Part 8: Bubble or Nothing
Ah yes, here’s Bubble Crab. A distant relative of Pirate Man, if his strategy is anything to go by. Anyway, Bubble Crab has a giant robot fish, which I assume is doing terrible things to the sea trade routes. But like all things, said fish is weak to being shot by a variety of weapons.
Part 9: Trash Moth
There’s only one Maverick left to take care of, and it’s the guy who eats trash. Although given the context, he does eat corpses, which makes him actually pretty terrifying. If not for the giant tank leveling a town, I would think that maybe Morph Moth should have gone first.
Part 10: Cleanup at the Gator Tank
Guess what time it is? That’s right, it’s cleanup time! And it appears X took a strange route, because he’s picked up just about all of the distinct upgrades, and all that’s left is a few hearts here and there. Including one I couldn’t have gotten without doubling back no matter what.
Part 11: Ex-Hunters
The X Hunters have lost their Mavericks, and with all of Zero’s parts safe with Dr. Cain, all they can do now is lick their wounds and prepare for X to take the fight to them. And, well, X has already defeated all three X Hunters once already. How hard could it be to do it again?
Part 12: Sure You Can
Well, there’s one more X Hunter and eight rebuilt Mavericks left. This all seems like it’s in the bag for 'ol X. I’m sure there’s nobody else behind the scenes, and certainly nobody who already announced their plans to return from the dead at the end of the last game.
Part 13: The Uncanny Sigma
Ah. With the X-Hunters out of the way, there’s Sigma. Okay, once we’re done with him, then we can go home.
Bonus Part: Zero, But Mean
Mega Man X2 is done, but there is an alternate finale for failing to defeat all of the X-Hunters. Are you familiar with that “illusion of choice” meme, though? Because that’s about what you should expect for the divergence in this game.
It seems the threat of Mavericks is over and done with! A Reploid scientist by the name of Dr. Doppler has figured out a way to suppress Maverick abnormalities, thus ensuring the safety of Reploids and Humans alike. Everyone was so overjoyed that they decided to found Dopple Town, which promises to be a perfect utopia. One problem: Mavericks have not been dealt with, and now there are a whole lot of them rampaging around Dopple Town under the command of Dr. Doppler himself. Well, damn. With a new threat in play, X and Zero move out to suppress the threat of Doppler’s minions, before they get too out of hand.
Welcome to Mega Man X3! Hey, you know how Mega Man X2 didn’t have enough time to bake, and was kinda so-so compared to X1? Well, here we go again! X3 did not have that long of a development time after X2, but it shows… differently than it did in X2. Where X2 was a bit too short for its own good, X3 can feel a little drawn out in places without enough substance to make it feel worthwhile. And one of its major mechanics, the ability to play as Zero, wound up being too restrictive to be fun. So good news if you were disappointed by that: this LP uses a hack designed to make it easier and more worthwhile to play as Zero! So while X3 still isn’t my favorite X game, we at least have this. And it does make things much more enjoyable.
Part 1: Mac vs Me
Part 2: Poiso-Neigh-s Water
X starts his battle against Doppler’s forces by making sure the innocent humans in Dopple Town can actually get a drink. Toxic Seahorse has taken over the city’s dam, and must be stopped to ensure that nobody dies of thirst. Thankfully, none of the water has been contaminated, despite the name and assumed abilities of today’s Maverick.
Part 3: Neon and On
Da da da, da da da da da, da da da, da da da da da. Da da da, da da da da da, da da da.
Sorry, went into a fugue state for a bit there. Why is Zero in the jungle, and why is he fighting a tiger?
Part 4: Rhino Can Do
With Zero off doing god-knows-what in that jungle I don’t want to listen to, X moves on to the caverns where Tunnel Rhino dwells. This Maverick has occupied a rock quarry to… be there. I don’t know if he’s, like, doing anything in particular. But if he drills too many tunnels something will probably collapse, and in the meantime nobody in Dopple Town will be able to get rocks if they need them! Oh no!
Part 5: Blast Corpse
Today, Zero must go after a Reploid who worked directly under him. Before the incident went down, Blast Hornet had left for Dopple Town in Zero’s place. And, well, then Virus stuff happened, and now we have to blow him up. Truly, this will be a tragic battle against a big robot bee that can shoot smaller bees.
Part 6: High Tide Voltage
X is off to take down Volt Catfish, who’s a one-Reploid power generator that once provided power to Dopple Town. But now that he’s a Maverick, all that energy is going from the power plant to the mad doctor’s lab. So, it’s time to take advantage of the fact that the entire city’s power source is built into one very-shootable robot.
Part 7: Big Grav Beetle Boss
Boomer Kuwanger’s older brother has arrived to take revenge on Zero for killing his brother. I guess he’d also be fine fighting X, considering X also killed his brother in the boss rush. Either way, Gravity Beetle is intent on taking down a Maverick Hunter today. Zero, on the other hand, is just here to defend his title in fighting beetle robots.
Part 8: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
Blizzard Buffalo has frozen a city. That’s… pretty much all the reason you need to go after him, huh? X is going to do just that today, as he traverses the icy cityscape to take on everyone’s favorite ski slope security guard.
Part 9: Zero Gets Something Stuck in His Crawfish
We’ve got a few things to clean up in today’s mission. First, there’s a big shrimp with even bigger claws that’s a threat to anyone in his vicinity. However, it seems one of the other Mavericks Doppler hired is hanging around the docks, and it’s a face Zero probably isn’t keen on seeing again.
Part 10: Head Hunting
Wow, that time already? Yes, we’ve once again reached cleanup time! We have more to get than we did at this point in X2, and there’s even a few capsules we’re not bothering with for… reasons.
Part 11: O, Inary, Where Art Thou?
With cleanup out of the way, it’s time for X and Zero to move on to their final destination: Dr. Doppler’s Laboratory. Together, they must tackle the remaining the remaining Reploids under Doppler’s command. Which happens to include the Nightmare Police and Vile, considering we never actually killed them.
Part 12: Captain Sigma
It’s boss rush time once again! The rebuilt Mavericks stand in between Zero and Doppler, but of course that’s not quite who the final battle will be against. While Zero fights the mad doctor, X will be heading in to destroy Sigma’s new battle body.
Bonus Part: Mosqui-toeing the Line
Mega Man X3 is done, but there’s a few alternate features to look at. No, it’s not just fighting Zero this time. We gotta kill the Nightmare Police and Vile early, which actually makes more of a change than we saw in X2. Unfortunately for Zero, the alternate Doppler path does not contain one of his finer moments.