Mega Man 5 made it to the U.S. in 1992, rather late in the life cycle of the original NES. The Super Nintendo had been out for a little bit by then, but the NES still had a very strong following. Perhaps that’s why developers continued to make 8-bit games on the platform then – enough people already owned an NES, and the system was rather easy to develop for then. Sure, the 16-bit consoles of the time had a lot more power behind them, but nothing would be a substitute for good, solid gameplay.

The thing about Mega Man 5 and other games released around that time is that they really took advantage of what the NES was capable of, producing fast-paced, vibrant fun on the aging console. Yet, compared to the other entries in the series, MM5 was a good game, but wasn’t quite a great one. It had a bit less novelty to it compared to the first four games, each of which introduced something more significant to the franchise (MM1 being the original game, MM2 introduced a lot of series staples, MM3 introduced the slide and had a much longer play experience, and MM4 introduced the idea of a “fake bad guy” as well as the Mega Buster). MM5 did introduce Beat, and the idea of collecting the letters to unlock him throughout the stages, but beyond this the game felt a bit wrote to me. However, the graphics are very nice, the bosses are still quite original, and the soundtrack is really solid in this one.

So, here you have a full playthrough of the game in 1080p60 to enjoy. I manage to finish the game in just over 80 minutes (though this is far from a true speed run), but I guess this is a testament to my experience with games of this nature!

Enjoy, and stay tuned – more gaming fun is on the horizon!