Retro Blog: Mega Man 3

Well, this is it. The best singleplayer game that I know of, and nostalgia, music and gameplay all had a role in that. After this Retro Blog I think that I will cool down with them, seeming that I have almost typed about every game where the nostalgia is strong for me. I think some articles where I b!tch about things is a refreshing path to take instead. On to the review now.

Spare me the Mega Man 2 versus Mega Man 3 discussions please. It is simply a matter of who grew up with what. I first played Mega Man (1987) before those two anyway. In my mind, Mega Man 2 is inferior, and a strong argument for that is because of the Doc Robots being available mainly in part 3, robots that mimick the movements of the Robot Masters from 2. A feature that pretty much was never seen again in any Mega Man game.

Anyway, where to start, as this epitome of classic gaming has so much to offer in greatness. The story goes that Dr.Wily has calmed down in here, and offers his intellect and abilities towards his former partner Dr.Light in order to create Gamma, apparently a peace keeping robot. While the good doctor's latest creations go berserk in several areas and mines, the Blue Bomber himself is asked to stop the attacks happening.

A mysterious red robot lurks in the dark, observing Mega Man while he is traversing the stages, utilizing the slide and a robot's best friend: Rush. This is where Dr.Wily's betrayal still mattered and that is why I like the story despite it's simplicity. 

The level design in here is the most unique seen yet, and that information goes along with the 3rd wave of Robot Masters. Many fundamental elements are missing here, and instead of that, we get odd bosses such as Gemini or Top Man. The gameplay has smoothly evolved, primarily for including the mighty slide.

The difficulty is about the same as part 2, but if you happen to know about the crazy cheats available for this title, then this is the easiest game in the series yet. I have never tried these cheats before, but I can imagine.

The game's length is easily the longest in the whole Classic series. As said, after defeating the regular 8 RM's, the 8 Doc Robots are next. A final encounter with Proto Man happens, and then Dr.Wily's huge fortress appears.

And last of all, the soundtrack is a masterpiece, even by Mega Man standards, which is already full of high quality. So much has been said about it already, such as the amazing opening, the overcoming get weapon theme, the mystifying electronic stage select, Top Man's beyond badass song and my personal favorite, Dr Wily Stage 3&4 Theme. That song embodies Dr.Wily's personality completely for me. His jealousy and rivalry will never go away. Dr.Wily Stage 3/4

If there's one moment in game history that I will remember forever, then it's the Dr.Wily stages from Mega Man 3 for me. Now the thing about those stages, it's the mood, the backgrounds and just the layout of them that has something special for me, it's really hard to tell.

Rating: 10.0, for being the most memorable and nostalgic game for me out there. It is the only 10 I have given towards a game so far, and I doubt that another 10 will come any time soon, as this rating goes beyond a game's greatest aspects and factors.

Last Played Games

Not a specific topic, but this time I am typing out 3 short reviews instead of 1 longer one.

Star Fox 2

That's right, Star Fox 2. Not everyone knows about this vaporware title, a prototype and pretty much full version of a sequel towards the original. I think the reason Nintendo did not release this impressive 3D game is that they feared that it could compete with their upcoming Ultra 64 somehow, but correct me if I'm wrong. For some amazing reason, Star Fox 2 is available to download somewhere on the internet now, or has been for a long while. I just felt the urge to grab this uncommon title, before the 3DS version of Star Fox 64 arrives.

What I got to play is just very cool, not only because of it's status. The framerate has improved, and the map system is actually more interesting because you've got to defend Corneria from Andross's forces!  Arguably also has a better soundtrack than the first game, more characters are introduced including Star Wolf's team for the first time and two exclusive Star Fox 2 characters. And, the higher difficulty you choose, the more there is to see in here! Beating the game on Normal took only like 20 minutes for me, but once you start on Hard or even Expert, the game will not hold back anymore.

Star Fox 2 also runs in semi real time as I have been informed, because while you may be blasting away in your Arwing or Landmaster on a certain mission, other enemies might be nearing Corneria or the Space Station guarding it and do mischievous things towards them. All Range Mode and Multiplayer Mode also make their debut here, as well as actual voice acting by the characters, but I only noticed this after defeating Andross.

It's a shame that this title was never officially released, as it probably is better than the 3 Star Fox games that came after Star Fox 64. I have yet to play Assault and Command thoroughly, but judging from the reviews, I wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking.

Gemini Rue

The latest return to point and click adventuring, Gemini Rue is a cyberpunk story about 2 main characters, one of them tries to escape, the other tries to find him.The gameplay is traditional and in addition to that, very accurate towards it's controls. It also has an engulfing storyline with nothing really feeling cheesy or bad about it at all. The atmosphere and the music helped a lot with that.

The voice acting is superb, and the controls such as being able to skip spoken sentences as well as walking moments is efficient. Getting through the game requires using your puzzling mind, but sometimes you even get to fight in shoot-outs, using some nifty but simple controls to kill the ones following you.

I haven't beaten Gemini Rue yet, but I am almost certain that the quality of the game will not fall down and thus it could very well be, one of the better point and click adventure games I have played, even if it got hypothetically released during the golden age of the p n' c adventure genre.

Streets of Rage Remake

This fangame has been available for a long time now, but only recently has the final version been released, and now the game is finally complete. Streets of Rage Remake is a great remake of all the 3 SoR games, blended into one huge beat em' up game, allowing the player to move through different courses in order to reach the evil Mr.X.

The fluent gameplay from those games has sped up in this remake, enabling for more chaotic fights than ever, not only because of it's speed, but also because of a bigger space of sprite input being available. Several new gameplay elements have also been implemented, such as riding bikes or wavejets.

All 6 SoR main characters are playable at the beginning, but this remake offers several more, if you have enough funds to buy them at the shop. The shop has a lot of things on sale, including cheats, handicaps, level skipping, characters and even a SoRmaker, making you able to create an own SoR based game.

The best thing next to the gameplay is the soundtrack itself, as it also was in the original three games. Here, they have all been remixed by various people, and some of them are just stunning and even an improvement over the originals.

If you really like beat em' up games, consider this remake, it is no doubt the ultimate Streets of Rage game at the moment.

The World of Cocktails

After my latest cocktailparty for my birthday, I thought it would be nice to insert my thoughts about cocktails, but also share two of my own creations.

In the past, I absolutely avoided alcohol, I never got into wine, champagne or beer and I still do not do so. Occassionaly though, I got my hands on a mixture of a drink: a cocktail. What a wonderful invention of drinks. Cocktails for me, happen to be far more interesting than single kinds of drinks, even if they are liquors for example.

There are thousands of different kinds of cocktails around, most of them are either poor, rip-offs or slightly altered versions of others. Thankfully there are also plenty of classic ones, but the most fun I have with them is either experimenting with the drinks for myself, or looking up, trying to find the oddest and strangest cocktails of the bunch. Like a honey cocktail for example.

I have listed two of my own creations below, and both of them have been a success during the party, great to know.

-Dark Matter-

2 oz of Amaretto
1 oz of Dark Rum
1 oz of Tia Maria
Mix, and fill it up with Coca-Cola

-Flocktail-

2 oz of Tequila (gold)
3 oz of pressed strawberries
3 oz of pressed kiwi's
2 oz of Orange Juice
2 oz of Cranberry Juice
1/4 of Lemon Juice

Well if you excuse me, I will look at some splendid instruction videos as to how to create certain kind of cocktails, and learn some more.