NES A to Z – W: Willow

This game is what I needed. Willow made for an enjoyable gaming session.

This game was one of those titles I remember hearing/reading that was good but just never really thought much about playing it. I was a little excited to see what the game had in store since I remember the movie (which I haven’t watched in years now) being enjoyable. This game was just as enjoyable as I remember the movie being. It was an adventure game in the same style as the Zelda games for the NES. The graphics, sound, and gameplay were all solid during my hour-long session and the game controls were intuitive. Some of the visual effects, like the wind blowing the trees/foliage during the battle sequences, I thought looked pretty impressive for the NES. When my hour came up, I really didn’t want to switch games, but it was time. This is definitely a game I will be revisiting in the future. It’s a title I would definitely recommend to play.

NES A to Z – W, X, Y and Z!

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Willow, Xexyz, Yoshi, and Zoda’s Revenge closed out my A to Z series. Pretty good closing game session with the exception of Yoshi.

Hey everyone and welcome back! It’s been cold in my neck of the woods but that made it perfect to just stay inside and play a few games! Saturday was a great day to finish my A to Z series and to think about getting some new projects started! What’s in store next? I’m not sure, but I’ve got some ideas that I’ve been tossing around for a new project. Stay tuned for more on that.

Anyways, back to the A to Z! These last four games with the exception of Y, were pretty solid titles. Here’s what I played:

W- Willow

X- Xexyz

Y- Yoshi

Z- Zoda’s Revenge: Star Tropics II

I’ll be writing up individual posts on these games throughout the week while I work on ideas for a new Saturday project! I’ve also been revisiting This War of Mine and have been doing Friday Night Fights, a streaming series where I visit different fighting/boxing/martial arts games from different eras. I have currently been focusing on two boxing titles from the 16 bit era – Greatest Heavyweights (Genesis/MegaDrive) and Super Punch Out!! (SNES). I’ll be working on that and lots of new things in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

NES A to Z – U: Uninvited

Oh jeez, guess I got her attention! Uninvited (NES)

Uninvited was a point-and-click adventure game. I’m a big fan of these games, Shadowgate and Deja Vu come to mind as a couple of point and click adventures I have enjoyed. Add another good one to that list with Uninvited. The music has to be the best part of the game. There were quite a few scenes that drove my heart rate up quite a bit when the music got intense! Yeah, the graphics were simple and the controller was a bit awkward to use for this type of game, but all that aside I thought Uninvited was fun during my session. It’s definitely a title I’ll need to come back to!

NES A to Z – T: Top Gun

Another game based on a film, Top Gun for the NES wasn’t too bad. Landing your plane was a different story though.

Another game based on a film, this game wasn’t too bad, plus it had a pretty sweet chiptune rendition of the Top Gun Anthem. It was a flight sim game in the same vein as After Burner. You fly an F-16 fighter and engage enemy jets in the air and ships in the water. The graphics were very basic and there was a lot of blue in the background due to the sky/water horizon. The gameplay was pretty straightforward but  I did have some difficulty during the landing sequence. I also understand there is a refueling sequence but I never made it that far during my session. Overall the gameplay wasn’t too bad and this was probably one of the better flight sims on the NES. If you like flight sims give this one a shot, it’s not a bad game. I really only wish I had a joystick to play this game, it would’ve added much more to the experience than playing with a regular gamepad.

NES A to Z – S: Solbrain

Lost in a world of platformers, Solbrain proves itself a solid action platformer for the NES.

Another solid action platformer, this one is based on a Japanese television series called Super Rescue Solbrain. As such, the US release of this game, Shatterhand, is slightly different as it changes a few details of the game, most notably the intro and the main character sprite are different. Other than that and the carnival level being changed to a nuclear sub level in the US version, the two games are basically the same. I thought it was a pretty good, solid action platformer with decent controls,  gameplay, graphics, and music. The robot drone offered some depth – every combination of three Greek letters obtained offered a different style of drone weapon. The challenge is up there, but it seemed well balanced and the game offered unlimited continues. The NES’s library is chock full of action platformers, but I feel like this was one of those overlooked titles that deserved more credit.

NES A to Z – R: RoboCop 2

While it wasn’t terrible, RoboCop 2 suffered from some wonky controls. Still not as bad as Predator though.

Welcome back! For the letter R we have another game based on a movie: RoboCop 2! Will this game stack up to Quantum Fighter’s level of goodness? Let’s take a look:

Robocop 2 was an action platformer that wasn’t  terrible but it did suffer from some tricky controls. Making precision jumps was tough and when you moved, RoboCop would build up momentum and slide as if you were on ice. You could also ‘feel’ the weight of RoboCop as you moved around and jumped. While these flaws didn’t make the game unplayable, they did unbalance the challenge a bit and made the game slightly frustrating at some points. Overall it wasn’t bad and I was able to progress a few stages into the game. As for the graphics and sound, they were on par for the NES. The visuals all looked good and the music wasn’t annoying or repetitive. It’s always a good thing when the game music doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.  

Okay, so this game wasn’t Quantum Fighter level good but I still did have some fun playing it. The controls may not have been the greatest, but with a little compensation I made them work. I can’t fully recommend this game but I would say it would be a great “weekend rental” for anyone who enjoys games of this genre. 

