Mega Man 3

Mega Man 3, known as Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? (ロックマン3 Dr.ワイリーの最期!?) and Super Princess Julia 3 in Japan, is the third installment in the Famicom/NES Mega Man series. This game introduced Mega Man's "slide" maneuver, as well as Rush, Mega Man's robotic canine assistant, and Proto Man, Mega Man's rival and "brother".

Overview
Dr. Wily claims he is a changed man, and wants to team up with Dr. Light once again. Dr. Wily and Dr. Light begin to work together on a "peace-keeping" robot named Gamma, but for some reason, the newest Robot Masters created by both doctors have gone crazy, and run off. Dr. Light needs the eight Energy Elements that the Robot Masters are protecting for the creation of Gamma, thus Mega Man is called to stop the robots and retrieve the crystals. Along his quest, he meets his brother Proto Man (under the alias of Break Man).

When Mega Man returns, Dr. Wily has taken Gamma with him, and is planning to use it to rule the world. Mega Man must go and stop Wily once again.

The Japanese subtitle (The End of Dr. Wily!?) may be considered a minor "spoiler" to the ending, considering what happens to Wily (or what players assume happen) after the final fight.

Story
From the American manual:

"Calling Mega Man! Calling Mega Man! Come in please!

"Mega Man, we need you! We're down to the wire on our peace-keeping project. We've got to get those last energy crystals or we can't finish it. Dr. Wily is here now, too...yes...he's finally found his sanity. He knows where the crystals are! They're in the mining worlds, but we can't get to 'em. The robots are running amok and they're destroying everything!

"You've got to get there, Mega Man, and get those crystals! You'll have to face some pretty mean metal. Expect the worst! Is Rush there with you? Give him a bolt to chew on and tell him it's from us. What's that...we must be getting static...sounds like you said 'Woof!'

"Mega Man, get to those mining worlds pronto! Grab the crystals and stop whoever's in charge! He's one lunatic guy!

"This is Dr. Light. Over and out!"

Robot Masters

 * Doc Robot
 * Proto Man/Break Man

Wily Castle Bosses

 * 1) Kamegoro Maker
 * 2) Yellow Devil MK-II
 * 3) Holograph Mega Mans
 * 4) Rematch with the eight Robot Masters
 * 5) Wily Machine 3
 * 6) Gamma

Port differences

 * Dr. Wily is misspelled "Dr. Wiley" in the NES version.


 * At the end of the game, it shows the Robot Masters made by Dr. Right instead of Dr. Light (Dr. Right being his Japanese name). This was fixed in Mega Man: The Wily Wars and Mega Man Anniversary Collection.


 * The mobile phone version of Mega Man 3 had some differences compared to the original:
 * Stage set-up was limited as background, color flicker and flash were removed to help with the performance.
 * Traps in certain stages were removed for ease of play. The Appearing Blocks in Magnet Man's stage were left in their order for players to move with less hassle (same with Spark Man with the revolving gears and falling junk blocks).
 * Proto Man does not appear in Gemini Man's stage to destroy the barrier blocking the way for Mega Man; he is also in his Break Man transformation in his mini-boss appearances in the original locations with the Robot Masters background music.
 * The enemy Hammer Joe is harder to defeat as its sprite action kept the eye blinking rapidly leaving the only weak spot at its legs.
 * The player has the freedom to fight both the Robot Masters & the Doc Robots again when defeated by replaying their stages, as well as being able to chose the levels in Wily's castle after their completion.


 * In the original version, several cheats can be activated during the game using a second controller.
 * Holding RIGHT will cause the player to jump extremely high. This also allows players to jump in and out of pits (but not spikes) without harm. If an enemy passes over the player while they're in a pit, they'll lose all their energy, but be invincible. Gaining any energy, whether through energy pellets or energy tanks removes the invulnerability.
 * Holding UP will cause everything (including Mega Man) to be in slow motion.
 * Holding UP and the A button will cause everything (including Mega Man) to be frozen in place.


