I think another reason why MM5 is so overlooked is because it only lasted a year being the new game prior to it being overshadowed by X1 and we all know how iconic X1 is, so MM5 simply wasn't given enough time to build a legacy, sadly.
And just the SNES in general. Most NES kids were moving on to the SNES after it was released in 1991 (Christmas for me) and never experienced the latter trilogy. I didn't know anything beyond Mega Man 3 even existed until sometime in college when the NES collection was released on XBOX (yes, I'm old)
See, I never owned an SNES, and SNES emulation was tricky to get working right in those early years, so I ended up trying a lot of late-gen NES ROMs with no idea the cartridges they were dumped from would become overlooked and rare and expensive over time!
I have had this idea in my head for years now that a large part of the reason why people say the latter Mega Man NES titles are "bad" is because they play the games in order on a modern collection and are burned out by the time the latter half of games roll around. I don't think any of the original games are anything less than great if you judge them individually and don't just compare them to, say, MM2.
I agree. I told a friend he should play the NES Mega Man games in reverse. The result? Mega Man 4, 5 and 6 are his favorites, and he thinks all the other NES games are just bland downgrades! see how the order you play them and perspective matters. It even makes sense though, I can't see anything the previous games did better than Mega Man 5 or 6, they're superior in every way, especially graphics, maybe not music, but everything else is great. People are just extremely biased towards the first 4 games.
Also I find it quite annoying how ridiculous Mega Man players opinions usually are. Like "Mega Man 4 is the best because it added the charged shot!! Mega Man 5 and 6 also have the charged shot, but they didn't add it, so they're worse!!"" it feels like talking to children. Personally I think all six of the NES MM games were great, and it's a damn shame that people ignore them after 3 just because they play similarly. One of the reasons I love MM (especially classic) is because it doesn't fix what isn't broken. They're solid as they are, and I think not every game series needs to innovate to the point that it becomes unrecognizable. There's something to be said for finding a fun formula and sticking with it.
You can see a great example of that on this very channel. J reviewed every game from the Zero/ZX collection in order some years ago and by the time he got to ZXA he was completely burned out and made the most dogshit review ever, to the point where he even apologized for it later. ZXA is a game with a ton of content in sidequests, challenges, minigames, extra difficulty modes and two different story modes with gameplay variations. It kept me entertained for years when I got it as a kid, but if you get to it after five other games that you played back to back with a very similar structure and gameplay then you're already tired of the game before you even press start.
@DOC_951 It's 50-50. He has said that 5 is one of the most well-made Megaman titles, but he not only understands why this is not a title that anyone will remember, he himself will not think much of this title after he played it. The 4-6 trilogy is just too clean to have any impact. So, idk. Maybe he has defended the title, or maybe he is commenting about the sad fate of the NES sequel trilogy. I will agree with you on the fact that he is not a defender on the game. Big difference between an active defender vs. a comment that he acknowledges.
The only thing I don't like in it are the weapons, most of them are weaker than the buster which makes them pretty much useless. Everything else though is amazing, love this game.
Dr Light just wanted to do his hobbies. Wiley was just a boring person that uses manipulation to antagonize and disrupt others. Smart people don't make extra work for themselves.
That stage design really is just gorgeous. There are so many vibrant colors on display that if I didn't know better, I could almost mistake them for early 16-bit.
When I first played Mega Man 5, I found it to be my favourite NES Mega Man game simply because of how well designed it was, the story and the overall game. I'm glad Mega Man 5 is being looked back in a more positive light.
MM6 also makes the charge shot act like the MM4 charge shot: get destroyed when hitting an enemy with the exact same health as the damage the shot deals.
For my problem for MM5 is that I don't find the robot master weapons that enjoyable so I find myself using the charge shot and sadly that means the ost gets overshadow from the charge shot sfx.
Are you playing a non NES version? Back in 1994 (when I finally managed to play MM5) the biggest upgrade for me was the fact that the Mega Buster was easy to silence in MM5 and I could finally be able to enjoy the music. That was the only reason I barely charged shots in MM4, but it was no problem in 5 and 6.
Mega Man 5 was always my favorite of the NES games. It could be because that's the one i had growing up, but I think its because I played the first couple X series games first. MM5 relying more on the charge shot was closer to how I played MMX, so it just felt like a natural step backwards in what I enjoyed. Excellent review, looking forward to MM6!
Yeah, the second half of the NES games feel a lot more natural to X fans I've noticed. Which makes sense considering X was sort of the next gen version of Mega Man, before they just continued making classic games. My favorites are 2-4 as I started in order.
One thing I like about Megaman 5 was the Robot Masters character designs. Each of them look unique, and their silhouettes are different from one another. Chargeman is my favorite design wise and stage theme. The boss fights could have been better and the powers mostly lack luster and redundant.
It’s very easy to overlook Megaman 5 as a neglected middle child but you cannot deny that it is better designed and a bit more fleshed out than the first three games and even having improved graphics for NES standards. It’s a shame how Dr. Cossack is immediately tossed aside and even get a mention unless you read the manual, he also plays no part in the series after 5 either sadly. Also is the Jet Ski section in Wave Man’s stage the very first instance of a Ride Chaser before Megaman X? It’s no wonder J didn’t like it lol, but the challenge feels more fair than say, X5 Volt Kraken, X7 Ride Boarski, and especially X8 Avalanche Yeti and Gigavolt Man-O-War. Overdrive Ostrich and Jet Stingray aren’t too bad.
@@alexandreturcotte6411 I see it both ways, if u have a new weapon u didn't have before doing the 8 stages, then u get to see how it performs against the 8 bosses adding to the fun factor, but if there's no new weapon's you'll really feel the game is just padding things most of the time
@@panthekirb7561 J has literally never complained about them being too difficult, the problem is entirely with them being exceedingly boring. In fact the lack of difficulty in part due to the weaknesses is probably a big part of the reason they are so boring.
@@videogamingfreak13 They aren't boring though. If your brain isn't stimulated from destroying robot masters then mega man just isn't the type of game for you.
I’ll also look at Mega Man 5 as a good game. I just get a bit more critical of it when I have to compare it to other *Mega Man* games. Despite that, I don’t see it as a forgettable game, I personally always remembered as “the game with THAT charged shot” because I often find myself using that over the special weapons most of the time(probably because the water wave, charge kick and power stone are just bad). Still fun game ⭐️, Napalm Man’s the GOAT
I definitely see where you're coming from. For example, I find Mega Man 1 to be pretty rough compared to the other NES games, but on its own? It's actually one of the better games on the system. I'd play MM1 any day of the week before the likes of Metroid, Zelda 1&2, Castlevania 2, Kid Icarus, and even Super Mario Bros. The same can be said for MM5 except on a much more drastic scale
Honestly even if 1-3 are more desinct with 4 and this game it feels like the devs got more comfortable with the format of Megaman. Each NES game feels like a testing ground for the next Edit: this is kinda said in the video 😅
This. This game was my introduction to Mega Man. My cousin had an original NES system and a cartridge of this game. Me, my brother and sisters would always log in hours of our childhood in this game. Along with SMB/Duck Hunt, SMB3, Wolverine and Dr. Mario.
MM5 was definitely a game I forgot at times until I saw Caddicarus's video on the classic series and to me, 5 is part of my Top 3 favorite Classic MM games.
As someone who was there and a huge Mega Man fan at the time, it’s not that the fans didn’t appreciate Mega Man 5, the critics didn’t. The Genesis and SNES were in full swing and the critics/magazines were ready for next gen Mega Man. I was only 6 or 7 at the time and just had an NES so my friends and I loved Mega Man 5. I feel like the critics would’ve hated anything on old hardware at the time. 5 just had unfortunate timing.
Unsurprising when you factor just how biased critics tended to be, we’re talking about the same time period where critics preferred SHMUPs to RPGs after all because “they were faster.”
@@abaddon1503 Well SHUMPs are better than RPGs. Honestly, shumps are really underappreciated and are never on "best games of all time lists" where you always see Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII (with no Dragon Quest either for some reason) but no Gradius games. Also I actually prefer RPGs, I just didn't like how you dismissed an entire genre like that.
