This post is part of a series of deep dives into Mega Man X 3. In this piece, we analyze the game’s boss battles.

Here are the links to the rest of the deep dives:

• Weapons
• Story
• Environmental Storytelling
• Miscellaneous

Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains content that some may deem as spoilers. You have been warned

The Eight Mavericks

The Eight Mavericks in X3 are not bad, but they’re not all necessarily worth commenting on. They lack the gimmicks that defined most of the bosses in X2, though a few of them are reminiscent of X2 in the sense that they are too much of a pain to fight without their weapon weakness. Overall, I’d say they’re a pretty standard mix of “easy” and “tough”, with straightforward attack patterns.

However, I want to comment on just a few fights that stood out for one reason or another.

Desperation Attacks

Mega Man X introduces a concept that I (and I think others) call “Desperation Attacks”. Basically, when a boss’ health gets low enough, sometimes they being using some new attack. Sometimes it’s extra fast, or powerful, or sometimes the boss is invincible while doing it. The idea is to not just throw you off, but to try and take you out before you get your bearings straight.

I can’t think of any characters that use Desperation Attacks in X1, but it does show up in X2, with Wire Sponge.

In X3, it is expanded upon, with multiple bosses having a Desperation Attack of some sort.

Blizzard Buffalo

Mega Man games always embrace the concept of a “Perfect Run”, where you fight each boss in a specific order such that you can fight them with their weapon weakness. Of course, the idea of the “Perfect Run” is not technically perfect, since you cannot use a special weakness against the first boss you face.

This is a fact that the franchise’s various developers seem to have been aware of over time, as most Mega Man games have at least one boss that is demonstrably easier to fight than the others. Maybe they don’t deal much damage, or they are easy to dodge. Maybe they take more damage from the standard Buster than other foes. Whatever the case, these bosses are typically chosen by fans as the first fight in a Perfect Run.

I’m starting to ramble now, so let’s get to the point. Blizzard Buffalo is a very popular choice as the first boss to beat in X3, but the choice is based on a variety of factors beyond mere difficulty (including the fact that his weapon makes it easier to regain health, and his stage contains the leg armor upgrade). Blizzard Buffalo is arguably not the easiest fight in the game. I’d describe it more as being doable with stock health and the X-Buster, but not exactly a cakewalk. It is also a pretty well designed fight.

This battle takes place in one of those extra long boss chambers, which gives him room to do his charge attack, where he literally charges at you from one end of the room to the other. This is his favorite move, since it deals quite a lot of damage, especially if he manages to gore you against his horn and pin you against the wall (apparently this happens if you are too close to him before the attack).

As you might imagine, the way to defend against this move is to wall jump over Buffalo, which is where his other attacks come into play. I would describe them as “support”, in the sense that they all serve in support of his charge attack. One tries to freeze you in place, and the other tries to box you in with ice formations. The idea in either case is to try to keep you from getting to the safety of the wall. And even if you get there, and even if you jump over him safely, Buffalo is fond of immediately following his charge attack with another charge attack. The only way to avoid it is to time your wall jump just right, and to then start dashing to the opposite wall almost immediately, meaning you have very little time in which to get in an attack.

The key to this fight is timing. You have to know exactly when to wall jump, and exactly when to move. I found after two or three tries it “clicked” in such a way that I could finish the fight while taking very little damage. It is one of those fights that looks daunting at first, but doesn’t actually take too long to master. Once you do, it feels incredibly empowering to wipe the floor with your opponent. For all these reasons, Blizzard Buffalo is a great starting fight. Many other MMX bosses have a “signature move”, but this is one of the only fights I can think of that does such a good job of centering everything around that move, rather than it simply being an attack that the boss favors, but which is performed in isolation.

Tunnel Rhino

This is the easiest fight in the game, and I only wish to point it out because of how much of a joke it is. Like Blizzard Buffalo, Tunnel Rhino also charges from one side of the room to the other. Unlike Buffalo, this fight takes place on a standard sized stage, which robs the attack of any element of surprise. It is also slow and much easier to dodge. It almost feels like this whole battle was an afterthought. Not only is it too close in style to another boss, but it feels almost laughably easy. Then there is the fact that his weapon is trash for offensive purposes.

Poor Tunnel Rhino. At least his weapon helps us obtain secrets!

Oh, while I am still here, Tunnel Rhino is one of those characters with a Despration Attack. He … wait for it … moves from one side of the screen to another. But now he’s invincible!

He’s … he’s just not trying.

Blast Hornet

This is peculiar fight. It is among the hardest of the eight Mavericks, but it doesn’t feel like it should be. His attack patterns aren’t too hard to deal with; I mean, always get hit by them, but not that much.

What makes this fight so hard is that Blast Hornet is a bee, and his stinger deals an absurd amount of damage. Unless you have full health, full armor, etc, there is almost no margin for error against this guy. That’s a shame, because I think this could have been one of the most engaging X-Buster only fights in the entire series if the damage was dialed down just a smidge.

Other Bosses

As it turns out, the best boss fights in X3 are against everyone other than the eight Mavericks. Let’s dig in.

