Mega Man III for Game Boy marks an improvement over its predecessors, delivering a more cohesive Mega Man experience on the handheld. It features a mix of new Robot Masters and stages adapted from the NES classics. While the visuals and sound are expectedly limited by the hardware, the core platforming and weapon-swapping action remains solid. Fans of the series will find enjoyment, but the game suffers somewhat from stiff controls and occasionally frustrating level design.
This was the first Mega Man GameBoy game I played after the first game, and I was expecting something more like Mega Man 2 had been when I was a kid. I figured that since the first GameBoy game was so difficult, the second game must set the trend for a generally easier experience than their NES counterparts. Hooooo boy was I in for a very rude awakening with just what a tough bastard this game is ^^;. Capcom returned to the company that made the first GameBoy Mega Man game for this one, and after criticisms (like I'd had) that Rock Man World 2 was too easy, they cranked the lever HARD in the other direction for easily one of the toughest Mega Man games out of all the 8-bit entries. It took me about 2.5 hours to get through this trial of a handheld Mega Man game.
Once again, the conceit here is that Dr. Wily is back again with two sets of four robot masters plucked from two different NES games. In this case, it's four from Mega Man 3 (the four who weren't in Rock Man World 2) and four from Mega Man 4. For the first four, they flow pretty well and do a good job of recreating the feel of their NES stages without outright copying them. They're like a remix made for the smaller resolution that the GameBoy offered. However, it's once you get past those first four stages that Rock Man World 3 really starts to show its true colors.
The second set of stages are filled with instant death spikes, very painful enemies that rush you out of nowhere, and bottomless pits that require absolute precision to get past safely. You also don't get Rush Jet until you've beaten the most demanding of these stages, so there won't be much help for you in that regard either. These stages are consistently frustrating in how demanding their difficulty is, and they are rarely actually fun. Wily's final stage is also similarly designed and mercilessly long, and gods help you if you need a continue during that level.
There are a couple of mini-Wily stages in between the two sets of robot masters as well as Wily's stage himself, and they hide the unique bosses of Giant Suzy (a giant version of the normal enemy) and the new Mega Man Killer: Punk. Giant Suzy shakes the ground in an annoying way that bounces you around slightly and makes it difficult for you to jump, but Punk is the cherry on the pie of bad boss design in this game. He has a lot of health, he can kill you in three hits, and his attacks are so fast they're nearly impossible to dodge without a lot of luck. The rebalanced versions of the old bosses are generally a bit too hard and tough for their own good in this game, but it's the unique bosses that really take the cake for just how miserable they are to fight.
While you do have E-tanks, the slide dash, and even Mega Man 4's chargeable mega buster to help you out, they'll never do much good to help you against the game's biggest enemy: the slowdown. Rock Man World 3 is a very ambitious game in how it tries to recreate the backgrounds and highly animated platforms of the NES games, but they work to the severe detriment of the actual product. All of those luxurious animations go a long way towards making the framerate jump around a ton as you kill enemies and transition from screen to screen, and it makes getting past all of those instant-kill traps that much more frustrating (especially in sections with platforms that disappear the moment you step on them). The slowdown issues compound all the other mean design decisions found in this game, and make it just that much harder to actually learn your way through the levels.
The presentation is actually pretty good, but it comes at the cost of that slowdown mentioned earlier. While there are some pretty darn good GameBoy renditions of classic themes like Dive Man and Snake Man, and their stages as well as their gimmicks are quite well portrayed here, those pretty graphics just make the game feel so much less nice to play that it would've been much preferred if they'd just been toned down for the good of the experience.
Verdict: Not Recommended. This is the only game out of any of the 8-bit Mega Man games I'd actually call an actively bad time you should avoid. If you play the other four GameBoy Mega Man games, you'll likely be tempted to try this one out, but it is a game better forgotten. The mean design piled onto the terrible slowdown make this a slog from beginning to end that will do nothing but make you wish you were actually playing the much better NES games this one is based on.
Excellent game. MMW3 feels like the definitive take on Mega Man 3 NES's unfinished nature while incorporating the strengths of Mega Man 4 NES. The only real issues I have with this game are the frame drops, the brutal checkpoints, and the fact that this game loves making certain levels LONG.
Ehhh… it’s very nearly better than the previous two Game Boy Mega Man titles, but, as several other Backloggd reviewers have noted, the second half of this is miserable. Good music, though, and I also like the Mega Man 3 boss weapons, which all return here. Shout out to Punk, too, who is easily the coolest of the “Mega Man Killers” so far.
Anyway, I am not at all keen on Mizakuchi’s decision to prioritize pixel-perfect jumps throughout many of Mega Man III’s levels. That approach really cuts into the kinetic flow of Mega Man in a way that no other title I’ve played has. This game also runs like absolute slop. I did some research to see if the immense slowdown was emulator-based, but no… that’s just how this game is.!Looks pretty great for an original Game Boy game, though, so it was probably pushing the handheld near its limits.
Well, that’s that on Mega Man 3 and Mega Man III. Two sides of the same shitty coin.
Anyway, I am not at all keen on Mizakuchi’s decision to prioritize pixel-perfect jumps throughout many of Mega Man III’s levels. That approach really cuts into the kinetic flow of Mega Man in a way that no other title I’ve played has. This game also runs like absolute slop. I did some research to see if the immense slowdown was emulator-based, but no… that’s just how this game is.!Looks pretty great for an original Game Boy game, though, so it was probably pushing the handheld near its limits.
