Yeah, pretty good game honestly.

The whip feels amazing to use in this game, you get plenty of use out of being able to delete projectiles with it, and there's the fun hook things you can use the whip on that never outstay their welcome.

I do think this game would be rated higher if it didn't suddenly go crazy with the difficulty spikes and the million instakill obstacles in the late-game. Death being harder than Dracula was also a really weird design decision.

Overall? A pretty damn good game that still holds up today.

Colorblindness Rating: A
Though some bosses have weird flashing stuff for I-frames and some obstacles kind of blend into the background, this game is fine in the colorblindness department. Hurrah.

I figure I should probably round up the reviews, and hey, I'm actually excited for this one. Megaman 5? Probably my favorite out of the classic games!

I'll do the format I did for the other NES Megaman titles.

Star Man Stage: Starting off strong, Star Man's stage is gorgeous (for the NES at least) and actually gives you a fun low-gravity excuse that isn't water. The enemy placement is actually pretty solid, and the platforming is pretty fun, even if the spikes can make it a bit punishing (but if you're playing 5, you should already have mastered low-gravity spike platforming honestly). Star Man's fight is pretty fun, you have a lot of room to maneuver and the pattern's not hard to get down.
Gravity Man Stage: A really wild stage concept with a fun gimmick, this one's a blast. If you enjoyed that one weird Run n' Gun section of Cuphead with the inverted gravity, you'll probably like this. The fact that the enemies are designed with the stage's gimmick in mind and interact with it meaningfully is also fantastic. You'll see the little dropper enemy and think: "What's this?" only to see the gravity change and go "Oh, I see!". It's kind of silly to be impressed by this stuff nowadays, but I really didn't expect to see something as novel as a gravity switch mechanic in an NES game. Just goes to show how much Capcom was innovating on the NES! Gravity Man's boss fight is also a ton of fun, especially if you're timing it with Star Crash and you slap him in the middle of the gravity flip. This fight is a blast, and it gives you a pretty damn busted weapon with Gravity Hold too.
Gyro Man Stage: Visions of Air Man,,,,, but it's actually a lot more fun! The elevators are a great setpiece for the stage in general, and the enemies feel fair to fight, even with all the platforming. Gyro Man's fight is a little eh, but he goes down really fast if you have Gravity Hold so there's not much to complain about there.
Crystal Man Stage: Super interesting design that reminds me of a better-looking Top Man stage. There's a ton of verticality which really adds to the "delving into a cave" theme the stage has going on. As for Crystal Man himself, his attack is a little hard to dodge but thankfully the damage they deal is pretty reasonable, so it's not bad at all.
Napalm Man Stage: Napalm Man as a concept is fucking hilarious. What the hell was Light smoking when he made this guy? Well, anyways. Stage is incredibly unsubtle about the fact it parodies Vietnam, but hey, it looks pretty damn good for 8-bit. The tiger enemies are a good test for your reflexes, and none of the other enemies are really bad to deal with aside from maybe the missile guys and the helicopter joes? As for Napalm Man himself, he's a little bit tricky but not hard to deal with once you get him down.
On a sidenote, I find it funny that Napalm Man and Air Man have a similar body type. Maybe they're brothers? And on the topic of sidenotes, the boss theme in this game sounds kind of silly, but it really grew on me.
Stone Man Stage: Bats and Mets that explode,,,,, really iffy enemy selection. This stage is kind of unmemorable sadly, I don't have a lot to say about it. At least Stone Man is a decent enough fight.
Charge Man Stage: Awesome stage design, love how you go on the train, into the train, back out again, then back in. I think it's a little short, but the stage concept is awesome and it's a damn good stage in the short length it had. I struggled a little bit on Charge Man because Power Stone is miserable to aim, but eventually I realized it's just better to use the Buster and I beat him the first try after I realized that. Whoops.
Dive Man Stage: It's an interesting stage, I'll give it that. You'd expect another uninspired water level, but thankfully they didn't and they decided to give us a unique ship level with the main highlight being the Rush Marine section. I wasn't a terribly big fan of this section because you couldn't really use the powers you'd been accruing over the course of the playthrough, but it was definitely a novel concept and I'm glad they decided to at least try to mix it up. Unfortunately, Dive Man is kind of a lame fight that's not too interesting if you try to do it honorably, so just Charge Kick the crap out of him and get it over with.

