OVERVIEW

The 3rd game in the Mega Man series also known as Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? in Japan takes us to when Dr. Wily had seemingly reformed himself and is helping Mega Man and Dr. Light gather some crystals for a newly created peacekeeping robot named Gamma. Out of nowhere, eight more robots have gone berserk and started attacking the town once again. It's up to you as Mega Man and your new robot dog rush to save the day once again.

 
The game's eight bosses are (in order of creation): 

 

Needle Man – Has a thorny crown and will shoot needles at you and also do an occasional needle thrust with his head.

 

Magnet Man – Has a magnet on his forehead. He will hop twice and jump into the air and throw magnets or draw you towards him.

 

Gemini Man – When you fight him, he splits in two and will shoot whenever you shoot. When one twin is down, the one that remains shoots a Gemini Laser that bounces all over the room.

 

Hard Man – Don't let the name fool you. He ain't that hard. I only assume his name is more related to his stage being related to hard hats. His attacks consists of throwing two homing punches then doing a ground shaking head dive that won't knock you on your ass like Gutsman did in Mega Man 1 but you will be frozen momentarily.

 

Top Man – Has a top on his head. He will throw tops that will attack your current location then he will spin towards the other side of a screen.

 

Snake Man –  Looks like a man in a snake suit. He has one of the most simplest AIs of all Mega Man bosses. He runs back and forth and occasionally shoots snakes and that's it. 

 

Spark Man – Looks like a giant spark plug with arms that function like rods. He will hop around and send mini sparks then throw a giant one directly at you.

 

Shadow Man – Has a ninja star on his forehead and he acts like a real ninja. He'll throw a ninja star in-between his jump and slides.

 

Graphics - A+

 

I'll say the graphics are good in this game too. There are even more animated levels and some that are even interactive. Best example of that is Shadow Man's stage where there is an enemy that will turn the background off while it is on the screen and you have to scroll past it or kill it to get the background back. Needleman has needles that move in and out in the background that can hurt you if they touch you. Gemini Man's stage while not interactive has vibrant crystal colors that change constantly which is radical. Top Man has some top platforms that if you stand on them, they'll move you left and right as they travel. That's just a small example of the wonderful backgrounds this game have to offer.

Controls - A+

 
Controls have been tweaked a little bit for the better. In addition to the controls that carried on from Mega Man 2, you now have a new function called the slide. It is done by holding down on the D-pad and pressing the jump button. Now Mega Man can use it to get into narrow spaces. You actually have more control over Rush during his jet and marine mode as compared to the sequels which Rush will travel in only one direction while you control his up and down movements. If you have a 2nd controller, you can do a lot of crazy things like make jumps super high or be invulnerable to pitfalls by hold right on the D-pad. You can even freeze some enemies in place including bosses by holding up on the D-pad and the A button. The up button alone only slows them down.

 
Gameplay - A+

 
Each robot is weak to another's weapon. This time around, the rock-paper-scissors concept is split in two. You may remember, the live by the sword die by the sword method that killed Metal Man in Mega Man 2 but now it applies to everybody here when you fight them in a rematch as they die with seven hits of their own weapon. In addition to the 8 weapons, you can get three Rush items to use for traveling purposes. Rush Coil (have this from the start) lets you jump to higher places out of reach. Rush Jet (obtained from Needle Man) lets you fly across extremely long pits and spikes and you can control where you go. Rush Marine (obtained from Shadow Man) is like the Rush Jet but used underwater but it's mostly useless and can only be summoned if in the water or if Rush lands in the water or it'll go back up.

 
Here is a small guide to the weaknesses of the bosses in order to their creation:
Needle Man (weak to Gemini Laser)
Magnet Man (weak to Spark Shock and Shadow Blade)
Gemini Man (weak to Search Snake)
Hard Man (weak to Magnet Missile)
Top Man (weak to Hard Knuckle)
Snake Man (weak to Needle Cannon)
Spark Man (weak to Shadow Blade)
Shadow Man (weak to Top Spin)

 

You will meet whom will turn out to meet your brother Proto Man/Blues in Gemini Man's stage but won't fight him but you will fight him in Hard Man's, Magnet Man's, and Shadow Man's stage.

Once you do away with all eight robots, you expect to face off against the mastermind behind all the trouble? Guess again. You will revisit four of the previous stages: Spark Man, Shadow Man, Needle Man, and Gemini Man. They are redesigned and you will fight two rematches against bosses from Mega Man 2 in each stage. Spark Man's stage has Metal Man (weak to Hard Knuckle and Magnet Missile) and Quick Man (weak to Search Snake and Gemini Laser). Gemini Man's stage has Flash Man (weak to Needle Cannon and Gemini Laser) and Bubble Man (weak to Shadow Blade and Spark Shock). Needle Man's stage has Air Man (weak to Spark Shock and Magnet Missile) and Crash Man (weak to Hard Knuckle and Top Spin). Shadow Man's stage has Wood Man (weak to Search Snake and Needle Cannon) and Heat Man (weak to Top Spin and Shadow Blade). From here is the final fight with Proto Man who is using the name Break Man. He is weak only to the normal buster shots. When he is defeated, Dr. Light reveals that Wily has made off with Gamma. 

