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The Blues of the night sky is upon us.note 
"In the year 20XX AD, A vicious army of robots is bent on destroying the world!! And behind the destruction is... Proto Man?!"

Game No. 5 in the Mega Man (Classic) series for the NES. It was released in Japan in December 4th, 1992, closely followed by a North American release on December 15th, 1992. It has since seen numerous re-releases, including the Rockman Complete Works, Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Virtual Console, PSN, and the first Mega Man Legacy Collection. This game introduces Beat, a robot bird sidekick for the Blue Bomber.

Two months after Mega Man's last battle with Dr. Wily, several robots under Proto Man's command suddenly attack the city, while Proto Man himself abducts Dr. Light, 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.

Robot Masters:

  • DWN-033: Gravity Man, weak to Star Crash, gives Gravity Hold.
  • DWN-034: Wave Man, weak to Charge Kick, gives Water Wave.
  • DWN-035: Stone Man, weak to Napalm Bomb, gives Power Stone.
  • DWN-036: Gyro Man, weak to Gravity Hold, gives Gyro Attack.
  • DWN-037: Star Man, weak to Water Wave, gives Star Crash.
  • DWN-038: Charge Man, weak to Power Stone, gives the Charge Kick.
  • DWN-039: Napalm Man, weak to Crystal Eye, gives the Napalm Bomb.
  • DWN-040: Crystal Man, weak to Gyro Attack, gives the Crystal Eye.


Tropes:

