Mega Man V is the fifth Mega Man game on the Gameboy. Unlike the four predecessor Gameboy games, Mega Man V has an all new plot with all new bosses. The enemies in this game are the Stardroids, robots from outer space named after the planets of the solar system. Names and plot aside, though, Mega Man V plays just like the rest of the GB Mega Man games. Mega Man V is considered one of the best games in the series because of its excellent gameplay. The only problem is that it tends to be a bit laggy. (Of course, in a tool-assisted speedrun, the lag issue turns into a very large hurdle to deal with.)
Mega Arm (P)
Mega Man's traditional Mega Buster has been replaced with the Mega Arm in this game. The uncharged shots are still the same, but for the charged shots, Mega Man shoots off his arm. A partially charged shot takes 30 frames to charge, goes about as far as his own height and does 2 damage to most bosses; a fully charged shot takes 90 frames to charge, goes nearly full screen and does 3 damage to most bosses. Mega Man can't charge if his arm is off.
Tango (TA)
Mega Man's cat buddy, who can be summoned in this game to help out fighting enemies (read: jump around until its ammo bar is empty). Has no use in a speedrun (or anywhere else) and is therefore never used in this run.
Rush Coil (RC)
Obtained after defeating Venus. Its only use in this run is in Uranus' stage to skip a few screens' worth of moving platform sections. Other than that, it doesn't get used because there aren't any places where switching to it would save enough time to make up for it.
Rush Jet (RJ)
Obtained after defeating Saturn. Never used in the run. I considered trying it in Uranus' stage, but Rush Coil was superior there.
Salt Water (NE)
One of the best weapons in the game. It shoots a glob of water at a parabolic angle, which can be influenced in multiple ways. The start velocity is influenced by whatever directions pressed on the D-Pad as well as Mega Man's current momentum when he fires it, which allows for a lot of different angle choices and weapon speed. If the weapon hits the ground, it also releases three water splashes at different angles. It's also fairly powerful and has a number of bosses weak to it, including Mars, Punk, and the two hands that form the first two phases of the final boss battle.
While there's a bunch of advantages, this weapon does have a few downsides: it uses 2 ammo per shot (which means I have only 10 shots with a full bar) and when the shot hits the ground and releases the water splashes, it generally causes a lot of lag. For that matter, even just the shot on its own can be fairly laggy.
Grab Buster (ME)
This weapon releases a somewhat slow moving projectile, which if it hits an enemy, will turn into a small life refill which will home in towards Mega Man and refill 2 health if it touches him. The refill is a bit of a drawback, because it causes the game to pause briefly if it hits Mega Man (if at less than full health), it can cause lag, and if there are too many on the screen, I can't fire another Grab Buster. It's also not too useful against most enemies; it's only particularly useful against the minibosses in Mars' stage, and it's Pluto's weakness weapon.
Photon Missile (MA)
This is another very good weapon in the game. It launches a missile, which stalls for about a second, and then jets forward quickly. This property is useful for making delayed hits, which is useful against some bosses like Dark Moon. Other than that, it's just an overall very effective weapon, with a lot of bosses weak to it; this includes Venus, Dark Moon, Quint and Ballade.
Bubble Bomb (VE)
One of the laggiest weapons in the game. This weapon releases a bubble which arcs up in a vertical sinusoid path, can travel along ceilings, and explodes upon contact with an enemy. Generally a quite damaging weapon, but causes a lot of lag when it hits an opponent. Only used as a weakness weapon against Jupiter.
Break Dash (PL)
Definitely one of the best weapons in Mega Man V, or even in the entire series overall. Uncharged, it shoots just an uncharged buster shot, but the weapon can be charged, after which Mega Man will dash forward fully invincible. When the dash ends, Mega Man will remain invincible for
two full seconds. This is enough to easily bypass any enemy just by sliding through it. It can also defeat enemies that aren't invincible to it by dashing through while damaging the enemy, which can hit multiple times depending on how far the dash is charged.
The weapon has three levels of charge: after 16 frames of charging (a quarter of a second), Mega Man will dash roughly his height's length forward and use half a bar of energy; after 30 frames of charging (half a second) he will dash twice as far and use 1 bar of energy; after 60 frames of charging, he will dash over half a screen forward and use 2 bars of energy.
This weapon is also Uranus' weakness.
Electric Shock (JU)
A very good weapon. This weapon causes a lightning bolt to appear at the end of Mega Man's hand, stretching forward to about nearly half the screen's width. It stays out for nearly a full second, making it able to hit most bosses twice with one shot, but can be cancelled by sliding. It also does a good amount of damage to many regular enemies. It's Saturn's weakness.
Black Hole (SA)
This weapon has a few very specific uses, most of which aren't even intentional. One is that it's Mercury's weakness weapon; however, due to a bug it's possible to bypass Mercury's AI pattern using Black Hole, allowing one to defeat him very quickly using it. The other is using it as part of an odd bug in the Wily Machine fight.
Deep Digger (UR)
This weapon also has a few specific uses. First off, it's Terra's weakness, which is made blatant as soon as you see his boss arena. Other than that, there are some hidden areas and shortcuts behind some blocks in the later stages, which require this weapon to remove the blocks.
Spark Chaser (EA)
This is Terra's weapon, and shoots a laser forward which homes in on enemies and hits them repeatedly. Despite being a quite awesome weapon overall, it doesn't really get much use in this run other than being Neptune's weakness weapon in the boss rush.
Recommended screenshot:
Thanks to
adelikat for initially joining me on the project and doing...uh...two screens' worth of work.
Thanks to
Nach for constant support and motivation, and thanks to everyone else who supported me on IRC and in the game thread.
And thanks to you for watching and/or reading this!
Nach: So, this was quite a run...
I initially saw piece by piece of it come in within the game thread. To finally
see the completed project is great. I was happy when it was queued up in the workbench, waiting to attack a judge like myself even though previous submissions were already fired at me at rapid speeds. But after that, it all falls apart, and one wanders off into deep space.
First off, it is really refreshing to see a run of a classical Mega Man game where you never fight Dr. Wily. That whole Dr. Wily always being the bad guy and fighting you in a flying saucer has gotten really old and repetitive. Explosions strapped to suicide bombers on a countdown is all the rage today, not flying saucers, and black holes are more interesting than UFOs, making the former point moot.
As for the run itself, it was executed quite well to TAS precision. The kind of precision where you're watching at a weird angle that somehow manages to reach your senses, and sometimes even bounce off some extras.
On the other hand, the run was doing so much at once. I was not able to appreciate the intricate rounds various sequences offer in this game. It was inhumane of you to do that to us. Which reminds me, the TASers of the original Mega Man are upset that they abused the select button, yet you feel entitled to go about things your own way. Many people in the forum also found the run boring. What you did just passed through them with no effect. A TAS has to make a connection with a viewer and affect them somehow. You can't just do things like that on your own when the game offers such awesomeness itself which you were clearly aware of, as you did make use of it on occasion, yet deviated for your own thing where you felt like it, and felt you could achieve the same effect.
But you did redeem yourself somewhat with the bosses. What you did to them would make a boss want to become invincible, run away from you, and commit suicide. My thermometer also seemed to stay in one place by aforementioned abuse of bosses, which is impressive, controlling things outside your small view of the world. Imaginary characters like Kirby, or real one like Phil would be proud.
So in absorbing this run, and needing to respond, choosing high or low, with low supposedly being preferred, I'm going to act outside the box, or the current floor as may be the case, and just skip right past accepting it. Onto the final publication step, right? And before anyone asks, I deny being bribed for this run. I did not receive any special currency to refill my
Writing abilities.