Line #6 VideoGame/MegaMan3


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mm3.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL30lU26egw "I am Mega Man.]]'' ''[[Music/BrentalFloss I'm blue and cyan..."]]''[[note]]'''Back; L-to-R:''' [[GratuitousNinja Shadow Man]], [[ShockAndAwe Spark Man]], [[SelfDuplication Gemini Man]], [[MagnetismManipulation Magnet Man]], [[SpikeShooter Needle Man]], [[SpectacularSpinning Top Man]], [[SnakesAreSinister Snake Man]], and [[MightyGlacier Hard Man]]\
3	'''Front:''' [[CanineCompanion Rush]][[/note]]]]
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5	After the runaway success of ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', Creator/{{Capcom}} realized they had [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic a hit franchise]] on their hands, and it was only natural for them to soon follow up with ''Mega Man 3'' (''Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!?'' in Japanese) in 1990.
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7	The story is centered some time after ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''; Dr. Wily seemingly manages to reform after his previous two defeats, and is now working alongside Dr. Light to build a peacekeeping robot called Gamma. However, the Robot Masters they developed together go berserk and start wreaking havoc, stealing the Energy Elements they were in charge of mining on eight uncharted planets. Naturally, Mega Man is sent off to stop the rogue robots, this time with the help of his new canine companion, Rush! Along his journey, he encounters a mysterious being called Break Man, who keeps fighting him, as if to test him...
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9	Eventually, it turns out Dr. Wily was behind the whole scheme, tricking Mega Man into a wild goose chase so he could steal Gamma once it was finished and use it for his own evil ends. After a climatic battle, Gamma is destroyed and Wily surrenders again...only for both him and Mega Man to be crushed under the rubble of his collapsing castle. Fortunately, Mega Man is rescued by Break Man, who drops him off at Dr. Light's lab and hastily departs. Dr. Light reveals to Mega Man that Break Man's real identity is Proto Man, who (in info only shown to the audience) is Mega Man's long lost, aloof older brother. [[labelnote:Also...]]A certain blue UFO flies away, its inhabitant alive and well, and plotting his next scheme...[[/labelnote]]
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11	All in all, ''Mega Man 3'' was another hit in the series, selling over a million copies and receiving excellent critical reception, although not quite on par with ''2''. The refined gameplay of ''2'' was expanded upon further, with the "Items" turned into the far more flexible Rush vehicles, a much higher limit on how many E-Tanks you could carry (9 instead of 4), and a new [[SlideAttack slide move]]. On top of that, ''3'' is the longest game in the entire [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] Mega Man series, with a whopping 18 stages total! Unfortunately, Keiji Inafune claimed that ''3'' was his [[CreatorBacklash least favorite Mega Man game]], due to the [[ExecutiveMeddling strained development of the game]] keeping it from reaching its full potential in his eyes, as well as losing the simplicity of the previous two games.
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13	As with ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', ''3'' would later receive a [[UpdatedRerelease 16-bit upgrade]] as part of the [[NoExportForYou Europe and Japan-only]] ''Mega Man: The Wily Wars'' / ''Rockman Megaworld'' cartridge for the Platform/SegaGenesis [[note]]Aside from being a Sega Channel exclusive for a brief time, and an eventual local release as a bundle with other Sega games in the Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Player -- [[BadExportForYou but without the save feature and extra Wily Tower game]][[/note]]. It would also receive a Japan-only [[Platform/PlayStation PS1]] re-release as ''Rockman 3: Complete Works'', complete with remixed music and bonus content. The game would eventually get a major re-release as part of ''Anniversary Collection'' for [[Platform/PlayStation2 PS2]], Platform/NintendoGameCube, and Platform/{{Xbox}}, and it is now available on Platform/VirtualConsole and as part of ''Mega Man Legacy Collection''.
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15	Robot Masters:
16	* DWN-017: Needle Man, weak to Gemini Laser, gives the [[SpikeShooter Needle Cannon]].
17	* DWN-018: Magnet Man, weak to Shadow Blade / Spark Shock, gives the [[SelectiveMagnetism Magnet Missile]].
18	* DWN-019: Gemini Man, weak to Search Snake, gives the [[ReflectingLaser Gemini Laser]].
19	* DWN-020: Hard Man, weak to Hard Knuckle / Magnet Missile, gives the [[RocketPunch Hard Knuckle]].
20	* DWN-021: Top Man, weak to Hard Knuckle, gives the [[SpinAttack Top Spin]].
