Mega Man 5: The BEST Classic Mega Man Game

(This review was originally published May 13th, 2024.)

Yeah, you read the title right. I think Mega Man 5 is both the best classic Mega Man game and one of the most underrated games I have ever played. I adore this game from start to finish, it is one of my all time favorite platformer games. The game features some of the best level variety I have found in a platformer game, especially for a game on the fucking NES. It’s wild. This game has great levels, pretty good weapons, great bosses, and feels like the pinnacle of what a platformer game from this era could be. For all of these reasons and more, it is my favorite NES game, and I hope I can convince some of the people who don’t love it as much as me to think about it more and perhaps give it a second chance.

Normally in my reviews, I talk about the individual stages in the game sequentially at the end, and I am still going to do that, but before I do I need to talk about the overall level design in Mega Man 5 and how it greatly differs from the rest of the games in the series. I think the biggest reason people dislike Mega Man 5 is the same reason why I love the game so much, which is that it has so much level variety, with many of the stages in the game having their own gimmicks that make them play pretty differently from every other stage in the series. I get why these can be polarizing to people. Some people play a Mega Man game and want the classic run-and-shoot gameplay for the entirety of the game, which is perfectly fine. However, personally, the absolute, number one most important thing to me in a platformer game is variety. A game can have excellent level design but if it feels boring then it doesn’t matter. Of the eight Robot Master stages in Mega Man 5, I would say that three of them have a strong, distinct gimmick that defines how the stage is played. Those would be Wave Man’s boat sections, Star Man’s low gravity, and Gravity Man’s anti-gravity. I think all of these are awesome, and make me love the stages that they came from more than I would otherwise. However, I think it’s worth emphasizing that I think three out of eight is the perfect amount. They make the game extremely memorable, but they don’t actually take up too much space. If you just want a classic Mega Man experience, I do not think that they really get in the way. If you do like these sorts of gimmicks, it makes the game a very unique entry within the series, since most other games in the series don’t do this.

I am not going to be commenting on the graphics of levels in this review as much as I did in the Mega Man 3 or 4 reviews, but that is because by Mega Man 4, you knew what graphics you were going to get from a Mega Man game: some of the best looking games on the system. It would be redundant to say that every stage looks great, so I will try to keep my commentary on that to a minimum.

Mega Man 5 keeps the Charge Shot from Mega Man 4, solidifying it as a staple of the series that would be included in almost every game going forward. Unlike 3 and 4, it does not introduce a new core part of Mega Man’s moveset like the Slide or the Charge Shot, however, what it does introduce is a new character named Beat, a robot bird that can be found in the game. The way you collect Beat is by collecting one Plate from each stage, which each have a letter on them that comes together to spell out MEGAMANV. Once collected, Beat becomes added to the player’s inventory as a special weapon. I will talk about each Beat Plate in the appropriate level, but here I want to just talk about Beat overall. I think adding this sort of collection incentive to the game is amazing, as long as it is optional, which it is. It gives the game some replay value, while also giving more incentive to take your time and explore rather than to blast your way through the game. Some Mega Man fans complain that the later NES games add too much padding, but to me this isn’t padding, it’s content, and it makes the game better to me. Once acquired, Beat is a pretty useful weapon. It can home in on enemies, and while it just does okay damage to the early bosses and enemies in the game, it packs a punch versus some of the late-game bosses, which makes it a good reward. It doesn’t trivialize the game, but it does make the game easier, which is the perfect place for a payoff like this to be balance wise.

In addition to the eight normal special weapons and Beat, this game has three transport/support items. The series has finally dropped Rush Marine, which was only a matter of time as it was pretty useless most of the time. The first of the three is the Rush Coil. Normally, I would not talk much about it since it has already been prominently featured in two past games, but it works a lot differently here. Rather than Rush becoming a stationary spring for Mega Man to jump off of to gain height, now it is a spring that launches into the air and acts as a temporary platform for Mega Man to jump off of. Now, I don’t hate this change. It doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t make the game worse. But it does confuse me, as it feels like a serious case of “don’t fix what isn’t broken.” The Rush Coil was already perfect, why change it? Whatever, it’s a fine change. Just like in 3 and 4, Mega Man starts with it. However, he doesn’t start with the Rush Jet, which is unlocked after Gyro Man’s stage. It works identically here to how it works in Mega Man 4, unless I am mistaken. The final of the support/transport items, and the final one, is the Super Arrow. It can do damage, but outside of a case we’ll get to later, that isn’t its main purpose. Instead, its purpose is to be shot and then either ridden on, or stepped on like a platform when it gets stuck to a wall. Honestly I found this item a bit pointless? It worked fine enough and I liked the couple times I used it, but it was extremely sparse, even more sparse than the usage of Rush Marine in Mega Man 3 and 4. I could take it or leave it.

