Mega Man 5 is the only one of the bunch that I actually played through on my Famicom rather than on the Switch collection, and I actually played through it before Mega Man 1, but I'm putting it here order-wise for the sake of consistent formatting XD. Mega Man 5 was a game I only played through once on the Anniversary Collection when I was younger, so this was a game I remembered far far less of than the first three games. It ended up taking me around four hours to beat the Japanese version of the game.

Mega Man 5 has a bit of a different take on the story again, and does a bit of a fake out like Mega Man 4 did. Proto Man has suddenly turned traitor, and he kidnaps Dr. Light! He tells Mega Man to defeat his eight robot masters before taking him on directly if he wants Dr. Light returned safely, and Mega Man of course sets off to the task. In the end, "Proto Man" turns out to be Dark Man in disguise, and it was Dr. Wily behind it all the whole time (of course), but the scene where the real Proto Man saves you from the fake one is a really well done, text-less cutscene for the NES. It helps set up the action just fine, as the other NES games do.

However, story aside, Mega Man 5 is a pretty steep blip in quality from the generally upward trend with saw with the previous four games. Mega Man 5's stages often feel like they repeat the same thing too often and are far longer than they need to be, so they end up feeling a bit empty as a result. You also have a fair few stages, especially Crystal Man's, that have really unfair-feeling traps that require either super reflexes or downright luck to get past. They also have a letter of "MEGAMAN5" hidden in each of them, and you'll really want those if you want to unlock this game's hidden weapon: the new birdy companion Beat! They aren't awful, and I definitely wouldn't say this game's stages are worse than Mega Man 1's if only because of how much better this game controls, but they're still definitely one of the weakest among the NES games in quality.

The boss designs are also less than stellar compared to most of the others in the series. You still have your chargeable mega buster from Mega Man 4, thankfully, and it's also even better because it now unleashes a much larger projectile. But this is one of the few saving graces of this game. While this game does tend to be fairly easy with how often it gives you extra lives and health powerups compared to previous entries, the bosses also tend to be disappointingly easy in just how simple their patterns are. It often didn't even feel worth trying to use their weaknesses on them, as they're just so easily beaten with the mega buster. But on the flip side of that, you have Dark Man's stages and his bosses, which you REALLY want Beat for, as he's their weakness. The Dark Man bosses are generally really tough and not in a fun way, and drag this game down just like Doc Robot did in Mega Man 3, but even moreso. Wily's stage's bosses are pretty good, but that doesn't make up for just how short and unimpressive their stages are, and the whole thing ends up feeling way more rough than you'd expect after an entry as good as Mega Man 4.

The presentation is pretty good, but it's still a far cry from the goodness that was Mega Man 2 and 3. Dark Man's stages have a pretty good theme, but other than that, most of the music is pretty forgettable. The graphics are quite pretty though, with the robot masters and other bosses looking as nice and well-designed as ever.


Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. While I wouldn't put this below Mega Man 1 in quality if only for the reason that it has tighter controls, that's still damning with faint praise. Mega Man 5 is a really disappointing game not only because it's so mediocre, but also considering the games it followed. It's still a good NES action game, but just how rough this entry is makes its existence very confusing in the series.