Topic: RFN RetroActive #27: Mega Man 3 - Official Discussion Thread

[ClexYoshi]

Maybe it's a sign of me getting older, but I am finding that I don't have the patience to learn some of the old platformers like I used to.  I've started a few times before committing to Snake Man as a start point.  I got to the point where you're on the sky pillars, and twice in a row got hit mid air, being knocked into an insta-death pit. 

I'll second Grantimus' comments that being forced to start a stage all over because you run out of lives is a bit too punishing for a game that hinges on you memorizing enemy patterns to effectively counter them. 

This kind of game is something that as a kid I probably would have played hours on end, taking the time to complete the game by trial-and-error.  Hell, I did that with the original Mega Man.  But I can't seem to make much progress before encountering an entire new enemy that whittles my health away to nothing. 

When I'm playing something like Demon's souls, it provides a considerable level of challenge while also conditioning you to learn enemy patterns, utilizing proper tactics, and punishing you appropriately for doing something you know you shouldn't have after the fact. 

My biggest problem with this game is that I don't feel like there are any lessons learned when you make a mistake in this game, other than "lol, shoulda seen that coming".

-----
As a fun side note, here is Title Intro to the Megaman Anniversary Collection I played on GC.  Was a very WTF moment every time I loaded it up.

I'd like to say that the brilliant thing about these Mega Man games is that Mega Man has a very specific way he handles that's incredibly tight and precise  if you think of the game as being on a grid, he can jump a distance of 3 tile blocks horizontally and 2 blocks vertically  upwards and has quite the fast fall to it. taping the D-pad lightly lets you take a pixel worth of a step to orient Mega Man, the disappearing blocks go on a sorta 2 second timer and generally have a specific rhythm  to them, etc.

I find that getting used to these facts as well as knowing that the game usually presents it's new enemies and such in a manner that invokes that iterative gameplay are the main things that get me through a Mega Man game. My first run through of Mega Man 9 [a game that does unfortunately incorporate that "I Wanna Be The Guy" mentality of pretty much having newbie traps that will require more level memorization than exercising  any sort of twitch reflex or such] took about 3 and a half hours because I kept in mind how Mega Man handles and was able to pick up on patterns quick. I did much the same for the likes of Mega Man 10, Mega Man X Street Fighter, and the good Romhacks I played such as Rockman 4 Minus Infinity.

As a random plug, I CANNOT RECOMMEND ROCKMAN 4 MI ENOUGH. IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH MEGA MAN AFTER THIS RETROACTIVE, GO TO https://sites.google.com/site/rockman4mi/home. Rockman 4 MI is a hack of Mega Man 4 that is absolutely over the top and fun. some of the rules have changed, such as Mega Man's invulnerability period and knockback being shortened, rush's functions being changed [PROTIP: Use Rush Search whenever possible!], and all the robot master weapons have been redesigned to be very, VERY powerful. it's a good time, and I managed to beat it the first time without getting a game over or abusing save states [that being said, the game does feed you 1-ups like candy.]

[jonkykong]

Is it just me or is the slowdown REALLY bad in this game?  I remember it being a frequent thing in NES games, but never to this degree.  I just tried defeating the 2nd Dark Master in the Spark Man level (I believe it's Quick Man?) using the Snake Search weapon and between all the snakes and Quick Man's boomerangs, the entire battle was in slow motion.

I'm playing on 3DS, so I'm not sure if this was always a problem with the original cart or if it's an emulation issue.

Do you think Nintendo should actively try to fix these problems when they release older games on the virtual console or would you rather play the games exactly like you remember them, warts and all?

[lolmonade]

Is it just me or is the slowdown REALLY bad in this game?  I remember it being a frequent thing in NES games, but never to this degree.  I just tried defeating the 2nd Dark Master in the Spark Man level (I believe it's Quick Man?) using the Snake Search weapon and between all the snakes and Quick Man's boomerangs, the entire battle was in slow motion.

I'm playing on 3DS, so I'm not sure if this was always a problem with the original cart or if it's an emulation issue.

Do you think Nintendo should actively try to fix these problems when they release older games on the virtual console or would you rather play the games exactly like you remember them, warts and all?

I had horrible slow framerate as well, although I don't know if it is because I'm playing on the GC port.  Improving a game from its original state can be a catch 22 sometimes.  Even though it would be an improvement to those playing it for the first time, if its a game you've devoured as a youngster, you often compensate for it in the way you play it, which could screw with your ability to play it.