Yeah, I always thought Mega Man 5 was underrated. It didn't really introduce anything new, but it refined everything that came before. The slide was the same as MM3's, but the developers weren't as interested in showing it off so there are fewer situations where there's an arbitrary low passage forcing you to use it to progress and you could instead focus on using its extra speed to evade enemy attacks, which is a lot more fun (and is what the MMX developers wisely chose to focus on with the dash; that series' successor to the slide.) The Rush Coil (the only Rush form that you start with and thus the only one that you can be forced to use to complete the robot master levels) is improved by making it a more active process; instead of just jumping on the Coil once and being propelled upwards, you jump on it and then jump off at its peak, giving more control and player involvement to the process. The Rush Jet was un-broken in the last game and remains un-broken here. The issue that I mentioned with the B button not always charging if you initially pushed it at the wrong time has been fixed, and the larger projectile means that you're less likely to miss with a charged shot and thus have to waste a bunch of time charging up again, speeding up overall gameplay. Mega Man 5 is the Half-Life of the Mega Man series. It doesn't do anything fundamentally new but instead adds a massive coat of polish to what's already been done. I still consider Mega Man 2 to be the best NES Mega Man game, but if I want to play Mega Man and have already played MM2 recently MM5 is always my pick.
MM5 Rush Coil is hot garbage. If you happen to overlap with Rush on ground (not hard to happen) rush will jump simulatenously with you and you will be unable to jump higher.
Glad you have reviewed this. After playing MM5 twice yesterday and a bit today, I've decided that it is my favorite out of the NES Mega Man games, edging out MM6.
8:50 here's something neat to know about the M Tank, if you use the M Tank while all your health and weapon energy is full, any weak enemies on the screen will turn then all into 1-Ups, a good place to do this in is Gyro Man's stage where you see the chicken enemy dispense out baby chickens, its a good way to get some extra lives.
What really hurt the game's reputation was at launch it was square in the middle of the 16 bit era, Mega Man X was already seen as the successor to the franchise. As a huge fan of the series when I was a kid the last one I had major hype for was 4 as it was being eclipsed by the newer generation of console. Still a friend of mine had 5 and 6 so we had some fun times with them. Honestly the biggest memory I have of it is the Nintendo Power coverage.
I played it again recently, only I made the silly mistake of refraining from using the buster. It turned my experience into a nightmare that would make X6 blush. Also, correction, the M-Tank is officially called the Mystery Tank and has the secret benefit of turning all small enemies on-screen into extra lives if your gauges are full, or providing one extra life if there are no enemies.
In my mind Mega Man 5 holds this weirdly rarified place in gaming history to me. Grew up obssesed with the franchise and owned 2 & 4 as a kid so when 5 came out I literally showed up to my local Blockbuster (even though this was technically still the era of the mom and pop video shop on most blocks, in my experience most of them were usually too poor to acquire or keep up with new games coming out so where I lived Blockbuster was the only one to have it) like two hours after opening day when it came out. Of course somebody got to it before me. I spent almost six months showing up every Friday trying to rent that damn game. It was never in. Finally one day a manager said to me “Hey kid: some brat rented that the first day we got it and never returned it.” To this day I wonder how many other kids felt as jilted as I did, fingers crossed and brimming with optimism they’d finally get it, only to be heartbroken week after week. So I never got to play it until many years later and it has always maintained this elusive glow to me. This is just further reinforced by the fact that it is now handily the hardest to find CIB in the wild and as such usually comes with the price-tag to match.
Megaman 5 has been my favorite of the classic series for most of the reasons you said, the level design is good and generally devoid of BS moments, Bosses are fun to fight and memorable to me, graphics, music, and presentation are all peak of the NES games to me, I just always loved it
if I'm being honest this is by far my least favorite of the classic series, mainly due to how bad most special weapons are (they're either way to weak like the crystal eye or napalm bomb, awkward as hell to use like the charge kick or powerstone, or both like the gyro attack, with the only one I can call good being the gravity hold) and particularly how bad it felt to play, I played all the NES games on the legacy collection and 5 just felt so much choppier in its frame rate then the others, its hard to explain if you didn't play it on 3ds but that alone made it feel so much worse to play
Yeah, I always wondered what was up with the choppiness on 3DS. Anyway, Mega Man 5 is also my least favorite of the classic series - not only do the weapons suck, but enemies also have really long I-frames (which isn't the case in any other Mega Man game).
The only weapon that is decent is gyro attack, because it gets some uses that the buster can’t obliterate. Gravity hold seems good until you realize it only does one damage and you can only kill weak enemies with one blast.
@@megaedge2762 ah well then I guess all of them suck (I just don't like the gyro attack its really awkward to use and doesn't do nearly enough damage to compensate)
I'll give "Mega Man 5" this. It has the best game feel of the NES games. It feels as good as "Mega Man 6" but with a flexible slide you can easily jump out of.
Megaman 5 was my second game in the series after 3, and the first game I spent my own money on. I've always loved it and frustrated me for how it's hated, thanks for giving it a fair shake. 😁
5 is the most "average" Mega Man game, no glaring strenghts or weaknesses. Just a solid game, maybe a bit unremarkable. I have a lot of nostalgia for MM5 as it was my first ever Mega Man game.
Megaman 5 is actually super memorable to me for a specific reason: When I first was binging the classic games, I actually missed one of the letters spelling Megaman V, so I never unlocked Beat. (It was actually that same blind drop you pointed out in the video. And I didn't feel like redoing the level, which unbeknownst to me would later come back to bite me.) So I played through the entire game and made it to the final boss, only to realize I couldn't damage him without Beat! This was really upsetting, cause it meant not only would I have to replay that one level and unlock Beat, but I'd also have to re-play that entire final gauntlet just to get back to where I was. So, I put the games down for a few years. It's super funny to me in hindsight, cause one of the most forgotten Megaman titles actually made a lasting impression on me!
Megaman 5 is the only one I actually owned, so I ended up playing it a lot more than the others. So naturally my nostalgia glasses made it my favorite. But it's certainly worthy of that, it's a fun game!
My main problem with Mega Man 5 is its charge shot, not because of the bigger hitbox, but because when the shot kills an enemy with one hit, it continues to travel across the screen. Not all of the weapons in the game are bad, but the charge shot is so powerful that players have less incentive to use the special weapons as a result. Thankfully, Mega Man 6 nerfed this aspect of the charge shot while retaining the larger hitbox. Other than that, I agree with all of your points. Great video, as always!
Mega Man 5 is my personal favorite out of the original series, really, including 7 through 11, not just the NES titles. When it comes to the soundtrack, though, Mega Man 6 is easily the most awesome. That's right, not 2. Not by a longshot. It's 6.
This has always been my favorite classic megaman. Altough mostly because it's the only one I played in it's heyday on the NES, didn't play the others until I discovered emulation. Kinda hard to go into Megaman 1-4 with the graphic and moveset reduction.
Mega Man 5 is my favorite in the entire series. The music and level design is top-notch. Every weapon is useful (except the Power Stone), but none are annoyingly overpowered like some of the ones in the first two games. I love it.
My favorite NES Mega Man, next to 4, and 6. 3 is fantastic, and my first Mega Man. Second game is great, but doesn't have the improved mechanics of 3-6. 5 had an amazing soundtrack, and had the best Dr. Wily theme. So much nostalgia here. Such an underrated gem. I could see myself grabbing a copy of it at Toys 'R' Us back in the day.
All the NES mega man games (except maybe the first one) are very good. They did themselves a disservice by not changing the graphical style. It's the same way people look at The Lost Levels and think of it as just a ROM hack more than an individual game. The Mario series otherwise changed the graphic style with every NES entry and it made a big difference. Also applies to the NSMB series and how bored people got with the same style every game
Rgarding the charge noise, only MM4 makes you listen too it. You can cancel the charge noise out in 5 and 6 by fully charging, going into the weapon select screen, then backing out.
Minus the still loud chargeshot, i cant recall a set of Wily-castle stages as colorful as MM5 but also challenging. While MM4 did start the trend they did get bit short past Cossack, and we got a more diversified instrumentation in soundtrack.
I like your assessment on why Mega Man 1-3 are more discussed than 4-6. I feel that the games really hit their creative stride with 4-6 and unfortunately they are in the shadow of 1-3 because those games simply did a lot of stuff first. Mega Man 5 definitely deserves more love with all of the ambitious ideas it introduced for stages.
The level design in MM5 is so cool and shows that they were still experimenting and getting creative. The soundtrack isn't up to par with the first 4 games but it still has some genuine bops as well.
I'm so glad to hear someone giving MM5 the respect it deserves. 5 is my favourite of the NES Mega Man games! (With 7 being my favourite of the classic series) My introduction to Mega Man was actually with the X series (with X1 in particular being a VERY polished game), so when I went back and got into the classic series, the first 3 games felt pretty rough around edges to say the least. 4 was a pretty big step up, but there's something about it that just doesn't do it for me. Mega Man 5 felt like the game where it finally all came together. (As J said, it's the most well rounded of the NES games)
i totally get what you mean by the "wow factor" thing that exactly how i felt when playing legend of zelda tears of the kingdom while i still had fun exploring the overworld in that game especially with now having the skies and depths it kinda lacks the "wow factor" i got from exploring the overworld in breath of the wild, cause its kinda hard to recapture that feeling of exploring a massive world twice when it already been done, the game mostly having the same overworld as its predecessor probably didn't help.
