Mega Man 3: The First Great Mega Man Game

(This review was originally published April 20th, 2024.)

In my eyes, Mega Man 3 is where the series finally got into gear, and the formula that Mega Man 3 perfected would pave the way for the remaining 4 NES Mega Man games to be some of the best platformer games on the system. This is a bit of a departure for me, since it’s the first review I am writing of a game I really enjoyed rather than one I disliked, so we’ll see how I do. This game perfected the core gameplay loop of the boss order, has good stages, and has the best visuals the series had ever seen at that point in time. It even had more content than the prior two games, as well as many quality of life improvements and touches of polish that make it one of the best in the series.

The first thing that Mega Man 3 gets very right is finally perfecting the formula for boss orders that most of the series would follow. It’s not quite a perfect boss loop, but it gets very close, which is fine. By having a loop like this, a player can start with whatever stage they want pretty much and then tackle the following stages in the loop.

In terms of perfecting existing systems, another way in which this game does that is by finally perfecting the user interface (UI) of the Special Weapon screen. It looks very clean in this game, and looks like a coherent menu rather than merely a popup on the screen. I like that due to using icons, the game doesn’t make you remember which weapon is which. The smooth UI makes switching weapons a lot better and makes the game just play better overall.

The great and clean UI is reflective of the many overall visual polishes added to the game. Mega Man 2 felt like a hybrid of 1 and 3 in a way. Mega Man 1 featured undetailed stages with mostly blank backgrounds. However, in Mega Man 2, that changed… somewhat. There were still stages with less detail and more empty backgrounds, but those were rarer, and there were some stages that looked excellent like Wood Man’s stage. Mega Man 3 is like if every stage looked the same quality as Wood Man’s stage, and marks where Mega Man becomes one of the best game series on the NES in terms of visuals. Those visual improvements weren’t limited to the stage designs either, it also is reflected in the designs of enemies and their animations. They look more animated and dynamic than most enemies in past games, which makes things look less static.

Another one of the ways Mega Man 3 improves on the formula of the series is with the inclusion of the slide. Sliding fits the game perfectly. For one thing, Mega Man has always been very slow for a platformer. No run button, no dash button, just one consistent speed and jumping. Now, that isn’t a bad thing, but a slide is the best implementation of a mobility option. Rather than a dash, like in the Mega Man X games, a dash allows dodging attacks in combat, especially boss fights, to be far more smooth. Rather than your only options for dodging attacks being up and backwards, you now can slide under many attacks. The fact you can extend or cancel your slide is also genius in terms of allowing you to dodge attacks, as it can require more skill than to just dash once and dodge a multi-hit attack.

Mega Man’s moveset in Mega Man 3 is, of course, also expanded by the special weapons in his inventory in this game. Now, while I do love Mega Man 3 and think it is one of the best Mega Man games, if I had to levy a flaw against it, the first small one would be that its weapons are not one of the better sets in the series. It’s certainly not bad, and most of the weapons here are good, but it does have at least one bad weapon, which is not ideal. The Needle Cannon is essentially just a generic, damaging attack without any special properties aside from being able to fire multiples at once. It’s okay, but nothing special. That’s also true of the Spark Shock, which is just about the most generic possible weapon a Mega Man game can have. The Magnet Missile is a cool take on a special weapon. Rather than having a set trajectory like most, it has a light tracking system, traveling horizontally before going up vertically to hit its target. It’s good for tricky situations where you have to fight an enemy at an odd angle.

The most infamous weapon in Mega Man 3, and one of the game’s biggest flaws, is the Top Spin. The weapon is a total joke. There is technically a rhyme and reason to how its weapon energy consumption is tracked, but practically speaking, while playing the game, it is essentially random. It is also supposed to have invincibility frames to allow you to use it up close without taking damage, but in my experience using it, they are extremely spotty if they work or not. Frankly, outside of messing around, I think the game would just be better if the weapon wasn’t even here. It’s close to useless, as even the enemies weak to it I’d rather just use a better, safer weapon on.

The remaining weapons in Mega Man 3 hit within a good sweet spot of having their use cases and being fun to use, while still being simple and balanced. The Search Snake and Gemini Laser are a little niche in terms of when you want to be using them to take out your targets, but when you do use them, they work well and are fun. The Shadow Blade is probably my favorite weapon in the game, even though it’s pretty simple. It just has a good arc and speed to its attack that makes it very fun. The Hard Knuckle is a close second, though, as I am a sucker for slower weapons that take a second to fire, especially when its power is higher as compensation.

