Mega Man 3 (Bonus): Doc Robot Battles - Buster Only, No Damage

"Rock Around the Doc"

Doc Robot K-176 is a machine that's been installed with the combat programs of all the Mega Man 2 bosses. The thing here is that his sprite is taller so a lot of attacks that were annoying to get around are even harder now. Moreover, most projectiles are also faster and have a larger range to them. So these eight fights are all tougher than they were in MM2, and some of them weren't easy to begin with! Let's cover what we have to do here and show it in glorious 720p and 60 FPS if you so choose. Yes, glorious.

0:00 - Flash Man
-You have to constantly do circular jumps over him here from the edge of the same platform just as he's landing on it. This is not the worst, yet it's not easy and is a sign of things to come.

1:07 - Bubble Man
-His pellets are the real danger as they're fast. Stay at the edges of the room and jump as that first bubble's been shot out to try and not be grounded once he starts swimming and shooting at you.

2:13 - Wood Man
-The first of two nightmares. You have to do a jump in the shape of a lower-case n that tails slightly back at the end as you see the leaves from above change direction. Oh, and then you have to slide under the big boy pretty much right after landing and then stop either next to him or in the center of the room. You'll have to do this difficult dodge twice, by the way. About an hour was spent here.

3:22 - Heat Man
-Jump straight up with mid-high but not maximum height as you see the first batch of flames reach the center of the room and arc yourself around that second pillar. If you play keep away from here on out, the flames will never be a problem. Just watch out. This game can cancel your attack presses if too many sprites are on screen when turning unless you jump first. Keep that in mind for later...

5:37 - Air Man
-As long as you don't see that one tornado formation, you'll be fine. But if you choose to stay behind Air Man, you'll have to press against the wall and jump up. His body will hit you if you don't.

6:23 - Crash Man
-The first of two bosses that will both react to your shots and then occasionally try to catch you off-guard by going on the offensive himself. Lead your own fire so that you'll either hit him in the air or when he lands. You can see when we get into a good rhythm late.

7:05 - Metal Man
-Three jump heights which tell you how many blades are flying your way. Again, like Crash Man, he'll go on the attack himself every now and then. If you need a breather, just stop shooting. I know I did at a couple of points just to get back into a better spot. Also think there's a tiny bit of audio desync for this fight near the end. Guess I still have some work to do with learning Vegas more, eh?

8:25 - Quick Man
-The other nightmare here that was also cheap in MM2, yet he's worse here. Still can toss boomerangs on either the first or second hop. Still can get caught on the wall if just briefly. Keep in mind that at this point, I've been reloading a save outside his door for two hours and just going in at different points so as not to cheat, so I've got a slight idea of what he's going to do even if I don't know if he'll switch it up, and he can if those boomerangs go off screen.

The idea is to never go back to the same wall twice in a row and keep close to Quick late. If he high hops when tossing the boomerangs out in the center of the room, slow down and jump up once they stop to make sure you can avoid them underneath when they come your way again. Oh, and finally, always try to hop when firing to not suffer from MM3's input canceling. I despise this fight and don't find it fair in the slightest. Needle Man is the version of this react fast battle done right.

Seriously, if this game had tighter controls for fast-paced fighting, or if that Quick battle had less random behavior, or even if he only took fourteen hits like in MM2, I wouldn't be as frustrated with it. But that isn't the case, so I never felt like I was making progress until landing the final shot. Props to Roahm all those years ago for doing the whole stage buster only in one go, but it's something that I find way too frustrating to have fun trying without weapons like we did in our main run. Still, I'm glad we proved it could be done... but why? I need a break. At least we'll get one next time!