  • Advancing Wall of Doom: The Rolling Drill enemies found in Napalm Man's stage. These move towards you from the right of the screen, and they are a One-Hit Kill if the drills touch you. Thankfully, you can destroy them before they do so.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Dark Man 4, the robot that framed Proto Man, possesses the abilities of the three previous Dark Men (specifically Dark Man 1's projectiles, Dark Man 2's barriers, and Dark Man 3's jumping).
  • Asteroids Monster: A Met variant exclusive to this game, the Metall Mommy. It appears to be a regular Metall at first, but upon shooting it, it splits apart into three smaller Metalls that bounce around.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Gravity Hold. Launching enemies into the sky is a cool concept, but in practice, it does so little damage that it's best used on smaller and weaker enemies. Enemies also don't drop powerups when killed with Gravity Hold, making it cumbersome to refill.
  • Boss Rush: As usual for the series, there's a boss rematch during the endgame. But this game pulls an interesting twist on the Robot Master rematches compared to the other games in the series — you actually return to the Robot Masters' original rooms when you fight them.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • Wave Man's stage, the expected water level of the game, isn't actually one at all; instead being an Unexpected Shmup Level that has Mega Man controlling a jetski for half the stage. Star Man's stage, meanwhile, uses the low gravity associated with underwater Mega Man stages without using any water.
    • After three consecutive games of the Final Boss being immune to all but one or two weapons, Mega Man 5's final boss can be damaged by the Mega Buster and most other weapons.
  • Chicken Walker: The Dachone, a Walking Tank that fires a spreadshot of lasers that first appears in Star Man's stage.
  • Collection Sidequest: In order to unlock Beat, who was introduced in this game, Mega Man must collect a plate found in each of the Robot Master levels, spelling out M E G A M A N V (or "R O C K M A N 5" in the Japanese version).
  • Colony Drop: Falling asteroids are a hazard at the start of Star Man's stage.
  • Covers Always Lie: The North American box art makes Gravity Man look like he's the size of a house and that he has electricity powers.
  • Disadvantageous Disintegration: If an enemy is killed by the Gravity Hold, it will fly offscreen without dropping any powerups.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Dark Man 4, the true identity of the Proto Man leading the robot attack. Once he is defeated, Dr. Wily appears and reveals that he built Dark Man and is holding Dr. Light in his lab, challenging Mega Man to go there for the actual final battle.
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon: Proto Man's Castle. After completing it, Wily reveals himself as the real villain, and his latest Wily Castle becomes the true final stage.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Stone Man has the ability to fire giant orbiting rocks with his Power Stone attack.
  • Distressed Dude: Dr Light is kidnapped by Proto Man, and it's up to you to save him!
  • Down in the Dumps: Wily Castle 1 has shades of this, with a large compactor corridor similar to the one from Dust Man's stage in Mega Man 4, complete with junk blocks that need to be shot out of the way.
  • Down the Drain: Wave Man's stage, which is set inside a water treatment facility and has a long water jetski section, but you never go underwater at any point. You do in Wily Castle 2, which has a first half set underwater in a more traditional Mega Man water level fashion.
  • Emergency Energy Tank:
    • Alongside the returning E-Tanks, the M-Tank is introduced as a means of fully restoring health and weapon ammo. If used while having completely full health and ammo, then all onscreen enemies are transformed into 1-Ups. However, you're only allowed to carry one M-Tank at a time.
    • After exposing "Proto Man" as Dark Man 4, the real Proto Man leaves an "L-Tank" to fully restore Mega Man's life. How exactly it differs from an E-Tank is unclear, and the L-Tank has never made another appearance, except as an unusable artifact in Mega Man ZX Advent.
  • Face–Heel Turn: After betraying Wily in Mega Man 4, Proto Man appears to be on the side of the devils once again. However, this is merely an imposter, and the real Proto Man saves Mega Man's life twice over.
  • Flying Weapon: Beat acts like one when used, and flies towards the nearest target to deal damage to it.
  • Frame-Up: The entire plot is revealed to be one, with Dr. Wily attempting to conquer the world while making Proto Man appear to be the mastermind.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: It's possible for Big Pets' platforms to not be animated correctly while the hitboxes for them still function, resulting in seemingly getting hit by nothing. Thankfully, it doesn't break the fight as you can persevere and memorize the pattern as James Rolfe demonstrates.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The final cutscene has Mega Man singlehandedly holding up a collapsing ceiling to stop himself and Dr. Light from being squished. He won't even bother trying that if you happen to stand under a crusher during gameplay.
  • Gemstone Assault: Crystal Man's main attack is firing crystal orbs that ricochet around his room to damage Mega Man. The Crystal Eye that Mega Man earns for defeating him fires one giant crystal that breaks into three smaller ones when it ricochets off of walls.
  • Gravity Is Purple: The Gravity Hold gives Mega Man a purple palette (though the offical artwork goes for a more reddish color).
  • Gravity Screw: Gravity Man's level, which reverses gravity (and some of the controls with it) at certain points. Gravity Man himself does this himself during the battle with him.
  • Harpoon Gun: Wave Man uses his Arm Cannon to fire a harpoon in Mega Man's direction between his other attacks.
  • Helicopter Pack: Gyro Man, sort of, except the helicopter blades he uses to fly are attached to his back directly.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: As with 4, Wily is the true villain, with "Proto Man" being a powerful imposter built by him to frame the real one for his crimes.
  • Improvised Platform: The Super Arrow, while useful as an attack, can also be stood atop to help Mega Man reach higher locations. With a well-timed jump, he can get on top before it rockets forward, or he can jump on top of it after it sticks to a wall.
  • Invulnerable Attack: When using the Charge Kick, Mega Man is invincible to most enemy attacks for as long as he is in his sliding animation.
  • Just in Time: Mega Man faces Proto Man and is about to be defeated with only one health remaining, when the real Proto Man swoops in with an L-Tank to fully restore Mega Man, and expose the evil Proto Man as Dark Man 4. Proto Man does it again at the end, where he helps Mega Man and Dr. Light escape the collapsing Wily Castle.
  • Locomotive Level: Charge Man's level, which is set both on and inside a moving train.