Well, that’s that on Mega Man 3 and Mega Man III. Two sides of the same shitty coin.
would have been a strong 7 if the second half wasn't 90% pixel perfect jump and instakill hazards. good soundtrack tho
Gotta say, this is the first time Mega Man But Small doesn't work for me. Unlike the previous two Game Boy games, this one just runs like crap. The slowdown on hit is absurd, and the levels are significantly worse designed.
dust man made me cry
lame and skippable
I just. Did not have a fun time with this. Possibly because I played this right after Mega Man 5, but it just feels...clunky. Unfun. Slow. And Unlike Dr. Wily's Revenge, where at least there were more fresh takes on the robot master stages from Mega Man 1, this just feels like the best parts from some Mega Man 3 stages, but shrunk down and with more lag and slow down than NES Mega Man 3. Visually it's pretty ugly too with the default color choices.
Perhaps I'll roll back around to this game and give it a more fair shake, but I can't get stuck on trying to like this game.
Perhaps I'll roll back around to this game and give it a more fair shake, but I can't get stuck on trying to like this game.
[Mega Man World III] Nothing to care about honestly, the series is pretty damn tired by this point. Competent levels except for the Wily stages. Man, there is just no consistency with the endgame in this series. In some games they are pretty good, and in some they are the absolute worst of the worst.
Technologically speaking, this is probably the most "Mega Man on the Game Boy" yet. It copies 4 bosses from 3 and 4 bosses from 4, but the stage design feels ripped from the NES rather than something made to cater to the Game Boy's smaller screen and processing power. Lag is a common factor here, which sucks when having to work around certain jumps. Some stage gimmicks are pretty bad too, such as any gimmick that involves waiting and instant death (shout out to Dive Man and Dust Man). The weapons aren't too great, despite this game being known for the one that makes the Spark Shock not the worst weapon in the franchise. You'll mostly stick to the Shadow Blades since they're still Metal Blades lite, hell even the new weapon, Punk Crusher, is outclassed by the Shadow Blade. The Charge Shot is also present to invalidate weapons but if you know me and Mega Man you know I'm not a fan of the charge shot.
There's a new midboss who's pretty cool and Punk is a solid fight too so the new stuff is nice. Hell the some tracks like Snake Man sound better coming from the game boy's sound chip than the NES, even if I wish original arrangements were made rather than just porting the NES music.
It's still a bit rough but I'd say this is playable, even if a little redundant these days. I'd still recommend Mega Man 3 and 4 over this, but if you need more to scratch that itch, here you go. If the second half was less bs, I'd say this is the best GB Mega Man so far, but it ties with Dr. Wily's revenge.
There's a new midboss who's pretty cool and Punk is a solid fight too so the new stuff is nice. Hell the some tracks like Snake Man sound better coming from the game boy's sound chip than the NES, even if I wish original arrangements were made rather than just porting the NES music.
It's still a bit rough but I'd say this is playable, even if a little redundant these days. I'd still recommend Mega Man 3 and 4 over this, but if you need more to scratch that itch, here you go. If the second half was less bs, I'd say this is the best GB Mega Man so far, but it ties with Dr. Wily's revenge.
Minakuchi Engineering is back and... better than ever? Mega Man III Game Boy marks the return of Dr. Wily's Revenge developer creating another sequel that is more of the same as its precursors, but with different Robot Masters from pre-existing games, this time with Snake Man, Shadow Man, Spark Man, and Gemini Man from Mega Man 3 (NES) and Drill Man, Skull Man, Dive Man, and Dust Man from Mega Man 4 (NES). Every Robot Master stage has been mostly recreated on a smaller scale, and for a Game Boy game in 1992, looks impressive. They also implemented the charge shot and slide abilities from Mega Man 3 and 4 (NES) which is a godsend because some of these levels are kind of difficult without them. The challenge returns in Mega Man World 3; not as bs as Dr. Wily's Revenge, but it does ramp up in difficulty in the second half. The Mega Man 3 half isn't that bad, but the Mega Man 4 half can be sort of a pain (Dust Man and the later half of Dive Man's stage can piss off), but with some trial and error, they ain't too bad. I don't have much to say about the end game except for the new Mega Man Killer, Punk; I think he's an interesting character design-wise and Suzy isn't that bad of a mid-boss.
Mega Man World 3 is a slight improvement over 2, just slightly because of the returning challenge and the non-screeching music, but other than that, meh.
Mega Man World 3 is a slight improvement over 2, just slightly because of the returning challenge and the non-screeching music, but other than that, meh.
I'm gonna be honest, I was not having that much fun with this one. The first half was fine, better then II. But then we reach the second half where the stages go on forever and the bs Scale is off the mother fucking charts. I am starting to think that Megaman on GB is something that dosen't work at all.
Angel_Arle Rockman reviews
Part 1: Rockman for Famicom
Part 2: Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo for Famicom
Part 3: Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? for Famicom
Part 4: Rockman World for GB
Part 5: Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!! for Famicom
Part 6: Rockman World 2 for GB
Part 7: Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!? for Famicom
Part 9: Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise for Famicom
Part 10: Rockman World 4 for GB
Part 11: Rockman 6: Shijō Saidai no Tatakai!! for Famicom
Part 12: Rockman's Soccer for Super Famicom
Part 13: Rockman World 5 for GB
It feels weird doing another Game Boy game. How does Capcom just keep pumping these out? I get these are outsourced but I’m starting to think the releases on these games are getting a bit ridiculous. The previous World game was not good at all. In fact, it’s the only one I’ve been pretty negative on overall. Capcom must have noticed the poor quality because Minakuchi Engineering is back to develop the Rockman World games. I have only played Rockman World 3 once so it was pretty interesting to replay this one.