And onto the Proto Man Stages.
Proto Man Stage 1: It's surprisingly pink. The return of the kaizo blocks is kind of mitigated due to the fact Rush Jet exists. Dark Man I isn't anything to write home about, but he sure does exist.
Proto Man Stage 2: Some fun enemies return, but nothing terribly memorable happens in this stage. Dark Man II is A Boss That Exists, I guess.
Proto Man Stage 3: They bombard you with the helicopter Joes at the start for some reason, but the quick horizontal platforming section is cool. The snake block section is probably the most memorable part about the whole stage though; if you played Mario Maker 2, you probably have an idea of what I'm referring to. Anyway, Dark Man III freezes you and that's not really fun; but thankfully it's avoidable for the most part if you don't let yourself get cornered.
Proto Man Stage 4: Interesting beginning section where you have to destroy the support blocks and let the tower fall before you get to move on. I find it really cool that they made a whole fake Proto Man whistle only to have the REAL Proto Man come along. Dark Man IV finally feels like a proper fight, even if the rotating pillars are a little annoying.

And now we actually get to the final stages with Wily. But before we get to it, can I mention how awesome the Wily Stage theme sounds in this game? I mean, take a listen. Sounds awesome.
Wily Stage 1: Nice of them to give you a free E-Tank, which allows me to forgive them for having a semi-blind spike pit at the very start. The donut platforms and the trash presses give this stage a little bit of flavor. At the end of the trash press section, you probably want to grind on the chicken farm to refill your energy; it's very likely that the Proto Man stages left you kind of dry by now. The boss for this stage is none other than motherfucking Big Pets, the guy that the Glitch Gremlin tried to fuck up the AVGN with. Pretty simple fight honestly, but a ton of fun all the same. If you're going to hit it's weakness though, prepare to open and close the menu a ton.
Wily Stage 2: An underwater section; you'd think it would be strange for a Megaman game to not have one of these, so here it is. Boss for this stage is is the Circling Q9, and he's just ok. He has the decency to not outlast his welcome at the very least.
Wily Stage 3: Classic Robot Master rematches, you know the deal by now. You'll have to deal with the Wily Press at the end, but it's actually a pretty fun fight, just stick by the middle and jump across it when needed. Kind of like the Egg Scorcher in Sonic 1 but better designed if you think about it. Good boss overall, which is impressive for a boss this late into a Megaman game.
Wily Stage 4: You get a whopping 3 enemies to farm for any more energy you need before facing the Wily Machine 5. That said, you probably don't need to! It's a good old-fashioned slugfest where you have to avoid a couple of patterns he throws out at you, and then you're on to Wily Capsule.
I still think Wily Capsule in Megaman 4 is cooler, but it's still a damn cool and fun fight here.

Ending cutscene is pretty well made for the NES, and hearing the Proto Man whistle is always an "oh shit" moment I've come to enjoy.
Overall? My favorite Mega Man game, it's so much fun and it's an honest blast to play. Maybe I'll get Beat next time, who knows.

Colorblindness Rating: A+
All good here from a colorblindness perspective.

Slash Man and Shade Man being Universal references made for a set of pretty fun stages, some Robot Masters had good fights and...

I think this game has the most atrocious Wily Stages in any Megaman I've played. Attacks feel impossible to dodge with Megaman's big fuckass sprite on a big screen, and the boss fights are MISERABLE. The bosses are invincible for so long (that turtle boss could've been decent if not for the we turtles three segment that wastes so much time, guts man g is just invulnerable with no tell as far as i can see, bass flying like a dumbass and somehow getting i-frames while doing so), and Wily himself just straight up breaks a rule that you've come to expect (why the fuck can you just slide under the leg that seems like it would damage you???), and the Wily Capsule having a god awfully bloated healthbar, I was honestly just slogging through the finale and while the ending cutscene was kind of cool, I kind of just wish I was playing X instead.

Yeah, actually, why the fuck did I play this? I could've just played X for a better SNES Megaman experience. Fuck. Don't waste your time.

Colorblindness Rating: A
yeah whatever i want nothing else to do with this miserable miserable game

Charge Shot is very appreciated, but apart from that, this game is kind of just... okay. I have no idea why they felt the need to make boss HP fill up way slower.

I'll do the same format as my other Mega Man reviews and go game by game.

