(Originally published to Glitchwave on 5/15/2024)
[Image from igdb.com]
Mega Man X3
Developer: Capcom, Minakuchi Engineering
Publisher: Capcom
Genre(s): 2D Platformer
Platforms: SNES
Release Date: December 1, 1995
Mega Man X3’s story arc pertains to X (and Zero) stopping the evil deeds of a new Sigma disciple. However, he was previously a benevolent man of scientific discovery like Dr. Cain and Dr. Light before him. Dr. Doppler, the supposed radical lunatic in question, postulates that the defiant, homicidal nature of the Mavericks isn’t due to a lack of direction, human mistreatment, or listening to Sigma’s resistance dogma in their formative years. Using his gifted scientific mind, Dr. Doppler creates some sort of robotic antidote to pacify the Mavericks as if it were merely a viral corruption in their circuitry. Dr. Doppler’s feats of scientific progress usher in the futuristic utopia that Dr. Cain had envisioned, and they’ve even erected a city called “Doppler Town” to commemorate his accomplishments. However, this far-fetched halcyon scenario is quickly dispatched when eight reploids, the requisite and totally coincidental number of hostile bosses for a Mega Man game, revert to their Maverick status once again and Dr. Doppler is instead fingered as the culprit for what is figured to be an intentional malfunction on his part. Sigma’s Maverick manifesto may mirror many science fiction stories revolving around the sentient autonomy of humanoid robots with artificial intelligence, but at least the themes are still rousing enough to be reused to great effect. Chalking the primary conflict of the series up to an infectious bug in the matrix that seems accidental just strips the narrative of its substance.
So yes, X is hitting the pavement once again to nip the new Maverick menace in the bud before it spreads. What selection of exotic, automaton animals have the developers chosen to represent as the pinnacle challenges of each level? Upon glancing at the menu, we have little clue because there are no descriptions of any of these Mavericks. All we see is four Mavericks aligned across the top and bottom of the screen per usual with a headshot and a still image of their domain. Not even the names of these burly robotic creatures are given. I can only surmise that this is a developer error and an inexcusable one at that. C’mon guys, even the vestigial first mainline Mega Man game at least provided the names of the Robot Masters in the menu! At this point, the stages of the X games are beginning to reuse topographical tropes we’ve already seen in the previous titles. Tunnel Rhino resides in another mine-oriented level buried deep in the underground trenches of the Earth, and the mud spurting from its pores will ensnare X into its viscosity like quicksand. Blizzard Buffalo’s stage is another frosty one but with an artificial cyclone machine exacerbating the turbulent winter overhead as an interesting new gimmick. Surges of electricity shimmy alongside the walls of Volt Catfish’s stage as recurring obstacles, and the “water” stage one would anticipate from Toxic Seahorse is more akin to the gunky sewage of a treatment plant. One would probably expect the two Mavericks designed after bugs to buzz around a humid, untamed jungle area similar to Neon Tiger, but Blast Hornet and Gravity Beetle are located in what appears to be a military complex and airship respectively. At least the submarine stage where X fights Crush Crawfish is somewhat water-oriented, even though it's highly improbable that anyone will find the strictly freshwater crustaceans in the vast, saltwater habitat of the ocean. Nitpicks about the themes surrounding these Mavericks aside, what is actually worth griping about is that several of the stages include plenty of fatal sections such as bottomless pits and beds of spikes at the end of falling that the player cannot anticipate unless they are psychic. These blindspots haven’t marred any Mega Man game since the very first one in 1987, and they’re just as unfair and poorly placed here as they were way back then.
The collective arsenal X can accumulate from the charred remains of the Mavericks are really nothing of note. The “Tornado Fang” and “Frost Shield” penetrate the armor of foes by drilling into their internal wires for double damage. The “Ray Splasher” trickles a flurry of bullets for a few seconds, and Toxic Seahorse’s “Acid Bubble” will corrode the metal right off of enemies once X gingerly plops it out of his arm cannon. The “Gravity Well” and “Parasitic Bomb” effectiveness seems entirely situational, and the “Triad Thunder” is insufficient as a close-ranged weapon and undependable as a long-ranged projectile. The weapon I found to be the most effective blaster substitute was the powerful, dual-wield “Spinning Blade,” but it expends more energy than a clunky air conditioner. If my summary of the boss weapons sounds curt, it's because I’d rather discuss another alternating array of firepower that X3 incorporates. By now, I’m sure every returning player is familiar with the mechs that X can pilot for a short period on the field, caving in cracked corners of land and the faces of enemies with its kinetic punches. In X3, X cannot jack an idle mech or violently take one from an enemy by force. Instead, the mech is summoned from one of the circular podiums littered throughout the levels. X is given the choice of selecting four different mechs with their own unique attributes. The Chimera module is the standard one featured in X with the aforementioned pension for fisticuffs, the Kangaroo module is similar to the one from X2 equipped with a charged attack, the Hawk module borrows the flight function from X2’s mech with rocket arms to boot, and the Frog module is strictly for underwater traversal. Having four flavors of the mech at X’s disposal to boost his offensive and defensive attributes sounds incredibly exciting and convenient on paper. However, the restrictions on this privilege damper its fun factor severely. Firstly, X has to unlock every one of the different mechs by scrounging around the hidden corners of the levels like any other upgrade. Even if X locates three out of four of them, they won’t be available to use until X finds the Chimera module dangling from an elusive room off the beaten path of Blast Hornet’s level. Why does this mech have higher precedence over the others when they all have their own vital utility? In addition, the platforms where a mech is materialized seem to be located in spots where it’s inappropriate to use them. I began to stop bothering with these mechs altogether because using them is sadly burdensome when it should’ve been a highlight of the game.
