Mega Man 3

Mega Man 3
This article is about the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Family Computer game. For the Game Boy game, see Mega Man III (Game Boy).
Mega Man 3
North American cover art
North American cover art portraying the protagonist, Mega Man, battling with Spark Man and Top Man in a futuristic setting.
Developer(s) Capcom
Publisher(s) Capcom
Producer(s) Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer(s) Masayoshi Kurokawa
Artist(s) Keiji Inafune
Composer(s) Yasuaki Fujita[1]
Harumi Fujita
Series Mega Man
Platform(s) Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, mobile phone, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Action, platform
Mode(s) Single-player
Rating(s)
Media/distribution 3-megabit cartridge, CD-ROM, download

Mega Man 3, known as Rockman 3 Dr. Wily no Saigo!? (Japanese: ロックマン3 Dr.ワイリーの最期!??, lit. "Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!?") in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third game of the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan on September 28, 1990. The game localized in North America later in 1990 and in European regions in 1992. Taking place after the events of Mega Man 2, the plot follows the titular hero as he helps his creator, Dr. Light, and a former villain, Dr. Wily, collect parts for a peace-keeping robot by defeating several Robot Masters that have gone haywire.

A platform-action game, Mega Man 3 follows the same gameplay format set forth by its two predecessors. The player, as Mega Man, must complete a series of stages in any order. Defeating a stage's boss will earn the player its special weapon, which can be selected and used at will throughout the rest of the game. Mega Man 3 introduces many important elements such as Mega Man's canine sidekick Rush and the ability to slide along the ground. Unlike with the first two installments of the series, artist and designer Keiji Inafune has considered the creation of Mega Man 3 to be very stressful due to time constraints and his own increased responsibilities during its development.

Following the success of Mega Man 2 released two years earlier, Mega Man 3 has sold over one million copies and has been positively received in critical reviews. Its gameplay has been especially praised, although many sources found the game to be too difficult. Like other titles in the series, Mega Man 3 has been re-released a number of times on other gaming platforms, on mobile phones, and as part of various Mega Man franchise compilations.

Contents

Plot

Mega Man 3 takes place during an unspecified year during the 21st century (200X). The mad scientist Dr. Wily, having twice had plans for world domination dashed, claims to have reformed and begins work with Dr. Light on a project to build a peace-keeping robot named "Gamma".[12] However, the Robot Masters set in charge of the "mining worlds" go berserk and make off with Gamma's eight power crystals.[13] Mega Man is called into action, this time with a canine companion named Rush, to retrieve the crystals from the mining worlds.[14] Throughout his mission, the protagonist continuously encounters and spars with a foe named "Break Man" who has abilities comparable to Mega Man's own.[12] Once the crystals are retrieved, Wily reverts to his evil ways, steals Gamma, and retreats to his new fortress. In order to stop Wily's plan to conquer the world , Mega Man destroys Gamma. After their final confrontation, Wily's fortress begins to crumble. Break Man appears in enough time to save Mega Man, but is too late to save Wily, who is crushed under the rubble. When Mega Man regains consciousness in Dr. Light's lab, his creator informs him that he must have been rescued by Proto Man, Mega Man's brother.[15]

Gameplay

Mega Man and Rush in Top Man's Stage. Mega Man is seen using his slide ability.

Mega Man 3 retains the platforming and action game elements established by the two games that came before it.[16] The player controls the protagonist Mega Man as he traverses eight stages to defeat the bosses: Magnet Man, Hard Man, Top Man, Shadow Man, Spark Man, Snake Man, Gemini Man, and Needle Man.[12][13] Each Robot Master features a unique weapon and stage related to the weapon's power. After defeating a boss, their signature weapon is added to Mega Man's arsenal.[14][16] The Robot Masters have weaknesses to the weapons of certain other Robot Masters; therefore, choosing the order in which the levels are played is a vital component of the gameplay. This is the first Mega Man game to feature the ability to slide, an important ability in most later installments.[16] Also, after completing certain stages, Mega Man can access new abilities in his robot dog companion, Rush.[13][14] These abilities include the "Rush Coil" that allows the player to jump higher, the "Rush Jet" that allows the player to fly across the screen, and the "Rush Marine" that allows the player to travel underwater.[12][16][17]