In addition to Beat and the transport/support items in Mega Man 5, of course we have the eight Special Weapons in the game. I will admit: If this game has any weakness, I would say it is its selection of special weapons. They are certainly not bad, but they also aren’t a home run like they were in Mega Man 3. The first weapon in the game is one of the coolest, the Gravity Hold. While I will admit this weapon is arguably unbalanced in a similar way to the Rain Flush in Mega Man 4, I still think it is cool enough to justify it. And, unlike that weapon, there are a lot of enemies who are immune to it, including most bosses. Being able to send enemies flying upward is just too cool to pass up. The second of the weapons is one I am not as high on, the Water Wave. This weapon can only be fired on the ground, which is my main issue with it. It ends up feeling clunky and not worth using outside of specific bosses because so often you will be in the air and vulnerable. The Power Stone is another of the ones I have an issue with. This weapon surrounds Mega Man and shoots rocks, but it has an extremely weird trajectory. This trajectory ultimately makes it very hard to use and it honestly feels equal parts frustrating and fun. The Gyro Attack, despite a boring name, is one of the coolest weapons in the game! It has a cool gimmick, which is that you can control its trajectory after it has been fired. It travels at first in a straight line, but if you press up it rises. This rules, and makes it very fun to use.

The Star Crash is a weapon in the same vein as the Leaf Shield from Mega Man 2 and the Skull Barrier from Mega Man 4. It can be thrown like the Leaf Shield, and I actually really like how it looks aesthetically, but overall it’s just another boring shield weapon. One of the less good weapons here. One of the most unique weapons in the Mega Man series, the Charge Kick is one that augments your slide rather than being its own dedicated weapon. This is super weird but I kinda like it. It’s a rare melee weapon for Mega Man, and it’s pretty fun to use. The Napalm Bomb rules, and has a cool trajectory. Rather than being fired outwards in a path towards the enemy directly, it is dropped onto the ground before it bounces forward, which is neat. The last of the Robot Master weapons in the game is the Crystal Eye. The Crystal Eye is a fine weapon. I like that it bounces off of walls, but it is very annoying that it can’t be fired again until every pellet of the bounce disappears.

While the weapons in Mega Man 5 are its one real sort-of weakness, its biggest strength comes down to its stage design, which I am going to break down stage by stage. The first stage in the game is my favorite stage in any classic Mega Man game: Gravity Man’s stage. I adore this stage. When I first played the Legacy Collection around 6 years ago, I was blown away by this stage. Anti-gravity levels and sections in video games nowadays is nothing new, but for when this game was released in 1993, I have to imagine this was mind blowing and something they hadn’t seen in a game. I felt that same joy playing this stage from an NES game in anti-gravity. The stage also looks fantastic, it’s so incredibly detailed. The layout of the stage, despite the interesting setup, is pretty straightforward, but that lets you focus on how cool the anti-gravity is. The upside down ladders are an awesome touch that reinforces how cool the stage is. The stage’s Plate is in a pretty cool spot. It makes you play chicken by falling into a pit and dying but if you last long enough you get the Plate as a reward. After more awesome anti-gravity shenanigans, Mega Man arrives at the boss fight with Gravity Man. I love this boss fight. It uses the gravity mechanic of the stage extremely well, and if you have the Star Crash it is especially fun. Perfect stage.

