Mega Man III GAMEBOY

Mega Man III, released on Game Boy in 1992, keeps the series’ handheld formula going by drawing four bosses from Mega Man 3 on NES and pairing them, once again, with four original Robot Masters built specifically for this game — by this third entry the series had settled into a reliable rhythm of “familiar faces, new challenge” that Game Boy owners had come to expect.

It’s also the point where the Game Boy sub-series starts pulling mechanics forward from more recent NES entries rather than lagging behind — the slide maneuver, introduced on NES in Mega Man 3, appears here, giving Mega Man more room to dodge in the tighter spaces this game’s level design sometimes calls for. The Rush support-robot system also carries over, letting Mega Man briefly become a makeshift vehicle or platform depending on which Rush Adapter is equipped.

One more Game Boy entry, Mega Man IV, would follow in 1993 before the handheld sub-series wrapped up, by which point it had quietly built its own small roster of original Robot Masters that never appeared in any mainline NES or later game.