Mega Man V

I've probably covered Mega Man more than any other series here on GOTBP. Yet there is still a lot of uncharted territory for the franchise, territory I am going to start exploring this week.

For as much time as I have spent on the series, and as important as it is to my history as a gamer, I've never really explored the Game Boy Mega Man titles. As was the style at the time, pretty much any popular NES/SNES/Genesis game got some level of similar handheld release on the Game Boy/Game Gear. Sometimes these were attempts at straight points, others were instances of the same name but a different game, while others had elements of both. For the most part, the Mega Man Game Boy entries fit into the latter category. They were typically released between NES entries, Mega Man II on the Game Boy between 2 and 3 on the NES, and so on. They would contain elements of the two games they appeared between, the aforementioned Mega Man II would contain four bosses from MM 2 on the NES and four from MM 3. They also typically contained a special boss character, called a Mega Man Killer, that you would have to fight as a sort of secondary boss.

That was, of course, until Mega Man V. Again, that's Mega Man V, with the Roman numeral, not Mega Man 5, with the Arabic number. It's a little bit confusing, but that's how you can differentiate the two games when their titles are written out. But unlike the other Game Boy entries, the differences here are more than just skin deep. Simply put, Mega Man "V" is completely different from not only Mega Man "5," but the entire series. While I love the Mega Man games, I think it's pretty fair to say they typically don't deviate at all from their formula. When they do, they tend to end up creating spin off series that would develop their own formulas from which they wouldn't deviate. X, ZX, Battle Network, you get the idea. From a gameplay standpoint, Mega Man V really isn't that mechanically different from the other classic Mega Man games. You have eight robot masters, each with a cycle of weaknesses you need to exploit. You run, jump and shoot through a variety of uniquely themed levels in an attempt to reach the boss door. This game follows the structure of the other GB titles and Mega Man 7, where you have to defeat the first four robot masters and fight a mid-boss before unlocking the second four. However, there are a few aspects of MMV that are noticeably very different. The first and most obvious comes from the robot masters...or lack thereof. The bosses this time around are called Star Droids, each named after a planet of the solar system (back when Pluto was still a planet, of course). Your Mega Buster is replaced with a Mega Arm, which shoots Mega Man's fist at enemies before returning on contact. I am pretty sure this is the first Mega Man game to include a shop, where you can purchase upgrades and other items. It may not seem like much, but there are a lot of subtle changes that definitely made a difference for long time fans of the series.

It's hard to call the graphics on a Game Boy game "good," but MMV is definitely one of the better looking games for the platform. It looks pretty clean and has a surprising amount of detail for a small screen. That's not surprising, as this game came out in 1994, one of the later offerings for the original GB. I personally played on a Super Game Boy, which is probably the best way to experience this or any other Game Boy game. As a later release, MMV is optimized for the peripheral, which is always a positive. Not much to say here, it's a solid looking game on a platform that doesn't have too many that would fit that category. It also sounds pretty good despite the limited hardware. The fuzzy, metallic sounds of the Game Boy were almost a boon for a Mega Man game. The robotic sounding noises are prefect for a game about robots. There wasn't much to complain about, it's a well done game by a company that typically makes well done games.

Again, gameplay is fairly simple, A jumps, B shoots and that's all you need to accomplish your goal. The level design as a whole is somewhat uninspired and a lot of the levels do kind of feel like they run together. The themes definitely aren't as strong here as they are in most Mega Man games, at least aesthetically. I think a lot of this is down to the hardware limitations of the Game Boy. A lot of the tiles look the same and it feels like a lot of screens are repeated from level to level. Some stages have stretches that look visually unique, particularly Neptune's sinking boat and Pluto's underground ruins, but those are few and far between. While they may be visually similar, the levels at least have pretty clear mechanical themes. Neptune is again strong here, with its breakable pipes and underwater sections. Mars' military base themed level has some interesting mini-bosses and a good focus on action. Uranus's underground labyrinth has tough but fair rotating platforms and a few secrets worth exploring. All four of the later stages actually have secret objects to find and I think they are better designed in general (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, for the record). I really felt like the challenge ramped up in these stages, which is how it should be. I do like how many unique enemies there are, it seems like every stage is packed with one-of-a-kind foes that are perfect for their environments. I also have to give credit to the Wiley stages, which are very unique here. The horizontal shooter section is a nice change of pace and the long final area with split paths gives experienced Mega Man players something different from what they are used to. This is far from the best level design in the series, but they could have absolutely done worse, especially considering the hardware.

As is customary with Mega Man games, we have to go through the robot master, or I guess star droid, roll call. This time around, we have:

-Mercury (Generic robot in a green spiky suit)

-Venus (Kind of looks like a more sinister Toad Man, he's ok)

-Mars (He's literally a walking tank, what's not to like?)

