• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mega Man 5 - Rock verses Blues

OnPoint

Member
Okay. I see most speedruns of MM2 on "Normal" mode unless they're playing the other version for some reason. I've beaten it on Difficult and it's not much harder, although I felt I needed to save some E-tanks for the end.

MM5 might be on the easy side, although it's not as stupid easy as people are claiming. What about Crystal Man's stage? Those falling crystals can kill you very easy. Also the Dark Mans are all pretty fast and aggressive. I think MM5 might be one of the ones that you can beat entirely with the Mega buster.

I wouldn't call it "stupid easy" by any stretch. You still have to play well and execute. Crystal Man's stage is definitely a spike for sure. Not my favorite part of the game haha
 
The Kirby's Adventure of Mega Man games.

Way too easy, but such a great example of graphics on NES, and it has a sublime soundtrack.

It's one of my favourite Mega Man games... Actually, it being a breeze means its more playable than some of the others.

I remember renting this the weekend it came out and beating it as a kid. Protoman as an enemy had me legit shook. Loved his stage music.

Even though it's easy, I'm glad you still like it. I'm replaying it now and it is pretty easy. But I still like it. And Kirby's Adventure is so easy that it gets kind of boring.

I wouldn't call it "stupid easy" by any stretch. You still have to play well and execute. Crystal Man's stage is definitely a spike for sure. Not my favorite part of the game haha

I agree. You can get through Crystal's stage with Super Arrow or Star Crash. Otherwise the falling crystals can knock you into a pit.
 

Gren

Member
If you ask me, Beat is totally busted in this one particular game.
Beat makes the Wily Capsule fight in MM5 almost trivial.

Huh, I never thought to use it for that. 5 is up next on my Legacy Collection playthrough, I'll remember to try that when I get there.
 
I just finished playing through MM5. I guess it is pretty easy. It's still fun to play though. I did get a few game overs anyway.
 
Megaman5_box.jpg


The Mega Man Retrospective continues! After the release of Mega Man 4, we got Mega Man 5 a year later and this game is a more 'simple' sequel compared to Mega Man 2 and 3. It has less new features, but it sticks with what works and it ends up being a great time because of that.

Development:
Right after Mega Man 4 release, development soon followed on a sequel game. Inafune continues working with the series and cities saying that he feels that Mega Man 5 was one of the more easier games in the series. In his own words, he did not want to "make an unreasonable game, an affront to the players".

The Team Behind Mega Man 5 includes the following:
Director - Ichirou Mihara
Producer - Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer - Ichirou Mihara
Programmer - Tadashi Kuwana
Artists - Keiji Inafune, Hayato Kaji, Naoya Tomita, Kazunori Tazaki, Kazushi Ito
Composer - Mari Yamaguchi

Considering they felt they stretched the core foundation as far as they could at this point, they just made everything 'better'. Mega Man's slide remained the same but they gave his charged shot more power thanks to Mega Man 4 sudo-villain, Dr. Cossack, upgrading his Mega Buster. He also made a little bird robot named 'Beat' which can help Mega Man attack foes when he is close to them.

4870124-58.gif


Some interesting information about Mega Man 5 is that the robot masters featured in that game are all based on creations over 130,000 Japanese gamers sent to Capcom thanks to a collaboration with Nintendo Power. This continued for a later installments of Mega Man Classic with the next game after this, Mega Man 6, having two of the robot masters be from western gamers for the first time!

The game released in December 4th, 1992 to solid scores and solid well for Capcom. One would thing this would be the final NES Mega Man title around this time period but we got Mega Man 6 a year later, which I will touch on when I make the Retrospective on that title.

Story:
After the events of Mega Man 4, Rock and Dr. Light are relaxing in his lab but when they go outside, what appears to be Protoman captures Dr. Light and Mega Man follows suit. Protoman is causing havoc across the world and goes after a series of robot masters Protoman took in; Star Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man, Stone Man, Crystal Man, Charge Man, Napalm Man, and Wave Man.

megaman5-introa.png


After defeating them, we head to Protoman's base of operations and it functions like the Dr. Cossack levels in Mega Man 4. After fighting Protoman, the original Protoman appears and we learn that the one causing all the problems is a creation from Dr. Light called 'Dark Man IV'.

We then head through Dr. Wily's Fortress and take him out, saving the day. Dr. Light escapes and Mega Man saves Dr. Light. All is well with the world, with Protoman watching over Dr. Wily's base being destroyed as Mega Man & Light escape.

Simple story and one that continues the 'Wily is not the main villian.....nah, we are just playing around. Take out that guy yet again.' It makes up play through more levels, so cool with that set up.

