Angel_Arle Rockman reviews
Part 1: Rockman for Famicom
Part 2: Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo 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 8: Rockman World 3 for GB
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

Huh, it’s been a while hasn’t it? Sorry about that, originally I wasn't gonna continue these reviews but ever since doing the Blaster Master games, I’ve been enjoying writing again so I’m back here again. Now we have Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? (translated as Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!?). This one is notable for having a rough development cycle as the game wasn’t even fully complete when released. Despite that, I know a lot of people really like this one, saying it’s up there with 2. I did like 2 more when I did that review so let’s see if that holds true for Rockman 3.

Rockman 3 follows a similar follow to the previous game where you fight 8 robot masters in any order you choose. For the opponents you gotta face this time around you’ll have Spark Man, Snake Man, Needle Man, Hard Man, Top Man, Gemini Man, Magnet Man, and Shadow Man. These guys were built together by Right and Wily. All of them were in charge of mining until they went haywire! They hold energy that is needed to help make a robot named Gamma to protect the peace of humanity. Rockman is then up and ready to face them and save the human race one more. Rockman also has a new robot dog named Rush and he will be helping you out. A new guy has also joined the fray but his identity is currently unknown!

Even with this being the third time around, the developers are still finding new improvements to the controls. You now can finally climb ladders fast which is a blessing! Though we now have the introduction of a new move called the slide. If you hold down and press jump then Rockman can use a swift slide useful for dodging or going through 1 block tall pathways. Never really checked to see what people think of this move but I love the slide. It gives you a great mobility tool and while sliding into areas isn’t the most creatively done in this game, it’s still fun to use in many areas. You can also cancel this move out with various methods which is also nice. Just keep in mind you can’t shoot during a slide.

I hate to say it but the stage design in this one is a little iffy for me. There are some cool levels here like Magnet Man having magnet themed enemies and even magnet hazards combined with those evil appearing blocks. I love the snake theme of Snake Man’s stage though the level later becomes this sky level in the last quarter of it. Don’t get me wrong, there are fun levels but some of them just don’t feel made with the boss in mind. Why does Hard Man have a generic rocky level with enemies like bees and monkeys? Why does Top Man’s stage just look so generic and boring? Why is there even a cat mini boss!? There’s also Gemini Man’s stage that while has cool ideas, goes on too long for me personally. It’s such a weird thought to have about this section, my mind makes me think 2 did some of this better, I think it really shows how good Capcom can be where the gameplay can be enjoyable even if the levels aren’t perfect. They are also a lot easier but they do feel more balanced compared to 2 so I will give the game that. If you want to know the order I did it was: Magnet -> Hard -> Snake -> Top -> Shadow -> Gemini -> Needle -> Spark. It helps you now can hold up to 9 E-tanks and there’s even these ?-tanks that can give a random pickup goody for your excited self. Overall it’s not bad but there could be improvements.

Once again it’s time to tell you how the robot masters fight. Spark Man likes to hop around and shoot many small sparks along with a giant one aimed straight at you so don’t get too close all the time. Snake Man is pretty easy as he moves left and right occasionally shooting small snakes. Just be careful not to take contact damage from him, he hurts like hell! Needle Man has always been tricky for me. He likes to shoot needles in the air and extend his spiky head at you for good damage, you’re gonna have to be fast with your reactions on this one. Hard Man uses his hard knuckles to track you and then body slam on you. It’s so strong it stuns you no matter what but he sadly can’t capitalize on the situation, what an idiot. Top Man is really easy. He throws tops, slide out of the way. He spins and it’s basically that Heat Man dash all over again. Rinse and repeat! Gemini Man splits himself into two giving him speed and coverage but sadly they only have half a health bar each meaning he’s a lot easier when alone. Magnet Man uses magnets to home in on you and also uses his magnetic pull to pull you in and do massive contact damage. Finally we got Shadow Man who likes to throw shadow blades and he’s got a lot of agility. Once you get his jump and slide patterns down, you should be able to stand a chance. Overall they’re mostly good fights though they do this weird thing where there’s two different weakness chains. Thankfully it was never brought back because I was never too big of a fan of it.

