Nebs 'n Debs

released on Mar 03, 2019

A new game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Run, jump, and dash your way through 12 levels as you search for the missing parts of Debs's ship to escape the hostile alien planet Vespasian 7MV!


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Nebs 'n Debs feels like an homage to the long gone era of second-rate NES games you'd find at a Blockbuster or flea market. I can proudly say that if your parents found a time traveler at said flea market who had this, it'd definitely be one of the best of the bunch they brought home.

Every level feels pretty well crafted around its own unique set of a few ideas; the game never feels padded. Debs' dash mechanic offers up an alright degree of control, although her control feels a bit finicky in that usual NES kind of way.

Speaking of the usual NES fare, part of this game embodying the aura of those classic titles is that it's on the hard side in a somewhat artificial way. You die in one hit and have absolutely no continues. I've only made it through 8 of the 12 levels so far, and I kinda got stonewalled by a wall of projectile shooting octopi in level 9.

I guess if I wanted to, I could have just savestated through this. Not really much of a point sugarcoating that I'm playing on Mesen when I bought the rom off the Ukraine bundle a few months back, and also that nobody would care anyways. It wouldn't have been too bad to get through the 12 levels, say the dash is alright, and call it a day. This game is younger than the Nintendo Switch, after all: the devs clearly knew this was on the table.

But this time I didn't feel like I would get the whole picture without experiencing the flow of the game's resistance. When each life feels valuable, there's more of an incentive to actually scan the nooks and crannies put in to provide 1ups. Nowadays, platformers relegate their secrets to glorified grocery lists: collect the 3 Star Coins in each level because that's how you get the biggest completion score to brag about. Nebs 'n Debs is a throwback to when beating the game was not a given, so it can use that leverage to get you to consider and master each stage on a deeper level.

Overall, this game is a tough sell. It's more of a novelty than anything; it's not particularly impressive even within the catalog of the NES. There are certainly retro throwbacks nowadays that encapsulate the raw kinetic gameplay of this era without reveling in the frustration that could fuel a thousand think pieces about how this game is a "relic of a time we've thankfully moved past" or something of the sort.

But this game fondly remembers that past and replicates the feeling of having to take the time to really come to grips with a short and sweet experience. For what it's trying to be, even if that lacks a modern appeal, I think it largely succeeds.

On the subject of emulators, though, this game has finally gotten me what I need to give Fire Emblem Gaiden a try. Which is a terrifying thought.

Introducing the most finicky dash mechanic of all time, some alright music, and some mechanics that I am assuming were explained in the digital manual but succeeded in being an NES game a little too hard since it ignores the evolution of intuitive game design.