setups. Most of the series haven't had a proper ending to them, and even fewer of them actually improve as their respective series goes on. The Zero series and Battle Network are the only two series besides this game that have a grand finale to them and both of those ended the entire series (although Battle Network may be getting resurrected).Mega Man V caps off the end of the Mega Man Game Boy series, and the hand held Mega Man games in general for at least until 2000 (not counting the Game Gear game, but we'll get in to that when it comes up). It is also the last game to feature, and play, like the original game's graphics and style until the retro Mega Man 9, and really, you couldn't ask for a better send off than this game. Not only is it the best Mega Man Game Boy game, but it contends in a lot of people's top positions with even the NES games. It is that good. It's innovative, fun and completely original.
New Features
- New Character: Meet Tango the Mega Cat, or something? He'll be replacing Beat this go round, but he's no where near as useful. Tango didn't make very many appearances in the franchise.
- The Mega Buster has been upgraded into a new Arm Canon, literally. Using Dr. Light's Lab, you can upgrade it even further.
- This game is compatible with the Super Game Boy adapter. This gives the game some color, but mostly in tinting the whole screen.
Mega Man and Roll are walking out in a field one day when an alien robot named "Terra" confronts and attacks him. Mega Man fires up his Mega Buster, but it has no effect. Mega Man is defeated and wakes up in Dr. Light's lab as the whole world is under attack by these robots under Terra's command, called the "Star Droids."
Dr. Light quickly works on a new Mega Buster to allow Mega Man to do damage to the Star Droids, who are made out of alien material. This new Arm Cannon blasts out Mega Man's arm and returns it to him. He also is given a new helper named Tango, a cat robot made by Dr. Light.Mega Man confronts the four Stardroids at various locations across Earth, and then finds the whereabouts of Terra. Terra summons forth a monster called "Dark Moon," and takes off, leaving Mega Man to fight it. The Dark Moon boss fight is similar to the Yellow Devil robots from previous Mega Man games.
Terra heads back in to space, and Mega Man follows him with Rush. Four more Stardroids appear at some of the nearby planets, and Mega Man fights them, and tracks down Terra again. After beating him, Terra bemoans failing his master and dies. Then over the horizon, a giant Death Star looking fortress appears with a skull on it. "Dr. Wily!? It can't be!?" Mega Man yells to himself! Mega Man then jumps in his Rush space ship and flies off to fight Wily.
In Wily's fortress, Mega Man is forced to once again confront the
rebuilt Stardroids and the Mega Man Killers from the previous game boy games (Enker, Quint, Punk and Ballade). Mega Man then confronts Wily in his Wily Machine, and blows it to smithereens. Wily then unleashes his ultimate weapon, a Robot Master he has awakened named Sunstar. Wily found Sunstar and was using the Stardroids to awaken him, but upon doing so Sunstar turns on Dr. Wily, and attacks him. Wily flies off in his broken space ship and Sunstar claims his purpose is to destroy all inferior life forms, STARTING WITH YOU! (emphasis added...)
The final boss fight ensues and Mega Man ends victorious. Mega Man offers to have Sunstar repaired, but he is too damaged. He tells Mega Man to escape before he explodes. Mega Man barely makes it out in time as the explosion streaks across the galaxy.Later, Mega Man is sitting in the grass, looking at the sky, when a tattered and broken Wily Space Ship fires a laser at him. "Wily?! You survived!?" exclaims Mega Man! "It's time to end this war once and for all, Die Mega Man!" says Wily! Wily tries to fire again but his Ship blows up, with him landing comically on the ground. Wily stands up and runs off as Mega Man kinda rolls his eyes and takes pursuit. The End.
This all takes place in the game for once, no need to read the manual this time!
Aesthetics
All the bosses, stages, and enemies are completely unique to the entire series. The theme of the game is space. of course. and it does a good job of conveying that theme without any repeating the same things over and over again. This game has it's own look to it that separates it from the others in the series, and that's kinda the point.