After defeating the eight Robot Masters, the player must revisit four of the Robot Master stages. The stages' layouts are changed, and the player must defeat two Doc Robot bosses, which take on the abilities of the Robot Masters of Mega Man 2.[12][13][17] Throughout the various stages, the player encounters Proto Man (as Break Man), a mini-boss who, once defeated, will open up passageways for Mega Man to advance. Mega Man has a final battle with Proto Man immediately after defeating the eight Doc Robot bosses.[12][16] After this battle, Mega Man proceeds to Dr. Wily's fortress, which consists of several levels that are played linearly.[12][18] A password system is used to allow the player to return to the game at a later time.[14]

Development

Artist Keiji Inafune considered Mega Man 3 as one of his least favorite entries in the series due to "[...] what went into the game and what was behind the release of the game."[17][19] Production on Mega Man 3 began over a year after the release of Mega Man 2. Inafune's mentor and superior on the first two games quit his job at Capcom during that gap of time.[2] Inafune found that his new supervisor "didn't really understand Mega Man the way his predecessor did"; Inafune had "a lot of preset notions about how things should be".[2] The team was forced to put Mega Man 3 on the market before they thought it was ready and during the game's production, the developers lost the main planner, so Inafune had to take over that job for its completion.[19] He noted the final two months of development as particularly difficult, having had to take responsibility for assessing and dividing up work among the team members on aspects of the game not meeting their deadlines.[2][20] Inafune concluded, "I knew that if we had more time to polish it, we could do a lot of things better, make it a better game, but the company said that we needed to release it. The whole environment behind what went into the production of the game is what I least favored. Numbers one and two – I really wanted to make the games; I was so excited about them. Number three – it just turned very different."[19]

Though Inafune considers the gameplay to have lost some of its simplicity, he felt Mega Man's slide ability was successfully added to enhance both the protagonist's offense and defense.[2] Mega Man's sidekick dog Rush is the product of combining the three support tools from Mega Man 2, including their red-and-white color scheme and the hero's helmet.[2] Rush was originally intended to have a drill mode that would allow Mega Man to tunnel underground, in addition to the Marine and Coil modes.[21][22] Proto Man was initially designed so that the player would be unable to tell if he was an ally or an enemy to Mega Man.[2] Inafune explained that this was influenced by several different anime series. "We gave him a scarf to add to his 'cool' factor," Inafune said. "And gave him a shield to make him seem tougher than Mega Man."[2] The character was also initially to feature hair, but they instead opted for an open-faced helmet design for both the television commercials and instruction manual.[21] Capcom's North American division decided to change the name Blues to Proto Man despite Inafune's protests. They did this not only to be consistent with Mega Man's English name, but because they felt the name Blues made no sense. Keiji Inafune attempted to defend it due to the name's musical connotation to the series.[23] Beginning with Mega Man 2, the development team began accepting design ideas from fans for the creation of each game's Robot Masters.[22] For Mega Man 3, the team received around 50,000 design submissions, only eight of which were used in the game.[2][24] The soundtrack for Mega Man 3 was created by Capcom composer Yasuaki Fujita, also known as "Bun Bun".[1] Fujita co-composed the score for the follow-up Mega Man 4 with Minae Fujii in 1991.[25]

Reception

 Reception
Review scores
Publication Score
Dragon 3/5 stars[26]
Eurogamer 9 out of 10[27]
Famitsu 23 out of 40[28]
IGN 9.5 out of 10[16]
Nintendo Power 4/5 stars[12]

Mega Man 3 has enjoyed a positive critical reception from many sources, which tout it as a major improvement over the original Mega Man and that it surpasses or equates in quality to the successful Mega Man 2.[16][18][29][30] Edward J. Semrad, an editor for Electronic Gaming Monthly and columnist for The Milwaukee Journal, noted good graphics and challenging gameplay, giving it his full recommendation.[31] The game was reviewed in 1991 in Dragon #168 by Patricia Hartley and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.[26]