The second stage in the game is another one of the ones with a strong gimmick to it, which is Wave Man’s stage. We’ll get to that gimmick in a bit, as the stage starts out pretty normally. I don’t like one of the hazards in this stage, which is these swinging chain balls. Especially when paired with these gas sprayers, it can be very hard to avoid. But that’s a nitpick, not a major issue. After a bit of platforming we come to a cool part of the stage, where Mega Man rides these big bubbles upwards. This is awesome! Such an interesting and unique set piece, and not too hard or easy. I appreciate that the penalty for failing is just falling onto the ground rather than spikes or a pit. After that we get to the main gimmick of the stage, which is the Jet Ski portion, where Mega Man rides a Jet Ski/boat and has altered controls. They are not that different from the game’s normal controls, though. Bigger hitbox, no slide, no charge shot. That’s pretty much it. I love this part of the stage. It’s extremely unique and interesting, it’s a completely different scenario from what has been seen in the series. However, by not actually being different from the regular controls, it ingeniously makes it familiar and not too out there. As Mega Man drives it, enemies come by and it can be hard to avoid some of them, but it’s still very fun, including a miniboss octopus. It is pretty neat, if a bit uninteresting. After that, more of the Jet Ski section, including this stage’s Plate. This one isn’t that hard to nab, but what it is hard to do is see. I think it blends in a bit too much with how fast the stage is going, but that may just be me. Mega Man gets off the Jet Ski shortly after and continues towards the boss fight with Wave Man. This fight is great, I love using the Charge Kick to fight him. It feels great to just barely dodge his attacks at the last second.

Stone Man’s stage starts off pretty standard for a Mega Man stage, despite some gorgeous backgrounds, with enemies in your path. They aren’t especially notable, but what is notable is that pretty close to the start of the stage, there is the next Plate. This one is some bullshit, and definitely my least favorite Plate location. To get to it, you have to shoot a seemingly ordinary section of wall with the Mega Buster, causing it to break. If you do this, you can slide through it to grab the Plate. The issue with this placement is that the game doesn’t signal that it has a secret here. It should have stood out visually. But, at the end of the day, since it is a fully optional secret, it doesn’t actually matter that much that it’s not the best designed. The middle section of the stage is another fairly generic enemy-filled part of the stage. However, it also features my favorite part of the stage, which is in a room with moving platforms. You have to jump on and off of them very quickly, or else they won’t let you grab the E-Tank. Later comes the boss fight with Stone Man, which is a fight I like a fair bit. I think it’s well balanced and a longer fight than most encounters with Robot Masters. The last note about this stage is that it is longer than most Mega Man stages. I wish that length had gone to a stage with cooler hazards or gimmicks, but it’s not unappreciated here.

The next stage, Gyro Man’s, has a pretty weird start, with a weird elevator that takes Mega Man up to the stage proper. Nothing actually happens on this elevator, it’s just a cool visual set piece, which I appreciate. After that, there are some pretty neat platforming/combat areas, with enemies to kill while jumping over bottomless pits. Some vertical sections come next, with some enemies that patrol the ground that you have to avoid and can’t kill. I like that kind of thing, I almost wish it was around longer, as it only appears twice in this stage. During a section with falling platforms, you can grab the Plate from this stage if you ride it as it falls before jumping off. A bit more platforming is next, but then a very cool part of the stage happens, which is a vertical autoscrolling section with spikes that crush you if you don’t get out of the way. The stage moves slow enough that it’s not especially difficult, but it’s still nice to see a change of pace like this. It can still be a bit of a challenge if you aren’t great at timing precise jumps, as it is possible to over-jump and hit the spikes. Once the elevator arrives, there’s only a little bit of the stage left before Mega Man reaches the boss of the stage. The boss fight with Gyro Man is one of the very few underwhelming aspects of Mega Man 5 to me. If you have his weakness, the Gravity Hold, it is the easiest fight ever, as you can just use it five or so times and kill him with no difficulty. However, if you don’t have or use his weakness, it’s a decent fight.