21	* DWN-022: Snake Man, weak to Search Snake / Needle Cannon, gives the [[WallCrawl Search Snake]].
22	* DWN-023: Spark Man, weak to Spark Shock / Shadow Blade, gives the [[StaticStunGun Spark Shock]].
23	* DWN-024: Shadow Man, weak to Top Spin, gives the [[GratuitousNinja Shadow]] [[FuumaShuriken Blade]].
24	----
25
26	!! Tropes:
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28	* ActuallyADoombot: The pilot of Wily Machine 3 is a fake Wily, the real one is operating Gamma.
29	* AllThereInTheManual: The only way to learn about the story is to read the instruction manual, since the game contains no cutscenes until after all of the Doc Robots are defeated.
30	* BlindIdiotTranslation: Doc Robot's name in Japanese is ドクロボット (''"dokurobotto"''), which is meant to be a combination of ''dokuro'' (skull) and ''robotto'' (robot), meaning "Skull Robot" or "Skullbot" (fitting with Dr. Wily's skull motif) and helping to get the idea across that they're essentially undead robot masters. The translation missed this, resulting in a NonIndicativeName.
31	* CheckpointStarvation:
32	** Unusually for a ''Mega Man'' game, the second Wily Castle stage completely lacks checkpoints; you die to the boss (who just so happens to be the Yellow Devil MK-II), you go back to the beginning of the level. Mercifully, however, it's very short -- taking a minute and a half at most to reach the boss's lair.
33	** The Doc Robot stages lack checkpoints until after the first Doc Robot is defeated, so losing to the first Doc Robot will result in Mega Man being sent to the beginning of the stage. In Spark Man's stage, even ''that's'' not good enough -- one must fall down a spike-filled shaft before you're given a checkpoint. Die falling through it, and it's back to the start you go (and you have to fight the first Doc Robot again!). The ''Wily Wars'' remake was at least kind enough to move the checkpoint to right after you battle the Doc Robot.
34	* ContinuityNod:
35	** The eight Doc Robots download the attack patterns of the eight Robot Masters from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', and the ending scene displaying all of Dr. Light's Robot Masters shows the six bosses from [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 the original game]].
36	** While probably a happy coincidence, this game's Wily Castle bosses and those from [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 the first game's]] robot factory share a Yellow Devil, a Copy Robot, and a series of aquatic robots that increase in speed as each member is destroyed.
37	* CrateExpectations: A form of this appears as canisters with a "?" on them. Shooting them gets you a random item, from a small energy refill to a 1-Up to an [[EmergencyEnergyTank E-Tank]]. They're exclusive to this game; however, the mechanic was modified into Eddie in later games.
38	* DarkerAndEdgier: For a game in the classic series, the tone feels more tense with more dramatic music in the stages, the boss fight music sounding like Mega Man is having the fight of his life, and the enigmatic Doc Robots mysteriously appearing to challenge Mega Man and never being mentioned again after their defeat. Dr. Wily's castle themes also sound more emotional than before.
39	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Wily Machine 3. As soon as it's destroyed and Dr. Wily starts begging for mercy, "his" head pops off, revealing that he's a [[ActuallyADoombot robotic fake]].
40	* DoppelgangerAttack:
41	** Gemini Man starts his battle by splitting into two copies of himself. Both copies move in a circle around the room and can attack Mega Man. Gemini Man takes damage regardless of which one Mega Man shoots, and the second one disappears once he's down to half of his health.
42	** The Holograph Mega Mans [''sic''] in Wily Castle stage 3 are three copies of Mega Man that come out of three teleporters before attacking the real one in unison. Unlike Gemini Man, only one of the Mega Man copies can take damage each time they appear, so Mega Man must find which one he can attack before they disappear again.
43	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Some of the series elements introduced in this game have quirks that would be changed in subsequent appearances:
44	** Rush Jet is a platform that can be controlled in all directions and is so useful that it can be used to bypass numerous platforming challenges. To make it less "broken" and to ensure that it wouldn't render the other Rush items obsolete, later games would change the Rush Jet to only be able to move in the direction the player is facing upon summoning it and only allowing the player to control its movement vertically. (This of course led to complaints, because while the later games were more balanced, they weren't nearly as fun or satisfying as the omni-directional, easy-to-control Rush Jet of this title.)
45	** Mega Man cannot slide through boss gates -- he will always stop just short of them if he attempts to do so and he can only walk or jump through them.
