Six Bite-Sized NES Game Reviews (Part 2)

Prior to formally starting my “beat the entire NES library” challenge, I was plugging away at completing tons of them without any blogging involved. I’ve got 70 completed NES titles under my belt from back then, so I thought a blitz of mini reviews would be a good way to easily let those games have a presence on my “completed” list. I’ve also done a post like this in the past, if you wanna check it out. Without further ado, let’s whet our appetites with a little snack.

1. Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu (Now Production, 1990)

Originally completed on April 30th, 2020

Now this was great. It’s a simple “run to the right and punch/kick dudes” type of game, but with JACKIE CHAN! Or a cutesy chibi version that looks nothing like him, at least. The sprite work was top-notch, and was the highlight of the game by far. The only time Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu felt like it was relevant to the real Jackie Chan was all the different animations for when he takes damage or dies, with funny expressions mimicking how he always gets himself hurt in his movies. Aside from that little detail, it easily could’ve been just about anybody’s Action Kung Fu. Overall, Jackie Chan isn’t too long or especially difficult, which will make it a fun and accessible time for just about anyone.

2. Vice: Project Doom (Aicom, 1991)

Originally completed on October 13th, 2019

Not sure why the critics were so blasé about Vice: Project Doom back when it first came out, because it rules. Vice presents lots of fun variation in stages, including high octane super driving and cool rail shooting segments. The game’s bread and butter, though, are the levels that have you playing through an obvious Ninja Gaiden clone. A very well executed Ninja Gaiden clone, mind you, but a clone all the same. It lacks the top tier stage design of Gaiden, but you can’t hold that against Vice; not everybody can be Ninja Gaiden. All the same, Vice sets itself apart from the pack with its delicious cheesy 90’s RADICALNESS in its cutscenes, fun gameplay, and some especially impressive graphics for the NES. Great music, too. Just all around great, really. Great great great.

3. Gun.Smoke (Capcom, 1988)

Originally completed on December 9th, 2019

A cowboy themed shoot-em-up? It’s about time, pardner! You play as Billy Bob the rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ cowboy, and your goal is to defend the town of Hicksville (yes really) from a band of no-good bandits. It’s a shooter where A and B shoot to the left and right respectively, and pressing them both down at once makes you shoot straight ahead. You need to find a hidden wanted poster in each level, which is the key that allows ol’ Bill to fight the stages boss and move on. Finding the hidden poster is where most of the game’s challenge lies as some of them are especially well hidden, but that doesn’t mean you can rule out the difficulty of the actual game on top of that! “Challenging” is definitely the key word when it comes to Gun.Smoke, but it’s an especially rewarding feeling when you make progress. If you like tricky shots, saddle up and give Gun.Smoke a try. Yeehaw.

4. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Sunsoft, 1990)

Originally completed on November 30th, 2019

A high quality example of a licensed game on the NES. How incredible the soundtrack is can’t be understated – this is Sunsoft we’re talking about here. The “office theme” is what convinced me to play this game in the first place. Warning: it slaps. Gremlins 2 is a top down shooter with one heck of an attitude on it. You play as sweet lil’ Gizmo, flinging household objects at other mogwais and obstacles that stand in his way. Fast, fluid and fun gameplay aplenty here, but goddamn, is it ever hard. You only get one life, and while there are infinite continues, you lose all of your upgrades and money upon continuing, which can make recovering from a continue rough in the later stages. Health replenishing is limited to once per level, which ramps up the difficulty all the more. Great time all the same, but oh man, it’ll put hair on your chest in those later levels. Did I mention the soundtrack? Yeah? Okay.

5. Strider (Capcom, 1989)

Originally completed on December 7th, 2019

A unique action game infused with adventure and exploration elements. As cool guy Hiryu, the player has to travel the globe, retrieve top secret keys and floppy discs full of information, then return to Strider HQ and piece the clues together to figure out where to go next. For those of you who’re familiar with the other Strider games, this one’s got its own unique flavour compared to the more action heavy titles in the series. It’s got quite an intricate plot for the time, which adds to the unique espionage vibe the game has going for it. It’s a highly interesting game, and I like a lot of what it’s trying to do…but there’s one hang-up that stops me from giving this game an especially generous thumbs up: the NES Strider is a total glitchy mess. During my first attempt at playing through it, I frequently fell through floors, got stuck on walls, had bosses reset themselves, had my sword stop working, and found at least one legitimately game breaking bug. I’d still say it’s worth a look if you like your action games with a side of exploration, but be prepared for numerous glitches to sneak up and pull the rug out from under you.

6. King’s Knight (SQUARE, 1989)

Originally completed on July 17th, 2019

King’s Knight is a vertically scrolling shooter designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of Final Fantasy), with music written by Nobuo Uematsu (Music Jesus who composed the first ten FF soundtracks). Instead of a spaceship or a guy with a gun, you play as typical RPG cast zapping out spells and swords to save the princess. It’s a highly interesting spin on the genre, with a focus on unearthing and collecting hidden power-ups throughout the stages to “level up” your characters. This has a strangely addicting quality to it, and I thoroughly enjoyed this unusual hybrid of shmup action and dungeon diving. The levelling up is to make the final level a little easier, and while we’re on the subject of that final stage….that godawful level brought the experience down a lot. Because you now have your entire party with you on-screen, the game quadruples your hitbox to show all of the characters. The game also doesn’t bother to refill your health at the start of the last level, just to add insult to literal injury. The worst part of this last level by a mile, however, was the design choice of having to swap to certain characters at certain spots and use certain abilities with zero indication of it, or else you instantly die. This level of cryptic-ness is just fine for an RPG where you can take your time digesting it, but it’s far, FAR too cryptic for a constantly scrolling shooter. The first four stages were legitimately fun though, which is what makes this a bit of a disappointment. All in all, I enjoyed my time with this unusual shmup, but oogh. That final level is just inexcusable. I think this concept could be absolutely brilliant with a modern coat of paint and polish, though…