Mega Man 3 was developed by Capcom and released in Japan in September 1990 and North America that November, arriving under a troubled production: original director Akira Kitamura had left the company, and his replacement, programmer Masahiko Kurokawa, clashed with the rest of the team over the series’ direction badly enough that lead artist Keiji Inafune ended up taking over the project partway through development. Inafune has since called it his least favorite entry in the series specifically because of that strained production, though the finished game still expanded meaningfully on its predecessor. It introduced two lasting series staples: Proto Man, Mega Man’s mysterious whistling rival, and Rush, a robotic dog companion who replaces the second game’s stationary Items with flexible vehicle forms Mega Man can summon on demand, alongside a new slide move and no cap on how many E-Tanks players can stockpile. Players again pick their own order through eight Robot Master stages and absorb their weapons, this time on the way to a story that eventually pits Mega Man against former ally Dr. Light’s creation gone wrong, in a game whose expanded toolkit and mechanics are still widely felt across the rest of the classic series.