Mega Man X3

About This Game

Gameplay

Mega Man X3 adopts the gameplay of Mega Man X and Mega Man X2, an expansion of the gameplay model of the original Mega Man series, which both involve controlling the protagonist X and completing a series of eight selectable stages. Each stage has a variety of obstacles, traps, and enemy robots to fight. The stage ends in a Maverick boss fight; defeating this boss will add a new special weapon to the player's arsenal. Each boss is particularly weak to one special weapon, so the player may complete the stages in an order that best exploits these weaknesses. The player character X retains certain abilities from past games. Namely, he is able to run, jump, dash, cling to and scale most walls, and fire his chargeable "X-Buster" arm cannon and special weapons. The player can further upgrade X's abilities by collecting armor parts (head, body, legs, and X-Buster) found within capsules in some levels. Capsules containing special chips add new abilities as well. X is generally only able to benefit from one chip at a time, allowing the player to customize the character as needed.

History

By the time production began, Keiji Inafune, a major contributor to the Mega Man franchise, had transitioned from his role as an artist to director, producer, and writer. Starting with Mega Man X2, Inafune wanted to use a computer virus as a plot device, something he considered a more interesting idea than a tangible villain. Inafune's other duties included merchandising the game into toys and trading cards. Although the game's scenario, character designs and artwork were done at Capcom, much of the actual game design was sub-contracted to Minakuchi Engineering, who had previously developed most of the Mega Man games on the Game Boy along with the compilation game Mega Man: The Wily Wars for the Mega Drive.