What kind of outlandish plot do we have this time? Well did you know the world of Rockman has a super computer that handles the everyday lives of humans? Wily must have not known because now he finally realized it’s a good idea to sabotage it and having his army cause a big heap of trouble for the city. Now it’s up to Rockman to stop the robots. Once again you’ll have to read the manual for this, no intro cutscene.
In this game we are back to the New Rock Buster from Rockman 4. Sadly the controls have come back from the first World game meaning your movement in the air still feels odd like Rockman packs a bit of momentum when moving in the air. They did at least fix the slide issue from World 2 where now you can actually jump out of it which is nice. Still though it’s a shame no fix was done with his air movement.
Thankfully the stage design is back to being fully original despite the reused Robot Masters in this game. I’m just gonna spoil it now, the game is split up with four different Robot Masters from 3 and 4. So you’ll be doing Rockman 3 robots first and then have Rockman 4 robots afterwards. Now let me tell you this game gave me an awful first impression. Snake and Gemini Man’s stages were terrible. Not only did they feel like they took way too long but they had some annoying bits in them that were kind of pissing me off. Then I did Shadow Man’s stage and was like “Why was that so short?” Though once the fiasco left, the game can be pretty fun but I do still feel mixed on it. Sometimes it can be enjoyable like Spark Man’s stage or Drill Man’s stage. Though I didn’t like Dive Man’s stage that much because the controls in the water are kind of annoying. Also can we please stuff with the Dust Man trash press section? It’s been three games in a row! Despite the new levels, it does sort of feel like a been there done that but with mixed results. I can’t stand the enemy placement in this game. Some of it works but then you get the bitches like those stupid Shield Attackers where you’ll be strolling along and he’ll be like “Ayo Rockman what’s up!?” bam you get hit with no chance to dodge and this happens like over five times. You know it was bad when I actively had to hate on that specific enemy. Also idk if it’s just me but I swear this game has an obsession with Metalls. At least the game isn’t stingy with E-Tanks but be warned the max is still only four you can carry. Another thing I noticed too was that the game really likes to eat your inputs when fighting the Snake miniboss and those bomb platforms, really annoying. For the order this time I went Snake -> Gemini -> Shadow -> Spark -> Drill -> Dust -> Skull-> Dive. Overall it’s hard to really put it all together in my mind, the stage design is a mish mash of good and bad ideas despite reusing old ideas. It somehow feels old and new but maybe not for the best of reasons.
When it comes to Robot Master fights, I’ll just list what I felt was different that I noticed which wasn’t too much. Spark Man seems to have I-frames now on his big attack which is a rather odd change. The cramped feeling of rooms made Snake Man harder to beat and threw me off a bit. I swear Shadow Man is easy in this game, he rarely did his Shadow Blade attack. Drill Man lacks I-frames now when he’s doing the digging attack. Dive Man seems to be slower and easier this time around but I don’t know if that’s just me. Otherwise most of the fights are pretty similar to each other which isn’t a bad thing. I was surprised there were as many differences as there were.
Now we have the weapons to discuss for this game. Spark Shot from Spark Man has been buffed in this game. It’s now the best weapon in the game since you can now pause when an enemy is paralyzed making it just a slightly inferior Ice Slasher but that just goes to show how good Ice Slasher is. Gemini Laser from Gemini Man is still not good in fact I feel like it’s even worse in this game since I couldn’t figure out a single enemy it was good against and it doesn’t have the best ammo to begin with. Search Snake from Snake Man is decent but it’s been nerfed since the lob distance on startup isn’t as good anymore. It also just doesn’t seem to have as many uses as it did in 3. Shadow Blade from Shadow Man is good but I think it’s a little overshadowed by some of the other special weapons. It still can be pretty handy at times though. Dive Missile from Dive Man is still a good weapon but sadly I wasn’t able to use it much this time since there’s only one fortress stage. It does seem to have better homing capabilities at least. Skull Barrier from Skull Man is bad for me personally, I just think there’s better weapons in this game to bother using it. Drill Bomb from Drill Man is pretty good in this game. It seems to be stronger in this one and it feels like it has even more moments of being useful which says a lot when it was already good in 4. Dust Crusher from Dust Man is alright, I just wish I had more reason to use this thing. Overall it’s all kind of just mixed in there in quality. Some very good, some good, some eh, and some bad.
Time to talk about Rush once again and for some reason you still have to unlock Rush Coil like in World 2 and it works as you expect. Rush Jet is also here and it once again acts like how it did in 4. Maybe you can fall off of it when getting hit but I never got hit when on Rush. There isn’t even Rush Marine or some other special item presented here. Eddie is at least still here though and he works as you expect.