Many critics have found Mega Man 3 to be very difficult.[27][28][32][33] GamePro contributor McKinley Noble stated that actions such as pulling teeth, lifting a car over your head or performing open-heart surgery" are all significantly easier than beating Mega Man 3.[33] Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer noted, "Leaps must be precise, enemies must be dispatched rapidly and accurately, and there's a constant state of delicious near-panic as you wait to see what vicious demands the next room will place on your platforming skills."[27]

Since its 1990 release, Mega Man 3 has sold over one million copies worldwide, currently making it the 48th best-selling Capcom game.[34][35] Mega Man 3 has been listed as the third-greatest 8-bit video game of all time by GamePro.[33] The readers of Nintendo Power voted Mega Man 3 as the third-best game of 1990 in the magazine's "Nintendo Power Awards" for that year.[36] The publication listed it as the 11th best NES video game in their 20th anniversary issue.[29]

Legacy

Shortly after its launch on the NES, the game was made into a stripped-down handheld electronic game by Tiger Electronics.[37] The NES version was included as part of Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade systems that same year.[38] In 1995, Mega Man 3 was re-released alongside its two predecessors on the Sega Mega Drive game Mega Man: The Wily Wars, which featured updated graphics and sound.[17] Mega Man 3 was released on the Sony PlayStation in the Rockman Complete Works line in 1999, which featured remixed music and added features.[4][39] The NES edition of the game was also part of a North American compilation of ten titles in the series called Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which was released for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2004, and the Xbox in 2005.[40][41] Also in 2005, Mega Man 3 was released alongside other Capcom games as part of a "Plug It In & Play TV Games" peripheral by Jakks Pacific.[42] Mega Man 3 was released by Capcom on mobile phones in Japan in 2005 and in North America in 2008.[5][6] The NES version made its way to the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console service worldwide in 2008.[7][8][9] Finally, the Complete Works version was released on the Japanese PlayStation Network in 2010, making it available for download on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.[10] This version was also made available in the import section of the North American PlayStation Network in 2011.[11]

Many of the features introduced in Mega Man 3 have been carried on by the series: the characters Proto Man and Rush; the ability to slide; and stages between the initial eight Robot Masters and Dr. Wily's fortress.[43] However, with the release of Mega Man 9 in 2008, some elements and others set by the fourth through eighth installments were forgone in favor of the basic gameplay in Mega Man and Mega Man 2.[44][45] The producers of Mega Man 9 have referred to the ninth game as "the new Mega Man 3" because they wanted to surpass what they accomplished in Mega Man 2."[46][47]

