No, I'm not talking about a woman's rack at the age of 50, I'm talking about 8 Bit NES games. So many of those games seemed like masterpieces when we first played them, but how kind has Father Time been to them now that 20 to 30 years has passed since they came out? I don't think many people will argue that the majority of them have aged as gracefully as your average pornstar's meat curtains. Still there are some gems out there. The Super Mario games really seem to have stood the test of time, as well as the Legend of Zelda and a few other high profile games. But what about the others? What about those games that didn't get a dozen sequels over the years and have faded away from our immediate recollection?
So I've decided to go panning for gold this summer, and have chosen 100 NES games. I will play them until either I've finished them, I'm not longer having fun, or I've decided that the particular game sucks donkey ass and will not be getting any better no matter how much time I put into it.
Basically I've got a lot of time on my hands this summer and not enough to fill it with.
Hard? But it can be beaten in under 22 minutes without dying!
100% agree.
I'm waiting for you to get to Star Tropics.
I refuse to believe that's real. He used an invincibility code.
It is on the list.
#4. Strider - Quick Verdict: No, and that's a shame
Strider was a hell of a game in the 8-bit era. It was an ambitious title that Capcom made at their NES peak. It's about a futuristic ninja/secret agent who goes on an adventure around the world trying to solve a mystery regarding his best friend and the organization that he works for. The player visits different countries and finding clues as to what's going in the story, and ultimately revisits the area as he acquires items that allow him to more fully explore the area. It's like a more linear version of Metroid, though there's a hub world and each area you visit is self-contained so you don't have any of the frustations of getting lost and inevitable moments of not knowing where to go that come with Metroid. The combat is the most memorable aspect of the game though. You're a ninja after all and you're armed with a big ass sword that makes a kickass "CHIK'ING" noise everytime you weild it. No matter how anyone feels about the game today, there's no question that Strider's Cypher blade is one of gaming's coolest swords of all time.
So Strider's story is still pretty fun to play through, the soundtrack is very good, and the graphics while a little muddied are decent enough. Unfortunately, the biggest problems that the game has these days are all about the combat and action. It suffers from screen flashing and slowdown when the action starts to get hectic. The NES controller couldn't quite accomodate all of the moves that the devs tried to assign to it. A slide kick is needlessly complicated, and the triangle jump (wall-to-wall jump) is one of the hardest moves to pull off in the world of gaming. It's definitely a victim of over-ambitious developers. That's part of the reason why the game is so memorable today, but definitely makes it tough to want to play today. It definitely hasn't held up, but I will say if Capcom is set on making more and more HD remakes, the original Strider really needs to be at the top of the list. Just a few tweaks to the controls, and some updated graphics would really make this a classic.
Legacy of the Wizard - Quick Verdict: Yes, if you download a FAQ
Legacy of the Wizard is a great example of why instruction manuals used to be so important. Not only are they great bathroom reading, but in early games they were often the only source of information you'd have regarding the game's story and characters. Without one, you more often than naught would be walking through the game blindly without so much as a clue on what to do as there would be absolutly no narrative until you make it to the end of the game. So if you're going to play Legacy of the Wizard you sure as hell better come prepared. Download a FAQ to at least review all the characters, items, and abilities. And for the sake of your sanity download a map because this game is huge. Near scale the scale of Metroid I think.
I first tried going into the game without the preparation and while I did enjoy the simple but solid gameplay, I didn't have a fucking clue what I was doing. I'd just run around killing monsters and gathering items, until I needed to find an inn and heal myself and then repeat the process. And that god old quickly. Once I took 5 minutes to do a little research, suddenly the game did in fact become fun. It's a little daunting, given the size of the game, but for players who don't mind the primitive graphics it's really not bad at all. To throw out an equally obscure game for a worthless comparison, it's kind of like Solomon's Key if it were an adventure game. It's certainly not for everyone, but with some extra direction this game does hold up.
Oh man. I so did very much enjoy Strider for the NES. Robio did you ever play the recent Strider game made by Double Helix? It's very good.
I'm not sure if I ever played Legacy of the Wizard but I have played Broderbund games before. I wonder what ever happened to them.
i own Kung Fu for the Atari 2600. It's actually a very good version of the game too.
Never played it. The art style kind of turned me off. I'll grab it at some point though.
Makes me wonder what's happened to Double Helix though. Amazon bought them to do first party development for their bomb of a microconsole. That didn't seem to work out.
I actually played that version now that I think about it. Can't remember much about it, but I'm sure I shook my head at the graphics.