Joke's on you; it was already my favorite NES Mega Man. (Though my favorite classic Mega Man in general was Mega Man 3 Game Boy.) That being said, it's always great to see these games getting a newfound appreciation with the benefit of hindsight.
So I grew up with the anniversary collection on Gamecube and Megaman 5 was always interesting to me because the vibe of it didn't feel like the rest of the other nes titles. Plus i remember it being difficult but a recent revisit on the legacy collection is making me question that memory because well yes, it isn't that hard.
Great video! It's good to see the strengths of MM5 get acknowledgement. As good a game as 5 is, though, the one thing that holds it back from being the best for me is the special weapons. Most of them are underpowered, and the buster being the best option in most situations leads to boring gameplay in my opinion.
Completely agree with you on Mega Man 5. It was my favorite NES Mega Man game for a while, until 6 dethroned it completely. It may have one of the weakest selections of weapons, but I prioritize great level design over great weapons. And then comes 6 with great weapons and level design.
Mega Man 5 is actually my least favorite of the Classic series, but I don't hate it. The main problems I have with the game are: - all the songs sound similar - the game is too easy - the special weapons are awful - the Dark Man fights in Proto Man's fortress are unoriginal and boring - the charge shot ruins the game - ENEMIES HAVE HIDDEN I-FRAMES!!! (seriously why is no one talking about this?! It's almost as bad as not being able to jump out of a slide like in Mega Man 6) - Stone Man's stage
@@PontusPontus there are a few standout tracks (Wily castle theme, credits theme, title music, protomans fortress. But I just think all the Robot Master songs sound similar. Like if you swapped Gyro Man's music with Wave Man's music I wouldn't even notice.
MegaMan 5 is and will always be my favorite Classic MegaMan of all time it is my first Megaman game and the first game I ever beat. This game also introduced me to the series when I was 8 years old in 1993 without this game I wouldn’t be here right now regardless of 5’s reputation this game holds a special place for me.
I'm glad mm5 is getting more positive recognition as of lately, people always tend to sleep on games that don't bring many new ideas to the table but in its execution I'd say it's better than 1, and in other cases even 3 and 4.
I know the general consensus is that the game is so okay, it's average, but ever since my first play of it back in 2013, I've had a soft spot for it. Consistent graphics, rockin' BGM, responsive gameplay, best charge shot yet...
I'm one of these cretins who greatly dislikes charge loss when taking damage, so that lowers 5 in my favourites list. The music is definitely up there as one of the best, though.
Hey! Didn't expect you to show up here! The charge loss is hardly an issue; in fact, it's the *only* thing balancing the Charge Shot, and even that's not enough.
I don't dislike Megaman 5 because it 'didn't do anything new', but because the charge shot was way too powerful! It made the game unpleasant to me. And while there were a few good special weapons, a good amount of them were duds. Special weapons are the 2nd most important thing to me in a Megaman game or clone. (The 1st being whether non weakness special weapons work on bosses.)
MM5 has the smoothest gameplay of the NES MM games. Silky smooth screen transitions in the levels, which I think they slowed down in MM6 so the player doesn't breeze through the levels. MM6 went on to nerf the jump-out-of-slide move, and I think the fully charged megabuster uses the same sound effect as the regular shot. MM6 slid backwards in a few ways.
I am just glad I that it gets a tiny bit more love these days, it's my personal favorite game in the series because of it just being so fun and relaxing to play, I an hop into it and always enjoy myself. it's such a good Mega Man game. I cannot wait for Mega Man 7, I wanna see how much he talks about how hard the Wily Battle is lol
I rented Mega Man 2 in 1989 and was hooked from then on. When Mega Man 3 came out, I thought it was amazing and was at least as good as Mega Man 2. I eagerly looked forward to every new entry, and when Mega Man 4 came out even though I was still very young I could tell it was great, just not quite as great as the first 3 for some reason. And that it how I felt about 5 and 6: eagerly looked forward to them, loved them, but they weren’t as great as the first 3. All of the NES Mega Man games are phenomenal and we are lucky to have them, a slightly less than amazing Mega Man game is still an incredible game experience compared to any others. -Cast
The M. Tank is actually called the Mystery Tank, because when you use it at max health and ammo, it acts as a screen clear. Hence the "Mystery" in its name.
Fun fact, the 1-up drop rate is the same in MM4 as it is in MM5, you just kill a lot more enemies in 5 so it happens a lot more. I'm glad you didn't strike down the robot design in 5 as well. It's very amusing to me when people say by MM5 they were running out of ideas when it's clear they didn't. 1) These designs were made by fans won in a contest and the developers loved their ideas, clearly and 2) what people mean by "out of ideas" is actually "they didn't use another element again and I think something unique looks weird". Having something like Charge Man just shows how *creative* this series is with good designs and I hope (if they continue the series) they keep up those kinds of designs. 5 is such a good game, glad to see a positive review for once.
Thing is, not many people remember it because we were well into the 16-bit wars at that time. I played this one only recently. I don’t remember Mega Man games being quite that challenging (4 was a pain), but yes, this game is every bit fun as one could want from the blue bomber, regardless of just being “the next one”.
Mega man 5 (NES) was my introduction to the series. Even after playing the others, I still consider it the best. Yes, I know some of my criticisms are matters of preference (for example, I absolutely _hated_ the "whole screen time stop" bosses that were Flash/Light/Centaur Mans). I also didn't acquire Beat until _after_ having beaten the game. (For the longest time I was missing only the letter from Stone Man's stage, partly because the overscan of the CRT I played it on cut approximately 1 full tile from all borders making the destructible wall harder to notice.)
Surprisingly, even though I was binging the classic Mega Man games through the Legacy Collections, I personally grew rather fond of 5 upon replaying it; 4 and 5 were most likely the ones I remembered best from my childhood even though they weren't my first (ironically that was 7, who I've kinda gotten soured on upon replaying it, but even amongst the NES ones I played 2 beforehand). I'd rank it as my second favorite of the classic MM titles, second only to 4 and that's purely because I enjoy the extra contributions of 4 a lot (5 was still fun but we already knew Proto Man existed so a part of me still feels Cossack was somehow just more... "fresh", if that makes any sense. A larger window into the world beyond the Light and Wily feud). Everything else from level design to boss design to the endgame to the weapons were all pretty notable improvements, 4 just hit harder imo. Looking forward to the review of 6, as I feel that one sadly also isn't that appreciated, when its levels are pretty solid imo as well.
Just a tip to make hitting Chargeman with Stoneman's weapon is to shoot while you jump over Chargeman, it makes the shot line-up nicely so you don't have to deal with the akward trajectory of the weapon.
I wonder where the MM2 bosses would have been placed if MM5 had a full set of Doc robot stages - I am guessing that Wood Man would probably be on Napalm Man's stage, Air Man would be on Gyro Man's stage, Bubble Man would be on Wave Man's stage, and Flash Man would definitely be on Crystal Man's stage.
Even before the vid is over, I can easily say that 5 isnt a bad game due to its overall design, but even past the issues with the Weapon Balance and how some stages just seem to go on for a bit too long...it was honestly the start of, "Stagnation" the franchise became known for (IMO). No matter how much many of you wish to defend the game, the Bad Weapons, OP Charge Shot taking precedence over any other strategy, some rather bland level tropes and rather mediocre Boss Designs, people found this game BORING for a reason-above all else, that's easily the biggest criticism one could truly give it, because if you can't stand to finish a game due to how uninteresting it is to you, then that's not exactly something to feel vindication for or tell others, "You're wrong" for. Either way, great vid again, J.
I'll start by saying I'm in my 40s so I grew up on mega man and was there waiting for each launch starting with 3 (I discovered the series at 2). The first game was a really unique and quality platformer. It wasn't that well known. The second game has incredible level design, cool weapons, insanely lit music, etc. it was kinda the real entry into the series for a lot of us. Everyone I knew only played mega man 1 retrospectively because they came in at 2, like me. When 3 came out it had the most hype. 2 was so good that everyone couldn't wait for the next mega man game. We were all willing to overlook it's many flaws because it was the new megaman. Then 4 came out of nowhere. No but hype. No long wait. It was just there suddenly, and it was great. By this time everyone had their fill of the formula. When 5 launched it wasn't the next big megaman game, it was more "oh, they're still making those?" And despite its very polished nature it was also at a point where NES developers had learned how to work with the hardware and a LOT of platformers and action games were great quality. So despite it standing out above its predecessors in production value, it wasn't really anything more impressive than what we were getting otherwise. So I think only real fans were excited for it, if at all. It's nice that this generation appreciates good retro game design and art style, so maybe this game can get some appreciation. Btw I like you videos.