Of the three “gimmick stages” in Mega Man 5, Star Man’s is the least gimmicky. The stage features lowered gravity, allowing Mega Man to jump much higher and descend slower. As some people have pointed out before, this stage’s “gimmick” is actually not unique at all: This is the game’s water level, as the physics present in this stage are very similar to water levels in past games. However, the aesthetics of this stage present it as a gimmick, via appearing in a less familiar way. Making the game’s water level into an outer space level is awesome, and keeps the mechanics we’re used to without the stale paint of a water level. Luckily, the stage’s specific design is also pretty great, which sets it above many other water levels in platformers. Shortly after the stage’s start, the player is greeted with layers of spikes on the ceiling that make jumping too high precarious. I like this touch, because it makes great use of the low gravity, since normally in a stage the ceiling would be too high for this to be a real hazard. Most of the stage from here is fairly standard, but it being standard is totally fine when it has a gimmick that persists throughout the level and the level design is built to accommodate that. In the middle of the stage, you can grab the Plate of the stage, which is right below a layer of spikes. This Plate’s location is very similar to the one in Gravity Man’s stage, in that you have to play chicken with a jump to not die, either with a pit or spikes. Later, there’s a miniboss fight against this robot with a vulnerable eye. It’s kind of hard to hit with pellets since it is only vulnerable at the eye, but it’s still a fine miniboss. When it’s defeated, Mega Man enters another section with platforming on platforms above spikes, making jumps he can only do because of the gravity, which is another good use of the stage’s gimmick. Star Man is a bit of an odd boss. He’s hard to kill, but also it is hard for him to kill you. His only attack is a shield, which can block your own attacks, but you are at little risk of losing the fight because he only can damage you with the shield. Decent, if not especially great, boss.

Charge Man’s stage is next, which has great theming before even getting to its gameplay. I love having a train-themed stage in a Mega Man game, as well as a train-themed boss of course. The train theme is especially cool once you get on the train and see the moving background to show the motion of the train. Gameplay wise, you start on the ground before boarding the train. Once you board the train, the stage is a fairly normal platforming stage, but I think it’s excellently designed, and a great example of a generic layout done well. The enemy placements are good but feel fair, and I like some of the train themed enemies like the Train-Mets. The stage has great pacing, it doesn’t feel like it goes on too long at any one part, and there are enough varied elements to keep a standard stage interesting. Towards the middle, the Plate is hiding in plain sight, in a window in the train. You can reach it with Rush Coil or I guess a different transport weapon if you want. Then, Mega Man exits the train and starts riding on top of it until he reaches the boss fight. The Charge Man boss fight is just alright. He’s pretty easy to avoid for the most part since he just charges you and you can jump over him. He also rains projectiles down, but they aren’t hard to dodge either. However, he is invulnerable while attacking, which does make the fight harder to take down than some other easily exploitable bosses.

The next stage is home to Napalm Man, which features a lovely looking jungle theme. The level begins with a standard horizontal platforming section with tiger enemies and pits of spikes, which certainly fits the theme. There are giant drills that I didn’t realize at first that you could shoot, I assumed they were just hazards rather than enemies. Next in the stage, there are waterfalls, which remind me of how they worked in Mega Man 4’s Toad Man stage. I liked them there, and I like them here. Having additional physics to move you around is usually a neat hazard to me, and putting them on platforms over bottomless pits is the obvious way to use them. After more spike platforms, you come to the Plate of this stage, which is in plain sight, but you have to time a jump or slide off at the right time in order to grab it. Great placement. I like the “Met in a turret” enemy featured in this stage and others, it feels fun to fight. Pretty soon after, you reach the fight with Napalm Man. He has a pretty predictable pattern, which makes the fight pretty easy. Luckily, he is well balanced in terms of how much damage it takes to kill him, which still makes the fight not a pushover.

The final of the eight Robot Master stages is Crystal Man’s stage, and it’s very good. It’s not one of the best in Mega Man 5, but that’s a high bar. It starts with Mega Man fighting an interesting enemy, which is called a Puckapucker. It shoots a ball into the air that then balances up and down, and leads to fun gameplay of dodging the ball, as when you kill the enemy the ball goes flying off. A bit later, Mega Man comes to a room with falling crystals, which are pretty easy to dodge. What I wanted to comment on for this part, though, was how pretty the background is. I love the reddish pink sky here. After a drop, Mega Man can grab an M-Tank, which refills both weapon and health energy. It’s kinda weird that it’s so easy to grab, though. Then, during another drop (this one with spikes), you can pick up this stage’s Plate by falling to the left. I dislike this letter placement. There isn’t really indication you should have fallen to the left, so even if you had a fast enough reaction to notice the Plate, you might not be able to grab it. That feels cheap, and makes the stage feel like it needs two playthroughs, which isn’t nearly as well designed as most other Plates. But, again, it’s a bonus reward, which means it is less important that it be perfectly designed, so this is a nitpick. Not much of the stage remains before you come face to face with Crystal Man. His boss fight is pretty good, probably the highlight of the stage. I like the way his attack pattern leaves him open to being hit with the upward-aimed Gyro Attack, although I will admit this stage probably sucks to pick as your first stage, since he’s in the air and hard to hit with a Charge Shot so often. Good fight.