In addition to the eight Special Weapons featured in Mega Man 3, this game also features in the debut of Rush, Mega Man’s loyal dog companion, who has three forms that help with transport. Rush Coil became an iconic part of the series from this game, serving as a great piece of vertical mobility. One thing I appreciate a lot about Rush Coil is that, rather than immediately giving you vertical movement, you have to deploy it and then jump on it. This amount of preparation time means it doesn’t really work as a tool in combat as much as outside of it. Rush Jet does the same for horizontal mobility, though it’s a bit cheap at allowing you to bypass some elements of the game’s platforming, but not enough to feel like it does the game a disservice. However, while those two are cool, the third one is Rush Marine, which feels completely useless. It’s not a problem, it doesn’t make anything worse by being included, but I never once felt the need to use it. I used it a couple times for the sake of novelty, but I never felt like I needed to.

While Mega Man 3 does make many improvements to the overall structure and formula of the Mega Man series, as I have outlined, ultimately none of that matters if the stages aren’t good. Luckily, Mega Man 3 has one of the best sets of stages in the entire Mega Man series, starting with Needle Man’s stage. First off, this stage’s art direction is great, and a good illustration of my point about the game’s overall improvement over the prior two games in terms of visuals. The Hari Harry enemies in this stage are cool. The way they are immune to damage while rolling makes them more challenging than many other enemies but in a good way. This is true of the stationary Cannons as well, they aren’t very threatening but also they don’t get killed instantly when you can’t always attack them. Once Mega Man enters the building, a favorite section of mine appears, where he has to dodge spikes while sliding. I really like how this game takes full advantage of the slide, and how it lets you turn around while in a tight space like Mega Man is here. The pretty easy to grab E-Tank does get into one overall issue I have with this game, which is that it feels a little bit too easy compared to other games, but I will touch on that in more detail later. After a bit more platforming, Mega Man reaches the boss fight with Needle Man, which isn’t an especially hard one. If you have the Gemini Laser, it’s even a pretty easy fight, as his needle projectiles he fires aren’t very fast or hard to dodge. But overall, still an amazing stage, although the music is pretty grating.

Another visually great stage is next, which is Magnet Man’s stage. I really love the pretty background to the beginning of this stage, with what looks like mountains at sunset or sunrise, and the wires on the floors of the stage look great too. As for the gameplay of the stage, it starts with a very cool gimmick. Mega Man has to deal with flying enemies carrying magnets, which can pick him up since he’s made of metal. This is such a cool idea, it’s creative and leads to interesting platforming. This stage also features a mini boss fight with the new character, Proto Man. Proto Man seems to be a fan favorite among the Mega Man fans who like the games’ lore, but in terms of gameplay, he serves as a fun mini boss for a few stages in this game. The rest of the stage after the fight with Proto Man is a little bit underwhelming and boring, but not in any obnoxious or irritating ways. The boss fight with Magnet Man himself is pretty good, especially if you fight him first. Feels well balanced, not too easy and not too hard.

The next stage up, Gemini Man’s, is pretty good. The crystalline appearance of the stage helps it stand out with a bit, which it needs since the name “Gemini Man” is certainly less immediately evocative than most other Robot Master names. The starry sky background is a clever way to keep the background mostly black without being a boring static color. The first sections of the stage are fairly standard in terms of enemies and platforming, but after Proto Man arrives to blow open a hole into the rest of the stage, it becomes even better. This stage’s gimmick is these bubble things that you can pop with the mega buster. Just like popping bubbles in real life, this is immensely satisfying to do, especially as enemies pop out and you can destroy them in one shot as well. There’s no real challenge to it, but it just feels good to do. This stage features another easy to grab E-Tank that is directly in your path. The fight with Gemini Man is pretty great! I love the clone gimmick, and his weakness, the Search Snake, deals a good amount of damage without being a total pushover.

The weakest and least interesting stage in Mega Man 3 is probably the next one, Hard Man’s stage, at least among the eight Robot Master stages. The stage isn’t even redeemed by the game’s overall great art direction, as this stage is also one of the only things that doesn’t look very good. The color palette of the stones is pretty ugly, and clashes with the green metal traps. Gameplay wise, the first section features a flat expanse with not many obstacles. There’s occasional enemies but they pose little threat, and the bear traps that spring out of the ground are very easy to avoid via sliding. The stage’s enemies during the next sections, including the Hammer Joe and Returning Monking, ultimately don’t pose much threat as you can take them out from a range without ever being in danger. The stage features another fight with Proto Man. I will say, while I like the fight with Proto Man, I do wish it wasn’t such a similar fight multiple times. It reminds me of the Big Eyes in Mega Man 1. I got it the first time, mix it up some. Almost immediately after that fight comes the boss fight with Hard Man. This fight is probably the highlight of the stage. I like the “genre” of Mega Man boss fight where you have to stay off the ground in order to stop yourself from being stunned, and this is one of those. The homing of the Magnet Missile could arguably make the fight too easy, but I don’t really think it does.

