A fairly simple NES platformer in the vein of Ninja Gaiden. A little simpler and thankfully easier than said game, but still on the shorter side.
Just like Ninja Gaiden you have a limited supply of ranged weapon, but unlike Ninja Gaide, which cribbed its ideas from Castlevania, this game has enemy drops and end of level bonuses to your health and ammo: no lanterns here. The unfortunate downside of this system is that you only acquire new weapons after each level, so there's no strategy involved to keeping what you might need for later.
The enemies are fairly weak and easy, as well as programmed well, so they don't respawn every time you move a few milimeters, so the main challenge comes from platforming. Doing ninja moves such as jumps from walls and overhangs is a little weird, but it's the actual platforming that's your enemy. The momentum of conveyors and ice is wild. When pushed backwards you can barely jump, and when pushed forwards your jumps propel you like a missle. Of course devs knew that so the final level is a vertical shaft full of conveyors and barely any enemies.
The graphics and music are very good, and the main character design is hella cute. HAL worked on the game so I suppose it's no surprise that everything runs well. I'm a little surprised that delving into NES' later library reveals that developers were moving away from Mario's 30 stage adventures into tighter 5-6 stage games with bigger sprites and nicer graphics. Often those games end up being not memorable at all, but this one is weird enough and just challenging enough so it never gets boring, even if it can get frustrating.
Just like Ninja Gaiden you have a limited supply of ranged weapon, but unlike Ninja Gaide, which cribbed its ideas from Castlevania, this game has enemy drops and end of level bonuses to your health and ammo: no lanterns here. The unfortunate downside of this system is that you only acquire new weapons after each level, so there's no strategy involved to keeping what you might need for later.
The enemies are fairly weak and easy, as well as programmed well, so they don't respawn every time you move a few milimeters, so the main challenge comes from platforming. Doing ninja moves such as jumps from walls and overhangs is a little weird, but it's the actual platforming that's your enemy. The momentum of conveyors and ice is wild. When pushed backwards you can barely jump, and when pushed forwards your jumps propel you like a missle. Of course devs knew that so the final level is a vertical shaft full of conveyors and barely any enemies.
The graphics and music are very good, and the main character design is hella cute. HAL worked on the game so I suppose it's no surprise that everything runs well. I'm a little surprised that delving into NES' later library reveals that developers were moving away from Mario's 30 stage adventures into tighter 5-6 stage games with bigger sprites and nicer graphics. Often those games end up being not memorable at all, but this one is weird enough and just challenging enough so it never gets boring, even if it can get frustrating.