River City Ransom

River City Ransom

After playing a couple well known titles (Metroid and Zelda I), I was requested to check out River City Ransom. I had never heard of it, but found it easy enough (and made sure to check out the manual beforehand. Thanks to those of you who linked me to a place with all the NES manuals in PDF format). As I started it up, my first impression was that I was playing a simple side-scrolling brawler, just battling endless amounts of enemies until I reached the boss. As I progressed however, I realized that this game is much more than that. There are nine of different gangs, each with different fighting styles and drop different amounts of money. I definitely got the sense that the game tries to not take itself too seriously, such as your goofy animation when eating or the enemies yelling out "BARF!" Another thing that took me by surprise was how the game included RPG elements. I was expecting to just run around mashing A and B, but I found myself re-running areas so I could get some money to buy food and improve my stats. 

This is the first game where an enemy yelled "BARF" at me

What I Loved: I loved the combat,  even though there was only a limited amount of attack moves available. I also really enjoyed the whole RPG feel that accompanies the button-mashing brawler part of the game. I thought it would only be a huge distraction from the gameplay when I first found the attribute screen, but it really just makes it that much more enjoyable when your character gains +3 defense by obnoxiously eating some eggrolls. Talking about transitions, I liked the humor in this game. It was a nice break from the other side-scrolling brawlers that seem to take themselves way too seriously.

The food restores your health and boosts your stats. Also
it's funny how Alex acts in the diners after just killing
hundreds of guys.

What I Hated: I really don't have any significant problems with this game. It was difficult at times, but then you could just go buy some food and upgrade yourself to make it easier. I guess the only thing I could possibly dislike was the shortage of attack moves (until you upgrade), but again, I understand that there is only so much you can do with two buttons.

My General Impression: This game is awesome. I could easily see myself having a friend come over and spending hours on end beating up gang members to save the girl. The 50's look adds a great feel to the environment, and it's villain is very appropriately named "Slick." The subtle goofiness and RPG elements prevent any feelings of repetitiveness, which is very important to me. This game also felt very, very similar to the arcade game Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on X-Box Live and could see that the developers were very inspired by River City Ransom. They have similar combat mechanics and you buy upgrades from stores along the way from the money the baddies drop when you kill them.

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda

Alright, here it is... The big one. Anyone who read my first post knows I love my Zelda games, so it was inevitable that I try out the original The Legend of Zelda. I have to admit, I was anxious when I was loading up the game. I have played every Zelda game that has come out since Ocarina of Time (except Wind Waker, which I now have and am playing in my spare time), so when I started it up and the oh-so-familiar music started playing, the familiarity was already was starting to hit. Then comes the screen about the story of your adventure, which of course has to do with Gannon capturing Princess Zelda and trying to claim the Triforce, and I was the only person who could stop him. I was already loving this game by the time I hit start with how it brought back those weekends where 8-year-old me would sit for hours trying to save Hyrule.

Octorocs everywhere!

When I started however, I was a little confused. I love myself some quests of epic proportions, but I generally like to be pointed in the right direction on where to start. I found myself wandering around trying to find where to go and only running into creepy old men hanging out in caves and shop-keepers yelling at me to buy stuff. I was pretty much instantly used to the controls as it felt like playing Oracle of Seasons (on the GameBoy Color), yet it still took me awhile to realize that I can only throw swords when at full health. It did not take me very long to realize how easy it is to die in this game, though. Between the unknown things in the water shooting energy balls at me and the octoroc infestation in Hyrule, I'm figuring out by now that all NES games are going to be so much more difficult than any current generation game. Finally, after wandering around for a good 30 minutes, I was beginning to get tired of dying, so I reluctantly looked up what I was supposed to do (killing octorocs if fun and all, but I just wanted to get to my first temple). So as I was going through the temple, I was surprised to find a dragon in wait for me. I never thought that there would be dragons in any Zelda game, until I realized that the Dodongos in Ocarina of Time were sort-of dragon like. Anyways, long story short, after a solid 3 hours of playing this game, I beat two temples with the help of GameFaqs (solely for the purpose of finding them) and really enjoyed myself in the process.

