Ok, I’m back with Mega Man III. This one is a reinterpretation of Mega Man 3 - including remixed stages and battles against Snake Man, Shadow Man, Spark Man, and Gemini Man. I found like in Mega Man 3, you often rely upon the charged shots with the occasional use of Shadow Man’s blade to his the diagonal shots, oh and Spark Man’s power does paralyse foes!

These four stages are followed by a set of Mega Man 4 bosses - Dive Man, Drill Man, Skull Man, and Dust Man. I’m less familiar with these bosses and their stages, the general criticism of previous games stands. I found I didn’t use many of the powers on offer here. Skull and Dust Man’s powers are absolutely useless. Drill Man can be used to destroy some walls… that’s about it.

Most bosses rely on using the P Shooter and Wily’s second form can only be damaged with the new power from a guy called Punk. It’s a fun little game of getting close enough to lob a ball at Wily while avoiding being hit.

The quality is definitely better than II, but I don’t know… I feel as though I half prefer Wily’s Revenge somewhat? III is clearly a more polished game but the devs love putting chasms directly underneath a ceiling requiring some precise placement so Mega Man can jump against the ceiling, it felt needlessly annoying and unnecessary.

I think a good Mega Man would let you use the full pocket knife not just the bottle opener. Rush Jet just exists? I maybe used it once.

Anyways, despite the guff I give Mega Man III. I feel it’s a 8/10 Pea Green Game Boy era game.

Kaeru No Tame ni Kane wa… came out on NSO Japan recently. It’s always been a point of interest to me as a game somewhat related to Zelda. The talk is this engine was refined to make Link’s Awakening and Richard (a rival Prince) cameos in LA as well.

While I think the engine probably has some origins here, the game itself differs heavily.

It’s odd having a Nintendo game with a storyline beyond generalised setting. Prince Sable and Prince Richard are rivals, Richard is better than Prince Sable in every way. When Richard is called upon to save Princess Tiramisu in a foreign land, the protagonist Prince Sable chases after him in order to one up him and be the hero.

While there is an overhead perspective like in old school Zelda, towns to explore and bushes to chop down with old men hidden below to congratulate you and offer up rewards. The game differs firstly in its combat, which has similarities to Ys.

When you walk into foes, the protagonist and foe fight in a comical cloud which may as well have pow and wham onomatopoeia bursting from it. On the bottom left you see the damage dealt and taken… in the form of hearts like Zelda.

Dungeons operate differently to the overworld, featuring side-scroller platforming with puzzle elements. It skews towards Metroid, however dungeons are more linear in design with some branching paths. Maybe more Zelda II in design? it even takes cues down to levelling up skills like Health, Strength, Agility (number of attacks). Buying or attaining upgrades like shields and swords further bolster your defences and offensive capability.

A minor early twist is getting cursed by a witch and gaining new found abilities to shift between animal forms. Prince Sable can change into a frog when he hits water, enabling a higher jump and water travel. Eat a snake egg and become a snake which allows movement into tight spaces, and the ability to turn weaker foes into blocks. Eat an apple to return to human form, allowing you to battle foes easily and move blocks. All of these forms works in tandem, sorta like a Monster World game.

Full exploration is necessary to advance, major battles hinge on a single life point. Knowing you’ve done the full set of exploration, collected the weapons, and upgrades is super satisfying and the story does move places.

I’m looking forward to clearing this, the fact that I played like an hour and was able to write this much, general impression wise is a good indication.

I’ve just beaten Mega Man II in a single sitting just over an hour’s playtime. It follows the same formula of Wily’s Revenge. You get to choose from 4 Robot Master stages from MM2 (Crash Man, Metal Man, Wood Man and Air Man), also in the mix are the Rush Coil, Jet and Marine. Metal Saw is OP in this, I initially had fun with the Air Shooter at first, Crash Man’s weapon is incredibly finite… all of them are useless when you reach Wily Stages.

The Wily Stages introduce the next four Robot Masters from 3, this time they each have a short stage before their boss fights. Top Man, Needle Man, Magnet Man and Hard Man. Ultimately you might use the MM2 powers initially, but once you figure out the weakness system it’s much easier to exploit each boss using the respective weakness.

I found much like in Dr Wily’s Revenge the weapons are really useless beyond their use against Robot Masters, the final Wily Stage doesn’t drop enough energy for you to use each power more than a few times each, forcing you to really optimise each weapon’s use. However, the game can be cheesed, at times I found taking damage and bolting through some rooms easier than actually engaging foes.

The Wily Stages have sections that can be easily navigated with the Rush power-ups leaving more difficult paths unchartered, it leaves the option open for a more difficult pathway for some form of honour. I’m playing all of these over a King’s Birthday weekend so the less time the better.

The new boss Quint is sorta funny, he looks like Mega Man or Proto Man and rides a Pogo Stick, which is the only weapon strong against Dr. Wily. I half think the reason there are so many E Tanks present in the game is so you can use them in the final Wily fight because only the P Shooter can damage Wily.

Overall, I think it’s easier than Dr Wily’s Revenge, but has a lot of general balance issues. I’ve read reviews To say this is a “bad game” is a poor statement, it’s a serviceable Mega Man on the Game Boy, however there are other options. Some preliminary research brought up this blog which details more of the feeling of what is missing compared to other Mega Man games. https://gameboyessentials.com/articles/dmg-w2

Edit: I forgot to talk about the music, some notes are pitched maybe octaves higher than they should be? Somethings up with the ost.