People complained about the weapon while there was some good one like Gravity Hold a Screen Nuke that fun and unique, Star Barrier which basically Skull Barrier but can be shoot, Super Arrow which Hard Knuckle and Item-2 combined, Gyro Attack which Magnet Missile but manual guided, Charge Kick which allow Megaman to slide and BYPASS any enemy without taking damage perfect for speedrun and finally th Beat which is the best weapon in 5. Mega Buster is also the strongest in the franchise which larger and faster charge which mow down any enemy. And sure some of the weapon are completely crap like Power Stone, Water Wave, Crystal Eye and Napalm Bomb but 6 out of 10 weapon actually works and quite underrated which obviously triumphed by the OP Mega Buster.
Mega Man 5 is the game I bust out when I just want to run a Mega Man game start-to-finish in a single, swift sitting. It IS the easiest of the first six, no doubt about that, but there are a few parts that hold a place in my heart. While I STILL consider it the weakest of the original six games I don't consider it a 'bad' game by any metric as far as the Mega Man formula is considered, and I personally LOVE how powerful the Mega Buster feels in this game. No other Mega Man game has ever matched it. I remember this game more fondly than, say, 9 or 10, even if I can admit that 9 is a better game on the whole. It still annoyed me more than anything else in some parts, and I don't hardly ever remember 10 at all, having only ever beaten it once. I'm very curious to see your opinion on 7. A lot of people give it a bad rap but 7 also holds a special place in my heart in spite of its flaws (some of the best Mega-Buster only robot master fights are in that game).
i seem to recall only getting this game because it was on sale down from 50 bucks to like, 17 bucks or something at whatever store, and the parent accepted my pleas to acquire this mega man game for me. i played the hell out of this one too, but it didn't replace 4 in my heart. the speed of the enemies seems a bit faster than prior game, but it didn't make it harder...
part of me wants to beat every megaman game on each collection but the problem is I will never beat da first game cause I can't do the ice stage in 2 mins. i spent like many many hours and still never beaten that stage. you have to precise every flipping jump while sliding on ice its redicolus.
Perspective is a thing, to people who experience Megaman 2 and Megaman 3 maybe this was not a great game......but for me.........THIS WAS MY FIRST MEGAMAN GAME.........and I fall in love with this game from the INTRO alone, like that song and that little animation, BLOW MY MIND, and then we start experience a Megaman, me and my little brother and we couldn't believe how great this game was compared with the sea of garbage we played back then, I love forever this game, all the songs are printed in my head, the bosses, the powerups, I love it and after that we where fans of Megaman, our next game after this was Megaman X as we played 5 very late in the life spam of the NES and we got a SNES like a year after and we got a Megaman X copy and yes......our collective brains melt of the awesomeness. But we wouldn't be fans of this series if not was for Megaman 5.
I actually enjoyed Mega Man 5 to be honest simple tale about Protoman being framed by Dr Wily yes spoilers for a decades year old game. I loved the robot masters in this game and the robot enemies.
I don’t know man, the game looks and sounds incredible but the charged shot breaks the game in half and you end up relying on it because the weapons are so bad. Personally it makes for kind of a dull experience imo. The end game is decent enough tho (apart from the lackluster boss fights that is lol)
Mega Man 2 was the first of the series I played as a kid (in my grandparents' basement). Mega Man 5 was the first one I owned. They both have a special place for me
Speaking for myself, playing the classic Mega Man games in a binge back in 2020 definitely contributed to many of the classic Mega Man games being less memorable for me. If I'm going through a very similarly handling series of games to get them off the backlog, I'm not going to remember something in the middle Mega Man 5 as well. I will also say that approaching games with a "backlog" mindset, as I did back in 2020, makes them more something to get through rather than something to enjoy. It also de-incentivizes me from replaying the games I "got through". I will say that since watching your videos, your more recent stuff especially, I've gotten more into replaying games I've beaten than I used to. Doing so, especially with 2D platformers, has made them much more enjoyable. There's something about replaying a good 2D platformer like Super Metroid, Mega Man X or Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 that boosts my enjoyment of them immensely; it takes a game from something I like to something I love. That all said then, I definitely want to replay many of these classic Mega Man games. However, I think it'd be interesting to replay them "out of order" as you suggest at the end here. I could well imagine something like Mega Man 4 or 5 standing out more in my mind if I'm not playing either game as part of a series-wide binge, but instead on their own.
An interesting thing for me personally is this is my FAVORITE of the classic NES MegaMan games, and I think a large part of that is because. THIS was my FIRST. I had seen what Megaman WAS thanks to a friend renting MM3, but I only got to play like a few minutes of it. I later found MM5 for like five bucks used at a video rental store that was trying to clearance it out, and remembering how much I liked those few minutes of 3 (though I didn't know which one it was at the time) I bought MM5 because I felt like I'd enjoy it, and boy did I ever. It's since become my favorite video game franchise. Even more interesting is the fact that because I started the series with five. MM2 actually isn't all that big on my list of favorites, because it's a DOWNGRADE from what I started with. It's one of the biggest gripes I had with MM9 and 10. I want my damn slide and Mega Buster.
I think another reason why MM5 is so overlooked is because it only lasted a year being the new game prior to it being overshadowed by X1 and we all know how iconic X1 is, so MM5 simply wasn't given enough time to build a legacy, sadly.
It's true. These are good games, but as a child X1 was just mind blowing in that "next gen" feeling.
And just the SNES in general. Most NES kids were moving on to the SNES after it was released in 1991 (Christmas for me) and never experienced the latter trilogy. I didn't know anything beyond Mega Man 3 even existed until sometime in college when the NES collection was released on XBOX (yes, I'm old)
See, I never owned an SNES, and SNES emulation was tricky to get working right in those early years, so I ended up trying a lot of late-gen NES ROMs with no idea the cartridges they were dumped from would become overlooked and rare and expensive over time!
I have had this idea in my head for years now that a large part of the reason why people say the latter Mega Man NES titles are "bad" is because they play the games in order on a modern collection and are burned out by the time the latter half of games roll around.
I don't think any of the original games are anything less than great if you judge them individually and don't just compare them to, say, MM2.
I agree. I told a friend he should play the NES Mega Man games in reverse. The result? Mega Man 4, 5 and 6 are his favorites, and he thinks all the other NES games are just bland downgrades! see how the order you play them and perspective matters.
It even makes sense though, I can't see anything the previous games did better than Mega Man 5 or 6, they're superior in every way, especially graphics, maybe not music, but everything else is great. People are just extremely biased towards the first 4 games.
Also I find it quite annoying how ridiculous Mega Man players opinions usually are. Like "Mega Man 4 is the best because it added the charged shot!! Mega Man 5 and 6 also have the charged shot, but they didn't add it, so they're worse!!"" it feels like talking to children.
Personally I think all six of the NES MM games were great, and it's a damn shame that people ignore them after 3 just because they play similarly. One of the reasons I love MM (especially classic) is because it doesn't fix what isn't broken. They're solid as they are, and I think not every game series needs to innovate to the point that it becomes unrecognizable. There's something to be said for finding a fun formula and sticking with it.
You can see a great example of that on this very channel. J reviewed every game from the Zero/ZX collection in order some years ago and by the time he got to ZXA he was completely burned out and made the most dogshit review ever, to the point where he even apologized for it later. ZXA is a game with a ton of content in sidequests, challenges, minigames, extra difficulty modes and two different story modes with gameplay variations. It kept me entertained for years when I got it as a kid, but if you get to it after five other games that you played back to back with a very similar structure and gameplay then you're already tired of the game before you even press start.
Not mine, but I respect your opinion.
Honestly, even with the comparison I think Mega Man 2 is one of the weaker entries to the series, second only to 1 in terms of aging badly.
I’m happy someone is defending 5, it’s not as bad as what people say, even though I literally never hear anyone say anything about it lol
It’s a decent game, but it’s my least favorite of the hexology in my opinion
Still better than x6 and x7
@@Kain5thThat's not hard 🙄
He didn’t defend 5 lol… did you actually watch the video??
@DOC_951 It's 50-50. He has said that 5 is one of the most well-made Megaman titles, but he not only understands why this is not a title that anyone will remember, he himself will not think much of this title after he played it. The 4-6 trilogy is just too clean to have any impact.
