To this day, Mega Man 3 remains the most ambitious game in the Classic Mega Man series. A space-trotting adventure with a twisty high stakes story, stunning spritework, a dramatic soundtrack, lots of gameplay improvements, complex level and boss design, and more stages than any other classic entry by a decent margin, all crammed into a single NES cartridge. Needless to say, Capcom wasn't quite able to accomplish everything they were hoping for, with an infamously rushed development that left the game unpolished, lacking an intro, and very divisive among fans. That being said, Mega Man 3 still manages to be far and away my favorite Classic Mega Man game and one of the easiest entries in the series for me to replay, refining and perfecting pretty much everything I love about Mega Man as a franchise.
On pretty much every level, Mega Man 3 feels like an expansion of the ideas and mechanics of the first two games, and that all starts with the story. The first two games mostly just had the same core plot of Mega Man taking out some Robot Masters before going for Wily himself, even with the latter's weird alien twist. MM3, on the other hand, goes far wider in its scale, even with its missing intro. Dr Wily has turned a new leaf and is pretending to team up with Dr Light and Mega Man only to predictably double-cross them, the Robot Masters are stationed on different planets forcing Mega to travel through space to fight them, and Proto Man gets introduced as an enigmatic rival who helps Mega just as much as he tries to fight him. It all culminates in that fantastic final cutscene where we go through all of Dr Light's Robot Masters before learning that Proto Man is one of them, making him Mega Man's brother. For an NES game, this twist is absolutely wild, right up there with the Dedede twist in Kirby's Adventure, and is the first semblance of lore and continuity in the whole Mega Man franchise. Is this the best story in a classic Mega Man game? Probably not, I'm partial to the Bass arc myself, but it's definitely the best in an NES Mega Man game and a big step forward for storytelling in platformers, wrapping up that original trilogy of Mega Man games in fantastic fashion.
Mega Man 3 also makes some pretty massive strides when it comes to gameplay, arguably an even bigger jump from MM2 than that game was to the first. The obvious standout was the slide which is easily my favorite addition in the whole classic series for how much it expands upon the combat and level design. I love a good quick dodge, and the slide strikes that perfect balance of helping you get out of tight situations while also not being a freebie. It still requires good timing to use properly. You can also use the slide to speed yourself up a bit and jump out of it to keep the momentum going, the levels start tossing in moments where you need to time when you slide through a gap to avoid getting hit (Needle Man being the highlight in this aspect), and the slide even allows for one-way entry points that may hide collectibles or alternate paths. It's such a versatile mechanic and a Mega Man game just feels incomplete without it to me.
MM3 also adds Rush who basically serves as a substitute for the Items from 1 and 2, but infinitely better in every way. Where the Items previously felt kind of random and out of place, them all being implemented in a robotic dog that accompanies you throughout the adventure puts them into a stronger context while also being far cuter. MM3 also gives you items simply for beating stages rather than forcing you to find them in the levels themselves which avoids any "wait, I needed that magnet beam?" moments once you get to Wily Castle. And that's not even getting into all the little quality of life improvements like Mega Man's slipperiness being completely gone, the weapon menu letting you gauge your surroundings while you pick your weapon (a decision the next three sequels would completely regress on), the increased amount of E-Tanks you can hold, and the complete lack of bosses that straight-up require a weapon that isn't the Mega Buster. It feels like Capcom pinpointed every single issue with MM1 and MM2 and fixed pretty much all of them.