[ClexYoshi]

Is it just me or is the slowdown REALLY bad in this game?  I remember it being a frequent thing in NES games, but never to this degree.  I just tried defeating the 2nd Dark Master in the Spark Man level (I believe it's Quick Man?) using the Snake Search weapon and between all the snakes and Quick Man's boomerangs, the entire battle was in slow motion.

I'm playing on 3DS, so I'm not sure if this was always a problem with the original cart or if it's an emulation issue.

Do you think Nintendo should actively try to fix these problems when they release older games on the virtual console or would you rather play the games exactly like you remember them, warts and all?

Mega Man 3 is easily the most unstable game in the NES game line, featuring many framerate chugs and points where the sprite flicker is somehow WORSE than it is when fighting the Mecha Dragon. The 'father' of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune, sites the game's rushed nature. If you read Mega Man Official Complete Works [published by Canada based UDON entertainment], Interviews with Inafune on Mega Man 3 states that the project supervisor on the first two Mega Man games left Capcom and the man the company put in his place really didn't GET Mega Man. This management issue also caused the head planner to quit, and Inafune was forced to take a lot more responsibility on Mega Man 3 than he had on the previous games, and the last couple of months of the project were some of the most stressful he had ever gone through on a Mega Man related project.

"I knew that if we had more time to polish (Mega Man 3), we could do a lot of things better, make it a better game, but the company said we needed to release it. The whole environment behind what went into the production of the game is what I least favored. Numbers one and two - I really wanted to make those games; I was so excited about them. Number three- it just turned very different" - Keiji Inafune, Nintendo Power issue 220.

BONUS FUN FACT: Doc Robots' name is actually a pun in Japan that was poorly localized! The word 'dokuro' means skull, so if you said 'dokurobotto'.. uh... yeah, I think you get where I'm going with this. ^_^;;

[sirmastersephiroth]

This is my first Nintendo World Report (Radio Free Nintendo) RetroActive. Here's my progress:


Robot Masters
Magnet Man:[size=78%] The stage is pretty easy except for those disapearing blocks. I’ve always hated those. Magnet Man himself was a bit challenging. But I was able to defeat him eventually.[/size]

Hard Man: This stage was kind of hard. And I had to “farm” for weapon energy since I used up all my Magnet on the gorillas.

Top Man: This level was pretty easy. The cat gave me a bit of trouble the first time he appeared. I was able to beat them easily the second time onward.

Shadow Man: Ok, that whole darkness thing? Pretty cool. And what’s the red liquid coming from the ceiling supposed to be? I’m sure this would have been censored if this was a Castlevania game (like Super Castlevania IV). Shadow Man was easy to defeat with Top Man’s weapon but, I don’t like the mechanic.

Spark Man: This stage is pretty cool. And very easy. The most difficult parts were avoiding the electrical beams and especially the screws that unite in the air. Spark Man was a cinch with the Shadow Blades.

Snake Man: Snake Man’s stage is really awesome. The graphics are great and the snake heads look really cool. It suddenly turns into Airman’s stage at the end.

Gemini Man: This stage looks good, but it’s pretty annoying, at first because of the robots that drop flame walls, then because of the tadpoles, then because of the big penguins. Gemini man was real easy, though.

Needle Man: Needle Man’s stage was pretty boring. And Needle Man went down fast with the Gemini Laser.


Old Robot Masters
Spark Man Ruins:
Metal Man: I used Hard Man’s punches and he went down easy.
Quick Man: He gave me a bit more trouble because his boomerangs hit hard and you can’t have more than one Gemini Laser beam out.

Needle Man Ruins:
Air Man: Air Man was a bit difficult. I died a few times trying to jump over his vortexes.

Mini Bosses: Big Hard hat. This was annoying because you had to hit him square in the cross. I found the best weapon to be the Hard Hand.

Crash Man: I ran out of Hard Knuckle, so I had to use Needle Cannon. It worked pretty well against Crash Man.

Gemini Man Ruins:
Flash Man: He went down really quick with the needle cannon.
Wood Man: Took a few tries and an energy tank, but I was able to defeat him with the Needle Cannon.

Shadow Man Ruins:
Bubble Man: He was easy to defeat, but the Shadow Blade is no Metal Blade.
Heat Man: This has been the most difficult boss so far. He deals lots of damage and is very cheap.


I'll continue tonight.....

