Welcome back to Save State, where we have to contend with the fact that we’re already living in 20XX, and none of the cool stuff from Mega Man has happened here. Monster Hunter Wilds came out recently, which you know means I’m completely absorbed in that. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t beat Mega Man Three just before the release of Monster Hunter Wilds so I could write about it for Save State. Mega Man Three was one of the games that I remember renting from stores as a child, but it never left much of an impression on me. This title is widely considered by many in my age group to be the best of the classic Mega Man series, or a rushed, unfinished mess, depending entirely on the perspective of the Mega Man fan you’re talking with.

Mega Man Three opens with very little pomp and circumstance. While the second Mega Man title had an intro cutscene that established some elements of the world, informing the player that this is the legendary year 20XX, Mega Man Three opens up with a great little title screen tune on a black screen with the game’s logo set to a black void. All of the story for Mega Man Three is in its manual, but basically none of it is in the game. Mega Man Three is actually about two doctors named Dr. Light and Dr. Wily working together for the greater good (or so Wily says) on a peace keeping project. They sent out Robot Masters to mine crystals on different planets, but they each run amok instead of gathering the necessary materials, so it’s up to Mega Man to stop them.

Mega Man Three is actually a planet hopping adventure, which actually causes the stages in the title to make a lot more sense in retrospect. The Robot Masters all are in worlds that seem completely disconnected from the earth where the first couple of games in the Mega Man series took place, and that becomes more obvious once you know the impetus behind the story. Of course, Mega Man isn’t a franchise you approach when you’re interested in story: You’re interested in the pulse-pounding, lemon-shooting innovations in action!

Innovation is definitely something Mega Man Three brought to the table. Like Mega Man Two introducing the eight Robot Master levels approach that most every other Mega Man title utilizes, Mega Man Three introduces the slide, which became a core component of classic Mega Man in basically every title until the retro throwbacks of the late 2000s. By pressing down plus the jump button, Mega Man is able to do a quick slide, which lets you slip underneath enemy attacks and obstacles, and to move a little bit faster as well. The third Mega Man also introduces Mega’s trusty robotic canine companion Rush, who effectively takes the place of the traversal Items from Mega Man Two.

The bosses in Mega Man Three make it a little more challenging to intuit the proper boss weakness order, but for my run through of it, I decided to take out the Robot Master Top Man first. His stage takes place in a terrarium looking planet, where screws come to life and chase you, and spike growths extrude through glass floors to catch you if you’re sloppy with your jumps. The boss fight with Top Man wasn’t exactly difficult, but his Top Spin weapon makes short work of the Robot Master Shadow Man (sometimes), which is where I went next.

For whatever reason, Shadow Man is hanging out in some kind of otherworldly sewer system, replete with lava. The theme of the level is overtly interesting, and it throws enemies at you in a rapid and constant pace. Proto Man jumps you about halfway through the level but is easily dispatched by sliding underneath him. Shadow Man unfortunately consumed all the weapon energy from Top Spin in a single hit due to a glitch, but he was still easy enough to take out with Mega Man’s Mega Buster weapon that it was just an inconvenience. For the trouble, I was rewarded with the Shadow Blade and Rush Marine.

It’s after this that the boss weakness order gets a little strange because there’s two separate boss weakness orders in Mega Man Three, rather than a single, unifying loop. I went for the Robot Master Needle Man after this, venturing through his construction site that would be more fitting for a Nail Man, but I digress. Beating Needle Man rewards the Needle Cannon and Rush Jet, which allows you to use Rush to fly around the screen with full control, letting you bypass any troubling platforming segments.

The next boss up is Spark Man, whose domain is a giant power plant on another planet. There are some moving traps that generate electricity between themselves, but with the proper timing of jumps and slides these aren’t anything to be worried about. Spark Man’s weakness is the Shadow Blade obtained earlier, which makes pretty short work of the encounter. There’s a big pillar in the middle of the room you can shoot Spark Man through, and his attacks cause so much lag that you have plenty of time to think about how to avoid his spark attacks.

Magnets are always worrisome if they generate sparks in homes, so Magnet Man is the next obvious target. Magnet Man’s stage has fun traps, like magnet enemies who float above your head and attempt to pull Mega Man off the ground and into death pits if you’re not careful. There’s also a platform challenge with disappearing blocks and a twist where there are magnetic generators trying to pull you off the blocks while you jump. Magnet Man himself has two simple attacks: One where he shoots three magnets at you that descend from above, and another where he tries to pull you into himself. His attack patterns mostly leave him completely open for you to hit him with anything from the Spark Shock to the Mega Buster, so he also makes an ideal first boss if you’re looking for an alternate place to start.

The powers of magnetism can be super hard to understand at times, which is why I went to the Robot Master Hard Man’s stage next. Contrary to what you’d think from his name, Hard Man’s stage is less about how hard things are and is more about chasing you with bees. To fight Hard Man himself, you’ll need to jump to avoid the aftershocks of his leap attack, and a couple of jumps toward and away from him will get you right past his fists, which he launches at you like boomerangs. Magnet Missile makes short work of this encounter, and Mega Man will earn the power of rocket fists.

