A Critical Look at Mega Man 3 Stages: Top Man
Top Man’s Stage and Music
Bolton appears in front of you, while Notton flies in from behind. After they connect, they’ll begin chasing you slowly like Telly from the last game.
After two of these, Mechakkero enters the mix. He simply hops forward now and then, but his sitting sprite is too low to be hit by normal shots. The combination makes things a bit hectic towards the end of this section.
Komasaburo here is just delighted to toss tops down the steps. After dropping from the ladder, Mega Man will have to shoot through a gauntlet of tops before taking him down. However, this one can also be killed by shooting from the bottom of the ladder.
Rush here is the other new addition to the series. His Coil mode has been available in our inventory from the start, but we’ve had little reason to use him until now. He can launch Mega Man far higher than a normal jump would, which can be used to access out-of-reach goodies and alternate paths. As for how this affects the gameplay, well, we’ll see.
Pickleman Bull here simply moves back and forth and takes three hits, but the vehicle can’t be damaged. We also see the Metall DX on the next screen.
Next, we’re treated to another large enemy, Tama, who warps in and hacks up a couple yarn balls. We’ll have to deal ten damage to him while dodging these. The balls can also be destroyed, but they take eight hits so it’s easier to just avoid them.
We’re thrown into another Tama fight one screen later. The yarn balls bounce offscreen, triggering Tama’s second attack which is to release three fleas that hop around until killed (another reason not to attack them the first time).
Following that is a little more platforming and one last, complex fight with Komasaburo. The last section involves a series of jumps across spinning tops. These are interesting, as Mega Man will move back and forth while standing on them which will scare players into thinking that they’ll be thrown off, but that won’t happen as long as Mega Man is standing still.
This one is also not particularly hard for new players, aside from the last section, but there’s more energy to this one. I think the first section is actually one of the best, as the enemy combination and placement requires some quick shooting or fancy jumping to avoid being surrounded.
The Tama fights could have had a bit more space between them, but they’re at least different from each other. Beyond that, the only thing the player really has to worry about is a couple screens with spikes and those final jumps. Komasaburo is fun to fight and he’s used very well in the last encounter, despite not being very dangerous. The plant and glass scenery, while not at all top-themed, is at least pleasant to look at.
Tags: A Critical Look at, editorial, Mega Man 3, Mega Man Classic
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Hell, Top Man Stage. Very easy, but cool graphic setting. The Cat was a letdown, because i love cats. But outside of that, the stage was OK and Top Man is still one of the stupiest robot masters ever. He can do nothing and his special attack is still something that no megaman fan would forgott in negative sentence. Ballerina Megaman, wow. Realy?
I’ve always been charmed by this stage, which is probably part of why I start with it (the rest being easiness). Here we have Top Man, whose theme is essentially tops… or, spinning at least, I guess. But his stage is a big greenhouse, and mostly made of glass. And the whole time you go through, you got this great rock song pushing you a long. None of it really fits together, but somehow it works really well. Definitely one of the more memorable stages.
Top man… as far as a robot master fight, he’s better than toad man, mega water s. , elec man if you do it right, and hard man.
as a boss, he’s similar to heat man, but a bit easier.
and any true mega man fan with a few braincells to spare can figure out top spin, and could tell you how useful it really is, especially in shadow man’s stage. not only against shadow man himself, but in his stage, it’s just amazing!
probably 3rd beast weapon in mega man 3! just under shadow blade and needle cannon! search snake is good, but too many enemies aren’t effected by it. hard knuckle is way too slow, magnet missile misses, has a low rate of fire, and doesn’t do enough damage to justify the amount of energy it uses, spark shot can’t kill things, and gemini laser… well, I don’t even have to say anything about that one.
I always loved the music in this stage. It’s peppy, upbeat, and leaves you wanting more. Top Man himself reminds me of Air Man in his attack pattern, tossing his tops like Air Tornados, and then charging you. Only, now the “hide in the left corner and blast” technique doesn’t work, since he goes clear across. The Top Spin is still a weird weapon to me, but VERY effective against Gamma.
After all, “Can’t Stop The Top!”
@erikthered
Yes the Top Spin is usefull when you handle it right. But, come on, Megaman looks like a ballerina. The Shadow Blad is similair to the Metal Blades, but not nearly so effectiv. The Needle Canon is like a Uzi or something, it nails most enemys against the wall.
Search Snake is a weapon i only used against Gemini Man. Hard Knuckle was only good for breaking walls and take down Yellow Devil V2 quickly. Magnet Missiles are ineffectiv, same for the Spark Shot.
The Gemini Laser is one of the weapons i use when the situation needs it, because it reflects from the walls and so you can shoot around the corner. Effectiv in my eyes.
The best weapon arsenal was in Megaman 9, very good balanced, every weapon effectiv in his own ways, every weapon affects to way you can master a stage and all weapons makes sense. The weirdst weapons where in Megaman 5 and 6.
@adaaification
I thought it was the most fun thing ever, just jumping through the air spinning everywhere. and it made such a fun sound effect and used no weapon energy unless you actually hit something!
shadow blade is a non-gamebreaking metal blades. it was effective in another way though. if you miss initially when attacking an enemy, it returns, giving you a second chance to hit it, which was useful in it’s own right.
search snakes where useful against enemies below you or low to the ground. use them in top man’s level!, they also had a fun upward jump when you first shot them, allowing you to shoot a bit higher than mega man.
needle cannon was an uzi.. exactly!
and hard knuckle was also effective against hammer joes, and could move upwards or downwards a little. they’re only useful if you’re willing to slow down your trek, take your time, and play more with timing. it’s pretty much the safest weapon.
gemini laser let you shoot around corners… and if you miss, you’re helpless until it leaves the screen… and you could shoot through walls, why would you need to shoot around a corner? there was only one situation where I actually use gemini laser, and that’s in the second play through of spark man’s level. After I topspin that peterchy as it falls, when climbing that first ladder, there’s a jamacy.
there. you could use gemini laser or shadow blade to kill it. I use gemini laser just for the sake of actually using it in the game.
MM9 had good weapons… but some were just way too good. effective, yes… but balanced? not really.
This level is just all-around fun to blast through. Music is great, as well. Back when the game was out, I never thought of the music being out-of-place for a greenhouse. But that was probably because I was used to Mega Man music being good, overall.
If anyone’s wondering about this stage’s music being out-of-place, heh heh heh heh… Just wait for a certain critical look to appear. We’ll cross that bridge, when we get there, though.