Rockman X3

Rockman X3
Rockman X3's title screen.
Hack of	None
Publisher	Gamtec (?)
Developer	Gamtec (?)
Cart ID(s)	A regular Genesis cart with X3 poster on it
Original developer	Capcom
Console	Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Date	1996?
Retail price	Unknown
Engine	Mega Man: The Wily Wars (?)
Sound engine	Gamtec
Alternate names/hacks	X3X3X3X3

Rockman X3 is a bootleg port of the game with the same name, made for the Sega Mega Drive by Taiwan Sankyo Fundship Co., Ltd. that possibly used sound engine from Mega Man: The Wily Wars (developed by Minakuchi Engineering). There are two versions of this on the internet with slight differences between them, mostly being stage music.

Overview

Fighting Blizzard Buffalo on the intro stage, even though this didn't occur in the original game.

This game is a port of the Saturn version. Despite being a straight port, this game has many things missing from other versions, including the removal of Ride Armors, Toxic Seahorse, and Blast Hornet, as well as some stages leading to the wrong place, like Doppler Fortress leading to a modified version of Volt Catfish's stage instead. As well as this, all of the cutscenes from the original are missing and the rooms they take place in are empty. Some Mavericks appear on the wrong stages, such as Blizzard Buffalo appearing at the end of the intro stage. Pausing the game doesn't bring up the weapon select screen. The game still has the possibility for the player to expand X's life meter by picking up hearts scattered across levels, but if the player picks one up with an already full health bar, the game will crash.

The graphics are mostly ported from the original game, although the armor's sprite is taken from the first Mega Man X game. There are also many graphical glitches, including a large black space in the intro stage's background. The music tracks are original compositions based on the Saturn and PS1 mixes, as are the sound effects.

The game's raw tile data also suggests that other games' code was copy and pasted (tiles from Omega Race and Super Ping-Pong could be found, for instance), suggesting that this version may have been a work in progress that was shipped out unintentionally. There may be more updated versions present on multicarts. Alternatively, this may suggest that the game may have used an completely original engine.

The bosses in the game have a larger health bar, but they are easy to defeat because they deal little damage and lack invincibility frames. Some moves were also taken away from the Mavericks, and some are even colored incorrectly.

Differences from the original game

• Upgrade capsules, chips, Ride Armors, Toxic Seahorse, Blast Hornet, Dr. Cain, Zero, Bit, Byte, Vile Mk. II, and Sigma do not appear in this game.
• Instead pausing and select special weapons, Players can press Start and C to cycle through special weapons once a boss is defeated (Although the game only has 6 Mavericks, there are 8 special weapons available).
• Since Ride Armors are absent from this game, any obstacles that can be broken with a Ride Armor or special weapon are gone.
• Bosses lack invincibility frames and deal a lot less damage to X.
• Blizzard Buffalo appears in the intro stage as the boss. He is also unable to shoot an ice beam that will freeze X in place.
• Tunnel Rhino cannot turn invincible and appears in Doppler Fortress as the boss.
• The heart tank in Crush Crawfish's stage is located where two 1-Ups would be in the original game.
• Crush Crawfish's cutter projectiles can be destroyed.
• The intro stage is the only stage with a mini-boss. It is accessed by selecting the "X" portrait on the stage select.
• The enemy placements in each stage have been heavily altered.
• X starts with the ability to air dash horizontally and vertically. He can also air dash after a dash jump and can horizontally air dash after a vertical air dash.
• The crab enemies do not shoot projectiles or create energy shields when they are close to death.
• The X-Buster cannot destroy the missiles of the propeller enemies.
• The laser traps in Volt Catfish's stage can be destroyed with a fully charged shot.
• X can do an infinite amount of vertical air dashes, but he can only do a horizontal air dash once.
• X's sprite is based on the First Armor from Mega Man X instead of the Third Armor from Mega Man X3.
• The ice in Blizzard Buffalo's stage is not slippery.
• The heart tank in Tunnel Rhino's stage will respawn after you die even if you have already collected it.
• Beating Volt Catfish will not activate the lights in Blizzard Buffalo's stage; this change would not matter anyway because the ice does not hinder X's movement.
• Selecting Doppler Fortress will take the player to an altered version of Volt Catfish's stage. This stage's heart tank is located where the Body Upgrade in Volt Catfish's stage would be.
• Certain stages like the intro stage and Blizzard Buffalo do not have a heart tank.
• The purple tanks do not fire drills after being defeated. Their drills do not deflect your shots.
• The stage music does not change when you fight a boss. the music is random and the stage select uses the password theme.
• When X defeated, he is taken to a password screen, and then he goes back to the stage select.
• Players cannot exit stages they have already beaten.
• Gravity Beetle's Gravity Well does not generate a black hole at the top of the room like it should.
• When X gets hit, he stays in place instead of taking knockback. If he gets hit while doing a vertical air dash, he will freeze in midair unless you do another air dash.
• Volt Catfish does not use the generator in his room to shield himself, create sparks, or ram X when he's at half of his max health or lower.
• Neon Tiger cannot shield himself or perform an invincible dash attack.
• The boulder enemies in Tunnel Rhino and Blizzard Buffalo's stage can appear from the floor and the ceiling.
• In some cases, when the X fires a charged shot while climbing walls, his armor disappears for a short time.
• Too much movement can sometimes alter the background music's quality.
• X's buster shots turns blue in the fight with Blizzard Buffalo in the intro stage.

Gallery

Original box cover.

X3X3X3X3 box cover.

An original boxed copy of the game.

Back of the box.

An alternative box art with the title X3X3X3X3.

An X3X3X3X3 cart with a different box from another pirating outlet, presumably.

Original cartridge.

Original cartridge top.

Alternate cartridge.

Alternate cartridge top.

Reprint of the Sega Genesis cart.

Trivia

• The overall quality of the game is similar to BMB's games, both having poor controls, generic VGM music, but faithful graphics and gameplay to the original game.
  • However, BMB started developing Mega Drive games between 2011-2014.
• This game contains an anti-piracy mechanic: under certain conditions (such as improper/raw dump being run on an emulator), the game will show a (false?) "Decode Error" message. It is unknown what exact condition causes this error, although it can be bypassed using Game Genie master code AABA-AGAE. There is also a hidden crash debugger inside the game's code.