As good as it was, Rockman 3 for me will always be overshadowed by Rockman 2 because 3 was released mostly unfinished.
What's that you ask? Rockman 3 is....unfinished? Well, okay, maybe a poor choice of words. I'm partially correct by saying that 3 is unfinished. It was finished of course, but its development period was rapidly hurried due to pressure from Capcom on series creator Keiji Inafune and his staff to get the next title finished quickly and onto the market. By then it was 1990, the Famicom was in the peak of its prime, and Rockman 2 was hugely successful in both Japan and overseas.
To Inafune, the success of Rockman 2 had deep personal meaning as he has said over the years in recollection that Rockman 2 was the game he was able to implement everything that he was going for - including all the characters he wanted, all the levels, all the new gameplay, everything was as he envisioned. For this reason, he has stated several times in interviews that Rockman 2 is his favorite Rockman game of all.
The sequel, Rockman 3 was released shortly then after. Inafune considers Rockman 3 as one of his least favorite Rockman games. From an interview with Nintendo Power in the October 2007 issue, Inafune explained the reason why is because of "...what went into the game and what was behind the release of the game." He also stated that he was forced to put the game out before he thought it was ready and during the game's production, the developers lost the main planner, so Inafune had to take over that job for completing the game. Inafune concluded, "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."
This explains why Rockman 3 is missing many key elements that it should have. Not only did the game's code not have the proper debugging opportunities other games did, there were many many scrapped beta ideas for 3, some of which are still inside the game as unused code, such as an animation sequence of Breakman revealing himself to be Blues [Protoman]. As well, I would argue the controller 2 codes are left over debug tools, and the improper pacing of the epilogue to disallow the full playing of the wonderful full version of Blue's whistle theme (which by the way, if you've never heard, you need to do so. Now.) and instead just cuts out directly into the credits.
This also explains why the planned introduction story sequence for 3 is totally absent from the game. Every Rockman game on the NES except for the first has an introduction EXCEPT for 3. Because of this, only the hardcore Rockman fans like myself know of the actual storyline.
If you think of Rockman 1, 2, and 3 as a rising arc where the games were intended to become more fully realized and cinematic, it sort of becomes obvious how 3 got the short end of the stick. Rockman 2 has so many wonderful, perfectly timed and paced moments - the mecha dragon appearing, chasing Wily down through the creepily silent cave, the reveal of the hologram machine at the end, and of course probably the Famicom's best, most artful ending cinematic - the absence of these excellencies in 3 is sort of glaring, especially compared to the very beautiful and slick Rockman 4 that came out later without a hurried development cycle.
That said, what is finished in Rockman 3 is great. The Rockman 2 robot master rematches run wonderfully... Doc Robot was a great idea that expanded the game greatly and makes it to this date the longest classic series game with 21 stages. The music is as good as ever. Most of Wily's castle is pretty great too. I think the most glitchy level is probably Gemini Man.. it's asking a lot from the Famicom to begin with, and when you're actually using the Rush Marine it's just a mess.
Had Rockman 3 been fully realized it would easily have been the best of the series. I mean a fully explained plot which is reasonably well elaborated, an actual relationship between Rockman and Blues which is only hinted at, and of course a real version of the most awkward scene, Blues rescuing Rockman from Wily's crumbling base after Wily is killed. I love the music in the game... The full version of Blues' theme - wonderful, beautiful, and haunting - was dramatically different from what other games were presenting gamers with. It's a shame that even that that is snubbed out of being fully effective in the released version.
Now, I know at this point all I'm doing is little more than rambling on about Rockman 3, but if you've read this far, why not learn the story for the third game as it was suppose to be implemented into the game?
It is the year 2010. Rockman has defeated Dr. Wily twice and has finally brought him to justice. With the end of a decade, the world was finally ready to enter a new age of peace. In an unusual decision, Dr. Light convinced everyone that Wily was merely misguided and should put his robotic genius to good use rather than rot in prison. Serving as penance for his crimes, Dr. Wily has now changed his ways and focuses in aiding Dr. Light, his former mentor. Together they're creating a gigantic peace keeping robot named Gamma. Once finished, Gamma will be able to defend mankind against any robot threat possible, thus insuring a war between man and machine would never happen again. However, to activate such a large and unique robot, eight special elemental energy crystals must be collected and loaded into Gamma's systems. After some searching, Wily finds the crystals - guarded by eight powerful robot masters controlled and created by an unknown foe! Meanwhile, the mysterious robot Breakman watches everything from the shadows...
I love how, if you play Rockman 1, 2 and 3 in order and you understand what's supposed to be happening in Rockman 3, it's a very emotionally satisfying trilogy of games... Wily's increasingly complex and surprising tricks and escapes, the battling of the Rockman 2 bosses again, and seeing the Rockman 1 bosses at the end of 3 makes you feel as though you've come full circle. I even like to think of what happens at the end of 3 as the definitive death of Wily and the end of the "integrated" series before it began to taper off into sequels and rehashes.
Never mind Rockman 10, Keiji, let's see a fully realized version of Rockman 3!