Now for the obligatory special weapon discussion! Spark Shot from Spark Man is horrible! In fact it’s somehow worse than Bubble Lead, how do you even do that? It’s like Ice Slasher if it was terrible. You can’t pause to use another weapon when an enemy is stunned and you can’t even walk past them. Just never use this outside of boss weaknesses. Search Snake from Snake Man is a good weapon that covers the ground pretty well with 3 out at max and with good speed. I also like how they hop out of your cannon making it good for enemies just right above you like the Mechakkeros. Needle Cannon from Needle Man is useless...if you have a turbo fire controller. The weapon is literally just a turbo fire plasma cannon. No enemy is weak to the move so only use it if you have nothing better to use. Hard Knuckle from Hard Man is a good power weapon. It’s like if Clash Bomb had amazing power. Great for enemies like Hammer Joes or the mini bosses. It can also break down barriers but sadly they are barely used in the game. Top spin from Top Man is really bad. Guys I tried to find uses for it but the only enemies I can kill well with it are the Penpens and the Returning Monking. This move would be great if it could hit most flying enemies but it just ends up getting you hurt, it’s obnoxious. What’s worse is the move is buggy because if you hit an enemy with it when they’re invulnerable to it or have i-frames, it loses a unit every frame. Gemini Laser from Gemini Man is bad too unfortunately. It’s just not a weapon I really ever feel like using. I can only think of two enemies I use it on, which are Giant Springer and Hari Harry. It can bounce off walls and even split apart but the fact you can’t pause or shoot more than one makes you a sitting duck. The ammo count on it isn’t all that great either. Magnet Missile from Magnet Man is alright. It homes in on enemies when it meets vertically. It sounds great but I never feel like it’s what I really need in most sections. Maybe I’m underrating its value? I’m also not a fan of its ammo count either. Shadow Blade from Shadow Man is really good even if it’s basically a nerfed Metal Blade. Its directions to be thrown in are limited and it now comes back to you instead of flying all the way. It’s still very strong and versatile so don’t wait to get it too late in your playthrough. While the weapon balancing still isn’t that good, I think it’s still better than 2 just because of lack of an overpowered weapon.

I also now wanna bring attention to our new companion Rush. You get him as you begin the game with his one ability the Rush Coil. Just jump on his back spring and you’ll soar high! It’s good for reaching areas you can’t normally reach or for escaping or even defeating enemies. If you beat Shadow Man, you get Rush Marine. It lets you drive around in water and also shoot. Sadly it barely gets much use so don’t feel too bad if you get this late in your playthrough. Lastly there is Rush Jet which you get by defeating Needle Man. It lets you fly anywhere you want. It is busted like really busted. It not only loses energy only when you’re standing on it meaning jumping a lot makes it barely lose anything but it also follows you anywhere as long as a wall isn’t in the way. It’s so good that you may want to finish Needle Man if you want it early. Though just because I’m nice, I’ll give you a glitch tip! Beat Shadow Man, find a weapon refill item, go to the pause menu and hover Shadow Blade and then press right. If you did it right you’ll be able to select Rush Jet despite not unlocking it yet though it will start at 0 energy so that’s why you wanna refill it. Once you’ve used it on the stage then you have it forever.

Alright so we have now done everything. Let's go home and watch Soccer with Roll-wait. Why are there now 4 stages open with the same picture? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Skull Robot section. You now must repeat 4 previous stages that are now harder along with fighting the Skull Robot. There’s 8 of them and they have the attacks of the robot masters from Rockman 2. The one upside is they’re all weak to two of your weapons so keep that in mind. I’ll be honest, I used to hate these so much. I would even skip them with a password but after playing them for the review, they aren’t as bad as I used to think. I do think the way they executed it though could be better. Hmm something is off though, skull robots? The robot masters that Wily built. Guess we’ll have to think about it later.

