X3

Plot

Here's where the X series' story starts to get loopy. A brilliant reploid scientist named Dr. Doppler figures out the secret behind his brethen going "Maverick"... the devil makes them do it. More specifically, a virus. Doppler comes up with a vaccine for the virus, and everyone is happily looking forward to the construction of "Dopplertown", a place where humans and reploids can live in peace. Everyone, that is, except for Billy. He hates happy people because he's so miserable. But that's another story.

In no time at all, the vaccine proves itself useless when Doppler himself goes Maverick. X and Zero must find Doppler, blah blah blah. Their search leads them to some interesting places and situations...including fights with two reploids named Bit and Byte, and an unwanted reunion with Vile, King of the Boba Fett cosplayers.

Eventually, X and Zero find and trash Doppler, who reveals he was under Sigma's control. Plus, Doppler's gone ahead and built a nifty new body for Sigma. I guarantee the fight with him will be hell.

X meets up with Sigma (Zero chickens out somewhere). They banter about the "Eternal Struggle" (no, it doesn't invlove Homer Simpson and his pants) and fight. Sigma loses, and reveals his flashy pink and blue battle armour. Eeeew, somebody call the fashion police.

It's a tough, tough battle but X wins cuz he's good. Then you throw your controller at the screen because Sigma reveals his true form: a virus. The virus chases X up a wall, literally, and traps him. The story can branch off here a bit: If Zero's remained alive through the whole game, he'll jump in and rip up Sigma. If Zero's D-E-D, Doppler will redeem himself by blowing up and taking Sigma with him. Now THAT'S what Jesus would do.

X3's ending makes mention of X having to destroy Zero to save mankind. Does it happen? Not really.


Commentary

A good, solid game. Very hard to find a copy for the SNES. Sealed, Megaman X3 can fetch a hefty sum on Ebay. It used to fetch a lot more in the days before the game could be emulated. X3's music and graphics were a step down from X2's, but seeing as how it was the end of the SNES's reign and games were scarce, who cared? I enjoyed it, overall. Much more than X2.


Extras

X3 had a large variety of "Ride Armours" which included the Kangaroo, Chimera, Hawk, Frog, and Goliath. A chimera, for those fortunate enough to have a life and be ignorant of Greek myth, was a female creature that was part goat, part lion, and part dragon. She was the offspring of a Gorgon and Typhon, god of hurricanes.

"The Goliath" was actually called "The Brown Bear" in Japan. You rarely see anything in America changed TO a Biblical reference. I wonder why the change was made.

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