Thank you creepy old man

What I Liked: The familiarity with my childhood favorites was huge. Running around killing octorocs, getting boomerangs and bombs, the ability to upgrade your equipment through shops or in dungeons, a familiar storyline, heart containers, searching for the Triforce... I could go on and on. The similarities to be seen for anyone who played and loved any other Zelda game will enjoy this game. The sword-shooting was entertaining and the vast array of enemies makes you figure out different combinations of sword and accessories to effectively take them out. The boss battles make you change up your tactics also since they can not be killed as normal enemies. The difficulty, in my opinion, was actually not at all frustrating for me. Once you died, you simply started back at the starting point without losing any of your items.

Oh don't mind me... I'm just gonna put a bomb in your mouth

What I hated: Again, I'm not fond of how open-world this is. As I said earlier, just putting you in Hyrule and not telling you where to go or what I should be looking for was the only problem I had with this game. When I could find the dungeons, it was all because I looked up how to get there (and that was confusing sometimes too). *It should be said that I did not have the manual or map of Hyrule at the time while playing this. Thanks to those of you who linked it to me*

General Impression: This game is awesome. I am planning on playing through this entire game when I have the chance. Being able to see what inspired some of my favorite games ever and seeing so many similarities made this game, one that is already fun by itself, that much better for me. I would highly recommend this to anyone who could play it, but make sure you have a map handy or you will get lost for sure.

Metroid

Metroid

This was my first request! Anyways, I was told to check out the famous Metroid, so I fired it up and off I went. Now the only games I've ever played that Samus was in were the Super Smash Bros Series, so I was expecting to be able to charge up my giant energy ball and drop mines when I crouch. This wasn't entirely the case, but it was still interesting to play the game for a character I've been using for the past 10 years. But anyways, back to my impressions.

I was surprised again that there was absolutely no backstory, no explanation to what you're trying to accomplish (besides survive and shoot spikey things I guessed), no reason why you are there or anything. Just New Game... Woah! Look out for those spikey things! So I went scouring the internet to find what the manual said and was I surprised. There is a very lengthy story about how, in the future, space pirates are a huge problem and end up stealing some newly discovered life form called "Metroid" that just wiped out an entire planet. You are Samus Aran, a mysterious cyborg pirate-killing that is the best of the best (notice it says *he* not *she*). Anyways, your job is to infiltrate the Space Pirate's base and destroy the Mother Brain before they multiply the Metroids and take over the galaxy... Wow. That's seems like one of the most intricate explanations for an NES game that I will ever come across.

Press Start and you're already dodging this spikey things

Also worth mentioning, the health system confused me for awhile. I thought at first the number in the top left meant how many shots you had (those two orange dots reminded me of bullets ok?). When I found out that I had unlimited energy bullets, I realized that it had to be my health. But 30 health is a lot to start with right? No. I soon figured out that when you get hit, you don't just lose 1 health, you lose upwards of 8 or 9. All in all, you die. A lot.

What I Liked: The combat was pretty fun and entertaining. Different enemies required different strategies to kill (those bee-like things were the end of me several times before I figured it out). Many times the game requires you to jump around to evade all these flying enemies while trying to shoot those coming straight for you, which ends up making a very intense fight that got me pretty into it. There also was a saving system that, though it was confusing to me, probably worked pretty well.

What I Hated: I know this was probably one of the first "free roam" games ever, but it really frustrated me. I had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. I frequently would fight my way 3 screens over to find out the door was locked and I'd have to turn around and fight the same enemies again. There was no map that I could tell of, so I was continually wandering around until I died. It just made me lose any interest I had in the game. *Edit : I was not aware that there was a map of sorts in the manual*

Mother Brain (of course, I did not get this far)

My Impression: It was not a bad game, but not my favorite by far. I could tell that if I got really into it, it could be really fun, but the constant running into the red doors that wouldn't let me pass just made me too frustrated to keep playing. I later learned that missiles break the doors, but no longer had the patience at the time to go searching around randomly for the missiles while I constantly kept running into doors that require them. It did make me want to try out Super Metroid though, as I've been told it is a much better version of the original with some pretty epic boss fights.

