Mega Man 2 made the acquisition of weapons more explicit, with some text (and a pulsing beat) explaining what you got. It was up to the player to pause the game in the next level to see that they had a new weapon…which I’m sure many early gamers overlooked entirely. In first game, Mega Man would defeat a Robot Master, pick up a mysterious object, and get bumped back out to the stage select. My favorite thing about the game - aside from its stellar soundtrack - is a brilliant, tiny tweak that a lot of people probably don’t even notice started here. Impossible not to…wish I was playing almost any other game in the series.īut let’s focus on the good up front, because Mega Man 3 has loads of it. Impossible not to question its design philosophy. But then I play the game, as I have to, and it find it impossible not to trip over its mistakes. I can gush about stage tunes like Gemini Man, Top Man, Magnet Man, Shadow Man, and Spark Man all night long. I can make a list of all of the things it gets just right. I want to be able to say that it took every ounce of merit from its predecessor and enhanced it. But I do think that Mega Man 3 is a better game in our minds and memories than it is in reality. And I’d never attempt to take those accolades away. Who am I to say any of this? Don’t people love Mega Man 3? Isn’t it highly regarded? Isn’t it a classic video game? Whereas Mega Man 2 proved that the developers had the potential to refine their ideas to incredible, unforgettable degrees, Mega Man 3 slid right back into Mega Man territory…throwing so many new ideas around that none of them feel complete. Where it falls down is in its execution, and that represents its step backward. Mega Man 3 pushes itself, and does some truly fantastic stuff along the way. In other words, it’s not disappointing in the standard way that sequels are disappointing, in which the same beats are repeated to diminished returns. It’s not, however, a game devoid of new or interesting ideas. It’s only time and reflection and a greater capacity for articulation that I’ve come to realize how…disappointing it really is. In fact, I liked Mega Man 3 a lot more then than I do now. (Worth repeating: as an individual forming an opinion on somebody else’s work of art, that would have been impossible.) But neither was I closed off to it. So, no, I wasn’t looking at Mega Man 3 with an objective viewpoint. Why not Woman? It would be decades before he got his wish.) I even bought and read that terrible Worlds of Power novelization. My friend Jimmy asked why they all had to be Man. He probably wielded the weapon Planned Obsolescence. We designed Robot Masters and stages of our own. And this is probably going to be the saddest review of it you’ll ever read.īy the time Mega Man 3 was released, I was already a firm acolyte of Mega Man 2. It’s a step backward when it had all the potential of being another great leap forward.Īnd so as much as I want to love Mega Man 3, I don’t. It’s glitchy and in some cases more rickety than the first game was. On top of that, its soundtrack contains some of the best tracks in video game history.īut it’s not great. It introduces not one but two great new characters: Rush the utility dog and Proto Man, our hero’s moody and conflicted older brother. It introduced the slide, which is now a distinguishing feature of Mega Man’s moveset, and which so elegantly adds an entirely new wrinkle to navigating stages and avoiding enemies. And I don’t see how Mega Man 3 can even compete.īut I want to love it. It’s adored, with many fans holding it up in comparison with Mega Man 2, as though it’s impossible to declare which of these great games is better. It’s rarely criticized for anything other than superficial reasons. It’s often spoken of in the same breath as genuine classics.
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