 

Off to Dr. Wily's Castle and you fight through six stages this time. The first stage can be completed easily without having to use the Rush Marine. The Rush Jet however is still needed to get to high places. The boss is a turtle making machine that spews turtles weak to Shadow Blades and Hard Knuckles. Defeat all five turtles to destroy the machine. You will meet up with an old friend from the first Mega Man named the Yellow Devil Mk. 2. He is much easier to fight as you can also slide under some pieces. A good exploit to use against hi is getting on your Rush Jet and plugging him rapidly with buster shots as he has no damage protection when hit. The third stage is not so hard but you will have to deal with a series of platforms that will move left and right depending on the placement of the platform and you got to make it to the top of the ladder without hitting the spikes on the sides. The second screen is the same except for some spikes place in the middle in one section. The boss is three copies of Mega Man. All three can hurt you and you can only hurt one. You can use the Search Snake to scope out the correct one but if you are lucky, use a well timed Top Spin on the correct one and you can kill all three of them instantly. The fourth stage introduces an enemy that is similar to Guts Man. When a rock falls, it will throw it at you. You will come across the room with eight capsules. This is the boss rematch room. As stated before, you can kill the bosses with seven hits of their own weapon. After this point, you will have two stages of just a straight boss fight without enemies. The first fight is a two parter as the machine comes marching in. Four spark shots on the gun and on to phase two. As with Yellow Devil Mk. 2, you can rapidly blast him when you are on the Rush Jet as he lacks damage protection. The Gamma fight is easy too. Get to the top next to it using Rush Jet or Rush Coil and hit the head with Shadow Blade or Hard Knuckle then Wily appears. Use the Search Snake or if you are gutsy, one well timed Top Spin will beat him in one hit. Beware, that his arm spikes will kill you if you touch them.

 
Difficulty - 3
 

While this game is not eactly too hard, you will run into some frustration in some levels. You can make the long jump easily with Rush Jet in Snake Man's stage but it is still possible to do so without it. Just like with the previous games, you can be invincible for a few seconds after taking a hit including against spikes as of Mega Man 2. Another danger in Snake Man's stage is falling off the edge nearby his lair. It's best to stay towards the right edge in case a missile hits you but you stay on the platform. The bosses also have a lot of difficulty if you try to fight them first for the most part and it is best to defeat a boss they are weak to so you can make the fight easier. That's what makes it best to start against Magnet Man, Top Man, or Snake Man's stage first since their AIs are simple. Remember that the weakness chart is split in two. Snake > Gemini > Needle > Snake and Magnet > Hard > Top > Shadow > Spark (+ Magnet) > Magnet. The MM2 boss rematches are a little tougher mainly the fight against Quick Man. He is the most frustrating one of them all as he is all over the place when you try to shoot at him and he never stays still. The game is all downhill once he is out of the picture. The others are not so bad. The game even throws in the spike ceiling for the Bubble Man fight. Watch out for that folks. It's weird having the final Wily stages being easier than the boss stages. It is what it is.

 
Sound/Music - A+
 

The soundtrack is not as good as Mega Man 2 but I can dig them. My favorite songs out of this lineup are the ones by Top Man, Needle Man and 3rd & 4th Wily stage and final Wily Stages. No redundancy on the songs this time around as far as I know so that's a good thing right there.
 

Replay Value - B+
 

Replayability is not to much keen as it was before except for a few bosses having secondary weaknesses that you want to discover. The password feature is actually special in this game as depending on the placement of the ball you can determine how many E-Tanks you want the start with and which bosses which boss (or 2 bosses if using the blue balls) will be dead when you start the game from the password screen. The game has a lot of depth within it especially with the added rematches with the bosses from Mega Man 2 though in the form of Doc Robot but that's no biggie.

Overall - A

 
Rumor had it that this was meant to be the final Mega Man game before Mega Man 4 was made but if it was then it would have went out with a bang. Dr. Wily seemed to have died at the end but when you go through the list of created robots by Dr. Light ending with Proto Man being Mega Man's brother, you will see Dr. Wily's capsule land in a tree. I sure had a blast with this song. A treat that you can use at the end is that if you hold the up button on player 2 controller then you can hear the whole ending song. You can do the same on the Wily stage map screen to hear the whole song. Good job Mega Man. The day is saved yet again at least until Mega Man 4.