 * If the player uses the UP and A button trick on the second controller after they beat the game and Mega Man beams down into Dr. Light's lab, an extended version of Proto Man's song can be heard.


 * The game has multiple glitches, including Mega Man flashing, and game-freezing glitches in the Mega Drive and PlayStation versions of the game.

Trivia

 * This is the only Mega Man, game besides the first game in the series, where all of its Robot Masters appeared in the Ruby-Spears cartoon.


 * This is the only Mega Man game in the series which most of the Robot Masters are built by Dr. Wily & Dr. Light together.


 * This is the only Mega Man game which Dr. Light participated in the construction of a robot that is the final boss (the only other case being X for Vile Mode in Mega Man Maverick Hunter X).


 * This is the only Mega Man game to feature Question Tanks, which turn into a random item when shot. This may be a reference to the Super Mario series, famous for the Question Blocks, bearing a striking similarity. They were replaced with Eddie in Mega Man 4 and subsequent games.


 * During the second encounter of the Robot Masters in Wily's castle, strangely enough, all of them are vulnerable to their own weapons. Every Robot Master can be killed in seven hits from their own weapon, making it a decent secondary weakness. Doing so often, however, is not energy efficient or strategically worthwhile. Sometimes the player can even lose track of determining their own weapon from those fired from the Robot Master's since they both look alike.


 * This is the first game in which Roll is actually named in-game.


 * This is the first game in which Mega Man performs a final move (by running to the center of the room and jumping) where he obtains the defeated robot's special weapon before leaving the room.


 * Wily is apparently killed by falling debris at the end of the game. However, if the player pays attention during the ending sequence, his UFO is visible escaping far in the distance, hinting at his eventual return in Mega Man 4.


 * It is possible to get stuck in the second run-through of Gemini Man's stage. After fighting the first Doc Robot the gate leads to an area that is too low to allow Mega Man to jump without Rush (either in the form of Rush Jet or Rush Coil). Thus if one beats the Doc Robot without any weapon energy in either of these Rush attachments one will be stuck and forced to reset the game. This is also true for the 2nd playthrough through Needle Man's stage as the Rush Jet is needed to proceed and will be impossible to progress if Mega Man died before reaching the 2nd gate and the player grabbed the weapon capsules needed for the Rush Jet before the death, since the weapon capsules do not return after Mega Man loses a life.


 * Once the player selects their stage and the Robot Master introduction appears on screen, the music that plays is different than the music that would "traditionally" play during the Robot Master introductions. Similarly, the music is different from the traditional in Mega Man 5, 6, the Game Boy series [excluding Mega Man III] and Wily Tower mode (Mega Man: The Wily Wars).


 * This is the only game in which the player will have to defeat at least one Robot Master (besides the first Robot Master selected) without that robot's weakness, as the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" weakness cycle is not a perfect circle since Needle Man is weak to the Gemini Laser gained from Gemini Man, who is weak to the Search Snake obtained from Snake Man, who is in return weak to the Needle Cannon.


 * If the player defeats Shadow Man in the teleporter room (where they confront the eight Master Robots again), the lights blinking above the teleporters will freeze.


 * A glitch after the battle with the Wily Machine allows Mega Man to "Moonwalk". After beating the Wily Machine, face the opposite way from where the Wily Machine was and Mega Man will "Moonwalk" to the position to start the cutscene after.


 * A glitch during the battle with Gamma will teleport Mega Man to a room with a few energy restoring items. To perform this, use Rush Jet and go to the top of the screen and hop around for some time.


 * On the North American game cover, it has Mega Man shooting a robot that is very similar to Spark Man, but is silver.


 * This is the only game in the original series that does not have a water/ice Robot Master and also one of the two games in the original series that does not have a heat/fire Robot Master (the other of which was Mega Man 5.


 * When Mega Man is in a room in which he fight Proto Man, the player can pause before landing on the floor to hear Proto Man's complete theme.