Continued from before...

Wily’s Castle:
First Section: This section was super easy. And the Turtle Machine was a cinch. I just used my Mega Buster.

Second Section: This section was pretty easy. Until I reached the boss. I opened the room and I was like “Where’s the boss?” And then bit’s and pieces started to form together. I thought, “Oh Crap!!! Not again!!!” At least he’s not as hard as in Mega Man.

Third Section: This section is kind of annoying because of those little robots that shoot horizontally and in a vertical arc .The Cloning Machine was easy, once I knew what I had to do. I did use an energy tank on it, though.

Bosses Redux: This is always a painful part of the Mega Man experience, having to fight the monsters again.

Dr. Wily: Shooting the turret at the bottom was easy with the Spark Shot. Shooting the top of the saucers was a bit harder because of the timing involved, especially since the Hammer Arm has a bit of a delay. Wait, this is a fake Wily? What a surprise.

Gamma: Shooting of the head with the Shadow Blade was easy. Using the Top Spin on Wily was even easier. This last boss was very disappointing.

Overall, Mega Man III is a really cool game. But I prefer the second one a lot better. The music is better, the game play is more balanced, and I like the robot masters better too. One thing I hated from Mega Man III was using “Host Robot Bodies” for the Mega Man 2 bosses. I would have preferred to fight the bosses in their original form. One thing I loved was Rush. I think it brought some personality to the special items and a cool companion that Mega Man did not have in Mega Man II.

[ClexYoshi]

Dr. Wily: Shooting the turret at the bottom was easy with the Spark Shot. Shooting the top of the saucers was a bit harder because of the timing involved, especially since the Hammer Arm has a bit of a delay. Wait, this is a fake Wily? What a surprise.

this boss gets even more trivialized when you realise you can just hover with rush jet and shoot the second form unhindered. decimates it FAR quicker than trying to use Hard Knuckle, which is a terrible weapon unless you can get close or the target is totally immobile.

[JordanElek]

I'll second Grantimus' comments that being forced to start a stage all over because you run out of lives is a bit too punishing for a game that hinges on you memorizing enemy patterns to effectively counter them.

The levels are only a couple minutes long, though. I'm actually finding the checkpoints to be overly generous, so a game over feels like proper punishment if I couldn't get through in at least three tries.

When I'm playing something like Demon's souls, it provides a considerable level of challenge while also conditioning you to learn enemy patterns, utilizing proper tactics, and punishing you appropriately for doing something you know you shouldn't have after the fact.

My biggest problem with this game is that I don't feel like there are any lessons learned when you make a mistake in this game, other than "lol, shoulda seen that coming".

I feel the opposite. Like someone already mentioned, this game is pretty good at providing iterative learning opportunities. After a few tries at a level, I've been able to make it to the end without any damage, which means I've learned how to properly navigate the level. This is the same kind of experience I had with Dark Souls, and since this is the first Megaman game I've replayed since finishing Dark Souls, I feel like I'm extra prepared for this type of challenge. I notice level design in ways I wouldn't have before, like when an enemy is first introduced in such a way that I can easily see how it behaves without putting me in an overly dangerous position.

[Smeatbass]

OK - Here's my thoughts on this matter. May, or may not get mentioned on podcast, but here goes.

I am a champion of Mega Man 2 over 3. Although, I still adore both games. I play all 6 of the originals at least once a year. Have for the past 20 or so years. Kind of a tradition.

Having said that, I played both 2 and 3 this week to not only spark my nostalgia for them, but to give my adult perspective on them.

I'll say this to start - Mega man 2 is all about the bosses, and music. 3 is all about the level design. 3 has great music but it can't hold a candle to 2, which has probably the best music in 8-bit ever (Aside from Mario).

Mega Man 2 is all about the bosses. The 8 robot bosses were all inventive, and mostly had styles I had never seen in games before. The first time that dragon jumped up at me in Dr. Wily stage 1, it scared the crap out of me. All the other bosses Wily's castle were a treat as well, cept for the 2nd one... Meh. I also got freaked when I first saw the giant Robot on the tank in stage 3. I was 8 to remind. Then, of course you had, arguably one of the hardest bosses on game history in stage 4, where it's only weak to Crash Man and if you messed up once, you were dead. Took years for me to get figure him out. Then the final battle, while not mammoth, had its way of making it seem like Wily was an alien, and destroying him felt so satisfying.

