Rockman 5 (or Mega Man 5, if you grew up outside Japan) is one of those NES classics that somehow still feels tight and satisfying decades later. You jump, shoot, and steal robot master weapons like always, but this time Blues (Proto Man) is acting weird—setting up traps, leaving cryptic hints, and generally being more dramatic than usual.

The level design’s got this great flow—some stages throw instant-death spike gauntlets at you, while others let you wreck shop with the new charge shot. Gravity Man’s upside-down stage still messes with my head, and Wave Man’s music is an absolute earworm. It’s not the hardest in the series, but that just means you can actually enjoy the chaos instead of rage-quitting after three screens.

Also, Beat the bird helper debuts here, and he’s way more useful than Rush in certain spots. Just saying.