It reminded me a lot of Zelda, but as a side-scroller instead. In both games, you run around fighting bad guys that you can't really tell what they are, and you eventually find some power ups that let you access places you couldn't previously go to. Also, they are both very, very open worlded

Overall, a very frustrating game to a current-gen gamer, but an original that created one of the most famous and well known gaming series of all time.

**GameFaqs was used for storyline purposes only**

Rescue: The Embassy Mission

Rescue: The Embassy Mission

So the first game I was recommended to check out was Rescue - The Embassy Mission for the NES. I had never heard of it, but found it no problem and loaded it up. I was greeted to an intro of sorts, no explanation to a backstory or anything. Just a S.W.A.T. van shows up and BAM you're there dodging spotlights, ducking in and out of buildings. Needless to say, I had to restart twice before I got the hang of it, but when I did, oh man this game was fun.

What I Liked: It was entertaining, and the difficulty provided me with a sense of huge satisfaction when I finally was able to beat the first level. I also oddly enjoyed that there was no aiming system when you are clearing the Embassy of the terrorists. Instead, you just run around and hold A to mow them down. The sniper sections were really simple, but again, entertaining. The running and dodging spotlights was also fairly entertaining, but by the time I reached the 3rd level, I just wanted to get inside and shoot some bad guys!
 

Run from those deadly spotlights!

What I Hated: There was little to no explanation of... anything. There was, what I would call, a very steep learning curve. There also is little-to-no difference between levels. The spotlights move faster and the terrorists just shoot you quicker, but it's all the same level layouts. Also, I could imagine that people would complain a lot about the length of this game. One could literally beat the entire game in 2 hours if they were good at it.

Mow down those terrorists with your A button!

My Impression: I enjoyed this game. It was very entertaining, and I know that if I was born 10 years earlier, this would be up there on my favorites. It feels like the predecessor to the tactical squad shooters of today, even though you only control one person at a time. I honestly couldn't think of anything this game was similar to. It has three very distinct parts of the game that are all similar to different games (Sniper Part = Sniper Assassin the Flash Game), the game as a whole is not specifically like anything I've ever played before.

Though it is very short, there is a great deal of replayability as the game forces you to change strategies the more difficult the level gets. Training is a run-and-gunner while Jupiter (who names the hardest level Jupiter? Maybe it was something to do with the decade?) forces you to be much more careful and strategic about your actions.

**No GameFaqs were used in this playthrough, though I did consult my friend about rappelling as I could not figure out what to do and died for 10 minutes straight**

So what I'm planning on doing here

Hey everyone I just want to thank you for checking out my blog.

Nintendo 64!

First off, a little about me. I am an 18 year old who loves music, sports, and gaming (especially gaming). I've been gaming since I was 6, playing Super Smash Bros, Super Mario 64, Zelda and many more on the N64. I still have that N64 and frequently play 4-player Mario Kart 64 with some of my friends when we're bored and looking for a trip down nostalgia lane. It was a defining part of my childhood and I feel bad for the younger kids that don't get to experience these classics the way I did, which got me thinking...

What about those people older than me? Older than my N64 and my Zelda. What did they have? The NES is not nearly as talked about as the N64, or maybe is that just because I only talk about old games with friends my age? They never played the NES either. So I thought, what the heck, lets try out some of these old games just to see what my older cousins had to deal with growing up.

I've heard of AVGN and his reviews of impossible games, but that's not my goal here. I want to the full experience of the game, see what they were like 5 or more years before I was even born, not simply rage about the difficulty.  I will say what I liked, what I hated and maybe a little more.

**Disclaimer*** I have been told that I will be required to use GameFaqs on a few of these games, as they almost require strategy guides to beat. If I do use a GameFaq, I will post that I used it on that particular blog.