Mega Man 5

Mega Man 5 is an action-platform game that is very similar to previous titles in the series. Gameplay revolves around the player using the central character Mega Man to run, jump, and shoot his way through a set of stages. If the player takes damage, Mega Man's life meter can be refilled by picking up energy capsules scattered about each level or from fallen enemies. Mega Man's default Mega Buster arm cannon can be fired an unlimited number of times.

The Mega Buster's charge feature, introduced in Mega Man 4, has been upgraded to allow its powerful, charged shots to encompass a wider area. However, if Mega Man gets hit before he could fire a charge shot, the accumulated charge will be lost. Each stage ends with a boss battle with a Robot Master; destroying that Robot Master lets the player copy its special "Master Weapon", which can be toggled and used throughout the remainder of the game. Unlike the Mega Buster, Master Weapons require weapon energy to use and must be replenished if it is depleted in the same selected stage.

Mega Man 5 takes place during the 21st century, about two months after the events of Mega Man 4, when the mad scientist Dr. Wily once again attempted to take over the world. Proto Man, secret brother and once ally to the world's greatest hero Mega Man, apparently leads an army of robots in a series of destructive attacks on the world. To cripple the world's defenders, he kidnaps his own creator, the genius scientist Dr.

Light. As Mega Man witnesses his creator's kidnapping, he's confused, wondering why Proto Man is doing this, but with little choice left, he sets out to stop him, assisted by Beat, a robot bird that Dr. Cossack gave him as a gift. With Dr.

Having had major involvement in the development in all prior Mega Man games, artist Keiji Inafune, credited as "Inafking", worked under a new project leader for Mega Man 5. As with past entries in the series, Inafune used his experience to guide his supervisor and the other team members. He did this in order to avoid making what he considered to be an "unreasonable game, [...] an affront to the players".

As a result of this leadership, Inafune felt Mega Man 5 turned out with a lower difficulty level. The team already felt they had accomplished all the gameplay they could with the release of Mega Man 4, so they decided to simply "introduce powered up versions of everything", such as the Mega Buster. K", was called in to help out during the middle of Mega Man 5's development. The game was "taking a while to come together" at that point according to Kaji.

Mega Man 5 has enjoyed generally positive reactions from printed and online publications. Many critics were complimentary of the game's graphics, music, play control, and challenge level. IGN's Lucas M. Thomas holds Mega Man 5 as one of his favorite entries in the series and, because of its lowered difficulty compared to its predecessors, considers it the easiest of the bunch to casually pick up and play through. IGN lists Mega Man 5 as the 84th best game on the NES.

Like other sequels in the Mega Man series, Mega Man 5 has suffered criticism for its lack of innovative gameplay and storytelling. GamePro summarized the game as "déjà vu all over again for disciples of the series" and that "Capcom must get some kind of cash rebate for recycling video games". 1UP.com's Jeremy Parish considered Mega Man 5 as "a painfully phoned-in episode lacking not only innovation, but pretty much all the polish and balance that made the earlier games so enjoyable".