The innovative combat system also mixed real-time and turn-based combat, a feature PC RPGs wouldn’t adopt until years later. While at first glance it’s a Zelda clone, the ability to travel between five different time periods actually preceded A Link to the Past by two years. Scheherazade was a game ahead of its time in many ways.
CONTRA NES CHARACTERS SERIES
Unfortunately, while Wonder Boy has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years, the Adventure Island series hasn’t appeared since an obscure 2009 WiiWare game. Meanwhile, the Wonder Boy sequels would add more RPG features and go in an entirely different direction. This side-scroller is the rare 8-bit game that’s tough because it’s meant to be, not because of poor design choices or the limitations of the hardware.įurther Reading: Revisiting Wonder Boy, the Forgotten Answer to Super Mario Bros.Īdventure Island actually started off as a port of Sega’s Wonder Boy arcade game, but the decision was made to create an original character during development. It took real skill to learn how control to Master Higgins and his stone ax, fireballs, and of course, skateboard. Adventure Island was one of the few platformers on the console that oozed originality. and Mega Man, usually with awful results.
And unlike a lot of NES games, the sprites actually look like the characters they’re meant to portray.įar too many NES side-scrollers ripped off Super Mario Bros. It’s an odd game, but still one of the better ones to feature the Looney Tunes. I guess? Is that something anyone has ever had to do for a birthday party? It doesn’t really matter as that’s mostly just an excuse to give Bugs a hammer to take down enemies in a variety of side-scrolling levels, each culminating in a boss fight with a fellow Looney Toon. It’s Bugs Bunny’s 50th birthday, so of course, he has to fight a bunch of his friends to get to his party. And for whatever reasons, Nintendo has completely ignored the series ever since. Like Wario’s Woods, this is one of those games that was pretty good but still seemingly sent out to die long after most gamers had moved on to the SNES.
For the sequel, Nintendo fixed that issue with a much smoother system that allowed movement in eight different directions, then added in some of the best graphics on the console and an awesome story that saw main character Mike Jones travel through time. The first StarTropics was a top-down adventure game that showed a lot of promise but had some control issues. So the main character was renamed from Kevin Striker in the Japanese version to Ken, a martial arts master, implying he was the same character from Street Fighter. Capcom had a solid side-scrolling shooter on its hands but didn’t think anyone would pay attention to it in the U.S. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fightĭespite the title, Street Fighter 2010 is only sort of related to the legendary fighting game franchise. You might not even make it through the first level, let alone live to see the final showdown with the Joker, but it sure is fun to try. Just be warned that this is one difficult game to complete. It also boasts a killer soundtrack and some primitive, but entertaining cutscenes. Based on the 1989 Tim Burton movie, Batman actually does a decent job of following the film’s basic plot and spicing in gameplay liberally borrowed from Ninja Gaiden, like the wall jump and Batarangs. There was a time, long ago, when Batman movies got video game adaptations – even great video game adaptations. Between rounds, your trainer comes to the ring, gets on his knees, and well… it can only be described as “servicing” the boxer. While the gameplay is fun, Ring Kinghas also become somewhat infamous online in recent years for another reason. Even though all of the boxers are palette swaps, there’s a lot of depth here and the graphics are surprisingly good for an early NES game. Rather than focus the camera behind your boxer, the fighters square off in third-person, like a wrestling game. Punch-Out!! may be the undisputed champion of NES boxing games, but Ring King is a solid contender. And while other characters from the franchise are sparse, they do show up as bosses at the end of each level. Gameplay is a lot like Lemmings, with Krusty moving around blocks and other objects to guide the mice to their extermination. His titular funhouse has become infested with mice and only he can get rid of them. Rather than focusing on traditional side-scrolling gameplay like the other games, you play as Krusty the Klown. This is the only one not to star Bart and it’s also the best of the bunch. Acclaim released a whopping four Simpsons games during the lifespan of the NES.