Reviews from

in the past


Unique visuals tied to stereotypical schmup gameplay that can sometimes get frustrating.

** Don’t listen to everyone on Backloggd about the last level being amazing, it was absolutely dreadful

‘Abadox: The Deadly Inner War’ is not too different from any other side shooter. Absolute chaos that requires quick reaction times. As I lack skill and quick reaction times the only way I was going to get through this game was with cheats. I opted for unlimited lives, which really just makes the fairness like a modern day game and all power ups. The one downside to all powerups is that when fighting a boss the console cannot handle so many sprites on screen at one time therefore absolutely chugs to probably 10-15fps. What kept me playing was the amount of people that spoke highly of the last level and despite the cheats it was absolutely soul destroyingly hard.

A novel answer to the age-old question: "What if Salamander stage 1 was the whole game?"

Answer is pretty ok to middling. Has that problem most 'made for NES' shmups have where the rate of fire is rough, you only get a couple shots on screen at a time and it makes most weapons feel bad until you get missiles to back up their damage. The laser whips ass though.

They don't really commit enough to the body horror bit? At least in terms of like, consistency. You go through the mouth and past the tongue, into the throat, and then, Indescript Body Areas, then another throat, then fuckin', metal? Metal up their ass?????????? Bro stop eating the steel magnetic balls

I liked this about at a 3/5 level playing it in-call but I know it'd be kinda miserable on real hardware, felt the same way about Natsume's other shmup, SCAT

that ending left me speechless. SO damn cool and unique.

a HARD but surprisingly forgiving shmup thanks to an unlimited supply of continues. level design and art direction is top notch, but the bosses tend to leave a lot to be desired

...that said, spending hours trying to finish this game, and then beating the whole thing with one life has been one of the best experiences i've ever had with the NES


along with the 1987 film innerspace, this was among my earliest exposure to body horror.

Broken hitboxes, broken collision detection, poor performance, unbalanced weapons, and frustrating level design, with extreme power loss on death that essentially makes it a one life game.

The grotesque aesthetic is really the only appeal here, as the core gameplay and design is janky, frustrating, and forgettable.

I like shoot em ups and I like body horror, ESPECIALLY vintage japanese body horror, so I like this.

Is no Gradius so there's a couple of things here and there that could be better.

It's not too hard nor too easy for how short it is, and the last segment was fun.

A bit janky, but endlessly creative in its use of colorful viscera-packed stages. The pulsing environments and twitching eyeballs give it a leg up on Lifeforce in terms of commitment to aesthetics.

A solid NES shmup. My main gripes are that it's a little short even for a shmup, and you're too helpless when you don't have any power-ups. You do have infinite continues, and then the game can kind of become a puzzle where you figure out how precisely to go about the level through trial and error.