I didn’t mention it but halfway through the game you’ll go to Wily’s Fortress to fight a Giant Suzy which is a pretty easy fight and even easier if you use Spark Shot. At least it’s a pretty creative take on a big enemy and I love the animation on him. Once you go back to fight Wily you’ll have a new Fortress and you now will be fighting Rockman Killer #2! His name is Punk and if his entrance isn’t enough to show you he’s not screwing around, his damage output will! He can kill you in 2-3 hits, it’s insane! Though after my third try I somehow managed to do a no damage run on him. My tip for him is to focus on dodging his Screw Crusher and dodge his easily telegraphed roll and hit him as he gets out of the roll and you’ll win. You get Screw Crusher from him which is a projectile you lob in a not so great distance and while it has a ton of ammo, it’s best to keep it for Wily since he’s weak to it. The one and only Fortress stage is actually not too bad in this game. I actually thought it was fun mostly because you get to use all of your good weapons and not even worry about saving ammo for anything. There’s not even a Robot Master rematch stage like the previous games so it’s all just smooth sailing. You’ll also fight another Giant Suzy and it’s even nice to refill some of your energy. You meet with Dr Wily in his Wily Machine! Yep it’s just called that which is rather odd since before we were adding the World and number for the name of these. The first form is really easy as he can rarely ever hit you if you hurry to the other side as fast as you can. Use the Rock Buster for it! Then it’s on with phase 2 where he doesn’t even move and you just time your Screw Crushers and you’ll eventually win and you don’t have to try to dodge his stuff if you have spare E-Tanks though he’s not too difficult regardless. You defeat Wily and then he just gets away easily like goddamn Rockman really needs to just stun him or something. Though unlucky for Wily is that his saucer somehow fails and he crashes in the water and I’m guessing Rockman didn’t bother to check up on him? The game just ends after that with no mention of this computer from the manual. This feels very anticlimactic now that I’m writing this down.
Now the presentation is one of the better aspects of the game, especially the graphics. Now a lot of it is very similar to the Famicom games they’re based off of but it looks really good for the Game Boy. This does come at the cost of some screen size shenanigans but it really does look nice. I especially love the new weapon get screen, the weapon get screen, the shot with the two Fortresses and the screen before the thank you for playing screen, it’s so beautiful! Sadly the game does have a bad case of slowdown fever as it’s very easy for it to happen. I even noticed it can happen when I just charge the Rock Buster. Regardless I do love how they did try to fix up the game graphically even fixing many of the issues World 2 had like Rockman’s sliding sprite looking odd. The music however is disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it is good but now it’s mostly just like the Famicom OSTs of 3 and 4. The new stuff is great especially the final level but I wish they tried to make the OST sound more like the first World game. It’s still leaps and bounds ahead of World 2 anyway. It makes me wonder if that game is why they went a safer route with the OST. Once again the game has an unused song and this time it’s…the title screen theme from Rockman 2? What’s with their obsession with that song?
Rockman World 3 leaves me in a bit of a weird situation. I can’t tell if I like the game or not because while it can be fun, it can also be annoying. I think the game really needed some changes on the level design as I don’t find it all that great. I think there’s good elements here but the negatives hold down on what could have been the best of the Game Boy games so far. I can’t even recommend this to anyone besides people wanting to play every Rockman game out there. There just isn’t much here I think will keep you wanting to play. Part of me thinks I’m being too harsh but I think it’s something I have to accept that the game is a decent game that really needed to be cooked in the oven more. Though with the devs being back for the series, I’m sure soon they’ll be improving what they have and they can overcome their mistakes. Now we will be heading into this series of reviews with that being a spinoff game! This might be one most of you haven’t played and it’s back to the Famicom once more! See you then!
Part 1: Rockman for Famicom
Part 2: Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo for Famicom
Part 3: Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? for Famicom
Part 4: Rockman World for GB
Part 5: Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!! for Famicom
Part 6: Rockman World 2 for GB
Part 7: Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!? for Famicom
Part 9: Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise for Famicom
Part 10: Rockman World 4 for GB
Part 11: Rockman 6: Shijō Saidai no Tatakai!! for Famicom
Part 12: Rockman's Soccer for Super Famicom
Part 13: Rockman World 5 for GB
It feels weird doing another Game Boy game. How does Capcom just keep pumping these out? I get these are outsourced but I’m starting to think the releases on these games are getting a bit ridiculous. The previous World game was not good at all. In fact, it’s the only one I’ve been pretty negative on overall. Capcom must have noticed the poor quality because Minakuchi Engineering is back to develop the Rockman World games. I have only played Rockman World 3 once so it was pretty interesting to replay this one.
What kind of outlandish plot do we have this time? Well did you know the world of Rockman has a super computer that handles the everyday lives of humans? Wily must have not known because now he finally realized it’s a good idea to sabotage it and having his army cause a big heap of trouble for the city. Now it’s up to Rockman to stop the robots. Once again you’ll have to read the manual for this, no intro cutscene.
In this game we are back to the New Rock Buster from Rockman 4. Sadly the controls have come back from the first World game meaning your movement in the air still feels odd like Rockman packs a bit of momentum when moving in the air. They did at least fix the slide issue from World 2 where now you can actually jump out of it which is nice. Still though it’s a shame no fix was done with his air movement.
Thankfully the stage design is back to being fully original despite the reused Robot Masters in this game. I’m just gonna spoil it now, the game is split up with four different Robot Masters from 3 and 4. So you’ll be doing Rockman 3 robots first and then have Rockman 4 robots afterwards. Now let me tell you this game gave me an awful first impression. Snake and Gemini Man’s stages were terrible. Not only did they feel like they took way too long but they had some annoying bits in them that were kind of pissing me off. Then I did Shadow Man’s stage and was like “Why was that so short?” Though once the fiasco left, the game can be pretty fun but I do still feel mixed on it. Sometimes it can be enjoyable like Spark Man’s stage or Drill Man’s stage. Though I didn’t like Dive Man’s stage that much because the controls in the water are kind of annoying. Also can we please stuff with the Dust Man trash press section? It’s been three games in a row! Despite the new levels, it does sort of feel like a been there done that but with mixed results. I can’t stand the enemy placement in this game. Some of it works but then you get the bitches like those stupid Shield Attackers where you’ll be strolling along and he’ll be like “Ayo Rockman what’s up!?” bam you get hit with no chance to dodge and this happens like over five times. You know it was bad when I actively had to hate on that specific enemy. Also idk if it’s just me but I swear this game has an obsession with Metalls. At least the game isn’t stingy with E-Tanks but be warned the max is still only four you can carry. Another thing I noticed too was that the game really likes to eat your inputs when fighting the Snake miniboss and those bomb platforms, really annoying. For the order this time I went Snake -> Gemini -> Shadow -> Spark -> Drill -> Dust -> Skull-> Dive. Overall it’s hard to really put it all together in my mind, the stage design is a mish mash of good and bad ideas despite reusing old ideas. It somehow feels old and new but maybe not for the best of reasons.
