced a new basic ability for Mega Man himself. By holding down on the d-pad and the jump button he will slide across the floor. This cannot be used as an attack, and functions more as a defensive tool for dodging attacks. Unfortunately the developers wanted to make sure you use it and placed a bunch of small passageways in every single stage that you must slide under. This slows down gameplay and it didn’t take long for me to loathe this functionality because it’s superfluous fluff.
This brings me to the level design. This is the one aspect here that it feels like the developers simply didn’t care about. Aside from the extra large enemies that frequently block your path, and bubbles you must destroy with your weapons there’s virtually nothing new here. In addition the new ideas, such as being required to fly from one ledge to another, are tedious and uninspired. You’ll run into the same old disappearing platforms as in the last two games and even a lot of the platforming scenarios are recycled. Add to that the aforementioned dependence on the slide technique and you’ve got a slower paced Mega Man title that just isn’t as fun. On another note one of the most interesting elements of this game is that the robot masters from part 2 are brought back in the last leg of the game. You don’t gain their weapons after defeat, but figuring out which of the new weapons they are weak to is really interesting in my opinion. Unfortunately it makes the game much longer, and by the end I felt that Mega Man 3 had overstayed its welcome.
Although the graphics engine has been enhanced a little from the last game some areas feel like a downgrade to me. Many of the stages feature super simple backgrounds, while others are too busy (such as Spark Man’s with too much flashing elements in the scenery). The enemy designs have also been upgraded and many are significantly larger, and with more unique attack patterns and animations than in the previous games. Some enemies wind up and spring at you which makes for a surprisingly detailed graphical effect. Others stand much taller than Mega Man, but these guys generally feature little to no animation unfortunately. Unfortunately this game, at least as far as I can tell, suffers from even more slowdown and flickering than the past titles. The action regularly slows down to a crawl, and though I was lenient with Mega Man 2 it’s just plain bad here. The game looks pretty decent, but Capcom really should have optimized the engine a bit more.
The soundtrack also represents a big downgrade. Mega Man 2 has some of the consistently best themes of all time, and it’s sad that the composers weren’t able to re-create the magic here. Most of the music in this game just sounds too similar to each other, and most of it lacks personality. This is another aspect of Mega Man 3 that feels phoned in to me. The only standout track is for Snake Man’s stage, and though this is one of my favorites series-wide it doesn’t save the package from the rest of the boring music. The sound effects are good, but that’s due to the fact that they were mostly ripped straight out of the last title. The new weapon effects are pretty decent however. Mega Man 3 is a disappointment in the audio department primarily because it was released right on the back of part two. It definitely could have used more work here.
Mega Man 3 is a pretty decent platformer overall, but when held to the standards of the last game it just doesn’t measure up. With this release it seems to me that Capcom was quickly losing their direction, and the whole package feels unfocused. The uninspired robot masters, and boring level design really hold this one back. They really phoned this one in. Unfortunately Mega Man hasn’t even reached its lowest points even yet, but that story is best saved for another day.