Toad Man Stage: The water gimmick is okay-ish; I don't like the instant death pits. Other than that, this stage feels shockingly short, and a really... really... REALLY mediocre boss doesn't do it any favors.
Bright Man Stage: I love the brightness/darkness gimmick with the darkness enemies and then having to light the area back up with a firework enemy, super creative stage. The optional pendulum platform section was also a highlight. Bright Man himself isn't too fun to fight; bosses that can just freeze you in place with no real counterplay aren't fun to fight. Fun stage, bad boss.
Pharaoh Man Stage: Love my Egypt, so this stage is... just ok. Sand is an interesting gimmick and the platform enemy section is fine. Pharaoh Man's fight itself is kind of lame if you use the weakness, it's more of a mash test than anything. Kind of a letdown, but at least Pharaoh Shot is a cool ass weapon.
Ring Man Stage: The platforms that disappear are just an okay gimmick, you can kind of tell they didn't have much for Ring Man. The hippo minibosses are a little annoying to deal with but nothing compared to the ring minibosses that are a royal pain in the ass and I honestly just ran into them and skipped them with I-Frames. Ring Man himself is actually a kind of interesting fight, so it's the opposite of Bright Man funnily enough. Bad stage, fun boss.
Dust Man Stage: Interesting stage with the trash presses and the forming platforms, definitely not bad. Dust Man is a pretty fun fight and it's fun to figure him out.
Dive Man Stage: It's a water stage with semi-interesting enemies and the whale miniboss is ok, but it's not really memorable. Dive Man is just like, one step above Toad Man and that's not really saying much.
Drill Man Stage: Interesting aesthetic, but otherwise a kind of boring stage. Drill Man's fight is also not really that good, you're mostly just waiting around until he pops back up to shoot him.
Skull Man Stage: I like the diverging paths in this stage, but that's about it.

Cossack Stage 1: First stage isn't really too memorable, though it is reminiscent of the first Wily Stage in Megaman 2. Boss is cool, love sliding under the boss.
Cossack Stage 2: The Rush Jet part is neat, game gets pretty generous and gives you a lot of free stuff here. The boss is also really cool, and it reminds me of the boss in Megaman 2 that was just the stage. Very nice.
Cossack Stage 3: You can do a funny Wire bug on the autoscroller parts which is fun. Other than that, not a big fan of the autoscroller section, and the boss is just really mediocre.
Cossack Stage 4: Not much to say about this stage. Cossack himself is a fun enough fight.

Alright, onto the Wily Stages.
Wily Stage 1: This stage is full of so many fucking Mets man. There's also a really cheap blind drop into water where there's a set of asshole spikes placed purely to spite the player. Kaizo blocks reappear and are kind of pointless since the player can just use Wire. And oh, the boss of this stage is a giant Met. Thankfully it's pretty easy.
Wily Stage 2: Fun platforming, otherwise not terribly memorable. The boss isn't really great either.
Wily Stage 3: Classic Robot Master rematches. Not much else to say until Wily Machine, where it took me an exorbitant amount of time to figure out I was supposed to hit him with fully charged shots. This fight sucked big time, I'm not going to lie.
Wily Stage 4: From a bad fight to a really fucking hype fight. This is probably my favorite Wily Fight? It's easy but it's so fucking cool and is a great victory lap.

Colorblindness Rating: A
By now, Megaman's menus are no longer confusing for the colorblind with much clearer labels. Thanks, Capcom.

Alright, so starting off with general gameplay changes; pretty much just an improvement on all fronts? The added now-iconic slide changes SO MUCH you can do with the game and makes everything so much unbelievably smoother than Megaman 2 (an already incredibly smooth game to play).

So, I'll be doing the same thing I did in my Megaman 2 Review and go through my experiences stage by stage.
Magnet Man Stage: Not a terrible start, and normally I don't mind the kaizo blocks popping on and out but having to deal with the magnetizing block was actually just kind of awful. As for Magnet Man himself, pretty fun fight; I do think his magnetizing attack lasts a tad too long sometimes, but it adds tension so it's whatevz.
Hard Man Stage: Not too memorable but I do like how some enemies are designed around the slide mechanic, like the Hammer Joes and the monkey enemies that jump around like they're on cocaine. Hard Man himself wasn't a bad fight either.
Top Man Stage: I dunno how this stage relates to Top Man besides the final section before the final boss. Still, pretty fun design and the cat bosses were cute. Top Man himself was kind of a pushover though.
Shadow Man Stage: Now THIS was a fun stage, I love how they play around with the enemies that take away the visibility and the long platforming sections; it's a ton of fun honestly. As for Shadow Man himself, he's fine. I think Top Spin kind of forces you to just get in his face so there's almost no point in learning his attack patterns.