So, idk. Maybe he has defended the title, or maybe he is commenting about the sad fate of the NES sequel trilogy. I will agree with you on the fact that he is not a defender on the game. Big difference between an active defender vs. a comment that he acknowledges.
MM5 isn't better than I remember because it's my favorite classic MM game.
Same
well… there you go!
It's still better.
The only thing I don't like in it are the weapons, most of them are weaker than the buster which makes them pretty much useless. Everything else though is amazing, love this game.
Me as well. Got it for my birthday at release as a kid. Still have it. I've almost perfected The game.
Dr. Light is so smart he constantly gets outwitted literally every time by his rival.
I mean, he's good at engineering not so much common sense.
@@TheJadeFist and this is why your rpg characters have different pools for wisdom and intellect
His stroke of genius with megaman was an actual stroke sadge.
Dr Light just wanted to do his hobbies. Wiley was just a boring person that uses manipulation to antagonize and disrupt others. Smart people don't make extra work for themselves.
Dr. Light had white hair since 199X and it's been about 30 years later when his lab exploded. Guy is running on fumes.
MM5 is actually my favorite classic series game, so it's super refreshing to see positivity about it
I already knew Mega Man 5 was the best Game Boy Mega Man but on NES I never understood the bad reputation.
bad weapons, OP charge shot, and ENEMIES HAVE I-FRAMES!
People love MM5 on RUclips, it's usually MM4 and MM6 that catch strays.
Mega Man 5 on the gameboy is an entirely different game, is it not?
@mylam658 It is. And it's an better Mega Man 5 than the NES counterpart.
Yes@@mylam658
That stage design really is just gorgeous. There are so many vibrant colors on display that if I didn't know better, I could almost mistake them for early 16-bit.
When I first played Mega Man 5, I found it to be my favourite NES Mega Man game simply because of how well designed it was, the story and the overall game.
I'm glad Mega Man 5 is being looked back in a more positive light.
This is technically the best charge shot of the NES era. It got a pretty noticeable size nerf in MM6.
It also sounds less powerful.
They replacement the sound when it furse with the same sound the regular buster makes.
Yeah. Too good. It breaks the game
@spoopy0262 Of course it nerfed. It was too damn strong in the fifth game.
It's huge but you lose the charge when taking damage. I guess that's a balance, but charge loss sucks and is frustrating.
MM6 also makes the charge shot act like the MM4 charge shot: get destroyed when hitting an enemy with the exact same health as the damage the shot deals.
In Megaman 5, the megabuster continues if it hits a three shot enemy. In Megaman 4, the buster shot gets absorbed when hitting a three shot enemy.
For my problem for MM5 is that I don't find the robot master weapons that enjoyable so I find myself using the charge shot and sadly that means the ost gets overshadow from the charge shot sfx.
Are you playing a non NES version?
Back in 1994 (when I finally managed to play MM5) the biggest upgrade for me was the fact that the Mega Buster was easy to silence in MM5 and I could finally be able to enjoy the music.
That was the only reason I barely charged shots in MM4, but it was no problem in 5 and 6.
Mega Man 5 was always my favorite of the NES games. It could be because that's the one i had growing up, but I think its because I played the first couple X series games first. MM5 relying more on the charge shot was closer to how I played MMX, so it just felt like a natural step backwards in what I enjoyed.
Excellent review, looking forward to MM6!
Yeah, the second half of the NES games feel a lot more natural to X fans I've noticed. Which makes sense considering X was sort of the next gen version of Mega Man, before they just continued making classic games. My favorites are 2-4 as I started in order.
I’m just happy that people call it the “not as good” one instead of being a truly bad game, because non of them are.
Heyo, just to let you know that the 'ramblin' reploids' might need to be changed to 'ramblin' on' in your channel description
One thing I like about Megaman 5 was the Robot Masters character designs. Each of them look unique, and their silhouettes are different from one another.
Chargeman is my favorite design wise and stage theme.
The boss fights could have been better and the powers mostly lack luster and redundant.
MM5 and MM6 had very great themeatic stage design and stage themes.
It’s very easy to overlook Megaman 5 as a neglected middle child but you cannot deny that it is better designed and a bit more fleshed out than the first three games and even having improved graphics for NES standards. It’s a shame how Dr. Cossack is immediately tossed aside and even get a mention unless you read the manual, he also plays no part in the series after 5 either sadly. Also is the Jet Ski section in Wave Man’s stage the very first instance of a Ride Chaser before Megaman X? It’s no wonder J didn’t like it lol, but the challenge feels more fair than say, X5 Volt Kraken, X7 Ride Boarski, and especially X8 Avalanche Yeti and Gigavolt Man-O-War. Overdrive Ostrich and Jet Stingray aren’t too bad.
J: "I've no fear of boredom"
[Cue the Megaman boss-rush]
J:"I've 1 fear of boredom"
I love boss rushes. Idk why people complain when in almost every game the weaknesses decimate the robot masters. To me its a skill issue.
@@panthekirb7561 Probably the "padding/reused content" aspect. I wish you a nice day.
@@alexandreturcotte6411 I see it both ways, if u have a new weapon u didn't have before doing the 8 stages, then u get to see how it performs against the 8 bosses adding to the fun factor, but if there's no new weapon's you'll really feel the game is just padding things most of the time
@@panthekirb7561 J has literally never complained about them being too difficult, the problem is entirely with them being exceedingly boring. In fact the lack of difficulty in part due to the weaknesses is probably a big part of the reason they are so boring.
@@videogamingfreak13 They aren't boring though. If your brain isn't stimulated from destroying robot masters then mega man just isn't the type of game for you.
I’ll also look at Mega Man 5 as a good game. I just get a bit more critical of it when I have to compare it to other *Mega Man* games. Despite that, I don’t see it as a forgettable game, I personally always remembered as “the game with THAT charged shot” because I often find myself using that over the special weapons most of the time(probably because the water wave, charge kick and power stone are just bad). Still fun game ⭐️, Napalm Man’s the GOAT
Yeah if I’m in the mood for the charge shot, 5 is the game I play. But I don’t particularly like the charge shot, so that’s rare, but it does happen
I definitely see where you're coming from. For example, I find Mega Man 1 to be pretty rough compared to the other NES games, but on its own? It's actually one of the better games on the system. I'd play MM1 any day of the week before the likes of Metroid, Zelda 1&2, Castlevania 2, Kid Icarus, and even Super Mario Bros. The same can be said for MM5 except on a much more drastic scale
Also Power Stone is probably the most awkward weapon to use in the series, hope Capcom gives Power Stone another chance someday if you catch my drift.
Finally! My favorite Classic Mega Man game gets the justice it deserves!
MM5 is my favorite of the NES games. MM11 is my favorite overall.
5 is one of my favorite NES megaman soundtracks. its a huge part of why i think its my favorite NES megaman game.
Honestly even if 1-3 are more desinct with 4 and this game it feels like the devs got more comfortable with the format of Megaman.
Each NES game feels like a testing ground for the next
Edit: this is kinda said in the video 😅
Yes this definitely sums it up! It all makes sense!
The exploration in Mega Man 5 was a precursor to the exploration in Mega Man X. A fantastic idea that was later built upon to great effect.
This. This game was my introduction to Mega Man. My cousin had an original NES system and a cartridge of this game. Me, my brother and sisters would always log in hours of our childhood in this game. Along with SMB/Duck Hunt, SMB3, Wolverine and Dr. Mario.
MM5 was definitely a game I forgot at times until I saw Caddicarus's video on the classic series and to me, 5 is part of my Top 3 favorite Classic MM games.
As someone who was there and a huge Mega Man fan at the time, it’s not that the fans didn’t appreciate Mega Man 5, the critics didn’t. The Genesis and SNES were in full swing and the critics/magazines were ready for next gen Mega Man. I was only 6 or 7 at the time and just had an NES so my friends and I loved Mega Man 5. I feel like the critics would’ve hated anything on old hardware at the time. 5 just had unfortunate timing.
Which is BS, because the Mega Man games felt better to play than on the SNES or PS1. Would rather play Mega Man 6 over Super Castlevania IV
Unsurprising when you factor just how biased critics tended to be, we’re talking about the same time period where critics preferred SHMUPs to RPGs after all because “they were faster.”
@@abaddon1503 Well SHUMPs are better than RPGs. Honestly, shumps are really underappreciated and are never on "best games of all time lists" where you always see Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII (with no Dragon Quest either for some reason) but no Gradius games.
Also I actually prefer RPGs, I just didn't like how you dismissed an entire genre like that.
Yeah, I always thought Mega Man 5 was underrated. It didn't really introduce anything new, but it refined everything that came before.