Gameplay:
Well....its more Mega Man Classic. Jump and shoot action with abilities from past games feeling good here. The charged buster shot is very powerful and makes fighting through the robot master levels & fighting them much easier compared to past games. We also get a little bird named Beat, which can attack foes that come close to Mega Man. He is very useful for fighting bosses and its a good idea to find him! You do so by exploring the different levels for M-E-G-A-M-A-N-V letters.

gfs_39664_2_2.jpg


Level gimmicks this time out continue to be interesting like past games, with Gravity Man having, well, gravity gimmicks that are tricky but fun to get through. My personal favorite robot master stage was Wave Man's level, were you get to ride a water craft until you get to the boss encounter.

megaman5.PNG


The fights themselves are fun and enjoyable, with different patterns like other Mega Man titles. What makes this fun is how the level gimmicks translate into the boss stages. Gravity Man pushes upside down and right side up as you fight him, so Mega Buster or Weakness, you have to watch your surroundings and movement.

Mega+Man+5_073.jpg


Some of the robot master powers are fun to play with, like the Star Shield though that isn't very effective. This mirrors the other powers, with them far less useful due to the stronger Mega Buster outside of Robot Master fights. This gets fixed in later games but it is a small issue here.

latest


We see that happen in other Mega Man games with Underwater fights, but its nice seeing the robot master bosses having new ways to fight them. The only downside is that they are very easy to fight, as thanks to Mega Man's powerful Charged shot, you can kill them quite fast compared to normal Mega Buster shots.

Tower Stages:
The Tower stages follow Mega Man 4 with them being easy but still very rewarding to get through. The first fortress has a nice haunted feel with the location being set in a drab castle.

gfs_39664_2_20.jpg


The second level is more high-tech with a lot of gimmicks to interact with. Spikes and Conveyor Belts common in this section.

latest


The final two Protoman castle levels is on the a rooftop and one where you fight the fake Protoman himself.

latest


The Wily Fortress is composed of four sections. The first one is a tricky section, with spikes being common and having you jump on spinning wheels.

latest


The second area is set in a pipe system flooded with water. This is a fun section, as this wasn't explored in past castle stages. The final two levels is a BOSS RUSH, with two fights with Wily. This part of the game is enjoyable due to the Wily fights being rewarding battles, with the final one being against this big tank with a skull design. The weakness for this? Spoiler:
Super Arrow

Overall, this was a fun set of tower levels to go through.

Presentation:
Did you enjoy the presentation of Mega Man 4? Well, its more of that! The game has bright colors and more space-like locations compared to past games, and I love space levels.

The robot master designs are great as well and show a lot of personality.

latest


Musically, we got a few nice tracks though I prefer the other NES soundtracks over this game. Something interesting to point out is that the Wily Fortress theme is composed by none other than Yoko Shimomura!
Crystal Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNMI-Vkrp_Q&index=3&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Gravity Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiKZ4AZR8A&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA&index=4
Charge Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C75Q7bdQAQA&index=10&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Wave Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0_v340OPM&index=9&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Wily Fortress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5YIJ_-WlNM&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA&index=21
Evil Protoman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZS5V8o5p2Y&index=18&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Protoman Fortress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cuDFYZXw0c&index=26&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA

Overall:
I had a great time playing this for the first time! The gameplay is more Mega Man and after having some issues with Mega Man 4, having a more calmer and relaxed pace with this ones easy difficulty was nice. I enjoyed revisiting Mega Man 4 and honestly prefer that to this, but I enjoyed my time with Mega Man 5 a great deal. Highly recommend this if you want a fun adventure with the Blue Bomber.

latest


Next up is a game I really want to cover; Mega Man 6. Never played this either, so this should be a lot of fun to try out!

FIrst of all Inafune had nothing to do with MM other than being an artist in Megaman 5. Get used to me attacking him, because I don't like him.

Some things I think you missed:

Megamans Charge shot now loses charge when hit. I don't know if you noticed this but it makes the game more frustrating than 4.

Dark Robots are based on the doc robots of 2, which is why the main Dark Robot could change into protoman.

You can go back to stages while at the fortress without the fortress resetting.
 

RK128

Member
FIrst of all Inafune had nothing to do with MM other than being an artist in Megaman 5. Get used to me attacking him, because I don't like him.

Some things I think you missed:

Megamans Charge shot now loses charge when hit. I don't know if you noticed this but it makes the game more frustrating than 4.

Dark Robots are based on the doc robots of 2, which is why the main Dark Robot could change into protoman.

You can go back to stages while at the fortress without the fortress resetting.

I got that impression with your comments in the X4 Retrospective. I understand completely though and I appreciate having a different mindset then mine covering the series :).

Will be adding your points in the OP right now, so thank you for the information.
 
Does anyone "in the know" know why they didn't put out a mainline SNES Mega Man until 1995? Mega Man 5 and 6 were both put out well into the SNES lifespan. It seems like dropping a SNES Mega Man game in 91 or 92 would have helped the SNES a great deal when it was getting its ass kicked by the Genesis.
 

RK128

Member
Does anyone "in the know" know why they didn't put out a mainline SNES Mega Man until 1995? Mega Man 5 and 6 were both put out well into the SNES lifespan. It seems like dropping a SNES Mega Man game in 91 or 92 would have helped the SNES a great deal when it was getting its ass kicked by the Genesis.

I'm not in the know, but they likely made MM5 & MM6 on the NES instead of the Super Nintendo for the same reason Mega Man and Bass happened; to try and sell games on older systems that more gamers in Japan & other markets owned.
 
Top Bottom