When it comes to Robot Master fights, I’ll just list what I felt was different that I noticed which wasn’t too much. Spark Man seems to have I-frames now on his big attack which is a rather odd change. The cramped feeling of rooms made Snake Man harder to beat and threw me off a bit. I swear Shadow Man is easy in this game, he rarely did his Shadow Blade attack. Drill Man lacks I-frames now when he’s doing the digging attack. Dive Man seems to be slower and easier this time around but I don’t know if that’s just me. Otherwise most of the fights are pretty similar to each other which isn’t a bad thing. I was surprised there were as many differences as there were.
Now we have the weapons to discuss for this game. Spark Shot from Spark Man has been buffed in this game. It’s now the best weapon in the game since you can now pause when an enemy is paralyzed making it just a slightly inferior Ice Slasher but that just goes to show how good Ice Slasher is. Gemini Laser from Gemini Man is still not good in fact I feel like it’s even worse in this game since I couldn’t figure out a single enemy it was good against and it doesn’t have the best ammo to begin with. Search Snake from Snake Man is decent but it’s been nerfed since the lob distance on startup isn’t as good anymore. It also just doesn’t seem to have as many uses as it did in 3. Shadow Blade from Shadow Man is good but I think it’s a little overshadowed by some of the other special weapons. It still can be pretty handy at times though. Dive Missile from Dive Man is still a good weapon but sadly I wasn’t able to use it much this time since there’s only one fortress stage. It does seem to have better homing capabilities at least. Skull Barrier from Skull Man is bad for me personally, I just think there’s better weapons in this game to bother using it. Drill Bomb from Drill Man is pretty good in this game. It seems to be stronger in this one and it feels like it has even more moments of being useful which says a lot when it was already good in 4. Dust Crusher from Dust Man is alright, I just wish I had more reason to use this thing. Overall it’s all kind of just mixed in there in quality. Some very good, some good, some eh, and some bad.
Time to talk about Rush once again and for some reason you still have to unlock Rush Coil like in World 2 and it works as you expect. Rush Jet is also here and it once again acts like how it did in 4. Maybe you can fall off of it when getting hit but I never got hit when on Rush. There isn’t even Rush Marine or some other special item presented here. Eddie is at least still here though and he works as you expect.
I didn’t mention it but halfway through the game you’ll go to Wily’s Fortress to fight a Giant Suzy which is a pretty easy fight and even easier if you use Spark Shot. At least it’s a pretty creative take on a big enemy and I love the animation on him. Once you go back to fight Wily you’ll have a new Fortress and you now will be fighting Rockman Killer #2! His name is Punk and if his entrance isn’t enough to show you he’s not screwing around, his damage output will! He can kill you in 2-3 hits, it’s insane! Though after my third try I somehow managed to do a no damage run on him. My tip for him is to focus on dodging his Screw Crusher and dodge his easily telegraphed roll and hit him as he gets out of the roll and you’ll win. You get Screw Crusher from him which is a projectile you lob in a not so great distance and while it has a ton of ammo, it’s best to keep it for Wily since he’s weak to it. The one and only Fortress stage is actually not too bad in this game. I actually thought it was fun mostly because you get to use all of your good weapons and not even worry about saving ammo for anything. There’s not even a Robot Master rematch stage like the previous games so it’s all just smooth sailing. You’ll also fight another Giant Suzy and it’s even nice to refill some of your energy. You meet with Dr Wily in his Wily Machine! Yep it’s just called that which is rather odd since before we were adding the World and number for the name of these. The first form is really easy as he can rarely ever hit you if you hurry to the other side as fast as you can. Use the Rock Buster for it! Then it’s on with phase 2 where he doesn’t even move and you just time your Screw Crushers and you’ll eventually win and you don’t have to try to dodge his stuff if you have spare E-Tanks though he’s not too difficult regardless. You defeat Wily and then he just gets away easily like goddamn Rockman really needs to just stun him or something. Though unlucky for Wily is that his saucer somehow fails and he crashes in the water and I’m guessing Rockman didn’t bother to check up on him? The game just ends after that with no mention of this computer from the manual. This feels very anticlimactic now that I’m writing this down.
Now the presentation is one of the better aspects of the game, especially the graphics. Now a lot of it is very similar to the Famicom games they’re based off of but it looks really good for the Game Boy. This does come at the cost of some screen size shenanigans but it really does look nice. I especially love the new weapon get screen, the weapon get screen, the shot with the two Fortresses and the screen before the thank you for playing screen, it’s so beautiful! Sadly the game does have a bad case of slowdown fever as it’s very easy for it to happen. I even noticed it can happen when I just charge the Rock Buster. Regardless I do love how they did try to fix up the game graphically even fixing many of the issues World 2 had like Rockman’s sliding sprite looking odd. The music however is disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it is good but now it’s mostly just like the Famicom OSTs of 3 and 4. The new stuff is great especially the final level but I wish they tried to make the OST sound more like the first World game. It’s still leaps and bounds ahead of World 2 anyway. It makes me wonder if that game is why they went a safer route with the OST. Once again the game has an unused song and this time it’s…the title screen theme from Rockman 2? What’s with their obsession with that song?