  • Marathon Level: Stone Man's stage, while not particularly difficult, is one of the longer Robot Master stages in the game, if not in the entire NES series.
  • Master of Illusion: Dark Man 4 has the ability to seamlessly disguise himself as Proto Man; however, his whistle is noticeably off-key.
  • Mercy Invincibility: Enemies have noticeably longer i-frames after taking damage in this game than they do in any other, making button-mashing less effective (and also seriously hampering the Water Wave's usefulness).
  • Non-Indicative Name:
    • The Napalm Bomb doesn't use napalm. Which is probably just as well. For that matter, Napalm Man himself doesn't actually use any napalm, he prefers using missiles and explosives rather than any incendiary weapons.
    • Despite the naming scheme, Dark Man 1 isn't the first Dark Man built; other sources claim that Dark Man 2 was the first, and Dark Man 1 a modification that sacrifices mobility for firepower.
  • One-Wheeled Wonder: The Camon enemy from Crystal Man's stage are robots that roll toward Mega Man on a single wheel.
  • Orbiting Particle Shield: The Star Crash, which blocks projectiles like the Skull Barrier, and can be fired forwards like the Leaf Shield.
  • The Paralyzer: Dark Man 3's gun can fire three rings in a spread formation that temporarily freeze Mega Man in place if any of them hit him, typically leaving him defenseless against the next attack.
  • Pinball Projectile: Crystal Man fires four Crystal Eye orbs in an X shape that rebound off the walls in his room. The Crystal Eye obtained from him works the same way once it hits a wall, splitting into three crystals that rebound off of walls.
  • Player-Guided Missile: The Gyro Attack flies straight forwards, but can be sent straight up or down in midflight via the D-Pad.
  • Power Up Letdown: Most of the special weapons, sadly. The Gravity Hold is laughably weak for a screen clear, the Napalm Bomb is slow and sticks to the ground, the Water Wave is on par with Bubble Lead, the Star Crash can't take a hit, the Power Stone and Crystal Eye miss everything, the Charge Kick is a mess...about the only ones that do their job well are the Gyro Attack and Beat.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: Stone Man will smash himself to bits from the impact of a high jump, but simply reassembles himself to continue the fight.
  • Puzzle Boss: Big Pets, the first Wily Castle boss, can only be reached by shooting its spiked body and using its sections as platforms. It shields itself if both platforms are under it, so using the Rush Coil to reach it won't work, nor will high-reaching weapons like the Power Stone or Gravity Hold.
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The Famicom boxart (pictured at the top) depicts Mega Man with his Mega Buster pointed directly at the viewer.
  • Secret A.I. Moves:
    • Gravity Man's power works differently depending on who's using it. HE can change the direction of gravity. YOU can summon an instantaneous surge of gravity that damages everything on the screen.
    • Star Man is able to throw his Star Crash in multiple directions, while in Mega Man's hands it can only be thrown left or right.
  • Shoot the Bullet: The Water Wave can nullify most enemy projectiles, including Star Man's shield. Although its usefulness is a little limited by its inability to be fired in the air.
  • Shout-Out: In the third Dark Man stage, there are these blocks that you have to ride on to get through. A really popular game released a year before has this too...
  • Slide Attack: The Charge Kick, which can only be used by sliding while having the weapon equipped.
  • Smart Bomb: The Gravity Hold damages all enemies onscreen when Mega Man uses it, though it's rather weak, dealing as much damage as an uncharged Mega Buster shot, so it's best used on weak enemies that attack in groups.
  • Space Zone: Star Man's stage, which takes place on a space station with low gravity. This makes it control like the underwater levels in other Mega Man games.
  • Spread Shot:
    • The Crystal Eye explodes into a spread of three smaller crystals that rebound in different directions when it hits a wall.
    • Dark Man 3 has an attack where he fires a spread of three rings in Mega Man's general direction. These rings deal no damage, but they will freeze Mega Man in place, leaving him vulnerable to Dark Man's next attack. Dodging the rings can be tricky, as they don't separate very fast.
  • Spring Jump: The Rush Coil of old has been replaced with the New Rush Coil; instead of jumping on a spring on Rush's back, Rush bounces himself up with a spring on his stomach, with Mega Man having to jump off of him afterwards.
  • Stealth Pun: According to his Mega Man & Bass CD data, Gyro Man likes a certain Greek sandwich. It wasn't specific, but they must be referring to a doner kebab, a.k.a. the "gyro".
  • Steam Vent Obstacle: Damaging puffs of steam appear in Wave Man's stage.
  • Superdickery: According to the intro, Proto Man is the new Big Bad, but near the end of the game, it turns out that he was an impostor. Once again, the real Big Bad was Dr. Wily, who was framing Proto Man for his crimes the whole time and is really the one behind Dr. Light's kidnapping.
  • Tank Goodness:
    • The game's iteration of the Wily Machine is placed atop a series of tank treads, and it's also one of the largest of the Wily Machines, possibly tied with the Tyrannosaurus rex version in Mega Man 9, in the series.
    • Napalm Man also has some of this in his design; tank treads for feet with cannons on his shoulders, arms, and head.
    • Dark Man 1's lower body bears tank treads, and it has two arm cannons that it uses to attack.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: The jetski segment in Wave Man's stage, which involves Auto Scrolling. Oh, and it disables the ability to pause the game or use E-Tanks.
  • Teleport Spam: The Wily Capsule returns from Mega Man 4, and frequently engages in this to stay out of your range. With Beat, however, hitting him becomes a lot easier.
  • Unique Enemy: The only two Rounders in the game (or series, for that matter) are found near the end of the first stage of Proto Man's fortress.
  • Utility Weapon: The Super Arrow can damage enemies, but it can also be used to create temporary footholds on walls, and can be used as a faster alternative to the Rush Jet.
  • Video Game Sliding: While Mega Man has been able to slide since Mega Man 3, the Charge Kick marks the only time in series history that one of Mega Man's weapons requires him to slide in order to use.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After being defeated once again, Dr. Wily escapes justice by fleeing while Mega Man struggles to keep the Wily Castle's collapsing ceiling from crushing him and Dr. Light.
  • Walking Armory: Napalm Man.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Gravity Man can only manipulate gravity; his only other weapon is a regular old plasma blaster. The only other way he can attack Mega Man is to use his powers to cause Collision Damage.

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Mega Man 5

Charge Man's level, which starts at a train platform and then Mega Man enters the train.

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