The Guardian Legend (1989) NES Game Review

The Guardian Legend ・ ガーディック外伝
Developed by: Compile
Published by: Irem (JP), Broderbund (NA), Nintendo (EU)
Release date: February 5, 1988 (JP), April 1989 (NA), Some time in 1990 (EU)

This happy little post you’re reading marks my 100th review for the NESJunk project. Yay! Since big numbers are exciting, I wanted to make sure review #100 was something special. Something actually good. So I went with a game I’ve been meaning to play for years: The Guardian Legend.

Pushing start on The Guardian Legend’s title screen immediately launches players into the action; there’s no opening cutscene, or even so much as a title card to ease you in. This first stage’s triumphant sounding music has a slight undercurrent of melancholy to it. That immediately piqued my interest in a way that a NES game never has before.

After navigating the first level, The Guardian touches down on the desolate planet of Naju, only to discover that the entire population was massacred by fearsome aliens. A lone survivor attempted to activate the planet’s self-destruct to take the aliens down with it…and failed. We find this out through a recorded message pleading anyone who happens across it to finish what they couldn’t. And so, The Guardian takes it upon herself to carry out the final wishes of the extinct race, and destroy their once beloved home so a similar fate doesn’t befall any other planet.

The Guardian Legend is most famous for its seamless blend of the top-down action/adventure and shoot-em-up genres. Think Legend of Zelda meets Gradius – chocolate and peanut butter, together at last. You explore the world and find power-ups on foot, and then jump into the dungeons…which are vertically scrolling shooter levels. Yeah, the anime girl transforms into a space jet. It’s pretty sweet.

It’s a lonely feeling game that does a killer job of building a distinct vibe using nothing but its 1988 graphics and sound capabilities. Bizarre metallic shapes, aliens without faces, and creatures you can’t even see the entirety of attacking you from fissures in the ground are but a few baddies that lie in wait. It boasts an aesthetic that I can only describe as “1980’s anime sci-fi”; gloomy, abstract, and lo-fi. Now drop a cute girl into all that dark sludge, and it’s an immediate recipe for some peak atmosphere.

Here’s a fact about me: when it comes to video games, I have a pretty short attention span. I can only play ’em for an hour or so before feeling like I have to put it down and go do something else. So needless to say, I was stunned when I ended up playing The Guardian Legend for a ridiculously long 5 hour session the first time I booted it up. Honest to God, I can’t remember the last time I did that with another game. Well over a decade, I’d say. Anyways, my point is that the addiction was REAL. Uncovering power-ups and secret rooms all on my own, taking down boss after boss…few games are as satisfying as this one felt to me.

Over the course of this project, I’ve covered one too many games that felt like wasted potential. So many overly ambitious titles that present players with these great concepts, but choke on the actual execution. The Guardian Legend stands tall over all of these because it does everything so very right. Controls? Smooth like butter. The difficulty? Fair and manageable thanks to generous save rooms and unlimited continues that don’t strip you of your progress. Can’t stomach the shmup stages? They’re pretty short, so you won’t be hung up on them for too long, and I guarantee there’s a weapon that’ll suit your playstyle down to the ground. Love the shmup stages, but hate the travelling around on foot? There’s a password that just lets you play through the shooting stages one after another! Is there anything they DIDN’T think of?! Ugh, it’s so good it makes me wanna yell.

Cons? Are there any? The password system’s crap, but that’s not a knock on the actual gameplay. What else…Area 8’s bosses were pretty hard? I wish I had gotten to play it as a kid so I could have been obsessed with it for my entire life? I’m struggling to think of anything worse to say about this game.

The Guardian Legend is truly something special. Few games hold this level of quality, and it’s a genuine travesty that something this good didn’t go on to spawn several dozen sequels throughout the generations. I’m gonna go ahead and blame the garbo box art it got in North America stopping it from becoming the mega-hit it deserved to be. There’s a tiny glimmer of solace in that the key staff of Compile continued to put out top-notch vertical shoot-em-ups with sick good gameplay and eye-catching visuals for many years to come.

This is only the second time I’ve given a perfect score out of 100 reviews. The Guardian Legend has shot its way right up onto my top 10 NES titles, and it undeniably belongs in the upper echelons of the NES library. I only wish I could wipe my memory and play it for the first time again.

Final rating: