Revisiting My Youth, My Battle Against Mega Man 3 Part 2

In the first entry in this series, I challenged a couple of the boss stages in Mega Man 3 and finally found success against Hard Man. Now that we have his weapon, Hard Knuckle, which of the Robot Masters will I challenge next?

According to the boss weaknesses listed in my Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide book, Top Man should be the enemy I target next. Entering the stage, the ground looks like plants trapped under glass and, in contrast, the background above it gives off an advanced tech look. The first enemies we encounter in the stage are called Bolton and Nutton, these enemies look like large bolts that float in the air towards you, accompanied by Mechakkero. These red, hopping baddies are constantly bouncing, reminding me of a rabbit. They are short and can't be shot by Mega Man when they are both on the same elevation as the shots go right over their head. However, if you time it right, you can damage them when they jump towards you. These foes aren’t unique to this stage, however, so you will encounter them in other levels you visit.

Fortunately, Mega Man’s Buster Shots can go through walls, this lets you be shielded from the enemy's attacks, but still hit them. This may seem a little unfair but I won’t complain about having an advantage! As you progress on the stage there is a large robot who looks like he’s standing at the top of a staircase and launching tops that go down the stairs. There is a pattern to the attack though, he launches four then pauses for a moment before he starts again. This is the best time to attack. The floor looks like it is made of glass, and in one room it is broken on the floor and thorns are there, fall into these and you will instantly die. We continue to work our way down and encounter more Metools on construction equipment. According to Google, this enemy's name is Pickleman Bull, I have no idea why that name, it seems so odd!

Anyway, there are two heights of platforms, one on the bottom and another about halfway up the screen. It’s a little too tall to reach with a regular jump, so you need to use your Rush Coil to get up there. I recommend quickly taking care of the Metool in his bulldozer, as he will hit and push you right off to the ground. It’s worth the effort to go up to the higher section as there is an extra life and a large health pellet to restore your hit points here. As we drop down there are more Metools, but this time they are hiding under hard hats that protect them until they pop out to hit you — this is when you need to destroy them. As we continue down, we meet the mid-boss of the stage, a large orange and black striped robot cat that shoots (what look like) balls of yarn at you, in the lower section where you are standing; they bounce around the whole area, so you need to make sure to destroy them before they hit you, all while you try to jump and shoot at the cat. Once destroyed, we descend to the next area.

There are large stairs so you know what that means: another robot that sends tops down the stairs towards you. The next section we walk into, like the last, has another repeat enemy: the evil cat. In addition to the yarn, this one sends out jumping fleas to attack you. Once this robo-feline is destroyed, we finally head upwards, to find a pit of spikes and tiny platforms to jump on to cross over to the ladder. Of course, in your way is a Metool — in his hard hat shooting at you.

As we progress higher, we encounter one of the most evil things about this stage: a massive multiple-screen-wide pit, where you have to jump on spinning tops in the air, timing your jump to get to the next one without falling. The good news is, after this, we are at the boss' gate. When I reached this point I had less than half of my health and one life remaining, this gave me two attempts to take down Top Man. I decided to run in with just my Buster to learn the attack pattern and the best way to deal damage to him. I learned quickly that you can’t damage him when he spins across the stage.

Once I die, I restart in the corridor and equip the Hard Knuckle weapon. I avoid the spinning tops he launches at me, and fire when he is standing still; these shots do big damage, so I only have to hit him three times to be victorious and get the Top Spin attack. Where do we go from here? This weapon sounds pretty weak so I wonder how effective it will be…