yeah, this... is pretty much what i remembered. this game was straight up irresistible bait to a kid browsing rentals in 1991 (at video tyme... before the blockbuster buyout). preceding the era of 'tude and following the most righteous triumph of bill & ted (rather blatantly), totally rad was very attractive.

it's a great-looking and great-sounding nes game, yet its gameplay is... er, marginally rad? it's not exactly bad. its platforming is utterly basic - more like contra than mario, though hardly on contra's level with its shooting. odd quirks like the inability to run up small diagonal ramps or keep your weapon charge while jumping make it more awkward than it should be. the magic system is... well, it's there, but it's very limited in that there are no replenishing drops - you have to manage your mp between checkpoints. you also can't use your heal spell while transformed, so you'll have to go into the pause menu to revert to your human form, and then pause again to heal, and then probably pause again to transform once more. yeah, there are transformations giving you different attacks and abilities - sort of a blend of mega man and super mario bros 3, or something, though not nearly as good as either.

a little bit rad and a little bit gnarly, but most of all it's... well, it's charming and even a bit odd, yet fairly standard, ultimately. worth a shot.