Much like with Digger T. Rock, I myself am not too familiar with this game either. The only time I had ever experienced it was when I watched a playthrough of it, and I thought it looked interesting, and only a mere five months later, I finally decided to check out Power Blade. And aside from it looking completely ridiculous, with the Arnold Schwarzenegger wannabe on the front cover and the title screen, I actually found myself having a really good time with the game, and I think it is really good. It’s not exactly the most exciting or original game that you can find on the NES, but it was still worth finally checking out after all this time.
The story involves master computers, the future, and aliens, so you know you are definitely playing an NES game, the graphics are pretty good, even if they aren’t the most interesting thing to look at, the music is pretty good, the control is very solid and feels great to handle, and the gameplay is simple, yet effective with the ways it differentiates from other games at the time.
The game is an action 2D platformer, where you go through various stages, defeat enemies, gain items and powerups, and defeat bosses, so basically every other game on the NES in a nutshell, but this one does stand out from others in several ways. First off, unlike most other games at the time, you don’t just move from Point A to Point B in order to beat levels. Instead, you have to find a contact in each stage, who will give you an ID card that you need to access the boss of each stage. It may not seem like too much, but this extra step does allow for more exploration and location recognition, which makes the stages much more memorable as a result, and varies the gameplay enough to feel somewhat unique from others.
In addition, the versatility you have with your weapons, as well as the weapons themselves, also helps in making the game more fun and interesting. You wield a giant boomerang as your main weapon (which is the dumbest thing ever), which you can throw in 8 directions, which you can get upgrades for from enemies, as well as increasing the power of said boomerang by collecting stars. In addition, there is also a Power Suit that you can find in every level, which not only gives you extra hit points, but also gives you a more powerful attack that helps out a lot in certain scenarios. And finally, you can also find grenades that basically act as screen nukes, and finally cans of some unidentified food that can fully restore your health. It’s not the most creative or interesting selection of weapons and items, but they are very helpful at taking on threats that you will be facing.
I really have no complaints about the game overall, it is pretty solid, and I would consider it to be a hidden gem of the system. If I could complain about anything, I would say that the entire game does feel very generic. A lot of elements blend in together, such as level themes and enemies, with them reusing a lot of the same enemies throughout all the levels, and even just by taking a look at the game from an outside view, it doesn’t really look all that interesting, as it looks like every other NES platformer at the time. Despite that though, the game is still pretty fun, and hey, it even managed to get a sequel, so that must mean it had some amount of success back in the day.
Overall, while not doing much to stand out from the crowd, I would say this is a heavily overlooked title for the system that is short but sweet, and if you haven’t checked it out already, you definitely should. It gets two thumbs up from me. Let’s just hope that the sequel turns out to be as good as this one, or else it will be too clear on why this series died afterwards.
Game #187
The story involves master computers, the future, and aliens, so you know you are definitely playing an NES game, the graphics are pretty good, even if they aren’t the most interesting thing to look at, the music is pretty good, the control is very solid and feels great to handle, and the gameplay is simple, yet effective with the ways it differentiates from other games at the time.
The game is an action 2D platformer, where you go through various stages, defeat enemies, gain items and powerups, and defeat bosses, so basically every other game on the NES in a nutshell, but this one does stand out from others in several ways. First off, unlike most other games at the time, you don’t just move from Point A to Point B in order to beat levels. Instead, you have to find a contact in each stage, who will give you an ID card that you need to access the boss of each stage. It may not seem like too much, but this extra step does allow for more exploration and location recognition, which makes the stages much more memorable as a result, and varies the gameplay enough to feel somewhat unique from others.
In addition, the versatility you have with your weapons, as well as the weapons themselves, also helps in making the game more fun and interesting. You wield a giant boomerang as your main weapon (which is the dumbest thing ever), which you can throw in 8 directions, which you can get upgrades for from enemies, as well as increasing the power of said boomerang by collecting stars. In addition, there is also a Power Suit that you can find in every level, which not only gives you extra hit points, but also gives you a more powerful attack that helps out a lot in certain scenarios. And finally, you can also find grenades that basically act as screen nukes, and finally cans of some unidentified food that can fully restore your health. It’s not the most creative or interesting selection of weapons and items, but they are very helpful at taking on threats that you will be facing.
I really have no complaints about the game overall, it is pretty solid, and I would consider it to be a hidden gem of the system. If I could complain about anything, I would say that the entire game does feel very generic. A lot of elements blend in together, such as level themes and enemies, with them reusing a lot of the same enemies throughout all the levels, and even just by taking a look at the game from an outside view, it doesn’t really look all that interesting, as it looks like every other NES platformer at the time. Despite that though, the game is still pretty fun, and hey, it even managed to get a sequel, so that must mean it had some amount of success back in the day.
Overall, while not doing much to stand out from the crowd, I would say this is a heavily overlooked title for the system that is short but sweet, and if you haven’t checked it out already, you definitely should. It gets two thumbs up from me. Let’s just hope that the sequel turns out to be as good as this one, or else it will be too clear on why this series died afterwards.
Game #187