46	** After the "absorbing the boss's energy" animation that plays after defeating the Robot Master (which did not occur in the first two games but would become a staple of the classic series), the weapons menu automatically opens up and shows the new weapon's energy meter filling up before Mega Man teleports out. Later games would skip this latter part.
47	* ElementalRockPaperScissors: A staple of the series, but a truly bizarre variant of this appears; Snake Man [[note]]weak to Needle Cannon[[/note]], Gemini Man [[note]]weak to Search Snake[[/note]], and Needle Man [[note]]weak to Gemini Laser[[/note]] are weak to each other's weapons, creating two weakness loops as opposed to one.
48	** Magnet Man is weak to both the Shadow Blade and the Spark Shock. What's interesting is that Spark Man, who gives the Spark Shock, is also weak to the Shadow Blade.
49	* EternalEngine: Spark Man's stage takes place in an electrical power plant with a variety of machines generating electricity.
50	* FinalBoss: For the final battle, Dr. Wily has redesigned Gamma into a humongous battle machine, and controls him to attack Mega Man.
51	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The tops of the Giant Metalls in the Doc Robot version of Needle Man's stage are visible in the original version of the stage as background elements.
52	* GameMod: Of particular note is ''[[https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4773/ Mega Man 3 Revamped]]'', which fixes nearly all of the issues plaguing the official release, such as rebalancing stages and boss fights, fixing most of the bugs, and actually adding an intro cutscene, making the game feel much less like an beta and more like how it was likely intended to be all along.
53	* GiantMook:
54	** The second Needle Man stage has Giant Metalls as mini-bosses, which are giant versions of the Metall enemies.
55	** The Giant Springer enemies are bigger versions of an enemy from Mega Man 2. While much slower than their smaller counterpart, they can fire homing missiles from their tops.
56	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The Doc Robots. They simply just appear after the Robot Masters are defeated, and are then not mentioned or even referenced in later games. Heck, even on the stage select screen, they simply appear as mysterious silhouettes, and the usual boss intro screen simply displays a question mark symbol and nothing else[[note]]The assumption can be made that Wily unleashed them after Mega Man grabbed the last of the power crystals, to delay Mega Man while Light and Wily finished Gamma, and Wily launched his plan to steal Gamma. That being said, there's no official word in regards to their existence, or why Wily felt the need to create the Doc Robots when he has previously shown that he can rebuild Robot Masters (aka the BossRush at the end of every Mega Man game)[[/note]].
57	* GratuitousNinja: Shadow Man's backstory suggests him to have been either created by an alien civilization or from alien technology. Why is he a ninja? Who knows.
58	* HardModeFiller: After the first eight levels are cleared, the player must re-visit Spark Man, Needle Man, Gemini Man and Shadow Man's stages to destroy the Doc Robots, bosses whose attack patterns are copied from the previous game's Robot Masters. Though the stage hazards and enemies remain largely unchanged, their placement is more devious and requires tighter platforming and clever use of Rush to be overcome.
59	* HijackedByGanon: For the first time in the series, Dr. Wily turns out to have programmed the Robot Masters to go berserk so that he could steal Gamma while Mega Man was distracted.
60	* HitboxDissonance: Aside from ''VideoGame/MegaManII'' on the Platform/GameBoy, probably the worst offender in the series for this trope. It becomes doubly problematic when you consider that every Robot Master in this game seems to treat throwing themselves into Mega Man as their primary method of attack, while just firing their weapons whenever they want to add a little variety to the proceedings.
61	* HollywoodMagnetism: Magnet Man is able to pull Mega Man in towards himself whenever he activates his magnetic field. It'll pull Mega Man in at the same speed regardless of your location on the screen.
62	* HomingProjectile:
63	** The Magnet Missiles used by Magnet Man will change their direction to fly down towards Mega Man after they fly over his head. When Mega Man himself uses them, they work similarly, changing direction to chase enemies above or below them.
64	** Hard Man's Hard Knuckle attack changes its direction mid-flight to chase after Mega Man. The version Mega Man uses doesn't have this feature, however.
65	* HumongousMecha: Gamma's torso takes up an entire screen.
66	* InfiniteOneUps: Due to the huge number of Pole enemies (the strange eggs that if shot at, spawn tadpole robots) in Gemini Man's stage (both the initial and Doc Robot runs), there's a good chance that you'll be bagging a good amount of lives if you intentionally shoot at every single egg. Note that your maximum number of lives is 9.