Bit and Byte

I like these two battles a lot, though as I write this, I realize that they are both variations on a theme. Like Blizzard Buffalo and Tunnel Rhino, these are two more fights where the boss basically moves from one end of the room to the other, trying to attack by running into you. Yet the developers took this very simple concept and executed it in two very different ways, resulting in two fights that feel more different than alike.

Bit

With Bit, we have a character who throws both projectiles and himself at the player. The catch is that he launches his attacks at different heights, all in an effort to fake you out and trick you into jumping (or not jumping) when you shouldn’t. If you don’t figure out the patterns that dictates whether he attacks high or low, then you better have his weapon weakness, otherwise you will get creamed. I’d say this is one of the tougher fights in the game, but I am impressed at just how much such simple attack patterns were able to mess with my head.

Byte

Byte tries to overwhelm you with his sheer size. He charges at either wall, and the only way to get around it is to wall jump over him. Except, even if you perform a wall jump that technically clears the top his head, and should be safe, if you are close enough to him then he will still get you by swinging his massive fist, which in turn will send you crashing up into the ceiling for extra damage.

Just to sweeten the deal, Byte also throws little magnets onto the wall that try to keep you on the wall should you try to jump off. Basically, you can’t jump as far off, which makes it even harder to get around him.

This is one of those fights where you really have to get into a rhythm. I’ve had bouts with Byte where he barely touched me, and others where I couldn’t get out of my own way. Once - or if - you get into a good groove, it becomes manageable, especially if you have his weakness.

Vile Mk II

The rematch with Vile is underwhelming. It is basically a repeat of his fight in X1. He starts off in a Ride Armor, which you just wall jump over and occasionally attack. Once defeated, he fights you on foot, where his attacks are simply enhanced versions of his attacks from X1. It is still a tough fight, however, as his attacks are highly damaging.

What really makes battle turn sour is just how much ceremony and BS surrounds it. Unlike the other two Nightmare Police, Vile is an optional fight. There are three teleporters in three specific stages which will take you to his lair. Once you get there, you have to go through a mini-platforming level with hazards:

Then, once you beat him, you have to do another mini-platforming level as his lair self-destructs (meaning you have a timer). It feels like a bad attempt at adding hype and menace to the character. All it really does it make it more frustrating. Imagine beating Vile by the skin of your teeth, only to lose your last life on the escape?

Endgame bosses

Mega Man X3 has a bunch of different alternate bosses that can appear in the final fortress, based on how some of your earlier fights play out.

For instance, if you do not beat both Bit and Byte with their weapon weakness, they show up again for a rematch, this time fusing together into this monstrosity named … Godkarmachine O Inary? No, there are no typos in that name.

It’s attacks are sort of an amalgamation of Bit and Byte’s. It’s honestly not too bad all things considered.

On the other thand, if you defeated both of them using their weakness, then you are treated to this weird thing instead:

Not gonna lie folks - I think trash bot here is a tougher fight.

Similarly, if you don’t beat Vile Mk II with his weakness, you get a rematch, in which Vile has an even crazier Ride Armor:

The fight still plays out mostly the same as before, only Vile hits harder. He really isn’t giving 100% during this game.

Anyway, if you did use his weakness, you instead fight this underwater boss:

It’s an okay fight I guess.

Kaiser Sigma

The only one of Sigma’s forms worth mentioning is his final form. Some people say it is the hardest in the series. Others say it is the easiest. I think it is both!

First off, credit is due - Kaiser Sigma is living large. Just look at the size of him.

Now about how to fight him. I feel like Captain Obvious playing a broken record when I say this, but this is a fight where it is relatively easy to dodge Sigma’s attacks, provided that all you do is focus on dodging attacks. It’s the whole “firing back” thing that makes it so hard.

This is largely due to Sigma’s hitbox. His tiny little head is his only weak point, but other parts of his body (including everything below the head) will go so far as to absorb your attacks. If your aim is off just a little bit, you won’t deal any damage. Add in the fact that he is frequently moving, and you have to devote a lot of brain power to timing and aiming.

That, of course, means less brain power devoted to defense, which means you will get hit and die and may even start to hate this fight.

There is a small trick that helps out – if you aim for the vents on his shoulders, rather than his head, you will have a better chance of landing a hit. It makes it so that the bottom of your charged shot (he’s only weak to the charged X-Buster) connects with his head, making it less likely that it gets absorbed by his body armor. It helps, but it is still doesn’t make for a guaranteed, 100% chance of a hit.

This is actually a fight where victory comes from taking your time. If you can get to a point where you can safely dodge his attacks when you focus 100% on defense, then you can slowly bide your time, and pop in for an attack only when it feels positively safe to do so.

Overall, I am not a fan of this boss design. I get that this is a game that rewards players who experiment and explore, but the final boss is not the time to challenge a player’s ability to analyze a nonstandard hitbox. Once you get it, you get it, but until then this can be an exercise in frustration.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a good set of bosses. Even when they get tough, they feel beatable, and that goes a long way toward their likeability. What holds it back from true greatness are the handful of fights that are either too easy, too boring, or too frustrating. To be fair, I suppose that most Mega Man games have at least a few bosses that fall into one of these categories, so X3 is playing par for the course in that regard.