Then I move on to 3. The level design is probably the best on the whole series (cept Needle Man - Yuck). All the levels were unique and had a great flow of difficulty, and the areas matched the boss you were heading for. The level design gets a 8 from me. Amazing. Not to say 2 didn't have great level design. Air Man, Bubble Man and Quick Man were perfect. Those lasers in Quick Man made me go rookie in my pants the first time. I still give level design to 3.

However, then you get to the bosses, and all of them were so easy and underwhelming to me. Gemini Man is the only exception. They felt unoriginal, and uninspired. All easy and predictable patterns.

Then you move to the 8 rehashes of Megaman 2 bosses, and they fell flat like a shadow of what they once were. There was no strategy cause you were max powered by this point. Whereas when you fought them in 2, you had to figure out the best way to destroy them.

Now we move on to Proto Man. An absolute waste until the very end. What the hell was his point???

Of course there's the slide, which was a cheap way to introduce new paths and make things "easier". Another waste.

Then, Rush, while cool cosmetically, served the same purpose as the items in 2, they just decided to give it a character. I'll give him a pass.

You then get to Wily Castle. What a total 180 from the rest of the game. Boring levels, and the bosses were so unforgettable. What was that first boss? Then you have 3 bosses that are remakes from bosses from 1. What a cheap thing to do - Recycle everything they did 2 games prior. Then when you get to Wily, neither form was any challenge. Rush Jet on first form and he's toast, final form, use Shadow Blades under him where he can't hit you, then one Top Spin in the middle and you win? Disappointing. Then they introduce cut scenes - which were cool at the time, but st 10 years old, I didn't care.

I haven't even mentioned the god awful frame rate in it. It's been covered.

To sum, I love 3. It's an amazing marvel for the NES with the best level design in series history for the first half, good music, and cool weapons. It just has serious flaws. They tried to do too much with the NES power I think and it backfired. Bosses were lame and rehashes, and the Wily segments gave me no surprises like 2 did.

2 has better bosses, music and overall balance (If you use the Metal Blade as a counter argument, it's simple, don't do it!).

I will always prefer 2 over 3. Though I love both, I just think 2 has stood the test of time better than 3.

To close, I'll say, if everyone didn't agree with some of what I said, why did they ho back to Mega Man 2 style when they made 9 and 10? Cause that's what most loved more.

Bottom line for me - Mega Man 2 is a solid 9.5 for me even today, Mega Man 3 is modest 8.

That's my opinion. Sorry to bash a game I love, but it gets enough love as it is.

Hope this gets read on podcast, if not, at least I mentioned my reasons.

With that, I'm out. Keep it up RFN

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm a bit surprised people start with Snake Man, he's quite unpredictable and does a lot of damage from running into you. Even with the Shadow Blade I still have some trouble there. That isn't his big weakness, but I do find him easier to deal with than Gemini Man and Needle Man so I'd rather face him without his weakness than those two.

If you stay in the far left corner and jump at the right time, you can completely avoid body hits from Snake Man. He tags the wall and immediately runs back the other way, so it's just a matter of setting up the correct jump arc. Other than that, his snakes are usually avoidable, and these combined effects make it fairly easy to defeat him through attrition, even with the Mega Buster.

[ClexYoshi]

Well, it's Thursday now in my time zone, so this will likely be my last post in this thread.

I was honestly planning on closing out with an analysis on the soundtrack and link that one from Rushjet1 before  Johnny beat me to it or just spouting off quirky facts or even post up my playthrough that I recorded via livestream [scrapped that because recording curse decided to find cruel and unusual ways to humiliate me in my 3 or 4 takes I did.]

What I AM going to say is that as much as I complained about dumb things in this game, I enjoyed getting to put it under the microscope and just... appreciate it through trying to practice for such a recorded session. there are spots of really good level design along with the bad spots I mentioned, and I can appreciate what this game tried to do. it's still Mega Man and I will still take it over 95% of the NES Library. Hell, I'll take it over 95% of games in general.

It's still good, and it doesn't piss me off like Mega Man X6 does. >_>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWY5sV2g_fA I guess I can leave this as a final parting gift for funsies. I dunno.

Oh, and thank you, RFN. Thank you for giving me an excuse to play more Mega Man.

