RockMan Zero 3 on the GBA keeps the tight, punishing action of the first two games but finally starts filling in some backstory—like why Zero woke up in a lab in the first game, or what the deal was with that war everyone keeps mentioning. You still dash-slash through robots and bosses that’ll wreck you if you button-mash, but now there are these little story scenes between missions that actually make the world feel less cryptic.

They tweaked the Cyber Elf system again (third time’s the charm, I guess?), so you don’t have to grind as much to power them up. And yeah, the double jump still feels perfect—like, you’ll miss it in every other platformer after playing this. The music’s all tense synth-rock, and the sprite work? Still some of the best on the GBA, especially when explosions fill the screen.

If you bounced off the first two because they felt a bit barebones story-wise, this one’s worth another shot. Just don’t expect the bosses to go easy on you.