The slide was the same as MM3's, but the developers weren't as interested in showing it off so there are fewer situations where there's an arbitrary low passage forcing you to use it to progress and you could instead focus on using its extra speed to evade enemy attacks, which is a lot more fun (and is what the MMX developers wisely chose to focus on with the dash; that series' successor to the slide.)
The Rush Coil (the only Rush form that you start with and thus the only one that you can be forced to use to complete the robot master levels) is improved by making it a more active process; instead of just jumping on the Coil once and being propelled upwards, you jump on it and then jump off at its peak, giving more control and player involvement to the process. The Rush Jet was un-broken in the last game and remains un-broken here.
The issue that I mentioned with the B button not always charging if you initially pushed it at the wrong time has been fixed, and the larger projectile means that you're less likely to miss with a charged shot and thus have to waste a bunch of time charging up again, speeding up overall gameplay.
Mega Man 5 is the Half-Life of the Mega Man series. It doesn't do anything fundamentally new but instead adds a massive coat of polish to what's already been done. I still consider Mega Man 2 to be the best NES Mega Man game, but if I want to play Mega Man and have already played MM2 recently MM5 is always my pick.
MM5 Rush Coil is hot garbage. If you happen to overlap with Rush on ground (not hard to happen) rush will jump simulatenously with you and you will be unable to jump higher.
Glad you have reviewed this. After playing MM5 twice yesterday and a bit today, I've decided that it is my favorite out of the NES Mega Man games, edging out MM6.
8:50 here's something neat to know about the M Tank, if you use the M Tank while all your health and weapon energy is full, any weak enemies on the screen will turn then all into 1-Ups, a good place to do this in is Gyro Man's stage where you see the chicken enemy dispense out baby chickens, its a good way to get some extra lives.
Gravity man’s theme in Mega Man 5 is definitely my favorite ost from the game. It sounded both Uplifting and desperate at the same time
Wave Man’s theme is so calming and relaxing for a Water Base level.
Napalm Man's theme was always my favorite from this one
What really hurt the game's reputation was at launch it was square in the middle of the 16 bit era, Mega Man X was already seen as the successor to the franchise. As a huge fan of the series when I was a kid the last one I had major hype for was 4 as it was being eclipsed by the newer generation of console. Still a friend of mine had 5 and 6 so we had some fun times with them. Honestly the biggest memory I have of it is the Nintendo Power coverage.
I played it again recently, only I made the silly mistake of refraining from using the buster. It turned my experience into a nightmare that would make X6 blush.
Also, correction, the M-Tank is officially called the Mystery Tank and has the secret benefit of turning all small enemies on-screen into extra lives if your gauges are full, or providing one extra life if there are no enemies.
🤯
It’s not more fun, but it’s nowhere near the pain anyone can endure from X6 lmao
@@megaedge2762 X6 was fun in the kaizo way, 5 with only boss weapons was just miserable.
I might be one of the few people who really liked the charge kick.
I dunno, it's Just fun, like using the gravity hold to send enemies into oblivion.
In my mind Mega Man 5 holds this weirdly rarified place in gaming history to me.
Grew up obssesed with the franchise and owned 2 & 4 as a kid so when 5 came out I literally showed up to my local Blockbuster (even though this was technically still the era of the mom and pop video shop on most blocks, in my experience most of them were usually too poor to acquire or keep up with new games coming out so where I lived Blockbuster was the only one to have it) like two hours after opening day when it came out.
Of course somebody got to it before me. I spent almost six months showing up every Friday trying to rent that damn game. It was never in.
Finally one day a manager said to me “Hey kid: some brat rented that the first day we got it and never returned it.”
To this day I wonder how many other kids felt as jilted as I did, fingers crossed and brimming with optimism they’d finally get it, only to be heartbroken week after week.
So I never got to play it until many years later and it has always maintained this elusive glow to me. This is just further reinforced by the fact that it is now handily the hardest to find CIB in the wild and as such usually comes with the price-tag to match.
Megaman 5 has been my favorite of the classic series for most of the reasons you said, the level design is good and generally devoid of BS moments, Bosses are fun to fight and memorable to me, graphics, music, and presentation are all peak of the NES games to me, I just always loved it
if I'm being honest this is by far my least favorite of the classic series, mainly due to how bad most special weapons are (they're either way to weak like the crystal eye or napalm bomb, awkward as hell to use like the charge kick or powerstone, or both like the gyro attack, with the only one I can call good being the gravity hold) and particularly how bad it felt to play, I played all the NES games on the legacy collection and 5 just felt so much choppier in its frame rate then the others, its hard to explain if you didn't play it on 3ds but that alone made it feel so much worse to play
Yeah, I always wondered what was up with the choppiness on 3DS. Anyway, Mega Man 5 is also my least favorite of the classic series - not only do the weapons suck, but enemies also have really long I-frames (which isn't the case in any other Mega Man game).
The only weapon that is decent is gyro attack, because it gets some uses that the buster can’t obliterate. Gravity hold seems good until you realize it only does one damage and you can only kill weak enemies with one blast.
@@megaedge2762 ah
well then I guess all of them suck (I just don't like the gyro attack its really awkward to use and doesn't do nearly enough damage to compensate)
True. They should’ve just done what megaman 3 did. Stick the gyro attack with magnets!
@@megaedge2762 yeah
I'll give "Mega Man 5" this. It has the best game feel of the NES games. It feels as good as "Mega Man 6" but with a flexible slide you can easily jump out of.
Megaman 5 was my second game in the series after 3, and the first game I spent my own money on.
I've always loved it and frustrated me for how it's hated, thanks for giving it a fair shake. 😁
Mega Man 5 has always been my favorite. I first played all the NES games on the Anniversary Collection and it just stood out to me.
Same here, 🙏🙏 i love 5 quite a bit, it was the first nes game I've ever beaten in my life
5 is the most "average" Mega Man game, no glaring strenghts or weaknesses. Just a solid game, maybe a bit unremarkable. I have a lot of nostalgia for MM5 as it was my first ever Mega Man game.
Definitely a glaring weakness: weapons
Megaman 5 is actually super memorable to me for a specific reason: When I first was binging the classic games, I actually missed one of the letters spelling Megaman V, so I never unlocked Beat. (It was actually that same blind drop you pointed out in the video. And I didn't feel like redoing the level, which unbeknownst to me would later come back to bite me.) So I played through the entire game and made it to the final boss, only to realize I couldn't damage him without Beat! This was really upsetting, cause it meant not only would I have to replay that one level and unlock Beat, but I'd also have to re-play that entire final gauntlet just to get back to where I was. So, I put the games down for a few years.
It's super funny to me in hindsight, cause one of the most forgotten Megaman titles actually made a lasting impression on me!
Megaman 5 is the only one I actually owned, so I ended up playing it a lot more than the others. So naturally my nostalgia glasses made it my favorite. But it's certainly worthy of that, it's a fun game!
My main problem with Mega Man 5 is its charge shot, not because of the bigger hitbox, but because when the shot kills an enemy with one hit, it continues to travel across the screen. Not all of the weapons in the game are bad, but the charge shot is so powerful that players have less incentive to use the special weapons as a result. Thankfully, Mega Man 6 nerfed this aspect of the charge shot while retaining the larger hitbox. Other than that, I agree with all of your points. Great video, as always!
5 has always been one of my favourite classic games
Mega Man 5 is my personal favorite out of the original series, really, including 7 through 11, not just the NES titles.
When it comes to the soundtrack, though, Mega Man 6 is easily the most awesome. That's right, not 2. Not by a longshot. It's 6.
Mega Man 5 is a vibe, and the charge shot having a larger sprite and hitbox is a far more significant upgrade than initially let on.
This has always been my favorite classic megaman. Altough mostly because it's the only one I played in it's heyday on the NES, didn't play the others until I discovered emulation.
Kinda hard to go into Megaman 1-4 with the graphic and moveset reduction.
Mega Man 5 is my favorite in the entire series. The music and level design is top-notch. Every weapon is useful (except the Power Stone), but none are annoyingly overpowered like some of the ones in the first two games. I love it.
My favorite NES Mega Man, next to 4, and 6. 3 is fantastic, and my first Mega Man. Second game is great, but doesn't have the improved mechanics of 3-6. 5 had an amazing soundtrack, and had the best Dr. Wily theme. So much nostalgia here. Such an underrated gem. I could see myself grabbing a copy of it at Toys 'R' Us back in the day.
If your ad skipper isn't working, then you can watch from 0:00 - 0:25 for the opening, then skip to 1:32 for the actual video.
You're welcome.
Bold of you to assume we thanked you.