[Sundoulos]

I found time to finish up the game last night.  I had not remembered how underwhelming the Dr. Wily  stages were in this game, and it is strange the way the game sort of fizzles out by the end.  By that time, they put you in short, empty, somewhat lifeless stages without any challenge while simultaneously throwing items at you.   It's very strange how most of those final stages are much easier than the Doc Robot stages that immediately precede them.  I'm thinking that Dr. Wily had just begun to approach senility at this point. 

Also, the bosses of MM3's Wily stages?  Completely unmemorable.   In Mega Man 2, I still clearly remember the Dragon and the Gutsman Dozer, which were both seemed larger than life and were very visually stunning for the time.   Other than the Yellow Devil Mk II, you really don't get that.  On the other hand, it was pretty cool that the Yellow Devil and the cloning machines were callbacks to bosses from the original game. 

It is a shame why they didn't really at least give much explanation in-game for Protoman's schizophrenic behavior.   I think it possibly would have been more effective (or at least made slightly more sense) if they had you fight him a few times over the course of the beginning, and then have him help you (like he did in the original Gemini Man stage) during the Doc Robot stages. 

At this point it sounds like I'm down on the game, but I'm not, really.  Mega Man 3 is one of my favorite games of all time.   They did a great job of making the game a great entry point for the series, since the Robot Masters and their stages were challenging without being frustrating and the slide move made Mega Man far more maneuverable.  Looking at Mega Man 1, 2, 3 and 4 as a whole, I'd say that 3 probably has the lowest barrier of entry among them. 

Also, the Mega Man 3 is memorable because it influenced so much that came after it, since several of the elements (the slide, Protoman, Rush, Rush's transformations) persisted into the later games.  You could even argue that some of the stuff from Mega Man 3 (especially the slide, the ambigious enemy/ally like Protoman, and the animal-themed boss Snakeman) influenced the X series that would come three years later.   

As an aside, for years after the first few MMX games (when I still cared about the connections between the various series), I thought for sure that they would reveal that Zero was a refactored Protoman, especially since they strongly hinted that Zero was created by Wily.   I'm still a little disappointed they didn't go that route.

Also, thanks for the link to the rushjet1 stuff.  I really enjoyed it.  I don't know where they rank now, but I think that there is a reason that Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 were some of the most remixed games on OCRemix.  The chiptune music from this series was steps above and beyond most other game series from the very beginning. 

Lasty, I mentioned this in another recent Mega Man-related talkback thread, but I'm still amused whenever I think of Greg Leahy's comparison of Mega Man and Sylar from Heroes during an old episode of RFN.  (It's a dated reference by now, but I've never forgotten the comment because I found it so funny.) 

[Kwolf]

Since it's Thursday morning, thought I would post my final update.  Never got around to beating it, the week turned much more busy than I had hoped.    I hope to go back and finish though. I ended up going
Top - Shadow-Magnet- Spark- Snake.     After that I couldn't play much more cause of things going on.

I do have to say I agree with everyone else the slow down was pretty bad in some spots.   Yet I honestly used a lot of the slow down to my advantage.   Kinda plotting out my moves with it.  So it wasn't too bad.   I kinda felt like the game, at least what I played was easier than I remember.  Might be because I took it a bit slower and tried to learn the patterns, more than I probably did as a kid.

Still really enjoyed playing Mega Man 3.  It's also been a blast reading everyone's opinions and experiences.  Looking forward to hearing more on RFN.

[Pixelated Pixies]

So, I've also beaten this game today.
 
It's a Mega Man game. It's a good one. It's slightly better than some and not as good as others. It introduced a slide which was pretty cool. Proto Man sure is mysterious...ahhhm...what else?...Oh! The music is good...let me see, what else do I have here?...
 
*flips through Columbo style notepad*
 
Top spin sucks, blah blah blah, Rush turns into a submarine, the slow down is a bummer...The music is good...Oh, I said that already...ahhhm
 
Sorry guys, I've still got nothing interesting to say about this game, lol. What can I say? It's a classic Mega Man game. It's still fun, but it really doesn't illicit a strong emotion in me one way or the other.

[tyrian3]

it is hard to make any more comments than the others already (very well) expressed here. I'll add my personal feelings about the game. This game is a big part of my childhood, I played and loved 2 but I've always found 3 better, it was everything I loved from 2 but more and better. Loved the bosses, loved the return of the old ones (I'm a sucker for that kind of things!) and I even loved Protoman. Yes one could argue that there was the opportunity to do more with him but I liked how the game introduced us to this misterious new character and even developed a story in a very 8-bit 20 years ago kind of way
It is a game I still play from start to finish every now and then, I have a lot of nostalgia for it that's true but I also think it made a lot of things right. You could argue about 2 over 3 and viceversa, but I believe it's pretty easy to agree on that period being the pinnacle of the 8-bit Megaman era.