Top Man’s stage is weird, but not always in a bad way. The entire aesthetic and visuals of the stage are a bit slapdash and don’t feel cohesive, and the bright blue background with dark green stage elements does look pretty bad to me. However, while it’s not the best stage visually, it is pretty good in terms of the gameplay. The screw-like enemies that merge together are pretty neat, and the stage just has a solid layout. It’s not the kind of stage that has a cool gimmick that carries the stage’s design, it’s just a solidly made stage. I do like the cat mini-boss, but it’s not especially distinct from other mini-bosses in this game or in other ones, like the dogs in Mega Man 2. I also appreciate the weird, semi-3d effect present with the rotating tops that you stand on. I know that it obviously isn’t actually 3d, but I like whenever a 2d game can try and emulate the feeling of standing on an object rotating in a 3rd dimension towards and away from the camera. The boss fight with Top Man is probably the weakest element of the stage. His pattern is very predictable and basic, which makes the fight feel underwhelming even though the balance is correct on paper, in terms of damage numbers.

Probably the weirdest stage in Mega Man 3 is Snake Man’s. It’s got a weird theme, but it pulls it off well, especially in terms of the visuals in the snake-like pipe floors. The gameplay of the stage ends up a little bit basic, without any real gimmicks. One highlight to me is the mini-boss fight with the big, stationary snake. It’s a creative and interesting way to incorporate the stage design into the snake motif, while also posing an interesting challenge with the moving floor. Snake Man’s boss fight is one of my favorites in this game, with an especially interesting arena to enhance it. I like that you can shoot the snake projectiles to destroy them, and their trajectory makes them very fun to avoid. One of the best Robot Master fights in any Mega Man game to me, honestly.

Spark Man’s stage has one of the best backgrounds in the game, with moving machinery parts everywhere. It makes it feel more dynamic than a stage with a solid color background. Now, not every stage needs a dynamic background, but for this style of factory setting, it fits the aesthetic very well. The stage’s design is also great from a gameplay perspective. I like the moving electric obstacles, as well as the platforms that raise you into a wall of spikes if you stay on them too long. The boss fight with Spark Man ends up being a bit too easy if you have access to the Shadow Blade, as it deals a bit too much damage and can hit multiple times in rapid succession.

The final of the eight Robot Master stages is Shadow Man’s stage. The theming of this stage is kind of weird, full of bright colors and lava despite being named Shadow Man. But, the lava does look great. Anyway, the actual stage is pretty neat. There’s another fight with Proto Man, which is still a tad underwhelming, but after comes a cool part of the stage where the lights turn off, which is a gimmick I am always in favor of. The stage does lack a bit of splash or a hook to separate it from any other stage, but it’s still fun and comes together in the end. The boss fight against Shadow Man is pretty good, partially because his weakness is to the Top Spin, which sucks, so you have to be a bit more creative. It’s a pretty standard boss fight, but it’s still good.

After the eighth main Robot Master fight, we come to the most divisive part of Mega Man 3, from what I have seen. Now, Mega Man goes to different variations of four of the stages he has already visited, fighting “Doc Robot” versions of the bosses of Mega Man 2. To a lot of people, that strikes them as lazy, and just a way to reuse existing bosses in an underwhelming way. Personally, I don’t see it that way. I think back in the days of the NES, when most games were very short, it made sense to try and extend the length by adding more content so that people were getting their money’s worth. Even if not all of that content is original, I appreciate it over nothing. Plus, it’s only the boss fights that are reusing content. The actual revisited stages are not just the same stage as before. While they may have the same visual themes, it’s still a new, original layout each time. Even the reused boss fights are a bit different due to the weapons in Mega Man 3 being different from those in the previous game.

The first of the Doc Robot stages is the revisited version of Spark Man’s stage. This stage has a pretty fun unique obstacle, which is these spinning platforms that Mega Man has to jump on and then immediately jump off, unless he wants to fall. It introduces it well, by having the first one above solid ground before later ones are over bottomless pits or spikes. I really enjoy the fight against the Giant Springer enemy, especially how you can damage the main enemy and the missiles separately. Halfway through the stage is a boss fight with Metal Man in the body of the Doc Robot. While I do enjoy these rematches overall, I do wish it had been with the actual Robot Masters and not with the Doc Robots. The exceptionally large sprite and hitbox for the Doc Robot ends up making the fights feel more awkward than their Mega Man 2 counterparts. I won’t be commenting on the individual boss fights, if you want my opinions on those, feel free to check out my Mega Man 2 review. After that boss, interestingly, the stage continues, as each revisited stage features two Doc Robots rather than one. The rest of the stage doesn’t feature any new or especially interesting gimmicks, but it does return a fun element from a prior stage, the electric beam enemies. The stage ends with a fight with the Doc Robot version of Quick Man, solidifying the structure of these revisited stages.