References

  1. ^ a b Jeriaska (December 2, 2008). "Interview: The Story Of The Mega Man 9 Arrange Soundtrack". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/21294/Interview_The_Story_Of_The_Mega_Man_9_Arrange_Soundtrack.php. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mega Man: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment. January 6, 2010. pp. 16–21. ISBN 978-1-89737-679-9. 
  3. ^ "NES Games" (PDF). Nintendo. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20101221005931/http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gameslist/manuals/nes_games.pdf. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
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  11. ^ a b Ishaan (March 7, 2011). "Mega Man 3 Slides To PsOne Imports This Week". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2011/03/07/mega-man-3-slides-to-ps-one-imports-this-week/. Retrieved 2011-03-13. 
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h "Mega Man III". Nintendo Power (Redmond, WA: Nintendo of America) (20): pp. 8–27. January 1991. 
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  15. ^ Capcom. Mega Man 3. (Capcom). Nintendo Entertainment System. (1990-12) "Dr. Light: Mega Man, you've regained consciousness. I found you lying here when I arrived. I wonder who brought you here... This whistle... It must have been Proto Man!"
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  18. ^ a b "Mega Man 3". Game Players (Imagine Media) (Encyclopedia of Nintendo Games Volume Two): pp. 36–42. 1990. 
  19. ^ a b c "Power Profiles: Keiji Inafune". Nintendo Power (Nintendo of America) (220): pp. 79–81. October 2007. 
  20. ^ Inafune, Keiji (1997). "Rockman 10th Anniversary Celebration Plans" (in Japanese). CFC Style Fan-Book (Capcom) 3: p. 24. 
  21. ^ a b Mega Man: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment. January 6, 2010. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-1-89737-679-9. 
  22. ^ a b Niizumi, Hirohiko (September 23, 2007). "TGS '07: Mega Man celebrates 20th anniversary". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6179759.html. Retrieved 2010-05-25. 
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  25. ^ jgonzo (February 5, 2010). "Japanese Mega Man 10 Soundtrack Details". Capcom Unity. http://www.capcom-unity.com/jgonzo/blog/2010/02/05/japanese_mega_man_10_soundtrack_details. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
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  27. ^ a b c Whitehead, Dan (November 17, 2008). "Virtual Console Roundup Review". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/virtual-console-roundup_8_9. Retrieved 2011-10-29. 
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  29. ^ a b "Nintendo Power - The 20th Anniversary Issue!". Nintendo Power (San Francisco, CA: Future US) (231): p. 71. August 2008. 
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  31. ^ Semrad, Edward (September 25, 1990). "'Mega Man' as good as they come". The Milwaukee Journal (Journal Communications). http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C58aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HCwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7143,1081986&dq=mega-man-3&hl=en. Retrieved 2009-12-27. 
  32. ^ Carter, Chip and Jonathan (February 21, 1991). "Mega Man 3 is here, and its tough". Boca Raton News (South Florida Media Company). http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JsoPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5259,3013553&dq=mega-man-3&hl=en. Retrieved 2009-12-27. 
  33. ^ a b c Noble, McKinley (June 15, 2009). "The 24 Greatest 8-Bit Games Ever Made". GamePro. http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/210859/the-24-best-8-bit-games-ever-page-4/. Retrieved 2010-05-10. 
  34. ^ "Capcom Platinum Titles". Capcom. http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html. Retrieved 2011-01-09. 
  35. ^ Roper, Chris (May 23, 2008). "Capcom Releases Lifetime Sales Numbers". IGN. http://retro.ign.com/articles/876/876345p1.html. Retrieved 2010-06-20. 
  36. ^ Nintendo Power Awards '90. Nintendo Power. Redmond, WA: Nintendo of America. May 1991. p. p. 32. 
  37. ^ Tiger Electronics, ed (1991). Electronic Mega Man 3 LCD Game. Vernon Hills, IL: Tiger Electronics. Model 7-834. 
  38. ^ "PlayChoice 10 - Videogame by Capcom". Arcade Museum. http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9043. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  39. ^ Nutt, Christian and Speer, Justin. "The History of Mega Man". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/features/6076983/p-28.html. Retrieved 2011-01-22. 
  40. ^ Adams, David (June 23, 2004). "Mega Man Anniversary Collection Ships". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/525/525848p1.html. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
  41. ^ Adams, David (March 15, 2005). "Mega Man Collection Ships". IGN. http://xbox.ign.com/articles/596/596170p1.html. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
  42. ^ "JAKKS Pacific Offers TV Games GameKey For Classic Capcom Games". Toy News International. March 9, 2005. http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=115&itemid=6360. Retrieved 2011-01-07. 
  43. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (October 10, 2008). "Retro Remix: Top 10 Unreleased NES Hits". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/918/918501p1.html. Retrieved 2011-01-09. 
  44. ^ Parish, Jeremy (July 14, 2008). "Mega Man 9 Interview". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3168726. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  45. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (February 16, 2010). "The 10 Steps to Mega Man 10". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/articles/106/1069184p2.html. Retrieved 2011-01-07. 
  46. ^ DiMola, Nick (August 5, 2008). "Mega Man 9 to Include Screen Flicker and Slowdown Options". Nintendo World Report. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/16526. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  47. ^ "Wii Channels: True Blue". Nintendo Power (Future US) (231): pp. 20–22. August 2008. 

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