February 17, 2015
Megaman 5, or Rockman 5, is one of the best in the original series, released in 1992 in Japan, and ’93 elsewhere. It takes everything that was good about the first four and improves upon them, as well as introducing a few new ideas of its own.
As an 8-Bit Megaman game, there are a few things you can be certain of, fantastic music and gameplay! It’s a little easier than the earlier games but no less fun, and the boss fights still prove a good challenge! (well most of them do anyway…)
Acording to the Megaman Complete Works Art Book, this game was actually developped by someone new to the Megaman franchise, so Inafune had to re-train him on what it means to make a Megaman game, this is one of the reasons for the reduced dificulty apparebntly. Although things do pick up after the initial robot masters stages with some of the hardest levels in any Megaman game, and also some of the most fun.
The music this time was composed by Mari Yamaguchi, who also did the soundtrack for the original Breath Of Fire, she returned to the Megaman series in 2010 to provide a track for Mega Man 10 (Sheep Man). She created some fantastic music for the game, my favorite tracks being Wave Man’s theme and Dark Mans Theme.
The robot masters for this game were made as part of a competition in which fans would send their ideas to capcom, and eight lucky winners were chosen to have their robot masters turned into the main enemies in the game. There were over 130,000 entires!
Theres actually a bit of plot going on this time, with MegaMan’s brother, Protoman, seemingly out to destroy the world with 8 new Robot Masters! Of course it turns out that it wasn’t actually Protoman, but infact… A robot created by Dr Wily called Dark Man, who impersonated Protoman and tried to destroy the world! Thankfully Dark Man also has his own castle to play through, and with some amazing music and cool level design, this is one of the most fun parts of the game!
My personal favourite Robot Master stages in this game are Wave Man, with his Jet-Ski section and a cool mid-level boss fight in the water! and Charge Man, who’s level takes place on a train, which looks amazing considering the limitations of the system! Other cool levels include Star Man which is set in space and includes low gravity which lets you jump much higher and slower than normal, and Gravity Man who’s level sees you constantly changing gravity to walk on both the floor and ceiling!
After you defeat all the robot masters, it’s onto… Darkmans castle. This is where the game really picks up. Amazing music and great level design make this one of the best sections in any Megaman game, it’s very challenging with enemies coming from all over and some really tough sections to get past. Along the way through Darkman’s castle, you’ll face off against many giant robots which really show off the impressive graphics!
Enjoy the video, and if you have any suggestions for a future Retro Game A Week, then feel free to tell me either here, or on twitter @nicktendowii