The rest of the revisited stages follow that same structure, starting with revisiting Needle Man’s stage. The first section of the stage is very similar to the original Needle Man stage in terms of what types of set pieces are present. Luckily, Needle Man’s stage was great, so that’s a compliment. Lots of the same sliding under needles and dealing with the hedgehog enemies, both of which are highlights. The middle of the stage features a Doc Man boss fight, but after that the stage starts to be a bit more differentiated from the original Needle Man stage. There’s a section with flying enemies where you have to use Rush Jet which is pretty fun, and as always I enjoy when later-stages in Mega Man games require you to use certain tools you unlocked in the Robot Master stages. I especially like how it requires you to go for the energy refills since you can’t make it across on the Rush Jet without weapon energy. Before the actual stage boss with a Doc Robot, there is an out of nowhere Giant Met mini-boss. It’s pretty underwhelming, since you can defeat it extremely quickly and easily. After a bit more platforming and another Giant Met, Mega Man reaches the end for another Doc Robot boss fight before beating the stage.

Gemini Man’s stage is the third of the stages Mega Man has to revisit, and is probably the least interesting of the four to me. The first section of the stage, where Mega Man is outside, is pretty boring, with no real gimmicks or even any especially interesting layouts. Once Mega Man gets inside, it becomes a mediocre but not great recreation of the first visit to this stage, with more bubbles to pop. After a few rooms of that, he fights the Doc Robot boss, and then the stage gets at least a little bit more interesting. The next section is probably the only part of the game where Rush Marine feels important to use. I do think Rush Marine controls pretty well, so this part is pretty fun. It’s pretty brief, though. After that there’s some platforming sections with decent layouts and neat enemies, before the stage ends with another Doc Robot boss.

The final of the Doc Robot stages is a revisit to Shadow Man’s stage, the best of the four. The stage starts with Mega Man falling down pits with spikes to the sides. Normally I don’t like these sort of “blind drop” segments, but in this case it ends up working because the screen transition gives you enough time to react to the hazards. Another section that follows features Mega Man jumping on platforms that collapse after being jumped on, while the lights are all off. This is a really cool set piece, and a great part of a great stage. After defeating the next Doc Robot rematch, Mega Man has a few Hammer Joes to defeat, which is cool because they are always a fun enemy to me. Then, there’s some more platforming in rooms with good layouts before the final fight with another Doc Robot, ending the revisits to old stages. Overall, a great stage.

After the four Doc Robot stages, we come to the first of six Wily’s Castle stages. Yes, six. That’s a total of eighteen total stages in this game, which rules. Like I said, Mega Man 3 is top notch on bang for your buck. The first of the Wily stages starts with a final showdown against Proto Man. It’s pretty much the same as every other fight, which is a bit underwhelming. After that, the stage proper begins with an outdoors combat section where it’s more about taking down enemies than platforming. Once Mega Man gets inside the fortress, he comes to some platforming with an underwater section with lots of spikes. This stage is overall just a lot of fun, especially after you leave the water and are climbing while avoiding attacks from Hammer Joes, and then have to fight even more as you progress. The stage also looks pretty good. It looks gross, in a way that I assume is intentional. Lots of dark greens on what looks like brick. As usual, I am sure some people hate the disappearing block section, but I like it. Pretty soon after that, Mega Man comes up against the first boss of the Wily’s Castle stages, Kamegoro Maker. It’s a weird boss, a robot that deploys robot turtles for you to shoot. Rather than directly damaging the boss, you damage it via its projectiles. Certainly an interesting and unique idea for a boss, but in practice it’s way too easy. If this was earlier in the game that’d be fine, but in an 18 stage game, I expect things to be getting harder by stage 13.