Well anyway you got those done, time for the Socc-Ok what now?! Oh it’s some guy named Break Man. Ohhh right I forgot about this. So earlier in the game you can fight this red robot in three different stages. He’s pretty easy as he just jumps and shoots back and forth. If you get far away from him then he will just stop jumping and shooting. He’s also weak to 5 of the special weapons though you won’t need them. He does oddly help you in Gemini Man’s stage though. Well he’s the final boss and guess what he’s stronger than ever and by that I mean only the plasma cannon now works on him. Oh the horror! Anyway he retreats and I guess we’re done here and-wait a second. Dr. Right informs Rockman that Wily ran away with Gamma! That means, WILY BETRAYED USSS!!!

Okay okay we now have to do the Castle stages. Well you won’t have to worry about these ones because they are hilariously easy. Easy pickups everywhere and barely any challenging platforming. There really isn’t much to say here if I’m being honest. The stages aren’t even long and now there’s only three actual stages. Even the bosses aren’t that challenging. The first is the Kamegoro Maker which sends easy to kill robot turtles that die in one hit to Shadow Blade. The Yellow Devil MK-II may sound difficult but you have E-tanks and the fight is faster and it feels like it dies quickly to Hard Knuckle. The Holographic Rockmans have only one that can get hit but it’s pretty much over once you find it and spam Search Snake. You then have the rematch with the robot masters because it sure is a tradition now and you’ll find out they’re all weak to their own weapon, wait what-and then you fight Wily Machine 3 where it dies very quickly to Spark Shot and then you use Rush Jet, spam your plasma cannon and then you win. Then you find out it was a fake Wily and now it’s time for the final boss. You fight Wily with Gamma under his control and they not only give you way too much before the fight but the first phase is over in seconds thanks to Shadow Blade and he hilariously dies in one hit afterwards to Top spin! That’s it, the game is over! This is such a bad final act of the game. What happened?? Once again Wily begs for forgiveness but the area begins to break apart with crumbling debris hurting Wily and Rockman. A mysterious figure saves Rockman but the whereabouts of Wily are unknown. Once Rockman wakes up, we learn the person who saved him and the guy we fought multiple times was a robot made by Dr. Right even before Rock was born. His name is Blues and the game ends here. I’m sure this time Rockman won’t have to worry about any annoyances anytime soon.

The presentation in Rockman 3 still holds strong like it did in Rockman 2. There’s some nice looking areas like Snake Man and Gemini Man’s stage visuals. I do think the stage visuals for some can look a bit bland but when it’s good, it’s really good! Otherwise I don’t really have much to complain about as stuff like the sprites are still very good. There is some slowdown and sprite flicker at times but idk that’s never really annoyed me to be honest. The music is also still amazing as ever. In fact I’d argue it goes up to par with Rockman 2 at times. I love stage themes like Spark Man, Top Man, Magnet Man, and Wily Stage 2. Big shoutouts to the title screen theme, probably my favorite in the franchise. I love the slow feel it has in the beginning and then goes into this fast exciting track making you ready to play and it always loops at this part to let you know you can do it. The ending and credits theme also sound really good though it’s a shame we don’t get to hear all of the ending music in the actual game.

Rockman 3 in ways is a good game but it is such a shame it never got fully finished. There’s a very good game hidden in here but I find it inferior to Rockman 2. I still do enjoy the game, in fact I like it more than I used to. The gameplay is still solid and it’s fun. To me, I see potential in it but we’ll never really know what they had fully planned. It introduced some iconic characters for the series and the slide move is a great executed new move but I’m just gonna have to hope the next game will improve on what is done here. Though we won’t be heading to the Famicom again just yet. We are making a detour with Rockman World for the Game Boy. Hopefully next time I won’t take another 4 months.