After defeating all eight Robot Masters (and unlocking Beat), we come to the four Proto Man’s Castle stages, also known as the Dark Man’s Castle stages. I have heard that many people think that the Castle stages in Mega Man 5, both Proto Man’s and Wily’s, are a decline in quality from the Robot Master stages. I think they may be a tiny bit worse, but I still think that overall they are pretty fantastic. Proto Man’s Castle stage one starts with a classic formula for the first stage in a Castle, which is a horizontal platformer section to get close to the Castle, and then a ladder to climb to get into the building proper. The next section contains some places for you to use your transport items, mainly Rush Jet, Rush Coil, and the Super Arrow. There’ll later be another mini-boss encounter with one of those vulnerable-eye-robots from Star Man’s stage, before a disappearing block section. This game has very few of those. While I like them, many people don’t, so toning the amount back was probably a wise decision on Capcom’s part. There are these weird enemies before the boss that I don’t think can hurt you? They just orbit around you. They aren’t a bad addition, I guess, I just don’t get what their purpose is. Weird. Anyway, the boss fight is with Dark Man 1, the first of the four versions of Dark Man that the player must vanquish. Most people agree these bosses have pretty lame designs, being too similar and fairly boring. I agree with that, aesthetically they are pretty poor. However, the actual gameplay of the Dark Man bosses I mostly enjoy! This one is a pretty good fight. It only fires an attack when you do, which can make for a pretty interesting fight, as you have to get far enough away to dodge its attacks while attacking.

The second of the four Proto Man’s Castle stages is one of the longer stages in the game. It is also, sadly, pretty generic, definitely a step down from Proto Man’s first stage. One of the early rooms features a blind drop, where you also have an option of taking a ladder. Now, I think blind drops into death pits suck, always. But, this one is at least less bad than usual, as there is a telegraphed way to avoid death by taking the ladder. I still don’t like it, but I hate it less than most other drops. From there, it’s a bit more generic platforming. I like one section with conveyor belt platforms over a bottomless pit, and I also like a section where Mega Man has to slide through a tight space and turn around at the last second to grab an E-Tank. After that, there isn’t much of note before getting to the boss fight. Dark Man 2 is a pretty fun boss, and I think people sleep on the Dark Man fights as gameplay because their visual designs are so boring. This only attacks you by running into you, and is pretty easy to dodge. However, I still find it enjoyable, more so than some of the worse boss fights in, say, Mega Man 1 or 2. This stage is overall a bit boring, but in my opinion, that is only true of this stage and not the entirety of the Proto Man’s Castle stages.

I really like the visuals at the beginning of the third Proto Man’s Castle stage. It has a cool space-y background. This stage succeeds more than the prior Castle stage, in my opinion, because of better enemy placement that makes the platforming and combat less incidental. In the last stage, much of the level just had Mega Man walking around without needing to kill enemies, but that is much less true here. A favorite part of the stage for me is the couple rooms where the player has to kill enemies while riding moving platforms and traversing upwards. There are some cool enemy placements after that, where Mets on turrets have the high ground and you have to kill them from the ground. After a bit of more generic platforming, there is a section straight out of Super Mario World, with a moving platform that is basically a snake block from Super Mario World. Now, it’s pretty derivative. But that being said, I like snake blocks in Mario, and I like these too, so no complaints from me. Repeat that again (generic platforming followed by snake block section) and Mega Man comes to the end of the stage for the fight with Dark Man 3. This fight is fun, and I like its freezing weapon. If you get hit by it, you usually get hit twice, which means it packs a real punch. However, once again, the boring visual design holds this boss back.