-Jupiter (I think he's supposed to be a bird or something? I don't get what's Jupiterian about him)

-Saturn (His flat head is a little goofy but the fact that he carries around a giant ring is cool)

-Uranus (A giant bull that shakes the ground when he walks)

-Neptune (I actually like his "fishman" vibes)

-Pluto (Certainly on theme, he kind of looks like Slash Man from MM7 wearing a parka)

I actually think it's a really good group and I think the theming is really on point. Just the idea of breaking from the typical robot master formula is cool and I think all of these guys feel some level of unique for the series, like they wouldn't fit in any other MM title. There is a kind of major flaw with these boss fights, which I will get to later, but it's actually not caused by any sort of bad design. In fact, most of their fights are quite well thought out and implemented and there's tons of variety here. Uranus will drop blocks on half the screen, instantly killing you if you aren't fast enough to react. He's the rare "big" robot master that you actually want to stay close to. Saturn will bounce around the arena and throw his ring like a boomerang, which is a good use of his most visible aesthetic item. Mars will hang out at a distance and just barrage you with projectiles before charging, fitting for a giant tank on legs. Even the simpler fights, like Venus, present a certain level of uniqueness in their own way. The big lug will walk towards you and drop his bubble bombs, making him hard to jump over. He will also jump when you get too close, making him an absolute beast at trapping you in corners. The whole fight is centered on avoid this and despite the technical simplicity of it, it's actually quite fun. The Mega Man killers from the previous games will all stand in your way during the Wiley castle stages, these guys are fun fights as well and it's kind of cool to see them here. The mid boss Terra was okay, I guess they had to get the Earth in there somewhere, but he's nothing to write home about.

The powers are okay, I don't think any of them are bad but they are somewhat uninspired. Most of them are kind of rehashed from previous games and don't look too impressive, though I think that is more down to hardware limitations. The deep digger is pretty much identical to the super arm from the first game while the electric shock is your standard consistent close range damage weapon. Photon missile shoots out a few projectiles which wait briefly before quickly flying forward while bubble bomb fires a bubble that spirals upwards before exploding, these are only situationally useful though extremely so. Salt water bounces around and splits into smaller projectiles, spark chaser fires fast projectiles in all directions, all stuff you've seen before if you are a fan of the series. The break dash is probably the most unique weapon, but I was never really able to get it to work properly. At least they are all done well and have their uses; they are probably more useful throughout stages than powers typically are. A lot of Mega Man titles have a problem where weakness weapons do too much damage to the bosses. MMV has the opposite problem, where I don't think weakness weapons are effective enough against their intended targets. I think there's a good reason for this, which I will get to later, but I found myself using the Mega Arm more often than not. I have to give credit to the other powers and upgrades here. Of course you have Rush Jet, it's as great as ever, but new this time is a robotic cat named Tango. He kind of behaves like Beat, but you have access to him from the beginning. You can also add an ability to grab items with your charged buster, which I really like. It's not an interesting set of powers, but at least it's a good one.

I think the biggest issues here are, unfortunately, a result of the hardware. There is far less screen real estate than you would typically see in a Mega Man game and it makes it hard to avoid certain hazards. It should be hard to avoid these things, but in a "good placement" sort of way and not a "I walked into something I couldn't see" kind of way. This is largely due to the small screen size the game had to be designed for and the Super Game Boy does mitigate it somewhat, but it was still an issue. This screen real estate issue also effects the boss fights in ways that you wouldn't really think about. Something as simple as the size of the life bar, again much shorter so it can fit on the screen, changes the way they had to balance damage. As mentioned previously, it seems like a lot of weaknesses don't do that much damage and I think that was done on purpose just to prevent bosses from just getting melted in three hits. The small screen is the biggest problem here and there obviously wasn't much they could have done about it; it's a Game Boy game after all. Maybe it's just me, but I've never truly been able to get over these physical limitations of handhelds. That's why I don't cover them too much. That's not the only problem, some of the bosses have unnecessarily frustrating patterns and the levels don't always have strong teaching elements. It felt like there were some points where they just threw you straight into death traps, which is never good. 

Overall, Mega Man V was solid, side scrolling action that you could play on the go. It's far from the best game in the series and was seriously hampered by its hardware. I do like how unique it is, the small changes like the Star Droids and Mega Arm really do stand out in a franchise that's not known for innovation. I think it would have been nice to see this game remade or given a sequel on the SNES or even given the Wiley Wars treatment on Genesis or something, heck even an NES release would have been cool (though the NES had received its last official release earlier in 1994). Would I choose it over most of the NES games or SNES games in the series? No. Is it the best of the Game Boy titles? Well, I haven't played most of them so I can't say, but I've been told it's a yes by a considerable margin. At the time, you weren't going to be able to do much better than this for an action game on a handheld. Not an all time great title, but a worthy entry into the Mega Man library.

7.5/10