Oh yeah, and I should probably mention Proto Man. Pretty fun fight as long as the ground is either completely flat or shaped like a... |---| stage. I don't know how to describe it. Again, completely love how you're supposed to slide under him when he jumps. The slide is so fucking cool.

Spark Man Stage: Not a terribly memorable stage, but I did like the weird stage hazards on the ceiling and floor that shock you and the conveyor belt platforms.
Snake Man Stage: Awesome stage theme, awesome stage visuals until you go outside for some reason? Not much else to say as at this point. Snake Man himself is decent enough as a boss.
Gemini Man Stage: Super strange visuals but I dig them, I like digging through the bubbles and sliding past. As for Gemini Man, I'm not sure his fight was very fun but at least he went down semi-easy.
Needle Man Stage: Not very memorable sadly. Needle Man is at least fun to fight though.

The Doc Robot fights are pretty similar to how I felt about the original bosses in Megaman 2 with a couple of exceptions.
Heat Doc Robot: Actually much more of a pain. I dunno why he's a lot harder here than in Megaman 2. I think he doesn't do his heat dash very often which is why?
Flash Doc Robot: The arena is AWFUL and I really don't know how you're meant to avoid not running into him. I had to use like 2 E Tanks on this guy alone.
And of course, Air Man came back to haunt me. I HATE AIRMAN SO MUCH

The Proto Man final fight was really cool, if short. I wish he got a healthbar though.

Well, that's that. Onto the Wily Stages.
Stage 1: The stage itself isn't too memorable, but the turtle boss is actually really fun. I was surprised by how I was enjoying myself after slogging through the Doc Robot fights.
Stage 2: Again, not much to say on this one. It's a short ride with Rush Jet. That said, you do get to fight Yellow Devil! I kind of gave up on Megaman 1, so it was nice that I still get to fight him, even if it's not the iconic fight where you have to memorize his pattern.
Stage 3: The darkness enemy comes back! Very fun. I was surprised at how fluid the platforms moved in the final section, definitely a memorable stage just for that alone. At first I was dreading the fight, but then I vaguely remembered something about how the Copy Robot didn't have any I-Frames and that you could supposedly make your Buster Shots do Top Spin damage if you're using Rush Coil swap in the middle of shooting. To my surprise, I actually pulled it off first try and the boss exploded in like 3 seconds. I don't feel bad about it because it seemed like an awful fight anyway.
Stage 4: Boss rematches, good ol' Megaman.
Stage 5: Wily Machine No. 3... is really mediocre?? I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do until I tried Hard Knuckle and then it became just a really tedious waiting game.
Stage 6: I simply Rush Jet to the top right, popped a couple Hard Knuckles, finished the boss with Top Spin. I'm not sure what the boss is supposed to do, but I'm sure it's a fun boss if you do it legit.

Colorblindness Rating: A-
Again, you can confuse some abilities by the color of the armor if you forget the acronyms, but thankfully you have weapon icons that give you a pretty good indicator as to what they do.
This is a ginormous nitpick honestly, but I think it's still important to think about these things.

It's fun until you start getting to the timed stuff with the dumb chicken.

I kind of expected it to be like a puzzle you chip away at slowly until you finally crack it, making it a pretty fufilling experience overall if you put in the time for it.

But man, that fucking chicken needing to be fed but you can't OVERFEED him either was what killed my enjoyment of the game. I could handle the fire, I could handle having to spend an egregious amount of time figuring out what chess notation means, but I don't like being rushed.

It's a complete game! I had the pleasure of finishing it all the way through on my SUPA BOY and y'know what? I kind of miss back when games came out fully complete and we didn't have to compromise on "just wait for the patch bro, they'll fix it later".

Every stage and every game in Super Star just offers pretty much anything you'd want out of a retro Kirby game and more, it's pretty clear how much of a leap forward this game must've been at the time, and how it serves as the foundation on which the series continued to build on.

Colorblindness Rating: A
I don't recall there being any issues regarding to color in this game, but someone feel free to correct me since it's been a while since I last played this game.