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...some changes to the original

The palette is done correctly, it does not hurt the eyes.

Level Design - done honestly and correctly. The difficulty goes up moderately. And thanks to this, the hack can be passed, although not in one breath, but it will not cause problems either.

It feels a little more complicated than the original, but not too much.

If you want to have a good time - this hack is suitable for everyone (even for developing skills for other games)

Mega Man 3 Rise and Fall of Dr. Wily

Levels: Good

Graphics: Okay (Palette Change)

Music: No Change

Enemies: No Change

Bosses: No Change

Weapons: No Change

Castle: Good

Difficulty: MEDIUM (Doc Robot Stages are MEDIUM-HARD)

Comments: Rise and Fall does a decent job of turning up the difficulty of Mega Man 3, but don't expect too much from it. Level design is fairly good across the board but relies a bit too much on having spikes everywhere and knocking you off of 1-block-wide platforms. It's a pretty good challenge, especially in the Doc Robot stages, though that's largely because they're lacking in E-tanks. Wily Castle on the other hand is mostly a victory lap that's surprisingly easy for all the grief it puts you through earlier. Not too shabby, but very very vanilla—with more spikes.

This is an incredible Mega Man 3 hack!

This is the prime example of a great hack that doesn't resort to ASM hacking. As far as I'm aware, there is no ASM hacking in this hack, but it uses whatever it can with its limited resources.

What a lot of people seem to forget is that ASM hacking isn't needed. But what pisses me off even more is that apparently some people think it's a free pass for absolutely atrocious level design!

I have never once found a good Castlevania 1 or Mega Man 1 ROM hack because no one seems to wrap this idea around their head.

When I played Rockman Claw, I was really excited because it said in the description about all the different custom things it put in the game, including AI, graphics, Sprites, music, levels, etc, and promised a completely new experience. Well... yeah, a really bad one! The level design was terrible.

This hack, however, just changes the levels and palettes, which is all I ever ask for in a level hack. It's a more challenging version of the original Mega Man 3, and when I played through, it was the most fun I had in so long, after all the disappointments of CV1 and MM1 hacks I've played.

The level design is beautiful and works very well. He also put in enemies that normally didn't appear in certain stages in those stages, which I thought was a nice touch. There were also parts in the game that required to make use of certain skills that you never did in the original MM3, such as using the level design to your advantage. It's really cool that this hack does this.

My favourite stage was the Spark Man stage. Not only did he put beautiful palettes for it, but it was full of challenging jumps, and parts that you had to slide under spikes, and you had to be standing almost touching them in order to make them. I always love challenge, and I never felt like the hack was unfair. (Except in the Needle Man Doc Robot stage where you had to fly through with Rush. I have to admit THAT was frustrating and kind of unfair, but other than that, just about every part of this hack feels fair, and if you die, it's your fault).

I absolutely love this hack! It's amazing that this guy made such good use out of his limited resources (meaning no assembly hacking). To be honest, for the most part, I don't really like it when people do things like changing the music or making custom sprites. I think custom sprites generally feel out of place, and when I'm playing a ROM hack, I want to feel psychologically that I'm playing the same game, and having the same music somehow retains that authenticity in my mind. Different music changes the feel by an incomprehensible amount, it's ridiculous.

To me, THIS is a ROM hack. Level hacks to me are what actual ROM hacks are. Playing just about the same game, but with different level layout, and possibly a different palette. Doing other things is more than ROM hacking. When the sprites and music are different, it doesn't even feel like you're playing the same game any more.

I want to see more hacks like this, because this is incredible! Remember guys, flashy ASM is NEVER a quality gameplay supplement. Don't even think that for a second!

Go play this hack right now!