67	* InterfaceSpoiler: Dr. Wily is supposed to be pretending innocence at the start of this game up until you reach his fortress stages (although it's AllThereInTheManual), but in the ''Complete Works'' and ''Anniversary Collection'' enhanced re-releases, the bosses' lifebars in Navi Mode have his logo before the "reveal".
68	* JustThinkOfThePotential: Why did they build Gamma? Dr. Wily wanted to TakeOverTheWorld, duh. But [[ActualPacifist Dr. Light]] thought this would be a peacekeeping robot? [[labelnote:*]]The [[ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics Archie Comics adaptation]] got around this by claiming Gamma was more of a "handle natural disasters" robot.[[/labelnote]]
69	* LethalJokeItem: The Top Spin is often ridiculed as the worst weapon in the series when it's actually quite potent in the right hands. It's a OneHitKill on any non-boss enemy except Hammer Joes. It is also the weakness of Shadow Man and no less than ''three'' bosses in the Wily stages, including the FinalBoss, which it downs in ''one hit.''[[note]]Top Spin is dangerous to use because the "field" it generates around Mega Man to inflict damage is extremely small, barely larger than his hitbox (and see HitboxDissonance for why that's a problem already). However, Top Spin has two incredible advantages. First, it does not cause MercyInvincibility on enemies, so as long as you're Top Spinning, you're doing damage. Second, ''as long as you're Top Spinning and in contact with enemies, you're doing damage''. This advantage is so incredibly overpowered that the final boss doesn't actually go down in one hit, but in fact takes ''14 hits'' in less than half a second, killing it essentially instantly. According to Keiji Inafune, it was actually supposed to work somewhat less suicidally (the best and really only way to use Top Spin is to launch yourself into enemies while still having to deal with CollisionDamage), but the rushed production schedule forced the implementation that is in the game[[/note]].
70	* LoadBearingBoss: The first usage of this trope in the series, although it's not clear whether the explosion of Gamma causes Wily's entire fortress to collapse, or just brings down the ceiling in the room where you fight him.
71	* LongSongShortScene:
72	** A few tunes, like the Wily Castle intermission theme and Proto Man's theme in the cast roll get interrupted before they can finish.
73	** Thanks to the lack of an opening cutscene, you're unlikely to pay attention to the title screen theme of this game when first playing it.
74	* LosingHorns: Type C. The "Game Over!" theme is very jolly and seems to be so to rub your nose in your failure.
75	* MagnetismManipulation: Magnet Man's gimmick is magnetism; he can either fire homing Magnet Missiles or pulling Mega Man towards him with magnetic force. ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' expands on this -- he's also been known for sleeping on ceilings by attaching himself on them and likes magnetic therapy, but he has to avoid floppy disks and other sensitive electronics because his magnetic field can affect them.
76	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: At the very end of the credits, you can distantly see Dr. Wily's flying saucer-like ship floating through the clouds.
77	%%* MercyInvincibility: As in all ''Mega Man'' games, but also the only way to use Top Spin on stronger enemies.
78	* MotionParallax: Although it cannot be seen through normal gameplay due to the console's technical constraints, the beginning of the Gemini Man stage has a planet with a ring system that is animated with parallax scrolling more complex than any other level.
79	* MultiMookMelee: The Kamegoro Maker boss cannot be attacked directly. Instead, Mega Man must defeat the Kamegoros it creates one-by-one. Once all the Kamegoros have been defeated, the Kamegoro Maker itself will explode.
80	* {{Nerf}}: The Shadow Blade is a weakened version of the Metal Blade from ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan2 2]]''. Despite its lower range and higher energy cost, it's still an incredibly useful weapon, which goes to show just how broken the Metal Blade was.
81	* NotCompletelyUseless: The Top Spin. Widely considered to be one of the worst weapons in the entire series, it's the weakness of one of the most difficult bosses (Shadow Man), and the final boss. Actually, it can be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPYHstNYOSM quite useful]] for players who actually take the time to learn how to use it.
82	* OneHitKill: All it takes to defeat Gamma's second form is one Top Spin.
83	* PuzzleBoss: The Holograph Mega Mans is composed of one Copy Robot and two holograms. Shots will go through the holograms and deal no damage, so you'd better find the Copy Robot before the trio switch places!
84	* RecognizableBySound: Dr. Light recognizes Proto Man's identity after hearing his whistle.