The last of the stages in Proto Man’s Castle starts off on a very strong note. I love this stage, and this stage is the main reason I think people sleep on the Proto Man’s Castle stages. Yes, stage 2 is pretty lame, but 3 is pretty good, and 1 and 4 are great. The stage starts with a section that is almost like a puzzle game, where Mega Man has to destroy blocks that are holding up the Castle, making parts of the stage fall. There are spikes to avoid, so you have to make sure to break the right blocks in order to make sure you don’t get trapped and die. It’s not very hard, but it’s a very cool change of pace, and is a good example of what I said earlier in this review about variety in a platformer game that makes Mega Man 5 so amazing. After a brief cutscene that reveals a twist in the plot that I couldn’t care less about, the player faces off against Dark Man 4, the final of these boring enemies. He combines some of the attack patterns of previous bosses, which means that he can be tough if you don’t have access to his weakness, which is Beat. If you have Beat, the fight is pretty average in terms of difficulty. Beat deals solid damage and you don’t have to aim at all, but he’s still fairly hard to avoid, making it a great fight overall. Definitely the best fight of the four Dark Man bosses.

While some people really dislike the Proto Man’s Castle stages for being “boring” and for having similar boss fights four times, I think the consensus opinion on the Wily’s Castle stages is a bit higher. This makes sense, given they are more unique and have their own distinct bosses. The first of the Wily’s Castle stages opens with a blind drop with spikes on the sides of the walls. Like some past blind drops, I am actually completely fine with this one for a key reason: The game having small pauses between screens gives you ample time to react to the upcoming layout of the stage and dodge. It feels like the best possible example of this sort of blind drop. After a bit of standard combat areas, another neat section comes up, where you have to jump on rolling platforms yet underneath spikes. It feels appropriately tense for being at the end of the game, yet it is also definitely fair. Just a couple rooms later, there is more of that type of rolling platform, this time much narrower. Now Mega Man must ascend by climbing them and avoid falling off. This is pretty great. Later comes the return of one of the few parts of Mega Man 5 I don’t love, which is the crushing objects from Dust Man’s stage. I still don’t love them here, but what I do like is when Mega Man stages bring back gimmicks from the Robot Master stages in the Castle stages. It makes the game feel more cohesive, and like the Castle stages are a good culmination of all you learned in the Robot Master stages. After a little bit more platforming, you arrive at the first boss fight of Wily’s Castle, the weirdly named Big Pets. I love this boss fight. It is part of the long tradition of Mega Man bosses who you have to jump on to attack them, and I usually really like those. Here, you shoot the two lower segments of its body, they come flying towards you, then they can be jumped on to get a good shot at its head. This flows really well, and is also very difficult, which is great. It’s the fair type of difficulty, where you get better each time you don’t get the timing right and then can take it out. Great fight, great stage.

The second stage of Wily’s Castle is probably my least favorite of the four, but it’s not bad. After a small above water portion, surprise! It’s at least partially a water level. The first underwater part has Mega Man jumping on small platforms with enemies rotating around them, which is fairly nerve wracking and tense in a great way. After exiting the water, the stage does sort of revert to being a fairly generic Castle level, but I appreciate that the water spiced it up even if for just a little bit. One really nasty (in a good way) enemy placement comes from a Power Muscler that is placed right next to a ladder you climb on a platform that gives you almost no room to dodge its attacks. Pretty soon after this comes the stage’s boss fight, with the still weirdly named Circring Q9. This boss fight is also great. This game has just as good boss fights as Mega Man 4 if you exclude the visual designs of the Dark Man bosses, to be honest. The boss is a giant ring, as the name implies, that briefly opens in a way that lets you get shots in. I love boss fights like this, where you have to aim at a narrow window that still feels achievable. The one knock I have against this boss is that it is a little bit too easy. The boss’ attack pattern is pretty slow and easy to avoid, but other than that, it rules.

Like most penultimate stages in a Mega Man game, the third stage of Wily’s Castle is primarily just a vessel for the eight rematches with the Robot Masters. The game gives you some item refills beforehand, though, which is appreciated. The eight Robot Masters are the same as usual so I won’t go over them, but after the eighth one is defeated, Mega Man squares off against the first form of Wily in this game, the Wily Press. This boss fight is just alright. It’s certainly not bad or anything, but definitely one of the weaker bosses in the game. You basically wait for him to drop down and then, at the peak of your jump, shoot the top of the ship. This sounds easy, but in practice it actually is harder to line up the shot than you would probably think. I often think my shot is gonna connect but then it just totally whiffs. I do wish this boss had a second section where he made it slightly more difficult, even something simple like shooting pellets at you. Anything to make it a bit less of a free victory. But overall, it’s still pretty fun.

