Mega Man V

"Okay this is starting to get ridiculous...some good new stuff in the game but still has those darn flaws!"

I ask you, Capcom...what's so wrong about having a blaster that can fire rapidly? Well, nevertheless, they made a 5th GB MM game. In many ways, it's the GB MM game that everyone has been waiting for and many people will enjoy playing it. However, it seems that Capcom doesn't wanna let go of the buggy GB MM3 engine. Will you like it? It all depends on how you liked the previous four.

Story: 8
An interesting opening sequence shows Mega Man, who is now in housekeeper mode, and Roll taking a nice walk. Suddenly, a robot named Terra challenges our hero! MM sends Roll away and suits up. For some reason, even his fully charged Mega Buster doesn't even scratch this new villain (that is such BS! Why Capcom made this happen is beyond me...). MM get's his blue little ass kicked, and Terra and his minions wreak havoc. MM wakes up to find that Dr. Light has scrapped his Mega Buster and given him a new (crappy) weapon called the Mega Arm. After the huge intro, there is a small prologue scene where he is introduced to a new sidekick. Off MM goes to do what he does so well.

Gameplay: 7
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way. MM still has horribly slow rapid fire of his standard gun. He also still has the jumping glitch that appeared in GB MM1, was fixed in GB MM2 and made a comeback in every other GB MM. Aaaaanyway...

MM can still collect P Chips and give them to Dr. Light so he can make helpful items.

MM's new sidekick is not a robot dog, but a robot cat. Tango has the ability to turn into a razor disc and fly around hurting nearby enemies. To summon Tango, select Tango from the weapon menu and charge up as if you were gonna shoot a big blast :: AHEM :: I mean big arm missile (bleh). This is a pretty helpful attack, especially because you no longer have the Mega Buster. :

YES! All new robot bosses, 100% all new enemies and all new level themes! People were sure waiting a long time for this. There Needless to say, this makes this game the most viable out of all the GB MMs. The stages are fun to play through and the new enemy robots are quite innovative and cool.

Okay, now we talk about the Mega Arm. First of all, when used, you cannot shoot normal bullets for a short amount of time. One of the coolest things about the Mega Buster was the fact that you can send some little bullets right behind the big blast. Oh well. Second of all, the damn thing doesn't even fly the length of the screen. Thirdly, remember when you could charge up a medium blast as well as a full power blast? Well, medium Arm missiles are completely useless. They have such a short range it's not even funny. You might as well charge up to full power. The Arm is supposed to add to gameplay by reaching items that can't otherwise be obtained. I say, they should have given this feature to an enemy weapon. Remember the Quick Boomerang from NES MM2? :: shrug ::

Graphics: 8
Great detail and animation just like in GB MM3 and 4. Also like in those two previous installments, the scrolling is not as good as in GB MM2 but better than GB MM1. If you play this in a Super GB, you can see the cute Hardhat Hooligans hanging out on the background. The Super GB coloring could have been better IMO, but is nice in some parts of the game. Once again, the standard stage select screen is vetoed. I like how the boss robot mug rises up when you select the stage. The mugs are bigger and more detailed than usual, which is very nice.

Sound/Music: 7
The sound effects are the same from GB MMs 3 and 4, which is a good thing because most of them are great. Sadly, only half of the new songs sound good. The other half just doesn't fit the traditional Mega Man mood. Thankfully, the bad half of the songs are still tolerable and do not sound disgusting.

Control: 6
If you have read some or all of my other GB MM reviews, you know why this is low.

Replay Value: 5
Once again, you can try out all of the items that Dr. Light can make, beat the game, then wait a while before you pick it up again.

Bottom Line?
This game can't get anything higher than an average rating from me because of the bugs which hinder the enjoyment of the game. Be that as it may, chances are most people will play it anyway because of the fresh new places you can go and enemies you can fight. You will like this game as long as you don't mind using the Mega Arm and you don't mind the fact that you *still* can't fire rapidly, which is why I give it a 7.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/01, Updated 09/10/01