All the NES mega man games (except maybe the first one) are very good. They did themselves a disservice by not changing the graphical style. It's the same way people look at The Lost Levels and think of it as just a ROM hack more than an individual game. The Mario series otherwise changed the graphic style with every NES entry and it made a big difference. Also applies to the NSMB series and how bored people got with the same style every game
Rgarding the charge noise, only MM4 makes you listen too it. You can cancel the charge noise out in 5 and 6 by fully charging, going into the weapon select screen, then backing out.
Minus the still loud chargeshot, i cant recall a set of Wily-castle stages as colorful as MM5 but also challenging. While MM4 did start the trend they did get bit short past Cossack, and we got a more diversified instrumentation in soundtrack.
I like your assessment on why Mega Man 1-3 are more discussed than 4-6. I feel that the games really hit their creative stride with 4-6 and unfortunately they are in the shadow of 1-3 because those games simply did a lot of stuff first. Mega Man 5 definitely deserves more love with all of the ambitious ideas it introduced for stages.
My fav game including other series too like MM 1, 2, 3 ,7, 9 and a little bit of 8 and 10!
The level design in MM5 is so cool and shows that they were still experimenting and getting creative. The soundtrack isn't up to par with the first 4 games but it still has some genuine bops as well.
I'm so glad to hear someone giving MM5 the respect it deserves. 5 is my favourite of the NES Mega Man games! (With 7 being my favourite of the classic series)
My introduction to Mega Man was actually with the X series (with X1 in particular being a VERY polished game), so when I went back and got into the classic series, the first 3 games felt pretty rough around edges to say the least. 4 was a pretty big step up, but there's something about it that just doesn't do it for me. Mega Man 5 felt like the game where it finally all came together. (As J said, it's the most well rounded of the NES games)
I always thought the soundtrack to this game was as good as 2
i totally get what you mean by the "wow factor" thing that exactly how i felt when playing legend of zelda tears of the kingdom while i still had fun exploring the overworld in that game especially with now having the skies and depths it kinda lacks the "wow factor" i got from exploring the overworld in breath of the wild, cause its kinda hard to recapture that feeling of exploring a massive world twice when it already been done, the game mostly having the same overworld as its predecessor probably didn't help.
Mega man 5 is literally my fav outside of 2 and 3. Also the intro is beyond my favorite, with castlevania 4s intro coming a close second 🫡💯👍🏾.
Joke's on you; it was already my favorite NES Mega Man. (Though my favorite classic Mega Man in general was Mega Man 3 Game Boy.)
That being said, it's always great to see these games getting a newfound appreciation with the benefit of hindsight.
So I grew up with the anniversary collection on Gamecube and Megaman 5 was always interesting to me because the vibe of it didn't feel like the rest of the other nes titles. Plus i remember it being difficult but a recent revisit on the legacy collection is making me question that memory because well yes, it isn't that hard.
I feel vindicated, i felt a lot of joy in replaying MM5 once i got my hands on the legacy collection as an adult. Thank you for this video
The first thing I hear reading this is the Vindicated song from Spider-Man 2
Great video! It's good to see the strengths of MM5 get acknowledgement.
As good a game as 5 is, though, the one thing that holds it back from being the best for me is the special weapons. Most of them are underpowered, and the buster being the best option in most situations leads to boring gameplay in my opinion.
Completely agree with you on Mega Man 5. It was my favorite NES Mega Man game for a while, until 6 dethroned it completely. It may have one of the weakest selections of weapons, but I prioritize great level design over great weapons. And then comes 6 with great weapons and level design.
Mega Man 5 is actually my least favorite of the Classic series, but I don't hate it. The main problems I have with the game are:
- all the songs sound similar
- the game is too easy
- the special weapons are awful
- the Dark Man fights in Proto Man's fortress are unoriginal and boring
- the charge shot ruins the game
- ENEMIES HAVE HIDDEN I-FRAMES!!! (seriously why is no one talking about this?! It's almost as bad as not being able to jump out of a slide like in Mega Man 6)
- Stone Man's stage
"all the songs sound similar"
Napalm man tho? Ain't nothing sound like his theme
Dark Man IV is probably the hardest boss next to Wily Capsule 7
@@PontusPontus there are a few standout tracks (Wily castle theme, credits theme, title music, protomans fortress. But I just think all the Robot Master songs sound similar. Like if you swapped Gyro Man's music with Wave Man's music I wouldn't even notice.
MegaMan 5 is and will always be my favorite Classic MegaMan of all time it is my first Megaman game and the first game I ever beat. This game also introduced me to the series when I was 8 years old in 1993 without this game I wouldn’t be here right now regardless of 5’s reputation this game holds a special place for me.
I'm glad mm5 is getting more positive recognition as of lately, people always tend to sleep on games that don't bring many new ideas to the table but in its execution I'd say it's better than 1, and in other cases even 3 and 4.
I know the general consensus is that the game is so okay, it's average, but ever since my first play of it back in 2013, I've had a soft spot for it. Consistent graphics, rockin' BGM, responsive gameplay, best charge shot yet...
I'm one of these cretins who greatly dislikes charge loss when taking damage, so that lowers 5 in my favourites list.
The music is definitely up there as one of the best, though.
Hey! Didn't expect you to show up here!
The charge loss is hardly an issue; in fact, it's the *only* thing balancing the Charge Shot, and even that's not enough.
I don't dislike Megaman 5 because it 'didn't do anything new', but because the charge shot was way too powerful! It made the game unpleasant to me. And while there were a few good special weapons, a good amount of them were duds. Special weapons are the 2nd most important thing to me in a Megaman game or clone. (The 1st being whether non weakness special weapons work on bosses.)
MM5 has the smoothest gameplay of the NES MM games. Silky smooth screen transitions in the levels, which I think they slowed down in MM6 so the player doesn't breeze through the levels. MM6 went on to nerf the jump-out-of-slide move, and I think the fully charged megabuster uses the same sound effect as the regular shot. MM6 slid backwards in a few ways.
I am just glad I that it gets a tiny bit more love these days, it's my personal favorite game in the series because of it just being so fun and relaxing to play, I an hop into it and always enjoy myself. it's such a good Mega Man game. I cannot wait for Mega Man 7, I wanna see how much he talks about how hard the Wily Battle is lol
I rented Mega Man 2 in 1989 and was hooked from then on. When Mega Man 3 came out, I thought it was amazing and was at least as good as Mega Man 2. I eagerly looked forward to every new entry, and when Mega Man 4 came out even though I was still very young I could tell it was great, just not quite as great as the first 3 for some reason. And that it how I felt about 5 and 6: eagerly looked forward to them, loved them, but they weren’t as great as the first 3. All of the NES Mega Man games are phenomenal and we are lucky to have them, a slightly less than amazing Mega Man game is still an incredible game experience compared to any others.
-Cast
The M. Tank is actually called the Mystery Tank, because when you use it at max health and ammo, it acts as a screen clear. Hence the "Mystery" in its name.
Yeah, it's odd.
Fun fact, the 1-up drop rate is the same in MM4 as it is in MM5, you just kill a lot more enemies in 5 so it happens a lot more. I'm glad you didn't strike down the robot design in 5 as well. It's very amusing to me when people say by MM5 they were running out of ideas when it's clear they didn't. 1) These designs were made by fans won in a contest and the developers loved their ideas, clearly and 2) what people mean by "out of ideas" is actually "they didn't use another element again and I think something unique looks weird". Having something like Charge Man just shows how *creative* this series is with good designs and I hope (if they continue the series) they keep up those kinds of designs. 5 is such a good game, glad to see a positive review for once.
MM5 is far from my favorite NES era MM title, but I still think it's a great game with its quality of life features.
Thing is, not many people remember it because we were well into the 16-bit wars at that time. I played this one only recently. I don’t remember Mega Man games being quite that challenging (4 was a pain), but yes, this game is every bit fun as one could want from the blue bomber, regardless of just being “the next one”.
Mega man 5 (NES) was my introduction to the series. Even after playing the others, I still consider it the best.
Yes, I know some of my criticisms are matters of preference (for example, I absolutely _hated_ the "whole screen time stop" bosses that were Flash/Light/Centaur Mans). I also didn't acquire Beat until _after_ having beaten the game. (For the longest time I was missing only the letter from Stone Man's stage, partly because the overscan of the CRT I played it on cut approximately 1 full tile from all borders making the destructible wall harder to notice.)
Surprisingly, even though I was binging the classic Mega Man games through the Legacy Collections, I personally grew rather fond of 5 upon replaying it; 4 and 5 were most likely the ones I remembered best from my childhood even though they weren't my first (ironically that was 7, who I've kinda gotten soured on upon replaying it, but even amongst the NES ones I played 2 beforehand).
