Mega Man 3/Items

There are a number of items in Mega Man 3, most of which have appeared in the other NES Mega Man games.

In-level items

 * Energy tank – A blue canister with an E on it. Using one of these will recover all of your health meter. They can't be found from defeating enemies and are always in a fixed location in levels, usually kind of tough or tricky to get to. You can have up to 9 of them in your inventory.
 * Surprise cans or ?-cans - shoot them and obtain a random item.
 * Life Energy pellets – A flashing black/white dot. These will restore some of your health meter, and they come in 2 sizes, small and large. Small ones recover about 2 units, big ones recover about 8.
 * Weapon Energy pellets – A blue/green dot/oval-shaped object. These restore some energy to one of your special weapons, and also come in 2 sizes. Note that you MUST equip the special weapon you want to recover energy for in order for it to have any effect.
 * Extra Life – Looks like Mega Man's head. Self-explanatory, it gives you an extra life. You can have up to 9 of them in reserve.

Rush items

 * Rush Coil – You start the game with this. Rush transforms into a springboard and can catapult Mega Man to great heights. Vital for scaling some otherwise unsurpassable obstacles.
 * Rush Marine – Get this by beating Shadow Man. Rush turns into a submarine. Very nice to have in aquatic levels/sections of levels. There are three stages where it can be used: Gemini Man's, Gemini Man Revisited and the first Skull Fortress stage.
 * Rush Jet – Get this by beating Needle Man. Rush turns into a jet platform, and you can freely control him around the screen. Great for scaling areas filled with bottomless pits and spikes.

Gallery
E-cans always take the color scheme of Mega Man's active weapon.
 * Energy cans

Evolution of surprise cans
Surprise cans are introduced in Mega Man 3 and featured in this game only. Anyway, they are not unique in the series. In fact, in later games they are replaced by other items with the same characteristics:
 * 1) they contain a random item;
 * 2) they appear at fixed locations;
 * 3) they cannot be transported.