Rockman World 3 leaves me in a bit of a weird situation. I can’t tell if I like the game or not because while it can be fun, it can also be annoying. I think the game really needed some changes on the level design as I don’t find it all that great. I think there’s good elements here but the negatives hold down on what could have been the best of the Game Boy games so far. I can’t even recommend this to anyone besides people wanting to play every Rockman game out there. There just isn’t much here I think will keep you wanting to play. Part of me thinks I’m being too harsh but I think it’s something I have to accept that the game is a decent game that really needed to be cooked in the oven more. Though with the devs being back for the series, I’m sure soon they’ll be improving what they have and they can overcome their mistakes. Now we will be heading into this series of reviews with that being a spinoff game! This might be one most of you haven’t played and it’s back to the Famicom once more! See you then!
Yep, it's another one! You've got four stages from Mega Man 3, and four stages from Mega Man 4 here, with different level layouts to tackle. I was shocked to find out from the reviews here that this game's actually pretty hard, which I suppose I wouldn't have known since for this particular entry, I've only ever done casual rewindey runs of it. But it's something to keep in mind if you're planning to go into it raw.
If there's one single thing that got an uplift here, it's the soundtrack. No more of that high-pitched blaring that Mega Man II had, we're back to using Gameboy conversions of the NES songs, and they're done well enough. What's really nice though, are the few original tracks made for this game. I'd like to highlight the Weapon Get theme, the Wily fortress theme, and the credits song as bangers. The credits song especially, which has become one of my favorite Mega Man themes in recent memory due to its combination of catchiness and melancholy feeling. It almost makes playing the whole game worth it. Almost.
Overall, it's okay, and will only satisfy the most hardcore of Mega Man fans from the looks of it. I don't regret playing it myself, but obviously, with the use of rewind, I have a bit of bias here.
If there's one single thing that got an uplift here, it's the soundtrack. No more of that high-pitched blaring that Mega Man II had, we're back to using Gameboy conversions of the NES songs, and they're done well enough. What's really nice though, are the few original tracks made for this game. I'd like to highlight the Weapon Get theme, the Wily fortress theme, and the credits song as bangers. The credits song especially, which has become one of my favorite Mega Man themes in recent memory due to its combination of catchiness and melancholy feeling. It almost makes playing the whole game worth it. Almost.
Overall, it's okay, and will only satisfy the most hardcore of Mega Man fans from the looks of it. I don't regret playing it myself, but obviously, with the use of rewind, I have a bit of bias here.
Playing on the 3DS Virtual Console, cleared the game once. Not sure if I will replay this one; the level design was very unforgiving compared to the other Game Boy entries.
This game is so miserable to play that I almost packed the whole thing in. No more Mega Man reviews, purely because continuing on would mean playing more of this dreck.
It's hard to make a truly bad Mega Man, but the commitment of the development team here to choose the worst level designs, enemy layouts, boss patterns, structure (no boss rush?!)... well you have to commend them for messing everything up.
I don't want to dwell on this game. I want to come back for GB MM4 as soon as possible and wash the bad taste of my mouth. I like a lot of Mega Man, for good or ill, but this is just too much.
It's hard to make a truly bad Mega Man, but the commitment of the development team here to choose the worst level designs, enemy layouts, boss patterns, structure (no boss rush?!)... well you have to commend them for messing everything up.
I don't want to dwell on this game. I want to come back for GB MM4 as soon as possible and wash the bad taste of my mouth. I like a lot of Mega Man, for good or ill, but this is just too much.
This review contains spoilers
These GB games are getting better and better. The stages were enjoyable (except the Dive Man stage, as they were full of spikes). The bosses still "melted" when using their weakness, but this time it felt like they dealt the "proper" amount of damage. There were a lot of instances that I completed a robot master just with one or two lines of health.
Overall this ones feels closer to the original NES games, even when controlling Mega Man.
Overall this ones feels closer to the original NES games, even when controlling Mega Man.
Well, Minakuchi Enginieering are back, and they brought the quality back up to just kinda not very good as opposed to total dog ass again, hell yeah!
Damn though, second half of the game goes off a cliff in terms of sone of the trial and error pixel perfect movements they want, and the final Wily boss is probably the easiest in the whole series? Shoutout to the half of Mega Man 4 bosses in this one having their own stage select instead of jumpscaring you in the castle, kinda neat I guess. Aside from that, I mean it sure is a whack hodgepodge of Mega Man 3 and 4, these Game Boy games are really starting to mesh together in my head.
Damn though, second half of the game goes off a cliff in terms of sone of the trial and error pixel perfect movements they want, and the final Wily boss is probably the easiest in the whole series? Shoutout to the half of Mega Man 4 bosses in this one having their own stage select instead of jumpscaring you in the castle, kinda neat I guess. Aside from that, I mean it sure is a whack hodgepodge of Mega Man 3 and 4, these Game Boy games are really starting to mesh together in my head.
الالعاب هذي قاعدة تتحسن شوي شوي لكن ليش تبي تلعبهم من الاساس ولا وحدة منهم تسوى إلا ٥ و يمكن ٤
Não tem boss rush, perdeu muitos pontos por causa disso.
