Mega Man X3

This game is the last US released SNES game in the entire Mega Man franchise. A lot of people don't like this game, or at the very least see it as a significant step down from X2. There are many legitimate complaints with this game, but I kind of like it.

There's less screenshots this time because I played this on my Wii, which I have no way of taking screenshots with. It'll be like this for a few games I review in the future, so I'll be grabbing screenshots where I can, gamespot, gamefaqs, etc. Anyway, on to the game.

This game was first released on the SNES, and then later to the Playstation and Sega Saturn. The next generation games featured some new animated sequences to the game, but not much else. Unless I find a re-release or port to have many significant differences worth dedicating an entire review to, I'll be skipping these.

New Features

• This is the first game where Zero is playable! Hooray!

Story
The game starts with explaining that the scientist Dr. Doppler had discovered the source of the maverick rebellion being linked to a virus. This virus was spread from Sigma to other reploids and other reploids to each other. Dr. Dopler invented a cure for this virus, and many reploids that were once Maverick were starting to settle down. The cured reploids build a city in Dr. Doppler's honor, and form a new utopia; it looked like a new golden age was finally happening.

But then that would be a boring game, so another maverick rebellion starts, and the Maverick Hunters determine that Dr. Doppler is the source of this rebellion. Before they can act, Dr. Doppler's forces attack the Maverick Hunter HQ. The game begins with X and Zero defending the base.

After defending the base, eight Mavericks spread through out the city and X and Zero go after them to take them down. Yes that's right! You can actually have Zero help you out for once! Doppler sends out some henchmen to deal with the Maverick Hunters, Bit and Byte, and a rebuilt and upgraded Vile. You can choose to deal with them early, or face them again in the Doppler levels. If you buster duel Bit and Byte, instead of using their weakness, they'll regroup at Doppler's level. Vile is completely avoidable until the Doppler levels if you want.

The three of them are destroyed eventually, and Dr. Cain finds out that Dr. Doppler is constructing some sort of battle body. However, Dr. Doppler cannot use this body, so he must be building it for someone else (guess who!?). It turns out Dr. Doppler was under the control of Sigma the entire time, and once X defeats him, he regains his senses and tells X he must defeat the Sigma's new body. X races to fight Sigma, while either Zero or Doppler go to face the incredibly dangerous power generator. Useless pricks... X faces Sigma and defeats him. Sigma occupies his "true form", the virus, and tries to posses X. X is corned when...

A split in the story happens here. During the game you have one life with Zero, if he is ever killed, he'll be getting repairs at the Maverick Hunter base for the rest of the game and Dr. Doppler will appear at the last second and sacrifice himself to stop Sigma.

If Zero is kept alive the whole game (i.e you never use him), he'll show up at the last second to steal X's thunder and slap Sigma down with his Z-Saber. This is the canon ending I think. Zero and X watch Doppler's fortress explode on a cliff side while X contemplates his depressing programing. Zero is probably thinking about how cool he looked killing Sigma. The games Narrative then says that in order for peace to ever be achieved, X must destroy Zero. When or why is yet to be answered (x5).

This is the stupidest thing; they started to foreshadow that they were leading to an encounter with X and Zero in X2, but X3 just comes out and says it. Nothing in game, besides a narrator, says that X must defeat Zero. A cool idea, made fucking lame by blatant exposition.

Aesthetics
X3 has some minor upgrades in graphics, as you would expect, but, the creativity is completely lost on this game. Almost all the levels take place in-doors, half of them in factories, and none of them make use of any special gimmicks of their bosses. Remember how, for example, Gravity Man's stage had Mega Man jumping between gravity floors? Remember how in Flame Mammoth's stage, it had a working smelting plant with crushers smashing old broken robots and lava everywhere? How about how Sting Chameleon's stage was out in the forest, or Wheel Gator's stage was a giant robo-crocodile?!

This game thinks those ideas were stupid I guess. 90% of this game is featureless room full of enemies or spikes or pits, followed by another featureless room full of enemies or spikes or pits. X3 is visually boring. The bosses are up to par, but the enemies are practically copied and pasted to each level. This game needed a zap of creativity, it can't be said enough.

Sound
People hate the music in this game, particularly Neon Tiger's stage. Compared to X and X2, it is behind the bar for sure, and it is undeniable how this game starts the trend of busting out the electric guitars, and making the series go metal. Who knew a game about robots would work with metal?

Some stages and sections do apply this well. Gravity Beetle's music is pretty good, and Vile's boss fight music kicks ass. If you do hate the music in this game though, try to get a hold of the arranged mixes by Capcom, they're much better. Even Neon Tiger's music is applied a lot better. Too bad the SNES isn't capable of handling audio like that.

Design
As stated before, this game has some boring looking levels, and none of them apply decent stage gimmicks either. If you like the base game play of Mega Man, without it really testing you one way or the other, this is the game for you. The boss fights are much easier than X2, because their attack patterns aren't varied at all. Projectile, charge, projectile, charge. They are definitely not inspired designs. Even Sigma is comparably easier than previous incarnations, he's just made stupid tedious by this really small hit box.

The item collecting in this game is a bit better at helping the player though. Yes, more backtracking is required, but for some reason I find the inclusion of the new helmet part that gives you a map of the area and tells you what items you miss, makes this much more reasonable. For someone who likes to 100% games when I play them, this is a nice touch and I never have much trouble remembering what to do when playing this one, as opposed to X2, which I always forget every fucking step.

Not that some of them aren't as obscure as shit. I'm just more used to the stuff in this game. I can't be an apologist to this game, and you yourself may not like it, but I have my total irrational reasons.

Also, the weapons, not only completely useless (except Ray Slasher), but two of the weapons are exact copies of each other. Frost Shield and Tornado Fang operate the exact same way. Was this intentional? Did you just not give a shit Capcom? It's one thing to make weapons completely useless, but having them all do the same shit? Ugh...

Playability
Dashing in mid air is more less finicky than before. Otherwise, the game plays just as good as the others.

Extras

• Boss Order: I start with Blizzard Buffalo to get the air dash. Next hit Toxic Seahorse, then Tunnel Rhino. From there, go to Neon Tiger to get the X-Buster upgrade. Neon Tiger is really easy with uncharged buster shots. Take on Gravity Beetle, then Blast Hornet, Volt Catfish and Crush Crawfish. After that, you should have some backtracking to do if you want 100% but you won't have a problem with the bosses.
• This game features Pink upgrade capsules that will upgrade one, and only one, extra part of your armor upgrades. If you collect all 100% of the other items however, you can get a special hidden capsule in Doppler 1 that will give you all the upgrades.
• If you use Zero for a mini boss fight in Doppler 2, he'll get hit after the fight, and it will give you the bad ending of the game, but X will get to use Zero's Z-Saber, so it's a good trade off.
• Ray Slasher will mow down mini bosses like no one's business if you get close enough for each shot to hit. Remember, mini-bosses don't have an invincibility period.

Even though people don't like this game as much as the others it's alright. I like it better than X2, I guess just because I can remember it better, but this is not a popular opinion. Many people agree that the PSX series really takes it downhill, but I love those games. Despite how stupid it lays out there, the thought of X and Zero facing off for a real final show down is incredibly intriguing and leaves the game off on an interesting note. The SNES version is also a rare find, so if you see it, pick it up.

Playthroughs
Mega Man X3: By The Let's Play All-Star team! (there's 8 of us) by A Bunch of Goons
Speed Run by Mike Uyama
X1-X3 No Dash, Minimalist Run by HideofBeast