First, the bosses aren't named "noun" -man, but after the planets. None of the enemies are the same that you've seen previously, such as mets or sniper joes. Even though it wouldn't be a Mega Man game without Dr. Wily, and it isn't particularly shocking that he's behind it all, you are at least led to the impression that he isn't orchestrating all of these events. He's just disguised it very well this time.The bosses all are completely new and original, and look great as well, although Pluto is the furriest looking Robot Master ever, and I'm including the X Mavericks in saying that as well.
The in-game cutscenes are all decent, though I prefer Mega Man IV's use of extra artwork more than this game's. Even though Mega Man IV's was more traditional, it really kicked ass, though this game uses it's cutscenes well too. Also, you can put this on the Super Game Boy, but the enhancements are minor. I suppose at the time they were pretty nice though.
Sound
An original sound track that rivals many of the games before it. Definitely the best original mix of the Game Boy series. Not as good as Mega Man 2 or Mega Man X, but overall really good.
Design
Although the Mega Arm fires a bit slower, as you can't fire again while it's returning to you, it won't affect your game so much as to completely change how you play a Mega Man game. As you enhance it, however, you'll be able to do more damage with it and grab items for yourself. It's a slight tweak to the norm of these games, and gives another notch into the uniqueness of this game.
This shows in the weapons too. Mega Man games, for what it's worth, has a lot of weapons are just variations of other weapons, such as Wood Shield, Star Crash, etc. This game has all new weapons though, and all the weapons feature unique mechanics that differ from the rest of the franchise. One weapon, the Grab Buster, hits the enemy, and brings you energy from them. Salt Water is kinda like a reverse bubble lead, which flows towards the ceiling and goes along that.The bosses provide some good patterns and mixed up stage design. Uranus is a pretty fun boss, using bits of the stage to attack you with. Wily is a great fight as well, but nothing beats the epic showdown between Mega Man and Sunstar. This is the first time the final boss is a robot master, and he's pretty tough till you get down his pattern. Watch out for Mercury though, he'll steal your energy tanks and special tanks, the fucker.
Each stage plays with a new gimmick, or changes up an older Mega Man gimmick. They're all pretty long, but not particularly difficult compared to the earlier games. The final stage is really fun, even though it can be a bit tedious if you have to restart it from dying. There's even a stage
that's a space shooter level with Rush as the space ship. Normally I find the sections that break away from the the Mega Man style tedious (Such as Wave Man's stage, and just wait till I get to x4 and x5), but it fits nicely here, and doesn't last long enough to be nerve grating.Strangely enough, I die more often in this game than the others and still call it easier. It's more or less that the difficulty is spread out, rather than compacted in a few sections like Mega Man III, for example.
Playability
The biggest thing to get used to, is that you can't fire your gun while the Arm Cannon is not attached to Mega Man. Otherwise, control is not an issue. You might find it humorous that you can use Break Dash to run across the tops of several spiked areas though.
Extras
- Boss Order: Start with Mecury. Not only does his weapon the Grab Buster kick ass for those really long stretches of the level, where it's wearing you down, but if you don't start with him, he could end up stealing some of your E-Tanks, W-Tanks and S-Tanks you spent your P-chips on. After him go for Venus to get Rush Coil, then Neptune then Mars, although none of them are particularly tough to duel with the Arm Cannon. For the second string, you might consider Jupiter, since you'll have his weakness, and then Saturn for Rush Jet, although it is pretty limited in this game. On the flip-side, if you want less back tracking go Pluto, then Uranus first, instead of Jupiter and Saturn.
- Sunstar is a real bitch to fight, but remember this. Every weapon does the same amount of damage on him, even a charged Mega Arm shot. You can use the Spark Chaser to keep it pinned down on since it homes in, but if you want to buster duel him, stick with uncharged shots.
- Also on Sunstar, you can block his Acid Rain attack by interrupting him with any weapon.
- Get the Magnet Hand upgrade as soon as possible. Many things are just out of reach that will help you through the game, and having this makes them a hell of a lot less of a bitch to get.
- Like the previous game, if you die on a single stage many times, Dr. Light will upgrade your buster to be faster. He'll upgrade it twice if you keep dying still.
Playthroughs
Robot Master Mismatches Galore: Let's Play the Mega Man Gameboy Series! by Vprisoner (at the internet archive for the missing videos)
Speedrun by Marcus 'Preddy' Göhlert
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