Thoughts after beating the game:
Man, where do I begin?
Well, for starters, it only starts getting remotely good in the second half. Enemy placement becomes less unfair (and the enemy types are less annoying). However, the game still controls bad. It feels floaty and slippery, while also being simultaneously stiff.
The bosses were fine.
Anyway, you don't really miss out on anything by not playing this game.
Thoughts before beating the game:
Mega Man III is pure trash of a game.
The first 2 Game Boy entries were good. This one? Horrible. I can't even name a single good quality about it other than the OST.
The controls are stiff, the enemies and bosses have an insanely high damage output, and the game has the worst fucking slowdown imaginable making dodging basic enemy attacks into a fucking Touhou boss. The slowdown is worse than my fucking wifi or the Backloggd servers.
Obstacle placement is shit. Enemy placement is unfair. Checkpoints are basically nonexistent.
This might be the contender for the worst Mega Man game next to Challenger from the Future.
I've seen shovelware shit play better than this garbage.
Man, where do I begin?
Well, for starters, it only starts getting remotely good in the second half. Enemy placement becomes less unfair (and the enemy types are less annoying). However, the game still controls bad. It feels floaty and slippery, while also being simultaneously stiff.
The bosses were fine.
Anyway, you don't really miss out on anything by not playing this game.
Thoughts before beating the game:
Mega Man III is pure trash of a game.
The first 2 Game Boy entries were good. This one? Horrible. I can't even name a single good quality about it other than the OST.
The controls are stiff, the enemies and bosses have an insanely high damage output, and the game has the worst fucking slowdown imaginable making dodging basic enemy attacks into a fucking Touhou boss. The slowdown is worse than my fucking wifi or the Backloggd servers.
Obstacle placement is shit. Enemy placement is unfair. Checkpoints are basically nonexistent.
This might be the contender for the worst Mega Man game next to Challenger from the Future.
I've seen shovelware shit play better than this garbage.
A decent effort at a portable Mega Man experience, but the sprites are just a bit too big to make platforming feel good. I remember there being a jump in Dust Man's stage that felt near impossible to land.
Despite taking steps forward from the first two it manages to take more steps back.
Unfun ass game that wants nothing more than to waste as much of your time as possible. I want to see Dust Man's stage dead.
How do you fuck up Mega Man physics this badly: the sequel
(ft. bullshit level design)
(ft. bullshit level design)
How did they manage to make a second Mega Man 3 who's also laggy as all hell. This game is borderline unplayable at times due to the constant slowdown.
You know, despite being considered the worst of the Mega Man games on Game Boy, I did actually find myself having a pretty good time with Mega Man II, but I can still see how many wouldn’t like it as much. It keeps all the basic fundamentals in tact when it comes to the gameplay and visual style, but not only was the game much easier then your typical Mega Man game (which I didn’t mind, but still), but there were some pretty dumb elements to be found in the game, such as with genuinely terrible story, as well as with Quint and the weapon that you get from him. Needless to say, it isn’t quite what people were used to when it came to these games, and due to this, as well as a bad experience with Thinking Rabbit, Capcom decided to go back to the original Mega Man GB developers, Minakuchi Engineering, for the remaining titles in this series, which was definitely for the best in my opinion. So, despite changing development studios yet again, just one year later, we would then get Mega Man III on Game Boy.
As one would expect, this game changes practically nothing in terms of the main gameplay and formula of the series, but it does revert back to some of the same design choices from the original Game Boy game. So, of course, for those who didn’t really get into the other two Mega Man Game Boy games before this, then they most likely won’t have their minds changed by this game. Naturally though, you see the name, you see the profile picture: if it’s Mega Man, I’m probably gonna really like it, and that is no different here. While it may not change that much, this is still a pretty good entry in the series for the Game Boy, and one that I did have fun revisiting after what feels like a decade, even if it hasn’t been that long.
The story is, you guessed it, Dr. Wily being a dick, but this time he is using a machine to suck energy out of the Earth’s core, which admittedly is a much better plot then getting Future Mega Man to battle Past Mega Man (seriously, what was that), the graphics are Game Boy graphics, and they remain practically unchanged from the previous two games, which is to be expected, but it still looks good for what it is, the music is great, primarily being conversions of tracks from the NES games, but they still sound good on this system, the control is the exact same from the other games, so nothing to comment on there, and the gameplay is your typical classic Mega Man action, so if you were expecting anything more at this point, sorry to disappoint.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Mega Man once again, take on plenty of stages consisting of familiar locations and familiar faces to take down, defeat plenty of robotic enemies that will halt your progress through every waking moment, gather plenty of ammo, health, lives, and E-Tanks to aid you in your mission along the way, defeat the plenty of Robot Masters and other bosses that stand in your way, and gain access to their powers to use to your advantage. But of course, that is all stuff that you all have heard plenty of times before, so is there anything new about this game at all in comparison to the others? Well, yes, there is: the new Mega Man Killer, Punk, who has a pretty great design, and his weapon is pretty useful as well. And… that is it. So yeah, thanks for reading the revi-
Ignoring the lack of that much substantial new content in this entry, since this is being developed by the original team behind Dr. Wily’s Revenge instead of Thinking Rabbit, do they still know how to craft an enjoyable handheld romp for the blue bomber? Well, yeah, I’d say so. Like with Dr. Wily’s Revenge, and really most of the other Mega Man games, this game goes back to being pretty difficult, but based on what I had played, I didn’t find myself having too much of a hard time with it, with less instances of bullshit to be found… aside from one or two instances (fuck Dust Man’s stage), and they didn’t make the next Mega Man Killer stupid as hell, so that is also an improvement in my book. All around, it is clear that these guys are still very familiar with this character, this franchise, and how to make these games, so it is no wonder why they brought them back, and kept them around for several more installments to come after this.
