Mega Man 5

"In the year 20XX AD, A vicious army of robots is bent on destroying the world!! And behind this destruction is... Proto Man!?"

- Mega Man 5 opening

Mega Man 5, known in Japan as Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!? (ロックマン５ ブルースの罠！？), is the fifth game released for the Famicom and NES in the Mega Man series late in the console's life (1992-93). This game also introduced Beat as Mega Man's robotic bird assistant.

Story
From the Japanese Manual:

"In the time of 20XX A.D.

Rockman was vigilant in his resolve to stand guard against Wily, but after two months had passed since their last battle, even he was starting to enjoy a brief period of relaxation.

There was still one question that was bothering him, and he decided to ask Dr. Right for help.

“Doctor, just what kind of a person is Blues, anyway?”

But Dr. Right was unable to give a proper answer.

“Umm…”

Just then, they received word from Dr. Cossack with the news that his work on Rockman’s newest support robot “Beat” was completed.

Rockman immediately set out to Dr. Cossack’s laboratory.

Rockman was speaking to Kalinka in Dr. Cossack’s living room when suddenly they received an emergency call from Dr. Right over the TV-phone.

“I was unable to confirm this completely, but an unknown group of robots is attacking the town, and it seems that Blues is their leader!”

“Can it be!?” Rockman hurried back home, but only just in time to see a figure that looked like Blues kidnapping Dr. Right! Why would Blues do this!? But there was no time to wonder about that now, Rockman had no choice but to give chase.

With the safety off and guns blazing, the battle of Rockman vs the mysterious robot army spearheaded by Blues will now commence!"

From the instruction manual:


 * "Cossack to Mega Man! Cossack to Mega Man! Come in, Mega Man!"


 * "Proto Man has gone wild! City Hall and the spaceport have been totally destroyed and the city's power grid is in shambles. I've never seen destruction on this scale before."


 * "I know you're worried about Dr. Light, but your first duty is to free the city from the grip of Proto Man's robots. I can modify your reactor to give the Mega Buster a little more power, but the rest is up to you. Dr. Light and I had been working on a special project, but it's not finished yet. Maybe if I can get it working, it might give you an edge."


 * "Remember to watch your back Mega Man. Proto Man seems to have become more ruthless than we had thought possible. Good Luck."


 * "Cossack out!"

Proto Man sent several robots under his command to attack the city, and he went to Dr. Light's laboratory to kidnap him, leaving behind his signature yellow scarf. Dr. Cossack helps Mega Man in Light's absence by increasing the power of the Mega Buster to stop the robots, and creates the robotic bird Beat to assist him.

When Mega Man confronted Proto Man in his hideout, the real Proto Man showed up and revealed the fake to be a robot called Dark Man, created by Dr. Wily to pose as Proto Man and frame him for numerous crimes as revenge for betraying him in Mega Man 4. Upon Dark Man's defeat, Dr. Wily showed up and challenged Mega Man to come and get Dr. Light. Mega Man defeated Wily and freed Light, but when Wily's castle collapsed, Proto Man had to save them from being crushed by the building.

Fortress Bosses
Proto Man's Castle:
 * 1) Dark Man 1
 * 2) Dark Man 2
 * 3) Dark Man 3
 * 4) Dark Man 4

Wily Castle:
 * 1) Big Pets
 * 2) Circring Q9
 * 3) Rematch with the eight Robot Masters and Wily Press
 * 4) Wily Machine 5 and Wily Capsule II

Other media
The story of Mega Man 5 was adapted into the Rockman 5 manga by Shigeto Ikehara and was partially adapted in the Mega Man Megamix manga story "Warrior's Day Off" by Hitoshi Ariga, which also took elements from Mega Man 7, with the inclusion of Bass and Treble.

Archie Comics
The Mega Man Archie Comics series incorporated elements of the game, though a full adaptation was not produced before the series went on hiatus. The Robot Masters made their early debut in the Worlds Collide crossover as part of an army under Dr. Wily and Dr. Eggman. The Robot Masters and Dark Man 3 and 4 were later seen being constructed in Mega Man #54 and a vision of the game's events were later seen in Mega Man #55 as one of Dr. Light's foreshadowed events of the future.

Trivia

 * Mega Man 5 is the first game in the series to use the date 20XX, as opposed to 200X.
 * The "5" (in the letters "ROCKMAN5") from the Japanese version of the game was changed into the Roman Numeral "V" in the U.S. release. Interestingly, it was changed back into a "5" in the U.S. release of Mega Man: Anniversary Collection. This also changed the "V" Plate to a "5" Plate.
 * This was the last NES Mega Man title to be released in the U.S. by Capcom themselves; its sequel, Mega Man 6, was released by Nintendo. This is also the last NES Mega Man title to be released in Europe until Mega Man 6 was released on the 3DS Virtual Console twenty years after its original release.
 * This is one of the two games in the Mega Man franchise where during the boss rematches, the player character teleports to a room identical to the one in which the boss was fought in that particular boss's stage, the other being Mega Man Xtreme 2. This was possibly done to simplify some aspects of the boss battles, such as the low gravity in Star Man's stage. However, the music from the Wily Castle briefly plays before the boss music instead of that particular Robot Master's BGM.
 * This was the first game in the series to have only one soundtrack for each of the fortresses. Mega Man 4 had two for both the Cossack and Wily stages.
 * While each boss has a particular weakness, the Mega Buster is almost universally recommended over the special weapons, as it charges faster than in Mega Man 4 and the projectile is twice as large.
 * Starting with this game, Mega Man was no longer able to use the Rush Marine.
 * The New Rush Coil in this game is different from the Rush Coil in previous titles; instead of Rush projecting a springboard from his back, Rush projects the spring underneath him. Should Mega Man jump on his back, he will spring into the air, and Mega Man can leap right off, reaching higher places than before and allowing him to avoid certain hazards such as spike pits, although Rush Jet may be more efficient for this. This is the only game the New Rush Coil appeared.
 * Strangely, this is one of two Mega Man games in the classic series where the shutters before the bosses are shorter than normal, the other being Street Fighter X Mega Man.
 * This is the only NES Mega Man game where the regular enemies have longer invincibility frames (flashing time) than usual.
 * There is a slight glitch when the game is rendering the stage select screen: when the screen goes dark after the password screen, the screen will display what seems to be Mega Man's head with four pairs of eyeballs surrounding it, as well as Gravity Man's missing eyes as well. Napalm Man and Crystal Man also seem to appear faintly.
 * There were a total of 130,000 boss character submissions for this game's boss character contest.
 * This is the first game in the classic Mega Man series since the first game where the final boss was vulnerable to the Mega Buster.