In case you couldn't tell, I've played a lot of video games in my lifetime. About 10 years ago, I actually listed out every title I'd ever played and it was already well into the thousands. And again, that was 10 years ago.
I've seen good and bad, unique and formulaic, inspired and boring, violent and family friendly, and everything in between. My past two years of posts have been a pretty good microcosm of the industry really, there have been a few stinkers, mostly okay to good games and a few true standouts. I've discussed my love for games like Doom, Street Fighter, Madden and Final Fantasy VII and how they kept me hooked on the medium throughout my years. But as important as they were in my gaming journey, it all started with Mega Man 3.
It wasn't the first game I ever played, I remember being as young as 4 and playing Super Mario Bros at a friend's house. My cousin had an NES and I remember us both getting very frustrated that we couldn't beat any of the levels in Silver Surfer, neither of us knowing it would go down as one of history's most difficult games. But Mega Man 3 was the first game I ever played where I was just like "I have to have that." The interesting graphics, the sound, the different powers, the cool robot masters, everything about it had me instantly hooked. You could complete the stages in any order? How cool was that!
As with any Mega Man game, the first thing you are going to notice are the robot masters. This time your enemies are:
Spark Man
Snake Man
Needle Man
Top Man
Shadow Man
Magnet Man
Gemini Man
Hard Man
It's a great selection and almost every single one of them have great design. Snake and Shadow are probably among the coolest robot masters in the series, how can you go wrong with a dude in a giant snake mask and a ninja? Needle, Spark and Magnet are all well designed as well, though they don't have the "cool" factor of the other two. I'm not sure what Gemini man has to do with twins or stars or anything, but his silver space-y armor is awesome. Hard Man gets a lot of flack, but I always thought his design was very fitting, his name just screams "big fat guy in a metal suit." Only Top Man really misses the mark. You have a snake-robot hybrid, a ninja, a machine that uses its arms to conduct electricity and throw it and...a top? Why?
That said, I don't think there are any bad stages here. If I have one criticism, it's that they aren't always on theme for the robot master that guards them. But I would rather have them done well than see a fanatical devotion to a theme. Needle Man's stage is probably the worst, but that's because it's merely good. Top Man may be lame, but he has a great, fast paced, combat focused stage. Spark Man's flashing lights and rising platforms always stand out as my favorite, though Snake Man's stage is often considered the most iconic. The whole thing is made of robotic snakes, how cool is that? Gemini man's stage is absolutely hypnotizing to look at, with all the colorful crystals and spacey tadpoles. None of these stages have the iconic setpieces that Mega Man 2 did in the form of Quick Man's lasers, but they are far more balanced and offer more variety than their predecessors.
The robot master battles may be the best in the series. Each one offers a unique challenge and there is a good distinction between easier and harder bosses. Top Man and Magnet Man both offer challenges that are reasonable for beginners, with easy to follow and recognizable patterns that can still mess you up if you're not careful. Hard Man and Gemini Man pick the difficulty up, both of their patterns are easy to identify but difficult to time correctly. Spark and Snake are the next tier up, their arenas offer staggered floors and they will both try to get right up in your face to cause contact damage. Needle and Shadow are the most difficult, Needle less so because while his movements are very spastic, he at least has some semblance of pattern. Shadow Man is just brutal, he has a section of his pattern that is completely random, making him damn near impossible to deal with. That said, he also dies almost instantly to his weakness weapon, so once you figure it out you will be fine.
The powers are great too, they may not be the most interesting but they might objectively be the best in the series. Spark Man's spark shock is the one exception, it's absolute junk. Top Man's top spin is probably the next weakest (and hardest to use), but its brutal when you can hit with it. Shadow blade, needle cannon and magnet missile are all incredibly powerful without allowing you to break the game. Search Snake, Gemini Laser and Hard Knuckle are all fun to use and very effective in the right situation. I know a lot of MM fans love the metal blade from MM2, but it's incredibly unbalanced and breaks the game. It's almost not worth ever using anything else. None of the weapons in MM3 do that (though Rush Jet kind of does) but they aren't as bad as some of the stuff from later in the series.
New to MM 3 were the "doc robot" levels, which allowed you to play through more challenging versions of some of the previous stages. I always thought this was cool, it added some length to the game without taking it too far. Each of these levels contains two bosses, all of which are rehashes from MM2. I remember being blown away by this as a kid, I played MM3 first and thus had no frame of reference for any of these guys were. To me, it was like getting two Mega Man games in one.
It goes without saying, but the sound and graphics are outstanding. The sound is a step up in quality from MM2, though I don't think the tracks are quite as memorable. The graphics were definitely improved and I feel like the backgrounds were much more active and detailed. There is always something to look at and there aren't very many stale or boring screens. Spark Man's stage in particular was mesmerizing to me when I was a kid. If I had to offer a complaint, it would be that a lot of the levels are completely off-theme for their guardians. Why is Needle Man's stage a random city, that doesn't have very many needles? What does a robotic greenhouse have to do with tops? Shadow Man is a ninja, so why is his stage something that looks like a sewage plant? I would rather them focus on quality than theme, but it would be nice to see something a little more germane to what was actually going on. I usually bring up controls, but they are damn near perfect here, not much more to discuss beyond that.
It's hard to put into words how I feel about this game, it holds a very special place in my life. But even putting my nostalgia aside, Mega Man 3 is a great game. It may not have as many iconic moments as its predecessor, but I think it's better overall from front to back. It has a great cast of enemies and offers a tough but fair gaming experience. Whenever anyone asks me where I think they should start with old school games, I usually direct them here. MM3 is an all time classic and a quintessential example of what an NES side scroller should be.
Wouldn't you rather play?:
Mega Man 2 - I already kind of went over this, but I think MM3 is much more balanced than its predecessor. There aren't any segments quite as memorable as the Quick Man lasers or the whale battle, but there also aren't as many moments that will drive you insane. I shudder every time I think about the block section in Heat Man's stage, that took years off my life. That's not to say MM2 is bad, its still a top 100 game of all time and a must play. I just like 3 more.
Mega Man 9 - It's close here, I like MM9 a lot. But the difficulty is absurd, almost too much so. Despite the general consensus, I have never found the Mega Man games to be exceedingly difficult. But I always have trouble with 9. I also don't like that you can't slide, it slows down the game and reduces the ways in which you can attack each level. Another top 100 game of all time and another must play, but it couldn't supplant MM3 for me.
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