Saturday I plan on doing another ‘lightning round’ of four games with the blog posts to follow during the next week. We’re almost done with the alphabet so be sure to follow along for your weekly dose of NES action! 

NES A to Z – Q: (Kabuki) Quantum Fighter

I had a lot of fun during my session with Quantum Fighter. It was challenging but well-balanced.

Hey! I’m back with more NES A to Z action! Up for Q we’ve got Quantum Fighter! Okay, so the true title is Kabuki Quantum Fighter, but I’m just going to go with Quantum Fighter for the sake of the letter Q. Anyways, let’s jump in and take a quick look at the game!

When I first started up the game, I was absorbed into the story. You play as Colonel Scott O’Connor who, by the power of a new image transfer machine, gets converted into raw data to destroy a virus that has infiltrated the computer defense systems. A pretty sweet story to start off the game if you ask me.

Quantum fighter was a platformer that wasn’t quite run-n-gun but still had plenty of action. The gameplay itself was very good and the game was challenging but fair. Controls were solid, graphics were good, and the music was on point. You attack with your hair, fists (when ducking), or various secondary weapons that you collect from bosses that run off of “chips” that you gather throughout the game. As an added bonus, during boss battles you can also trade in your chips for extra life energy. I didn’t make it too far into the game but I had a lot of fun playing it during my session. This is a game I can truly recommend for a good extended play session. 

That concludes Quantum Fighter for now! This is another game I probably will revisit in the future. My quick play session didn’t do the game much justice but unfortunately it’s time to move on to the pick for the letter R. I’ll be posting it soon so stay tuned!

NES A to Z – P: Predator

I had to quit playing Predator for my own health and safety. It was frustrating to say the least.

Wow, it’s Wednesday already? The week sure is flying by! For the letter P I played Predator for the NES. Was it any good? Let’s jump in and find out: 

When I first booted up the game I was impressed by the excellent title music and artwork of a pixelated Arnold and Predator. I thought the game looked like it was going to be a winner until I got into the game a bit. It was another frustrating action platformer. Ugh. 

The gameplay suffered from a couple of things: precision jumps and the inability to switch weapons in game. Also, you are only able to continue after every fifth level (I never made it that far unfortunately) of the game’s thirty levels. But the main frustration for me were the touchy controls that made jumping from platform to platform a major chore. I met my death several times at the expense of this. After playing for about an hour I was done. I took some notes while I rewatched my broadcast of the gameplay and noticed something: If I growl at a game while I play, it’s bad news. I seriously had to quit playing before something bad happened. I’m glad I did. I didn’t get hurt and my monitor and other peripherals are still intact. That’s one high point of the gaming session I guess. 

On a brighter note, I found that there is another version of the game for the MSX computer that looks like it might be much better. You can switch weapons in this version and the graphics look improved a bit. I might have to look into it to see if it’s any better than the NES version. 

That’s all for Predator, I’ll be working on the next post for the letter Q soon! We are just about finished with the alphabet so stick around and stay tuned for more NES action!

NES A to Z – O: Orb 3D

Orb 3D by Hi-Tech Expressions is an interesting variation of games like Breakout or Arkanoid.

Hey there! It’s time for more NES A to Z action! Next up for the letter O is Orb 3D. Let’s jump into it and take a look:

When I first started up the game I cringed a bit when I saw the Hi-Tech Expressions logo. To my knowledge, they didn’t publish the greatest games. In fact, I think Fun House from earlier was published by Hi-Tech and it wasn’t great at all. Orb 3D wasn’t great either but it did have an interesting concept for the time.

The gameplay was very similar to games like Breakout or Arkanoid where you bash all the bricks on screen to complete each stage. Add an extra paddle and a pseudo 3D effect and you’ve basically got Orb 3D. You bounce the Orb between the paddles and press A to shoot the orb into the 3D plane to hit the bubbles, tiles, or bowling pins on the grid. I only made it through a few stages out of the thirty stages stated in the intro before moving on. The game wasn’t too bad gameplay wise, but the graphics were very basic and the sound was less than stellar. Overall, I can’t really recommend this game for much more than what I’d call a “weekend rental.” However, I think a modern reboot of a game like this could be loads of fun and I’d give it a shot if one were released. 

That’s about all I have for Orb 3D. I’ll be working on P next so stay tuned for more!

NES A to Z – N: Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water

Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water was a refreshing change of pace. Turn-based strategy to lower the blood pressure after some intense action games.

Phew! What a weekend! I ended up playing another four games on Saturday and it was a pretty wild time! For N I had Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water queued up to play. Let’s check it out:

This game wasn’t too bad! After playing a bunch of action games and a craptastic game based on a movie, this game was a refreshing change of pace. It was a strategy game with some RPG-like elements. I really didn’t know what I was doing in the game but I had some good fun regardless. It reminded me a lot of playing a game of chess with all of the strategy involved. Each character had some different skills and items appeared randomly on the board after turns. The only thing I’d say that was a bit of a negative was the music. It was a bit repetitive and wasn’t anything overly special. All in all, it was a pretty decent turn-based strategy game. I’d probably play it again sometime.

That’s all I have for Nadia! I’ll be working on my post for O next so keep it locked in for more retro NES action!