85	* RecurringBoss: Break Man (a.k.a. Proto Man). The Yellow Devil and the Copy Robot return from [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 the first game]] (the former as the Yellow Devil MK-II, the latter as part of the Holograph Mega Mans), and the eight Doc Robots use the patterns of the ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' Robot Masters.
86	* ReflectingLaser: The Gemini Laser bounces off of walls. The first bounce will always be a 45 degree upward angle. Subsequent bounces will follow the "angle of reflection equals angle of incidence" rule of physics.
87	* RemixedLevel: After beating all 8 Robot Masters, you don't go directly to a fortress like in most games. Instead, Spark Man, Needle Man, Gemini Man, and Shadow Man's stages open back up. They have drastically different layouts; each one has 2 Doc Robot bosses, which mimic the Robot Masters from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''.
88	* RocketPunch: The Hard Knuckle fires off the user's lower arm to deliver a powerful punch.
89	* SelfDisposingVillain: Dr. Wily seems to be killed by falling debris at the end of the game. However, his ship can be seen flying away just before the credits.
90	* SequelHook: Though it seems Wily is crushed by the debris from his collapsing fortress, you can see his saucer floating away in the distance as Mega Man is gazing up at the sky during the ending.
91	* SkyFace: In the ending, Mega Man looks up in the sky and sees an image of Proto Man's face in the clouds.
92	* SpaceEpisode: Though it's not clear outside of Gemini Man's stage, all the Robot Masters have taken over mining stations on uncharted alien worlds.
93	* SpikeShooter: The Needle Cannon, as the name suggests, is a rapid fire weapon that shoots needles.
94	* SpinAttack: The Top Spin makes Mega Man (and Top Man) spin while using it, during which they can damage enemies by spinning into them.
95	* SpinToDeflectStuff: When Top Man uses the Top Spin, Mega Man's shots will bounce right off of him. Unfortunately, the version Mega Man gets doesn't have the same ability.
96	* SpoilerTitle: The subtitle of the Japanese version of the game, "The End of Dr. Wily?!", outright spoils the twist of Dr. Wily being the villain again, as well as his supposed "death" at the end of the game (unless you interpret it to mean Wily supposedly giving up his evil ways).
97	* StaticStunGun: The Spark Shock behaves like this when Mega Man uses it. It deals no direct damage (except to bosses), and instead incapacitates the enemy for a few seconds if it's vulnerable to it.
98	* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: The second Wily Castle stage is fairly short, doesn't have many enemies, and comes with two Energy Tanks. Then it throws the Yellow Devil MK-II at you.
99	* TwistEnding: The end reveals that Proto Man is DLN-000, making him Mega Man's brother.
100	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: In the second Gemini Man stage, the first Doc Robot fight is immediately followed by a wall that cannot be jumped over without using either Rush Coil or Rush Jet. If Mega Man is out of energy for both, there is no way to get any more, and no way to take damage or lose a life, leaving him trapped. The only escape is to reset the game and start the stage over from scratch. [[note]]Technically, holding right on a controller plugged into the Player 2 slot can allow Mega Man to jump high enough to clear the wall, but there is no guarantee that the player will have two controllers, and the second controller codes aren't usable in every version of the game[[/note]]
101	* UpdatedRerelease: The ''Wily Wars'' remake, and to a lesser degree, the ''Complete Works'' PSX port and the ''Anniversary Collection'' GCN, [=PS2=], and Xbox ports.
102	* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The game has Mega Man face off against his "older brother" Proto Man (a.k.a. Break Man) a few times.
103	* UtilityWeapon: The Hard Knuckle is the only weapon that can destroy certain hard walls in the Wily Castle.
104	* VillainsWantMercy: Both the robotic Wily impostor and the real one in the ending bow down to Mega Man and beg for mercy after being defeated.
105	* WallCrawl: The Search Snake can crawl both down and up walls.
106	* WeaksauceWeakness: Shadow Man, one of the toughest Robot Masters in the game, is weak to the Top Spin (which requires ''close contact'', no less). Same goes for Gamma once Wily takes control.
107	* WeaponOfPeace: Gamma was built to be a "peacekeeping robot." How a four-story tall robot is supposed to "keep peace" is not explained in-game, but the [[ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics comic adaptation]] explains it was designed to resist major natural disasters (such as earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes) so it can lead rescue and supply/relief efforts.
108	* WhamShot: During the ending, the mysterious robot who has been fighting Mega Man throughout the game is revealed to be none other than Proto Man, [[LukeIAmYourFather brother of Mega Man]].

Context VideoGame / MegaMan3