I'd rank it as my second favorite of the classic MM titles, second only to 4 and that's purely because I enjoy the extra contributions of 4 a lot (5 was still fun but we already knew Proto Man existed so a part of me still feels Cossack was somehow just more... "fresh", if that makes any sense. A larger window into the world beyond the Light and Wily feud). Everything else from level design to boss design to the endgame to the weapons were all pretty notable improvements, 4 just hit harder imo.
Looking forward to the review of 6, as I feel that one sadly also isn't that appreciated, when its levels are pretty solid imo as well.
Just a tip to make hitting Chargeman with Stoneman's weapon is to shoot while you jump over Chargeman, it makes the shot line-up nicely so you don't have to deal with the akward trajectory of the weapon.
I wonder where the MM2 bosses would have been placed if MM5 had a full set of Doc robot stages - I am guessing that Wood Man would probably be on Napalm Man's stage, Air Man would be on Gyro Man's stage, Bubble Man would be on Wave Man's stage, and Flash Man would definitely be on Crystal Man's stage.
Even before the vid is over, I can easily say that 5 isnt a bad game due to its overall design, but even past the issues with the Weapon Balance and how some stages just seem to go on for a bit too long...it was honestly the start of, "Stagnation" the franchise became known for (IMO).
No matter how much many of you wish to defend the game, the Bad Weapons, OP Charge Shot taking precedence over any other strategy, some rather bland level tropes and rather mediocre Boss Designs, people found this game BORING for a reason-above all else, that's easily the biggest criticism one could truly give it, because if you can't stand to finish a game due to how uninteresting it is to you, then that's not exactly something to feel vindication for or tell others, "You're wrong" for. Either way, great vid again, J.
Imo a hame doesn't need to be innovative to be good or worth playing.
I personally prefer mm 4 to 6 over the 1st 3
In Mega Man 5 and 6, I used the Mega Buster way more than the special attacks.
I'll start by saying I'm in my 40s so I grew up on mega man and was there waiting for each launch starting with 3 (I discovered the series at 2).
The first game was a really unique and quality platformer. It wasn't that well known. The second game has incredible level design, cool weapons, insanely lit music, etc. it was kinda the real entry into the series for a lot of us. Everyone I knew only played mega man 1 retrospectively because they came in at 2, like me.
When 3 came out it had the most hype. 2 was so good that everyone couldn't wait for the next mega man game. We were all willing to overlook it's many flaws because it was the new megaman. Then 4 came out of nowhere. No but hype. No long wait. It was just there suddenly, and it was great.
By this time everyone had their fill of the formula. When 5 launched it wasn't the next big megaman game, it was more "oh, they're still making those?"
And despite its very polished nature it was also at a point where NES developers had learned how to work with the hardware and a LOT of platformers and action games were great quality. So despite it standing out above its predecessors in production value, it wasn't really anything more impressive than what we were getting otherwise. So I think only real fans were excited for it, if at all.
It's nice that this generation appreciates good retro game design and art style, so maybe this game can get some appreciation.
Btw I like you videos.
People complained about the weapon while there was some good one like Gravity Hold a Screen Nuke that fun and unique, Star Barrier which basically Skull Barrier but can be shoot, Super Arrow which Hard Knuckle and Item-2 combined, Gyro Attack which Magnet Missile but manual guided, Charge Kick which allow Megaman to slide and BYPASS any enemy without taking damage perfect for speedrun and finally th Beat which is the best weapon in 5. Mega Buster is also the strongest in the franchise which larger and faster charge which mow down any enemy. And sure some of the weapon are completely crap like Power Stone, Water Wave, Crystal Eye and Napalm Bomb but 6 out of 10 weapon actually works and quite underrated which obviously triumphed by the OP Mega Buster.
This is my favorite classic series game! :3
Mega Man 5 is the game I bust out when I just want to run a Mega Man game start-to-finish in a single, swift sitting. It IS the easiest of the first six, no doubt about that, but there are a few parts that hold a place in my heart. While I STILL consider it the weakest of the original six games I don't consider it a 'bad' game by any metric as far as the Mega Man formula is considered, and I personally LOVE how powerful the Mega Buster feels in this game. No other Mega Man game has ever matched it.
I remember this game more fondly than, say, 9 or 10, even if I can admit that 9 is a better game on the whole. It still annoyed me more than anything else in some parts, and I don't hardly ever remember 10 at all, having only ever beaten it once.
I'm very curious to see your opinion on 7. A lot of people give it a bad rap but 7 also holds a special place in my heart in spite of its flaws (some of the best Mega-Buster only robot master fights are in that game).
I rank 5 up there next to 2 and 3, in terms of the robot bosses, powers, and music.
i seem to recall only getting this game because it was on sale down from 50 bucks to like, 17 bucks or something at whatever store, and the parent accepted my pleas to acquire this mega man game for me. i played the hell out of this one too, but it didn't replace 4 in my heart. the speed of the enemies seems a bit faster than prior game, but it didn't make it harder...
this game has an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack
part of me wants to beat every megaman game on each collection but the problem is I will never beat da first game cause I can't do the ice stage in 2 mins. i spent like many many hours and still never beaten that stage. you have to precise every flipping jump while sliding on ice its redicolus.
Perspective is a thing, to people who experience Megaman 2 and Megaman 3 maybe this was not a great game......but for me.........THIS WAS MY FIRST MEGAMAN GAME.........and I fall in love with this game from the INTRO alone, like that song and that little animation, BLOW MY MIND, and then we start experience a Megaman, me and my little brother and we couldn't believe how great this game was compared with the sea of garbage we played back then, I love forever this game, all the songs are printed in my head, the bosses, the powerups, I love it and after that we where fans of Megaman, our next game after this was Megaman X as we played 5 very late in the life spam of the NES and we got a SNES like a year after and we got a Megaman X copy and yes......our collective brains melt of the awesomeness. But we wouldn't be fans of this series if not was for Megaman 5.
I actually enjoyed Mega Man 5 to be honest simple tale about Protoman being framed by Dr Wily yes spoilers for a decades year old game. I loved the robot masters in this game and the robot enemies.
Megaman 5 was one of the first games I ever played, and forever had a hand in who I am to this very day. Really takes me back man.
I don’t know man, the game looks and sounds incredible but the charged shot breaks the game in half and you end up relying on it because the weapons are so bad. Personally it makes for kind of a dull experience imo. The end game is decent enough tho (apart from the lackluster boss fights that is lol)
6:58 There is no pattern for those falling crystals, they are extremely random and can sometimes fall immediately after the prior one despawns.
Mega Man 2 was the first of the series I played as a kid (in my grandparents' basement). Mega Man 5 was the first one I owned. They both have a special place for me
Speaking for myself, playing the classic Mega Man games in a binge back in 2020 definitely contributed to many of the classic Mega Man games being less memorable for me.
If I'm going through a very similarly handling series of games to get them off the backlog, I'm not going to remember something in the middle Mega Man 5 as well. I will also say that approaching games with a "backlog" mindset, as I did back in 2020, makes them more something to get through rather than something to enjoy. It also de-incentivizes me from replaying the games I "got through".
I will say that since watching your videos, your more recent stuff especially, I've gotten more into replaying games I've beaten than I used to. Doing so, especially with 2D platformers, has made them much more enjoyable. There's something about replaying a good 2D platformer like Super Metroid, Mega Man X or Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 that boosts my enjoyment of them immensely; it takes a game from something I like to something I love.
That all said then, I definitely want to replay many of these classic Mega Man games. However, I think it'd be interesting to replay them "out of order" as you suggest at the end here. I could well imagine something like Mega Man 4 or 5 standing out more in my mind if I'm not playing either game as part of a series-wide binge, but instead on their own.
MM5 may have it's issues (and I'd personally call it a downgrade from 4) but it's still one of the best NES games ever released.
An interesting thing for me personally is this is my FAVORITE of the classic NES MegaMan games, and I think a large part of that is because. THIS was my FIRST. I had seen what Megaman WAS thanks to a friend renting MM3, but I only got to play like a few minutes of it. I later found MM5 for like five bucks used at a video rental store that was trying to clearance it out, and remembering how much I liked those few minutes of 3 (though I didn't know which one it was at the time) I bought MM5 because I felt like I'd enjoy it, and boy did I ever. It's since become my favorite video game franchise.
Even more interesting is the fact that because I started the series with five. MM2 actually isn't all that big on my list of favorites, because it's a DOWNGRADE from what I started with. It's one of the biggest gripes I had with MM9 and 10. I want my damn slide and Mega Buster.