Did You Know? The Top Spin Doesn’t Suck
It has been a long and widely-held belief that the weapon of Mega Man 3‘s Top Man, the Top Spin, is the worst Special Weapon in the game, and perhaps one of the worst in the entire series. Beyond putting Shadow Man‘s lights out and tearing peace-keeping robot Gamma to pieces, few have found it useful.
But what a lot of people don’t know is that the weapon can actually be quite handy, and not be the energy-sucking self-damage inflicting weapon it is popularly believed to be. During a topic on Toastyfrog’s GameSpite forums, user “dtsund” is playing through the third Mega Man title for the first time, leading to a bit of conversation surrounding it. And regarding the toy-like tool, Metal Man Master had this to say:
Now that you’ve fought Top Man, you’ve seen the “Secret Best Terrible Weapon” I was talking about. I’ve heard about how horrible the weapon is, but when I last played Mega Man 3, I decided to try to learn its rules. Truth is, if you just hurl yourself right into foes (like any sane person would), you’ll suck through the energy bar very quickly, but it has a trick to it.
If you do the Top Spin when not touching any enemies, you don’t use any weapon energy*. Basically, its energy loss completely depends on when you’re touching an enemy with the attack. It also counts as hitting during invulnerability time, hence the tons of stories of quickly-drained life bars. You see, its energy loss depends on how much contact you make with your target when you hit it, so it’ll suck energy like crazy if you throw yourself right onto foes. However, if you just make enough contact to strike the foe with the edge of the attack, you can kill it or cause it damage with minimal energy loss.
The Top Spin’s a very powerful weapon, if you can pin down the timing and proper distance from the foe to conserve its energy. While it may be too much for some to hold back with their spins, with the right amount of practice it’s the Secret Best Terrible Weapon Ever.
*This doesn’t apply to the Game Boy Mega Man II, where the Top Spin has normal energy loss when used and is less of a bitch to implement regularly.
Elsewhere in the thread, SpoonyBardLOL punctuates the point with the following YouTube videos of an expert Top Spinner in action:
I’ll be honest: I’ve played the game a lot over my many years as a Mega Man fan, but never truly realized the weapon’s potential. Naturally, it’s not a catch-all, beat-all weapon, but it apparently does not deserve the reputation it has earned.
Filed under: Editorials
So it’s safe to use on easy kills? That… could actually come in handy! I’ll have to try it next time.
It’s about time someone showed that it doesn’t suck!
…So…this is ridiculous.
*Jaw drops on the floor*…DAMN!!! o_o the potential of this weapon is INCREDIBLE, in fact I can already see great potential in a speed run that’ll make it FASTER than the current time that I’ve seen!
well that was unexpected. I always hated top man’s weapon (like most people). Looks like it isn’t as bad as I thought, though I doubt I’d ever want to attempt play the game like the guy above. I like to shoot.
I always knew that the Top Spin was an effective weapon, but it only works on weak enemies. It’s sort of an ‘all or nothing’ weapon – if you don’t destroy robots in one hit, you end up taking damage and wasting all your weapon energy, which is why a lot of players find it frustrating and confusing to use.
Top Spin for life.
You also know what? Charge Kick doesn’t suck.
Apparently you can also destroy the second half of Gamma in one hit using Top Spin.
which was already pointed out in the description… I apologize…
Ryudo> Prove it. XD
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
While there isn’t anything wrong with the top spin, I still find that other weapons will kill anything you might consider using top spin on just as easily if not more so (with a few exceptions).
PS: It wasn’t mentioned in the description, so I thought I would add the top spin shreds Heatman pretty well too.
So, Top Spin has been redeemed and Mega Ball has proven awesome for samus-like bomb jumps.
You know Water Balloon will never be useful aside from killing Sword Man.
Hm. I’m ashamed that I never took the time to find out the subtleties of how it works. I’m suppose to know everything!
Also, it destroys the “Holograph Mega Men” boss in one hit, if I remember correctly.
I have never heard anyone say that Top Spin sucks. Maybe I need to get on the internet more.
@STM Wrong! The water baloon is also handy on dr.wilys first form!
My entire perception of reality has been thrown into question.
Must learn how to use Top Spin properly. >>
Heh. I knew all that stuff back in the 90′s. Within my first two battles with Shadow Man I saw that, with full contact, I drained a LOT of power, and by just grazing, with the ‘spin’ effect animation, I’d lose not a lot of power at all, while I could POTETNIALLY kill Shadow Man in one hit–though usually two or three.
Also, it can destroy Hammer Joe’s weapon throws with no weapon energy loss. Could make a good way to regain life/weapon energy if those things dropped said items more often.
Wow! I’d try this out myself, but my copy of Megaman 3 is glitchy beyond repair. No amount of cleaning can get it to function normally I’m afraid. It just glitches up.
WOW, did’nt see that coming. Top Spin run, anyone? jkjk =D
I’ve been saying this forever! but then again, it does suck in wily wars… it has a magic hitbox in front of mega man in the NES game, but in wily wars, it’s hitbox is megaman, so if it’s not a one shotter, you get damaged
holy s***.
nuff said.
I found that Top Spin can destroy the missiles launched by the fish subs in GeminiMan’s stage, which none of the other weapons could hit. Not that you’d really want to do that, but…
You know the monkeys that hang from the ceiling in Hard Man’s stage and so on? The ones that are really fucking annoying?
One hit with the Top Spin.