Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner as the road to Mega Man 11 continues. In this review, we check one of my favorite classic games and that is Mega Man V for the NES. By late 1992, the NES was on its last two legs as more titles were being shifted to the 16-bit consoles. Capcom has already released several games on the Super NES with the likes of Super Ghouls N Ghost and the mega hit Street Fighter II. Yet, a new Mega Man title wasn’t on the Super NES as a next-gen game weren't come until the following year with Mega Man X (the letter and not the number 10). Some of you will find it surprising that developers were still making newer games for the NES. MMV is among the software that came out this late into system's life as Capcom mostly likely was trying to save money. The NES's development probably became cheaper during the 90s for the company to continue releasing a fifth and later on a sixth entry. The theme is about Proto Man (Rock’s brother) and a new army of Robot Masters have suddenly appeared to cause havoc. Rock finds out his brother has kidnapped Dr. Light as Wily is once again missing from the action. With no leads on Proto Man working alone and whether or not Wily and him have teamed up, Mega Man sets out to find the truth and save Dr. Light. Gameplay There isn't much tweaking done with the formula this time as it's the same blasting and platforming that we grew familiar since the original. The Blue Bomber still has the Power Slide and Charge Shot which makes the game more accessible. The Super Arrow and Beat the robotic bird are new tools in this installment. As the name implies, the Super Arrow is a projectile that shoots across the screen and causing damage beyond the Charge Shot. In fact, it works best against a couple of the bosses like from the first battle against the Wily Machine. The level design is more balanced in its difficulty unlike MMIV since there were many times I didn't fall into a pit. The best theme that did this justice was from Star Man and Gravity Man stages. These levels provided environmental challenges that created a unique difficulty as gravity played a strong part. Of course, the convey belts and water torrents return, but they weren't a problem this time. I guess Capcom decided to balance the speed of the hazards when crossing these areas. The enemies still come at Rock when passing the obstacles but their numbers still got reduced which in turn balanced the difficulty. The bosses were much varied in their challenges unlike the last time and that is how it should've been. I will admit that some of the bosses' powers come off similar as seen from the Star Crash that is once again an energy shield. Fortunately, it's nothing like the Skull Shield as Star Man attacks differently. I found some of the bosses' powers to come off weak as seen from the Charge Kick and Power Stone. The Charge Kick has a limited range which causing me to take damage and is hardly ever used. While the Power Stone has too much wide range especially when it's used against Charge Man but only close to him. The Napalm Bomb was another limited attack as it bounces low against the floor. I also realized that these powers are not the best this series saw as the ones that had any good use came off flat. It's not up to the standard that the special powers often gets in the series as not one of these came close to the likes of the Metal Blade. Another thing that struck me as odd is how Rush didn't have a third adapter but only the jet and coil. His adapter was still needed to get by the hard spot in the stages but usually he always had a third ability. The Rush Jet still does wonders against those block pattern rooms which is why it probably got developed as a staple. Last but not least is the fact they reused the same format style from MMIII for the third time. That is truly laziness on these developers for reusing the same format design that still takes you through an eight-stage gauntlet. By the time Wily's Castle is next, I'm tired and the only thing that saved it for me was the good level design. Rating: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation Capcom continued tweaking the NES Mega Man graphics a little give a tad more animation and detail. The stage environments had a better selection this time when compared to the dust factory, bone yard and sewers from MMIV. Capcom using a Parallax effect in a couple of stages were a first on the NES as not many had this feature on its backgrounds. In the Wave Man stage, when riding on the Jet Ski the sky background behind the mountains moved. That's a bit surprising to see a parallax effect being used along the background on the NES. The sprites and all their wonkiness returns as always and providing me some snickers. I noticed some of the enemies are a bit down to earth compared to MMIV. I mean the Bounder, Cucco, Mizzle, Pukapucker and Suzy G came off funny but nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, I didn't forget the Metalls and they return to their usual opposing antics as their personalities continue to expand. You have one with a snorkel, another wearing a jetpack in space and one that rides a small train. There was even a mother metall and its tiny ones that came after destroying it. I can tell Capcom took this from Super Mario Bros 3 that also had mini goombas. The Robot Masters just like their stages had better themes this time. When I see Star Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man and Crystal Man as well as the other four had themes that made sense. There wasn't much presentation this time around as all they showed is Proto Man causing chaos around a city and kidnapping Dr. Light. I can't really complain about this as who plays a Mega Man title for it story or theme. When a new entry comes out we always look forward to the tried and true gameplay style that we love. The soundtrack came off better this time compared to the previous two entries. My favorites include Gravity Man, Stone Man, Napalm Man, Dark Man Stages, Credit's theme and Wily stages theme. Even my least liked songs such as Gyro Man, Crystal Man and the boss theme had catchy tunes to them. Of course, it's not up to the same standard as MMII but on its own the soundtrack delivered. Aside from my explanation, I can't find much of anything to complain about as Capcom fixed most of the mistakes MMIV had. The only thing I saw a problem was with a few songs sounding uninspiring like from the Star Man and Charge Man stages. Rating: 8.8/10 Features/Content MMV just like its predecessors doesn't offer much in terms of traditional content. Capcom seems to care little about adding extra stuff when it comes to their Mega Man NES games. That's not to say MMV doesn't have replay value because it does as the level design and stages keeps me coming back. Of course, it does have the same format structure as MMIII and IV which probably is its most annoying design. However, the way the challenges got made would create replay value as the gameplay came off balanced. However, I still believe Capcom should have taken Nintendo's example of creating unique passwords. As I mentioned many times, by creating unique passwords like changing the colors or the enemy designs could add more to the content. The studio did some things right for the levels as hidden breakable walls got placed along the stages. Sometimes you need to find these to put together separate letters of the game's name. By collecting these letters will allow the player to unlock Beat the robotic bird. The blue little bird attacks enemies that come near Rock and he can even help fight the bosses. It's hilarious how effective the little guy is against Dark Man and the second part of Wily Machine. That's a trend which has happened since MMII and it's always the weakest power affecting Wily the most. Rating: 8.4/10 Final Rating Once again, the Blue Bomber delivered another great entry in this classic series. Capcom truly fixed some issues that MMIV had and improved with the fifth game in many ways. The gameplay remained the same from the last game as the traditional style of shooting and platforming stayed true to its roots. Not much tweaking saw any development for the level design and the formula it used since the original. The graphics also didn't receive additional tweaks excepted for using a parallax effect on Wave Man stage. The themes for the levels had better choices compared to the last two titles before this one. Not only did humorous enemies return but the even the soundtrack saw a big improvement over MMIII and IV. Most of the songs felt engaging to listen to while I blasted my way through the levels. Capcom also didn't add or improve any features in terms of content as the same password with no cheats applies. I stated many times for them to create cheat enabled passwords so interesting and fun modes can get added. That's not to say this entry has no replay value because it does this in spades. The only issues I had are the special powers that felt limited and a few songs that were uninspiring. Let's not forget the same reused format from MMIII that forces the player through a gauntlet of eight stages after beating the first eight before them. Gameplay: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.8/10 Features/Content: 8.4/10 Final Rating: 8.6/10 Great
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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