Welcome to the second part of our run through on the original Mega Man games. Click here if you missed Part 1!

Mega Man 3 (Originally released September 1990)

After giving the success of Mega Man 2 about a year to play out, Capcom would demand another sequel to be made on a short time table. Of all the original NES Mega Man games, it was perhaps Mega Man 3 that had the most turbulent production. In interviews with GamesRadar and Nintendo Power, Keiji Inafune has since expressed dissatisfaction with both the development of Mega Man 3 and the overall final product. He felt the game was rushed to meet a deadline and lacked the care and polish of Mega Man 1 and 2. It's his least favorite Mega Man game; he considers it "unfinished".

A major component of Inafune's frustration was the loss of Akira Kitamura. Between the development of Mega Man 2 and 3, Kitamura, abruptly left Capcom to form his own developer Takeru, (which would publish games as "Sur de Wave"). He would go on to direct the games Cocoron and Little Samson (published by Taito) before quietly and mysteriously retiring from the video game industry. With Kitamura's departure, Mega Man 3 would be helmed by Masayoshi Kurokawa (who previously worked as a game designer for Strider Hiryu for Capcom's CPS-1 arcade board and Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers on the NES) under the tutelage of Tokuro Fujiwara. Further complicating things, composer Harumi Fujita took maternity leave and had to bow out of the project. She would leave the video game industry for about 4 years. Mega Man 3 would be her last game at Capcom for about 9 years. After she had completed about 3 tracks, she was replaced by Capcom composer Bun Bun.

Mega Man 3's story had Dr. Wily and Dr. Light make a truce to build a gigantic "peacekeeping" robot called "Gamma". Together, they make Robot Masters mine crystals or something. To this day, I have no idea how mining crystal or how building a giant robot is meant to "keep the peace". Of course, the Robot Masters go berserk, Mega Man is forced to reign them in with the help of his new canine companion Rush (named after the band!), and along the way Mega Man is confronted and helped by the mysterious Break Man. The only way to get the full skinny is to read the manual: the game is devoid of an opening cutscene and has very little text in general.

Mega Man 3 is very similar to Mega Man 2, with a few new and very significant features. Notably, Mega Man can slide with allows him to cover some more ground, and it can be used as an evasive maneuver against bosses or to sneak through tight spaces. In addition, Rush comes equipped with features such as the Rush Coil (which allows for a Suuuuuper Jump!!) and the Rush Jet which is a hoverboard that is totally broken. Mega Man can now hold up to 9 E-tanks, which, combined with the Rush Jet, makes Mega Man 3 an easy game to cheese through.

Whereas Mega Man 2 was an upbeat and colorful experience, Mega Man 3 has a melancholy look and sound. The title theme has a sorrowful theme song, the music of the game was overall downbeat. Mega Man doesn't even look particularly happy to be here in either the sprite art or the promotional illustrations.

*Mega Man 3* loading screen for *Mega Man Anniversary Collection*

*Rockman Mega Mix* concept art of Doc Robot

Once again, the Robot Masters would be designed by Japanese fans through a contest. The Robot Masters of Mega Man 2 would return partway through the game in the form of the Doc Robots. Fighting these guys was neat at first, but now I'm older and I find this part of the game tedious. The revised versions of these stages weren't so much difficult as they were... annoying. The damage output from some of the fights is ridiculous, with some of the dudes chopping off roughly a quarter of your health. Other Doc Robot battles were a cakewalk.

I still hold that Mega Man 3 is a quality game, but there are some oddities. The weapon Top Spin is seemingly totally random in its active frames and its damage output. And yet, this joke of a weapon takes down the final boss in one hit. Baffling. Was this a creative decision or that lack of polish Inafune complained about?

There are a few other complaints. The Spark Shock might be the most useless Master Weapon in the series, up to this point. Rush Marine exists for the sake of itself. The Surprise Boxes suck. For some reason, the sound output of the life bar filling up is REALLY LOUD. Mega Man 3 has a bunch of odd little issues.

Concept art of Proto Man disguised as Break Man

The "twist" of Mega Man 3 is that Wily never really rejoined the side of good. He was truly evil all along and was planning to use Gamma to take over the world! Mega Man once again confronts Wily. At the end of the game, it's revealed that Break Man was actually Protoman, Dr. Light's first Robot Master, and essentially Mega Man's older brother. This reveal is treated with no joy, only deep and cryptical navel-gazing. Dr. Wily escapes. The game doesn't truly conclude, it just kind of stops.

In spite of the developer hardships and a more somber tone, Mega Man 3 sold very well and received widespread acclaim. It’s still one of Capcom’s best selling games. I think it's worth checking out.