The second of the Wily’s Castle stages is very short, and pretty unmemorable. The first chunk of it is pretty much a walk in the park, with no enemies or hazards, as Mega Man can collect refills for his special weapons. That’s appreciated, given how many stages in a row there are with weapon energy carrying over between them, but is this much of it needed after just one stage? For most people the answer would be no. After that, the bear-trap type hazards from Hard Man’s stage return, except in a much more interesting way. Rather than just being able to slide your way through a gauntlet of them, they are the only available platforms for you to jump on, and have to get off them fast before they damage you. After that, there’s a section that relies on your access to Rush Jet. It’s also pretty brainless and not super interesting, sadly. But then, the rematch with the Yellow Devil! This version of the fight is much better than the one in Mega Man 1, as the parts of the devil come much slower, which means the fight is less reliant on pure memorization and it can be more reasonably done just on reaction. I also think this fight truly showcases the increase in visual quality from Mega Man 1 to 3, as even with such a short period of time between games, the Yellow Devil Mk. 2 looks significantly better than the original.

Another short Wily’s Castle stage follows. It’s got a vertical section at the beginning, that also serves as a good place to restock on weapon energy. There’s also another E-Tank easily accessible in plain sight. After that, Mega Man has to traverse a hallway in the dark, but it’s not any more interesting than the past times that has been done in this game alone. The best part of the stage, to me, is a couple rooms where the player has to avoid spikes while riding on moving platforms. It’s appropriately challenging and a very fun set piece. The boss of the stage comes next, three copies of Mega Man. They are pretty devastating offensively and make it hard to attack them with how many bullets there are and how much damage they do, but once you find the real one, it’s very easy to kill. That dynamic makes this fight pretty interesting compared to most Mega Man fights, I like it.

After a very short platforming and combat section, the fourth stage of Wily’s Castle is mostly just the Robot Master rematches. It follows the same formula from Mega Man 2, which is great because that game perfected the structure. Not much to say, as the stage ends after you defeat the eighth rematch.

The fifth Wily’s Castle stage is just a boss fight against Wily Machine 3, at least after a brief resources refill. I like the idea of this boss fight a lot. I think the design of the third Wily Machine is great, and the ideal way it is fought is pretty cool. Sadly, it dies very quickly, too quickly, to Spark Shock. Well, at least the first form does. The second phase of the fight works better in execution. Mega Man has to get high up into the air to attack the machine, or he has to wait for it to swoop down. Rush Jet or Coil can be used, or you can just wait for it to make itself open to attack. This part of the fight isn’t so easily defeated like the first is, which makes it a lot better. This feels like a good middle ground for a final boss fight, unlike when it was too easy in Mega Man 1 or too hard in Mega Man 2. But wait! It’s not the final boss!

After defeating Wily Machine 3, it’s on to the real final boss fight of Mega Man 3, Gamma. This is easily the best final boss in the series so far. Having to jump on platforms and take on this absolutely giant robot is an amazing set piece that nothing else in the series has matched so far. The fight is a tiny bit on the easy side, but way less than some other fights. Visually, the design of Gamma is also great, and really captures how large it is. Halfway through the fight, after attacking the exposed head part, Dr. Wily comes in and acts as a helmet, making the hitbox harder to hit. Unfortunately for him, the Top Spin can one-shot it from there, which is a pretty good joke. Overall, a great boss fight, and an ending that fits this amazing game.

Now, there is one holistic point I do need to wrap back around to, which is this game’s difficulty. Mega Man 3’s biggest issue, and I’d say only major issue, is its difficulty. It’s not even like in some games, where the actual bosses or platforming is too easy. No, that stuff is fine. The bosses are, for the most part, appropriately challenging. The real issue is how many E-Tanks the game gives you, and how easy it is to hoard them for the final bosses. I wish that, if the game was going to give you so many, at least they were earned. Right now, most E-Tanks aren’t earned, they’re just given away for free. They’ll just be put on the main path of a stage rather than be something you have to go out of your way to grab. I suppose this could just be an issue with the way I play games and others could use their E-Tanks more readily on Robot Master bosses rather than saving them for the endgame, but at least for me it made the end of the game a little underwhelming.

Aside from the issue with the E-Tanks, I think the game is pretty amazing overall. It’s my second favorite Mega Man game in the classic series, and it’s my fourth favorite Mega Man game overall, and I’ve played almost every game. That’s a pretty great achievement for a game that was released on the NES in 1990. The game looks fantastic, plays great, and makes so many little improvements to the series that carry into most later games in the series.

I give Mega Man 3 a grade of S- and a score of 9/10. If you want to learn more about what that means, I recommend you read my grading system at the end of my Mega Man 1 review.

Thank you to everyone who has read this! My last review got over double the view count of my first review, and I am very happy about that. These reviews are a ton of work and writing (word count for this review: Over 5,000 words) and I am pretty new at it, so the output will probably get slower as the games get longer. I have a lot of fun writing them though, and the responses have been good, so I will keep doing so. Next review I will be covering Mega Man 4, which isn’t especially good or especially bad. It’s just… pretty good.