The Robot Master Snake Man’s stage has one of the best level themes and musical tracks in Mega Man Three, completely devoted to its serpentine theming. This stage is a tower comprised of green tubes, which really gives the idea that this whole place is made out of robot snakes. Out of all of the Robot Masters in the original eight, Snake Man is probably one of the easiest because he just runs and jumps back and forth in a predictable pattern, shooting ground-trailing snakes while he does so, which makes catching him with the Needle Cannon pretty simple.

The final of the main eight Robot Master bosses is Gemini Man, which means it’s time for trouble, and you better make it double. I guess he’s weak to Search Snake because he already has a phobia of snakes, so when he duplicates himself, that makes him extra scared of them. Gemini Man’s stage is definitely the craziest looking level in the entire game, taking place inside a cave system of an alien planet, complete with vein-like structural growths in the background. This level is also one of two places where Rush’s ability of Rush Marine can be used to explore in a brief water segment.

After defeating Gemini Man you’d normally expect to be ushered to the final levels, but not so in Mega Man Three as four of the places you visited during the title have been invaded by bosses called Doc Robots who are programmed with the combat data from the Robot Masters of Mega Man Two. The subsequent stages are brief, more challenging remixes of the stages on which these are based, and you’ll encounter two separate bosses in them who have the attack patterns from Mega Man Two.

For the most part, these Doc Robot stages throw more enemies and one-hit kill traps like spikes and pits at you, and the increased challenge was a nice change of pace which is expected as you get further into a classic NES title. Most of these rematch fights aren’t that bad, like the Metal Man expy being a bit easier due to there being no conveyor belt in the room like in Mega Man Two. Quick Man’s Doc Robot was quite possibly the most frustrating and difficult boss of the entire bunch, since he’s more random with his jumps and is a lot tougher to jump over due to his size. Thankfully, you can carry up to nine E-Tanks in Mega Man Three to restore your health, and I used one without regret on this particular boss.

Once you beat the Doc Robot stages, you learn that Dr. Wily actually betrayed Dr Light in a very brief cutscene that would have come out of nowhere if you didn’t read the manual before playing Mega Man Three. I mean, who would look up the manual after the fact, some kind of freak? Some kind of devilishly handsome, 30-something year old freak? Dr. Wily ran off with Gamma, the world saving collaboration project between Dr. Light and Wily, and it’s up to Mega Man to stop him.

I actually don’t remember much of the Wily Stages at all. Your weapon energy doesn’t refill between castle stages, just like in Mega Man Two, but these stages are substantially easier than any of the Doc Robot levels that immediately preceded them. There are so many E-Tanks and extra lives placed all over, so much so that you may wind up wasting one or two of them if you haven’t used any yet on your playthrough. Several of the bosses are also defeated within seconds, including the final boss itself, capping off an interesting adventure with a strange dip on the difficulty curve.

After defeating Wily, the castle will begin to collapse, trapping both Mega Man and Wily under some rubble. Proto Man, who attacked Mega Man at multiple times throughout the game, will appear and rescue him at the last moment, and it’s revealed to the player that Proto Man was actually the very first Robot Master ever designed by Dr Light. Proto Man would go on to become a mainstay in the Mega Man franchise, his enigmatic whistling theme denoting that help was on the way.

All that said, Mega Man Three was a good time, but it seemed strangely unfinished by the end. I know this is a personal favorite of many, but it’s not exactly one I’m super excited about replaying if for nothing else then that it means having to fight that Quick Man Doc Robot again. The stage designs of the first eight levels, as well as even the remix stages, musical themes, and visuals in the levels are all great and make this a title that deserved all of the sales it received.

There are some strange bugs that pop up now and again, like how the special weapon you get from Top Man called Top Spin is capable of killing many enemies in Mega Man Three in a single hit. Unfortunately, using it on anything that doesn’t die in one hit seems to completely drain the weapon energy gauge, which can happen when you’re fighting Shadow Man or the final boss. Out of all Mega Man titles I’ve replayed thus far for this retrospective, Mega Man Three is by far the one with the most slowdown as well as sprite flickering in the first three Mega Man games. Even with the flaws, however, Mega Man Three is a lot of fun, and it is a sequel that improved upon the prior two entries in the series in some ways.

The introduction of the slide revolutionized Mega Man level design, and the special weapons were significantly more balanced among themselves, with nothing like Metal Blades which were so incredibly powerful in Mega Man Two that they overshadowed the rest of the special weapons. Rush and Proto Man also became iconic staples of the series, with Rush Jet seeing substantial reworks in later games because it is both very strong and fun in Mega Man Three. The music in the third Mega Man title is also above reproach, though I’m sure that goes without saying.

That being said, I think we can safely bring this entry of Save State to a close. Remember that E-Tanks are banned in California for having potentially hazardous chemicals… and cooties. See you in two weeks!