In anticipation of Halo 3, I thought it might be a hoot to look back on other highly anticipated gaming 3's from the past, and the effect they had on that paticular game series and the world of gaming in general. First up, Mega Man 3.

"I knew that if we had more time to polish it, we could do a lot of things better, make it a better game, but the company (Capcom) said that we needed to release it. The whole environment behind what went into the production of the game is what I least favored. Numbers one and two - I really wanted to make the games; I was so excited about them. Number three - it just turned very different." Keiji Inafune on Mega Man 3, Nintendo Power Oct 2007



For those who weren't there, I can tell you that in 1990 Mega Man was a big deal. Mega Man 2 was a huge suprize hit,more than meeting the expectations of fans of the original game an bringing in millions of new fans. Thanks to Mega Man 2, Mega Man made it onto popular saturday morning cartoon show back when only the most well know video game characters made it to TV. Mega Man was a rising star poised for greatness. And thanks to Mega Man 3, it all went to shit (more or less).

I could go on and on about Mega Man 3 and how much of a let down it was. It was so bad at times that when I first got it at age 12, I thought the game was a bad dream and that I was going to wake up at any time. I just couldn't believe that it was that corny. Sure both Mega Man 1 and 2 had some bosses that was a little on the weak side, but over all both games were amazing. And here we had the third in the series, promising to be the best yet, and what do we get? Hard Man? Top Man? Gemini Man? What the hell is a Gemini Man? And why is his stage filled with giant tadpoles, pengiuns and robo fish?

What the hell happend?

Why does Top Man grow so much Marajuana?



Mega Man 2 is considered by many to be one of the greatest platformers of all time. The bosses were all cool, the stages fit the bosses perfectly (Quick Man's being paticularly amazing), the music fit the stages perfectly, and the weapons and power ups were all unique, well designed, and important to game play. Mega Man 3 changed all that. Bosses were lame illogical messes, the stages and the bosses were often totally mis matched (Top Man = Green House, Gemini Man = Outer Space with tadpoles, Hard Man = Rocky zone, Shadow Man = lava time) the weapons seemed like lame rip offs of previous weapons or were more or less useless. The music was good at times, but no where near up to previously set standards. But most of all, there was nothing new there. You could slide, you had a dog and an evil brother, but over all it was just Mega Man 2 again, but worse. And there was no excuse for it, other than they pooped the game out to make money.

Inafune has stated many times that he had greater plans for the game, but was forced to rush it out. He even had better bosses planned. Here are a few that I found on these internets. These are from Inafune's sketchbook. The don't have names, but I call them...



Devil-Man




And Gas Man. Not bad ideas, and for my money much better than Hard Man or Top Man.


Worse still, I personally believe that Mega Man 3 started Capcom on the buisness practice of establishing a series with one or two great games (Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Mega Man, some would even say Devil May Cry and Onimusha) then flooding the world with quickly produced sequels at a rapid fire pace that are bound to both turn a profit in the short term, but in the long term kill the series at the same time.

Mega Man has managed to re-invent and redeem himself a few times over the course of his carerr. Mega Man X worked as a re-invention for a few games, as did the Battle Network series. But they are the exceptions. I would say at least half of the total Mega Man games produced are crap. Same thing happened to Sonic. It's just so sad.

Bungie did not make this mistake with Halo 3. They have clearly taken the time to make sure that Halo 3 looks and plays great. They haven't drowned us with Halo spin offs and psuedo-sequels in the time between Halo 2 and Halo 3. But will Halo 3 add enough to warrant the time it's take to make it? I know that the millions of die hard Halo fans are bound to make the game a success, but will it only cater to those pre-existing fans o fthe series as Mega Man 3 did for Mega Man fans in 1990, or will it draw in new fans as Mega Man 2 did in 1989?

Time will tell.

But for now, let us remember the uglyness that was Mega Man 3, and pledge to do whatever we can to keep this sort of abomination from being born again.



Tomorrow, the under appreciated, often unknown super classis, the anti Mega Man 3 known only as... Street Fighter 3.