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!?) in Japan, is the third installment in the Famicom/NES Mega Man series. It was released in' Japan on September 28, 1990, the United States in November 1990, and Europe on February 20, 1992.

This game introduced Mega Man's "slide" maneuver, as well as Rush, Mega Man's robotic canine assistant, and Proto Man, Mega Man's "brother".

Story
In the twenty-first century, the world enjoys a brief period of peace thanks to the efforts of the super robot Mega Man. Dr. Wily claims he is a changed man, reforming and teaming up with Dr. Light to develop a giant "peace-keeping" robot named Gamma. It was the lifelong dream of Dr. Light to create a giant robot to protect and serve world peace. With their research almost complete, all that remained was to combine eight Energy Elements that were scattered about uncharted planets and bestow them to Gamma. For some reason, the newest Robot Masters created by both doctors to mine the energy elements suddenly have gone crazy. Dr. Light needs the eight Energy Elements that the robots are protecting for the creation of Gamma, thus, when Mega Man learns about the incident, he and Rush set out for the uncharted planets to stop the robots and retrieve the energy elements.

Along his quest, Mega Man meets the mysterious Proto Man (under the alias of Break Man). Unknown to Mega Man, Proto Man is his brother, and he appears at times to challenge or help Mega Man. When Mega Man returns to Dr. Light's Laboratory, he discovers Dr. Wily has stolen Gamma on August 28 after receiving the last energy element to challenge Mega Man and Dr. Light once again, planning to use Gamma to rule the world. Mega Man goes to the Wily Castle to stop Wily. After Mega Man succeeds in stopping Wily and Gamma, the Wily Castle begins to collapse and both Mega Man and Dr. Wily are buried by debris. Proto Man arrives in time to save Mega Man, but it appears that it is too late for Dr. Wily and he meets his end. However, the Wily UFO is visible far in the distance during the ending sequence, hinting that he survived.

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
 * DLN-000 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 and Dr. Light are misspelled as "Dr. Wiley" and "Dr. Right" (Light's Japanese name) in the game. Those errors were fixed in Mega Man: The Wily Wars and Mega Man Anniversary Collection, but are kept in other versions of the game.


 * The mobile phone versions had some differences:
 * 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 (the same applies to the revolving gears and falling junk blocks in Spark Man's stage).
 * 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 during 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 and the Doc Robots again when defeated by replaying their stages, as well as being able to choose 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. While in this state, the Mega Buster cannot be used (however, it can be used while using Rush Coil and then shooting).
 * 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.

Other media
The game was adapted into the Archie Comics Mega Man series over an extended period, with Gamma being introduced and having its power source stolen in the "Redemption" arc while the full adaptation takes place in "Legends of the Blue Bomber" and "The Ultimate Betrayal". One of the biggest differences was that Super Adventure Rockman was adapted into the continuity prior to this game; as such, the Mega Man 3 Robot Masters debut in that adaptation. The game was also adapted in the Mega Man Megamix and Mega Man Gigamix manga stories "Metal Heart" and "Asteroid Blues" by Hitoshi Ariga.

Trivia

 * Mega Man 3 is the fourth highest-selling title in the Mega Man franchise and Capcom's 54th highest-selling title.


 * There were a total of 50,000 boss character submissions for this game.


 * In the last issue of the gaming magazine Nintendo Power, released on December 2012, Mega Man 3 was ranked the 47th best game released on a Nintendo platform.


 * Like the first game, all of its Robot Masters appeared in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.


 * This is the only Mega Man game in the series which most of the Robot Masters are built by Dr. Wily and 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 ? Cans, which turn into a random item when shot. This may be a reference to the Mario series, famous for the Question Blocks (despite they have specific items in them), bearing a similarity. They were replaced with Eddie in Mega Man 4 onward.
 * The Weapon Get theme song is yet popular as it is used in certain later games as a remix. There are theme songs that have similarities with the Weapon Get theme songs; such as the Mega Man X5 opening title, the final battle against Lumine (phase 2) and Sword Man from Mega Man 8.


 * During the Robot Master rematch 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.


 * 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 second 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 second 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 two Robot Masters without their weaknesses, as the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" weakness cycle is not a perfect circle. 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. The other five create a second circle of weaknesses.


 * If the player defeats Shadow Man in the rematch, 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.


 * The North American game cover features 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 themed 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 fights Proto Man, the player can pause before landing on the floor to hear Proto Man's complete theme.


 * It is possible to be protected from spikes by ramming into them as soon as the screen scrolls. The death sound will play and the music will stop, but the enemies still spawn and the player can still take damage. However, they can only use the Mega Buster as pressing START to bring up the weapon select screen causes the player to respawn instead. The glitch will end once a new soundtrack starts playing (i.e., the beginning of a boss battle) and the player can use special weapons again.


 * Akira Kitamura left Capcom while Mega Man 3 was still in development. Masahiko Kurokawa, who carried on the series at the time, asked Kitamura about any ideas to implement into the game. Kitamura asked to change Items 1-3 into a robot dog (as he had planned on giving names to the items before) and introduce a prototype robot into the story, which became the basis for Rush and Proto Man respectively.


 * Ending in the Japanese version, "Dr. Right Numbers Robot Data File" ("Dr.ライトナンバーズ ロボットデータファイル") is described more detailed information compared to "Number list of robots made by Dr. Light." in the international versions.