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Mega Man 5 Overload 3

Levels: Okay

Graphics: Okay

Music: No Change

Enemies: No Change

Bosses: Eh (room/weakness changes)

Weapons: No Change

Castle: Eh

Difficulty: MEDIUM (Dark Man 2 & Wily 1 are HARD)

Comments: Overload 3 is designed by three different authors—and it shows. It's a hodgepodge of ideas and styles, sending you to prickly stages one moment (Star Man, Gravity Man), and then boring stages the next (Stone Man, Napalm Man). Occasionally you'll run into a stage that makes a good use of some new graphics with a modicum of clever level design (Wave Man, Wily 2, Dark Man 4 is ugly but novel), but ultimately Overload 3 is just too messily thrown together to feel satisfying to play through. Worse yet is that Overload 2's cruel tendencies peek through every now and then: Charge Man has a section where you have to take damage to avoid spikes, Dark Man 2 has some nasty reverse-gravity jumps, and Wily 1 has a devastating Rush Jet-into-Super Arrow combo that I used save states to get by. Veterans of Mega Man may be tickled by the obstacles presented here, but like Overload 2, this hack is too frequently lenient to be considered a master challenge, yet too punishing to be played by normal folks. No thanks.

(I also tried the "Original" version for 6 stages but honestly couldn't tell how much was really different.)