Do you know the Lesson of Mega Man 3?
There is a pattern that began in the 8-bit Generation that continues to plague games today. This pattern is relying on the elements for stages or weapons in a game. These elements I am referring to are the Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.
It was an exciting innovation during the 8-bit days of course. Games couldn’t have such a diversified stage set most likely because games didn’t have different boards. Miyamoto admitted that when Super Mario Brothers was made, he wanted to have a game that went from land, to sea, to air (and you could count the castles as fire).
Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire are often used as stage themes, boss themes, or weapons. It is so cliche to be confronted with an “Ice Monster” that everyone pulls out their fire weapon without even having to think about it. There is nothing so incredibly dull as approaching yet another ‘fire stage’ or another ‘ice/water stage’ or another ‘earth stage’.
Mega Man games are notorious for this which could be a reason why the series feels so stale. Mega Man 1 had six robot masters. At least three of them were the elements (Fire Man, Ice Man, Guts Man) with perhaps Elec Man or Cut Man representing air. Mega Man 2 had Bubble Man for water, Heat Man for fire, Wood Man for earth, Air Man for air (with Quick Man and Flash Man being Fast and Slow). Mega Man 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 all have the four elements represented in the same cliche stages yet again.
But Mega Man 3 is very different.
Mega Man 3 is the only Mega Man game that doesn’t have any of the elements. Sure, there is water in Gemini Man’s stage but no one would call Gemini Man’s stage a water stage. I frankly don’t know what in the world type of stage Gemini Man’s stage is. Gemini Man is nothing like Ice Man, Bubble Man, Dive Man, Wave Man, etc. Shadow Man’s stage has flowing lava in the background but it isn’t a fire stage as Heat Man or Fire Man all the way to Napalm Man is. There is a part in Top Man’s stage where you hop over some flying tops. But if Top Man’s stage is a ‘sky stage’, then what is Snake Man’s stage that does something similar at the end? And no one would call Snake Man a ‘wind element’. The only one that comes anywhere close might be Hard Man for earth, since you go through a mountain, but that is the only thing in the stage that links it to earth.
Look at the robot masters from all the Mega Man games that came after Mega Man 3. Try to spot the ‘elemental bosses’. They should pop out at you.
Even Mega Man 9 is a huge offender. You blatantly have Magma Man as fire, Splash Woman as water, Tornado Man as air, and likely Concrete Man as earth.
One thing I noticed when looking at the above images was there was another… uh… ‘element’ that was placed in all the Mega Man games (except for 3 and 1 because 1 only had six bosses). This is the element of ‘speed’ as represented by Quick Man. Other characters of ‘speed’ would be Centaur Man, Charge Man, Turbo Man, etc.
Mega Man 10 currently only has Commando Man and Sheep Man revealed which do not appear to represent elements. However, we do know there is a desert stage (i.e. the fire element like Pharoah Man). We’ll see if Mega Man 10 fits the pattern.
Mega Man 3 still is rated as the highest of the Mega Man games, besides two, because the robot masters do not feel like copies of what came before. While you could say all bosses of the first three games were copied, you can’t deny there seems to be some unspoken rule by game developers that all four elements must be represented in every game. Mega Man 3 is the only Mega Man game not to rely on the four elements which is why the game is still interesting.
As much as I love Mario 5, seeing the worlds represent the elements gets a pass only because we haven’t seen a Mario game in twenty years. But already those ‘element’ based worlds feel incredibly stale. We’ve seen zillions of ‘water worlds’ and ‘ice worlds’ and ‘sky worlds’ and ‘earth worlds’ and ‘fire worlds’. This is perhaps why people remember worlds like Giant World or Pipe World more vividly than yet another level representing an element.
Another bad offender of this element disease is Zelda. The first levels in Twilight Princess felt so tired because they were clearly Earth, Fire, and Water. We’ve seen element themed dungeons a zillion times. It doesn’t surprise anymore. Dungeons are more interesting when they are different. While City in the Sky was clearly an air level, I can’t remember too many Zelda dungeons where you constantly saw a blue sky and didn’t feel cramped up in a cave underground. So this is perhaps why City in the Sky comes across as being more memorable while Earth Temple, despite its monkeys, is fast forgotten.
Malstrom's Articles News 