[Mop it up]

My path forward has always been Top Man > Shadow Man > Spark Man > Magnet Man > Hard Man > Snake Man (beat him with the Mega Buster) > Gemini Man > Needle Man.

The downside to this is that you get Rush Jet after beating Needle Man,

Unless you exploit the glitch to get Rush Jet after Shadow Man, which is what I always do.

But Top Man's power is probably the most frustrating ability this side of the Charge Kick considering you never know when it's going to make contact. In the final form of Wily, I spent a good 15 minutes dying repeatedly because I was trying to make the jump from the right platform and land Mega Man on top of Wily's sprite.

It's a good thing that Top Spin isn't Wily's only weakness...

[ClexYoshi]

So, I've also beaten this game today.
 
It's a Mega Man game. It's a good one. It's slightly better than some and not as good as others. It introduced a slide which was pretty cool. Proto Man sure is mysterious...ahhhm...what else?...Oh! The music is good...let me see, what else do I have here?...
 
*flips through Columbo style notepad*
 
Top spin sucks, blah blah blah, Rush turns into a submarine, the slow down is a bummer...The music is good...Oh, I said that already...ahhhm
 
Sorry guys, I've still got nothing interesting to say about this game, lol. What can I say? It's a classic Mega Man game. It's still fun, but it really doesn't illicit a strong emotion in me one way or the other.

Okay, I lied. PixPix, I made a post about how the top Spin is actually pretty awesome. XD seriously, I was trying to make my posts out to help folks like you who needed talking points that AREN'T talked out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPYHstNYOSM

[Shaymin]

It is a shame why they didn't really at least give much explanation in-game for Protoman's schizophrenic behavior.   I think it possibly would have been more effective (or at least made slightly more sense) if they had you fight him a few times over the course of the beginning, and then have him help you (like he did in the original Gemini Man stage) during the Doc Robot stages.

There's a very brief stage before you go to Wily's castle where you have the final fight, and he's called "Break Man" there.

Fighting him = Break Man
Gemini Man stage = Protoman

[tendoboy1984]

Meh, I prefer Mega Man 4. It has better music, better stage design, more creative Robot Masters (Skull Man), and more polished play mechanics.
 
And I'm serious about Mega Man 3 having a mediocre soundtrack. The actual compositions are decent, but the music has a weird "tinny" and metallic sound, a complete departure from Mega Man 2's music.
 
Last but not least - Whoever designed the Mega Buster sound effects after Mega Man 2 needs his ears checked. It's quite possibly the most grating sound of any NES game.

[Sundoulos]

 And I'm serious about Mega Man 3 having a mediocre soundtrack. The actual compositions are decent, but the music has a weird "tinny" and metallic sound, a complete departure from Mega Man 2's music.

I'd have to agree with that.  I love the rhythm of the music on most of the stages, but some of the instrument choices in some of MM3's stages are just weird.  I actually find some of the music on Hard Man's stage simply grating because of the sounds, but the sound choices in the rushjet1 remix make it pretty catchy.  I caught myself humming it at work the other day after listening to it in the background.

[jayar]

There's an awful lot of jumping and shooting.

[Mop it up]

That reminds me, why was Proto Man called Break Man on the select screen? Is that some sort of translation error or was there some other reason behind it?

[TJ Spyke]

That reminds me, why was Proto Man called Break Man on the select screen? Is that some sort of translation error or was there some other reason behind it?

Apparently it's supposed to be an alias to hide his identity from Dr. Light.

[Pandareus]

Just for the record: I beat the game properly last night, without using the save state. I feel much better about myself now.

Once you know what you're doing, the game isn't that hard. I guess I didn't want to deal with the trial-and-error process of discovery while playing two versions of the game in under a week.

[ClexYoshi]

Thank you, Gui. I have a friend who I got to play Mega Man 2 for the first time out of interest he got from the Archie comic, and he kinda just save stated his way through, and I think he really missed out because he really didn't take time to get intimate with the game in the way game overs and checkpoints would allow one to do so.

[noname2200]

It's definitely a different game with save states. The stages where you fight two of the past Robot Masters become a complete and utter pain in the ass, for starters...