I didn’t actually make it to the fifth installment of the Mega Man series for the old NES. I’m not exactly sure why that was. Did this one come about after I’d already switched over to Sega? Did I lose interest in video games for a little while? Did I just get sick of never being ABLE TO BEAT THOSE FREAKING GAMES?! Whoa, sorry about that, I lost myself for a moment.

My first exposure to the franchise was Mega Man 2. There was actually a rumor among my friends in those pre-internet days that there wasn’t a previous installment. I don’t remember what the logic behind that was supposed to be. When I finally came across the game in a store, I bought it more to prove my friends wrong than to actually enjoy the game. While I loved MM2 and spent a memorable New Year’s Eve of childhood playing with my dad in an attempt to finally defeat the game, the difficulty level of the first and third installments left me a little cold.

Still, I think the basic idea of the franchise is fantastic — a hero who absorbs the powers of his fallen foes — and should be better utilized these days. How were the ad-on powers in this game? Was Rex in it? Maybe I should find one of those old Mega Man compilation discs and give these another whirl.