But, with all that being said, we are now 8 entries into this franchise (9-10 if you count the MS-DOS games, which I don’t, and neither should you), and there has still been no substantial changes to the gameplay, and no major additions that will make any non-Mega Man fans turn their heads, which can be seen as the game’s biggest issue: it is kinda just there. Of course, for me and all the other big-time fans of this series out there, I don’t really mind this all too much, but again, for those who are not that big on Mega Man, then there is no reason to check out this title whatsoever, especially since it once again reuses Robot Masters and their stage themes, this time being from Mega Man 3 and 4. There are some other minor elements that did kind of bug me, such as the final stage being a little too long for my liking, as well as, again, the entirety of Dust Man’s stage, but ignoring those things, the repetition may be the thing that drags this game straight down into mediocrity for some people, even if it doesn’t bother me so much.
Overall, despite being yet another average Mega Man game in the classic series, I of course still had a really good time with this title, and I am glad that finally replayed after a long time since I originally beat it. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the Game Boy Mega Man games, or those who are big fans of Mega Man in general, but for everyone else, once again, there isn’t really that much that this game has going for it that you would wanna check out immediately. But anyway, since I have no joke to end this review with, I am just gonna go figure out how to achieve immortality now. See ya next time!
Game #346
As one would expect, this game changes practically nothing in terms of the main gameplay and formula of the series, but it does revert back to some of the same design choices from the original Game Boy game. So, of course, for those who didn’t really get into the other two Mega Man Game Boy games before this, then they most likely won’t have their minds changed by this game. Naturally though, you see the name, you see the profile picture: if it’s Mega Man, I’m probably gonna really like it, and that is no different here. While it may not change that much, this is still a pretty good entry in the series for the Game Boy, and one that I did have fun revisiting after what feels like a decade, even if it hasn’t been that long.
The story is, you guessed it, Dr. Wily being a dick, but this time he is using a machine to suck energy out of the Earth’s core, which admittedly is a much better plot then getting Future Mega Man to battle Past Mega Man (seriously, what was that), the graphics are Game Boy graphics, and they remain practically unchanged from the previous two games, which is to be expected, but it still looks good for what it is, the music is great, primarily being conversions of tracks from the NES games, but they still sound good on this system, the control is the exact same from the other games, so nothing to comment on there, and the gameplay is your typical classic Mega Man action, so if you were expecting anything more at this point, sorry to disappoint.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Mega Man once again, take on plenty of stages consisting of familiar locations and familiar faces to take down, defeat plenty of robotic enemies that will halt your progress through every waking moment, gather plenty of ammo, health, lives, and E-Tanks to aid you in your mission along the way, defeat the plenty of Robot Masters and other bosses that stand in your way, and gain access to their powers to use to your advantage. But of course, that is all stuff that you all have heard plenty of times before, so is there anything new about this game at all in comparison to the others? Well, yes, there is: the new Mega Man Killer, Punk, who has a pretty great design, and his weapon is pretty useful as well. And… that is it. So yeah, thanks for reading the revi-
Ignoring the lack of that much substantial new content in this entry, since this is being developed by the original team behind Dr. Wily’s Revenge instead of Thinking Rabbit, do they still know how to craft an enjoyable handheld romp for the blue bomber? Well, yeah, I’d say so. Like with Dr. Wily’s Revenge, and really most of the other Mega Man games, this game goes back to being pretty difficult, but based on what I had played, I didn’t find myself having too much of a hard time with it, with less instances of bullshit to be found… aside from one or two instances (fuck Dust Man’s stage), and they didn’t make the next Mega Man Killer stupid as hell, so that is also an improvement in my book. All around, it is clear that these guys are still very familiar with this character, this franchise, and how to make these games, so it is no wonder why they brought them back, and kept them around for several more installments to come after this.
But, with all that being said, we are now 8 entries into this franchise (9-10 if you count the MS-DOS games, which I don’t, and neither should you), and there has still been no substantial changes to the gameplay, and no major additions that will make any non-Mega Man fans turn their heads, which can be seen as the game’s biggest issue: it is kinda just there. Of course, for me and all the other big-time fans of this series out there, I don’t really mind this all too much, but again, for those who are not that big on Mega Man, then there is no reason to check out this title whatsoever, especially since it once again reuses Robot Masters and their stage themes, this time being from Mega Man 3 and 4. There are some other minor elements that did kind of bug me, such as the final stage being a little too long for my liking, as well as, again, the entirety of Dust Man’s stage, but ignoring those things, the repetition may be the thing that drags this game straight down into mediocrity for some people, even if it doesn’t bother me so much.
Overall, despite being yet another average Mega Man game in the classic series, I of course still had a really good time with this title, and I am glad that finally replayed after a long time since I originally beat it. I would recommend it for those who are fans of the Game Boy Mega Man games, or those who are big fans of Mega Man in general, but for everyone else, once again, there isn’t really that much that this game has going for it that you would wanna check out immediately. But anyway, since I have no joke to end this review with, I am just gonna go figure out how to achieve immortality now. See ya next time!
Game #346
UM DOS JOGOS MAIS CHATOS E MAIS IRRITANTES QUE JOGUEI NA MINHA
Decent for a Game Boy game