In 1994
Mega Man made the leap to the
Super Game Boy in an all new adventure,
Mega Man 5 (
Rockman World 5 in
Japan).
Capcom went all out for this title and abandoned its practice of recycling old
robot masters from their
NES games and reusing them in
Game Boy games. Plus, this is the only original series
Mega Man game not to have
Dr. Wily as the final enemy.
Trouble begins when a powerful robot named Terra comes to Earth and brings his cohorts, the Stardroids, with him. They've come to take over the planet and proclaims that nobody can stop them. Mega Man jumps into action and tries to cut Terra down to size, but his blaster is useless against the invader and Mega Man is quickly knocked out. The Stardroids begin seizing control of key cities. Mega Man awakens in Dr. Light's lab where the elderly scientist tells the Blue Bomber that he's replaced his standard blaster with the new mega arm. Instead of powering up his blaster, Mega Man can now powerup his arm and shoot a big punching fist at the enemies. However, while his fist is disengaged from his arm Mega Man is unable to fire his weapon. Knowing when to shoot and when not to shoot is a key element of this game.
The P-Chips from Mega Man 4 for Game Boy have returned and can once again be used to buy special items such as energy tanks and 1-ups. Mega Man can also purchase some new items, such as the Magnet Hand (allowing the mega arm to grab and retrieve items) and the Clobber Hand (allowing the mega arm to punch repeatedly at a target). The energy balancer also returns to automatically charge up depleted weapons. Be on the lookout for secret alien crystals that Dr. Light can use to make a special energy allocation device. Rush the robodog is back with his springboard and jet abilities and also along for the ride is a new character, Tango the robocat. Tango has the ability to go berserk and attack every enemy on screen at random until his energy meter depletes. He also sports a pretty neat meow for a Game Boy character. If you search long enough around the levels you might even find Proto Man lurking around with special items.
Four Stardroids have seized control of key cities on Earth and four more are waiting on nearby planets. After clearing Earth Mega Man can move on to the rest of the solar system. The Stardroids are named after each planet in our solar system, therefore their names are...
Once the
Stardroids are defeated
Dr. Wily reveals himself to be behind the whole scheme. He was using the
Stardroids to try and take over the planet.
Mega Man launches an attack against his space fortress in a side-scrolling shooter a la
Gradius - a first for
Mega Man.
Dr. Wily's space fortress is a maze of traps and obstacles full of enemies from past
Mega Man Game Boy games including the previously new
robot masters
Enker,
Quint (with his
Sakugarne),
Punk, and
Ballade. Unfortunately
Mega Man cannot acquire the special weapons of these rehashed robots.
Dr. Wily is waiting at the end of the space fortress, and although
Mega Man fights him, he's not the final enemy. As a last-ditch maneuver
Dr. Wily activates an ancient robot from another planet:
Sunstar. However,
Sunstar does not obey
Dr. Wily and the space robot shoots him back to
Earth and engages in a final battle with
Mega Man for the fate of
Earth.
This is Mega Man's first and only foray on to the Super Game Boy, meaning that the game sports limited colors when played on the SGB as well as a bright blue border featuring Metools. The game plays in the usual monochromatic format on a standard Game Boy. A Game Boy Color conversion was planned at one point, but apparently the project never reached completion and therefore was never released. By far Mega Man 5 for the Super Game Boy is the best of the portable Mega Man series. It features new challenges, new levels, new robots, and lots of secrets to find. The game should be easy to track down at stores that deal in used Game Boy games, but finding a new copy of the game will be difficult, most likely. A fair number of cartridges were produced, however, so luck is on your side with this game. Failing that, you're better off picking up the 2004 Game Boy Advance anthology of Mega Man's Game Boy adventures, Mega Man Mania. Note that this is Mega Man's last appearance on a portable console until Rockman and Forte in 1999 for the WonderSwan.