Onto the final stage of Mega Man 5, which, like many final stages in Mega Man games, is pretty much just a boss fight, without a real stage leading up to it. There is one miniboss, the vulnerable-eye-robots that have appeared a couple times now, but that’s basically the only enemy before the boss fight with the Wily Machine 5. The first phase of this boss is pretty easy, a bit too easy honestly? But given the fight has multiple phases, that is less of an issue. You can pretty much just use the Charge Shot and aim at the place he shoots from and kill the Machine without much difficulty. However, after you take down the Wily Machine 5, you come to the true final boss, against the Wily Capsule 2. This fight pretty much can go down two completely different ways, depending if you have unlocked Beat or if you haven’t. If you have unlocked Beat, this boss is just as easy as Wily Machine 5; a total pushover. I don’t see that as a bad thing, though. That was a reward for beating the game 100% and collecting every one of the Plates, which I think deserves a pretty big reward. The other way the fight can go is if you didn’t unlock Beat, which makes the fight significantly harder. The Capsule spends a lot of its time in the air, out of the range of Mega Man. You can use Charge Shots to take him out when he comes down, or you can use the Gyro Attack to hit him while he’s in the air. These ways of fighting him still don’t make the fight brutal or anything, mostly because while it is hard to hit Wily, he also can’t hit you very effectively. The attacks from the Capsule are, sadly, pretty easy to dodge, making this only moderately difficult even if you didn’t unlock (or choose to use) Beat. Overall, while I wish this boss was a little harder, it’s still pretty good, and a very fitting end to the best of the 11 Classic Mega Man games.

Mega Man 5 is probably the most controversial of the original six NES Mega Man games, and honestly I do see why. I have said earlier that I get why the gimmicky nature of some of the stages would be a turn off. Even more in contention, I get why, if you dislike “filler” or “padding” in Mega Man games, the Proto Man’s Castle stages could also be a turnoff. But those aren’t problems for me. I think the gimmicky stages in Mega Man 5 make it stand out, they provide variety that keeps the game interesting, and they are straight-up just well designed. The complaint about the padding I understand more, but I still strongly disagree. To me, if you want to get mad about filler Mega Man 3 is far more egregious than Mega Man 5 or 6. That game literally recycles old bosses, which Mega Man 5 does not. If you think both are lazy and filler, sure I guess, that makes sense, but if you dislike it in Mega Man 5 but not 3, I am really not sure why.

Mega Man 5 has the best designed stages that the Classic series ever got, some of the best gimmicks to stages, very good bosses with only one or two stinkers and a mostly pretty great weapon selection. The game’s only real flaws, to me, come down to individual balancing decisions and small nitpicks of level design. It’s not like Mega Man 1 or 2, where there were holistic issues that plagued the entire game, or like Mega Man 4 where the game struggled to be interesting. No, Mega Man 5 is closest to Mega Man 3, in that the game is just amazing for the entirety of its run time. And, unlike Mega Man 3, this game doesn’t get extra merits for introducing new elements that would become core to the rest of the series. The only one of those in this game, really, is Beat. This game gets its rating on its own merits as one of the best platformer video games of all time.

I give Mega Man 3 a grade of S+ and a score of 10/10. If you want to learn more about what that means, I recommend you read my grading system at the end of my Mega Man 1 review, but this is the highest score I can give a game.

I want to thank everyone who got this far into my review. My last review didn’t really get any amount of attention anywhere I posted it, so I hope some of you will go back and read it. This is by far my longest review so far, going over the amount I wrote about Mega Man 3 by over one thousand words. This review came out very quickly, just because I have so much to say about Mega Man 5, since it is one of my favorite games ever. You won’t see a review this positive by me until we get to a certain Mega Man X game. In the next review, I will be covering Mega Man 6, the final game in the NES series of Mega Man games! I like it a lot, it is my third favorite NES Mega Man, below 3 but above 4. I hope to see you then, and I hope you enjoyed this review.