Unfortunately, the developer’s questionable methods extend to other upgrades found in the game. Remember when finding the energy heart units in the first Mega Man X was just a matter of slightly verging off the intended trajectory? X2 presented a few out-of-reach upgrades locked behind an additional step of using a Maverick’s weapon from another stage, but X3 increased the circuity of obtaining upgrades to the point of overload. For example, one heart unit is located behind a boulder suspended from the ceiling in Tunnel Rhino’s stage, and grabbing it requires both another boss weapon and one of the armor upgrades attached to a specific part of X’s body. Hardly any of the upgrades in X3 are acquired through honest attention on the player’s part. While we’re on the subject of the armor upgrades, X3 tweaks the defensive component of X’s progressive growth into something else that the developers didn’t entirely think through. As usual, armor enhancements are obtained by finding the body-sized capsules in the same obscured corners as the other upgrades. There’s one for each major piece of X’s exterior anatomy, and they all range heavily in opposite spectrums of usefulness. The body upgrade that cuts X’s damage input in half is a given, but the only other new factor of the armor upgrades I appreciate are the vertical leaps granted by the leg armor. Obtaining the helmet upgrade will begin each level with X scanning the layout of the stage and displaying it on a crudely rendered blocked map of the level that indicates where the remaining upgrades are located. This would’ve been a helpful feature only if there was another blipping dot of a different color on the map signifying X’s location in relation to the upgrade. The blaster upgrade is supposed to enhance the magnitude of the charge shot, but the upgrade in X3 rather generates a lopsided beam that sluggishly shoots in whatever direction it damn well pleases. In addition to these, the base upgrades can be augmented even further with the color-swapped pink capsules that insert a chip into the specific piece of armor to increase its effectiveness. Strangely enough, the player can abstain from collecting any of the chips which will reward them with a golden-plated suit of armor with all upgrades attached. Why would the player knowingly pursue the other upgrades beforehand if they were aware that they would come as a package deal by the end? The developers should’ve offered one pink capsule including the golden armor for the player’s efforts to gather up all of the armor upgrades. Actually, scratch that: I advise everyone reading this to forgo the shiny upgrade conglomerate to preserve the practicality of the charge shot.
X3 continues X2’s new trend of secret bosses sporadically interspersed between the levels. I’m glad that not catching the subtle clues of their appearances no longer has permanent, penalizing effects. However, it’s the additional bosses themselves that feel shoehorned in to continue this trend. Dr. Doppler is feeling a tad paranoid to X zeroing in on his location, so he sics two of his specialized henchmen goons called Bit and Byte to dispose of the blue Maverick hunter. While intended to be intimidating, the duo dynamic of these two cronies reminds me less of robotic Vincent and Jules and more of Badger and Skinny Pete. They’re entirely worthless. Meanwhile, one section beneath Crush Crawfish’s stage teleports X to a pathway to a spacious arena where he fights an uncanny apparition of Vile exactly as he did at the first climactic stretch to Sigma in the first game. Despite how irrelevant these supplementary bosses seem initially, vanquishing them somehow has some consequential weight to the remainder of the game. Instead of facing off against the tusked Press Disposer and the abstract Volt Kurageil mech, X will swap their encounters on the way up to Dr. Doppler to fight an unholy fusion of Bit and Byte called the “Godkarmachine O Inary” and Vile for the umpteenth time. However, the player’s completionist pension will not affect the final two bosses of Dr. Doppler and Sigma. Yes, Sigma’s influence still resonates strongly with the corrupted reploids. Except in this context, he exists as the computer virus that has been infecting the Mavericks, and not in a metaphorical manner of spewing anti-organic life rhetoric like a revolutionary propagandist. After X forces Doppler to face the errors of his ways through a swift beating, he tackles a tangible, lifelike version of Sigma in two phases that prove to be far more tense and demanding than the unpolished wireframe head seen in X2. The second phase is especially taxing if the player has inadvertently buggered their charge shot with its upgrade. After an exhausting duel, Sigma reverts to his rudimentary digital self to pull one more trick on X: flooding the arena with ascending lava to literally burn off the last slivers of his health before Zero swoops in and slices him in half of his saber. Excuse me, Sigma, but you’re not allowed to pull a stunt like this unless you are the pinnacle boss of a Metroid game. No, I’m not mad because it killed me unexpectedly (okay, reasonably a little).
Mega Man X3 is a predictable continuation of what the first X game established to advance the Mega Man formula. It expands on what the second X game introduced, albeit all of its aspects that I wasn’t particularly fond of, and makes them reasonably more manageable such as the loosened importance of the additional bosses. Besides the reinstated assets it carries over, the distinctive changes it makes are so bewildering it is as if the developers failed to test the game before releasing it. I’m still scratching my head as to why X can’t freely use the mechs he unlocks, the menu doesn’t list the names of the Mavericks, and so many more to list that I’m frankly appalled. It feels reactionary to assign Mega Man X3 the status of the nadir of the franchise. Still, it’s certainly the most flawed and irritating Mega Man game I’ve played thus far.
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