And all that isn't even getting to the levels, which stand out as some of my favorites in the entire franchise. The Robot Master stages are diverse, creative, dynamic, and most importantly, difficult. Snake Man's stage is an easy standout for its unique snake theming and high-in-the-sky final third, but there's also the brilliantly bizarre Gemini Man's stage, the slide-heavy Needle Man's stage, the magnet-themed platforming puzzles in Magnet Man's stage, and the tight but incredibly satisfying gauntlet that is Spark Man's stage. There isn't a weak link in the game, every Robot Master stage is an absolute blast. The Robot Master fights themselves are also stellar, with attack patterns that are incredibly satisfying to dodge. I love how satisfyingly Magnet Man and Top Man's homing missiles align themselves, how unpredictable Shadow Man and Needle Man are, how much strategy goes into figuring out Snake Man's moveset, and especially how Gemini Man's clones basically turn his fight into a game of jump rope. Even when you have their weaknesses, these fights also don't instantly become easy either. MM3's bosses are designed to keep you on the move and force you to think about how to best utilize your weapons to take them out, almost feeling like a dance at points. The weapon lineup itself is admittedly not one of the better ones, but something I do love about it is the fact that this is the last game in the series to have a ton of different weakness chains. From 4 onward, there'd really only be one set chain which is a real shame because the multiple boss weaknesses in 3 makes it especially replayable.
Once you're done with the Robot Masters, Mega Man 3 introduces the Doc Robot stages, which task you with revisiting four of the stages to fight eight more Wily bots with the movesets of the Mega Man 2 bosses. For some, these stages are obvious padding that bring the difficulty up to unmanageable levels. For me, these stages are low-key my favorite part of the game. Many Mega Man games have tried to figure out how to extend their length while sticking to eight Robot Masters, and I thought revisiting modified versions of old stages was actually a pretty great idea. It lets the developers further explore many of the game's level gimmicks with the knowledge that you're guaranteed to have all the weapons and Rush abilities, while also having far more visual variety than eight castle stages in a row (looking at you, Mega Man 4-6). So we have cases like Needle Man throwing in a full Rush Jet section and Spark Man mixing in new gimmicks like the rotating wheels with all the ones from the original version of the level. On top of that, MM3 even throws in some environmental storytelling showing the passage of time, like how Shadow Man's lavaflow has decreased, Spark Man's fencing is in tatters, and coolest of all, the Giant Metalls teased in the original version of Needle Man's stage have now been deployed and are being used against you as minibosses. And the Doc Robot fights themselves honestly aren't that bad? They're not too different from the Hard/JP version of Mega Man 2, and frantically trying to figure out each one's new weakness is a fun change of pace. As for the Wily Castle itself, it's admittedly on the easy side, but for me, that still makes it a pretty fun victory lap coming off the far tougher Doc Robot stages. And as I said in my original review, I would much rather have an easy Wily Castle stage than whatever Mega Man 2 did.
On top of all of that, Mega Man 3 looks and sounds fantastic. Mega Man 2 had its good-looking moments, but from 3 onward, the series would join the upper ranks of some of the prettiest NES games out there, with detailed and colorful spritework and a clear and consistent art direction. MM3 looks so good, in fact, that it causes the original NES version of the game to lag a lot. In most cases, this would absolutely be a bad thing, but there's an official port that removes all lag in the form of the Complete Works version of the game. The soundtrack is also top-notch, up there with 5's and 8's as one of my favorites of the classic series. The music in MM3 by Yasuaki and Harumi Fujita has such a grand and epic vibe to it, and many of its themes are remarkably complex and lengthy. From melancholy tracks like the title theme and Wily Castle 2, to more adventurous tracks like Hard Man and Needle Man, to some of the series' most badass tunes like Spark Man and series highlight Snake Man, Mega Man 3's soundtrack does a phenomenal job of capturing each stage and the emotions at play in the story.
Overall, Mega Man 3 isn't without its flaws, but it's still my favorite Classic Mega Man game for managing to be more than the sum of its already great parts. It's an ambitious title with a massive scope for an NES game, tons of gameplay improvements, some of the most complex and memorable levels and bosses in the series, loads of replayability with the multiple weakness chains, stunning visuals and music, and an experimental second half that really landed for me. To this day, no other classic Mega Man feels like it's trying this much to punch above its weight, and it does one hell of a job at it.
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