Mega Man 5 or what I like to call it "Say It Ain't So Proto Man!" is probably the first game in the classic series that feels like a downgrade after the last one.
The game probably has hands down the absolute worst selection of weapons in the series, there's three weapons that travel exclusively along the ground, Star Crash is only slightly better than Skull Barrier (not a good thing), and Power Stone and Crystal Eye are both hard to use effectively. And while Gravity Hold is a hilarious weapon it only does one point of damage and it doesn't let the defeated enemies drop any HP/ammo. This combined with how hideously OP the charged Mega Buster is in this game makes it hard to justify using any of them even in fights against the Robot Masters, I think the only time I bothered to use any of them was Water Wave against Dark Man 1, and even then I had to make sure I timed my shots otherwise I'd run out of ammo fairly quick using it. I could've used Gravity Hold against Gyro Man maybe to get the fight over with, but the guy is such a punk bitch that I wasn't willing to give him that kind of respect.
They did this weird thing where they buff/nerfed the fully-charged shot where the hitbox is bigger, pierces through defeated enemies and charges faster, but you can lose it if you get hit, but it charges so quickly that it's not really much of a problem especially if you're any good at dodging the underwhelmingly simple patterns of most of the robot masters. I really don't know what they were thinking here especially with how bad most of the weapons are. It's basically the reverse of MM2's problem with the Metal Blade, you just never actually feel a need to switch to anything.
I also dunno if they did something with the drop rates in this game, but I swear I collected like thirty 1ups just from random enemies. I seriously don't remember getting that many in the other games. It'd be appreciated if the stages and Robot Masters actually posed some kind of threat. Charge Man is seriously the only guy in this game I'd potentially struggle with only because the bastard has nine-thousand i-frames and instantly charges out of nowhere with his big-ass hitbox, and Dark Man 1 is basically the same fight except he can shoot at you. The Dark Man bots in general just feel like a retread of the Doc Bots from 3, except they're less memorable and not interesting at all compared to having a bigger boss with less uniform design.
Everything just feels forgettable and phoned in with this one, I know they were slamming these games out really quickly, but I really don't think I care too much about Say It Ain't So Proto Man. I don't see myself replaying it a lot compared to 3 and 4. It's still better than 1 and 2 though, since it still lacks Boobeam Traps and Yellow Devils.
4 >= 3 > 5 > 2 >= 1 so far
Favorite Enemy Name: Metall Mommy, maybe Big Pets too. Apparently Dr. Wily stole Big Pets from an amusement park, what the hell is wrong with him?
Favorite Music: Charge Man, he's ridiculous but his theme is pretty damn nice to listen to.
The game probably has hands down the absolute worst selection of weapons in the series, there's three weapons that travel exclusively along the ground, Star Crash is only slightly better than Skull Barrier (not a good thing), and Power Stone and Crystal Eye are both hard to use effectively. And while Gravity Hold is a hilarious weapon it only does one point of damage and it doesn't let the defeated enemies drop any HP/ammo. This combined with how hideously OP the charged Mega Buster is in this game makes it hard to justify using any of them even in fights against the Robot Masters, I think the only time I bothered to use any of them was Water Wave against Dark Man 1, and even then I had to make sure I timed my shots otherwise I'd run out of ammo fairly quick using it. I could've used Gravity Hold against Gyro Man maybe to get the fight over with, but the guy is such a punk bitch that I wasn't willing to give him that kind of respect.
They did this weird thing where they buff/nerfed the fully-charged shot where the hitbox is bigger, pierces through defeated enemies and charges faster, but you can lose it if you get hit, but it charges so quickly that it's not really much of a problem especially if you're any good at dodging the underwhelmingly simple patterns of most of the robot masters. I really don't know what they were thinking here especially with how bad most of the weapons are. It's basically the reverse of MM2's problem with the Metal Blade, you just never actually feel a need to switch to anything.
I also dunno if they did something with the drop rates in this game, but I swear I collected like thirty 1ups just from random enemies. I seriously don't remember getting that many in the other games. It'd be appreciated if the stages and Robot Masters actually posed some kind of threat. Charge Man is seriously the only guy in this game I'd potentially struggle with only because the bastard has nine-thousand i-frames and instantly charges out of nowhere with his big-ass hitbox, and Dark Man 1 is basically the same fight except he can shoot at you. The Dark Man bots in general just feel like a retread of the Doc Bots from 3, except they're less memorable and not interesting at all compared to having a bigger boss with less uniform design.
Everything just feels forgettable and phoned in with this one, I know they were slamming these games out really quickly, but I really don't think I care too much about Say It Ain't So Proto Man. I don't see myself replaying it a lot compared to 3 and 4. It's still better than 1 and 2 though, since it still lacks Boobeam Traps and Yellow Devils.
4 >= 3 > 5 > 2 >= 1 so far
Favorite Enemy Name: Metall Mommy, maybe Big Pets too. Apparently Dr. Wily stole Big Pets from an amusement park, what the hell is wrong with him?
Favorite Music: Charge Man, he's ridiculous but his theme is pretty damn nice to listen to.