The Video Game Critic

I'd like to present two new NES reviews for your reading enjoyment. Comments are encouraged.

Check the spelling of 'amoeba' in Astyanax.

This is a game I have had a long time, but never got far. Which is kinda fitting since in Greek Mythology Astyanax is killed as a child by being tossed off the walls of Troy. Why anyone would name either their son or a video game after this character is something to ponder.

Ever thought of an icon for 'arcade port'? This is another one.

scotland wrote:Check the spelling of 'ameoba' in Astyanax.

Check the spelling of "amoeba" in your post!

Stalvern wrote:

scotland wrote:Check the spelling of 'ameoba' in Astyanax.

Check the spelling of "amoeba" in your post!

Curses....foiled by those mobile virtual keyboards. That's one bit of innovation that went the wrong direction.

I remember playing Astyanax on the NES as a kid, and, although the game was tough, I was able to find an invincibility code to play it through - I believe it spoils the fun, but as a kid, I just didn't mind. I found the game very attractive graphics-wise, and as I grew older and had the chance to play arcade games on MAME, I discovered an arcade version of this game. I just didn't like it, the NES version is much cooler IMHO.

I've completed POW twice. It's no Double Dragon, but it's decent.The stages are long and get repetitive, especially the fourth stage. I love the huge final boss.


Astyanax has nice graphics with the large sprites but the slowness of your character plus lots of enemies to bump you into pits can result in frustration. But it's not too bad to complete because it has infinite continues.

Rod wrote: I discovered an arcade version of this game. I just didn't like it

Because it lacked the invincibility code?

mbd36 wrote:

Rod wrote: I discovered an arcade version of this game. I just didn't like it

Because it lacked the invincibility code?

Maybe. LOL

Just kidding. Nah, it's just not as cool. The same happens to Section Z - I owned a copy as a teen, and played it quite well, being able to beat it. I later discovered there was an arcade version too, and it just sucked... everything that had drawn me to the NES game was just gone, the only things the versions had in common were their names, their softwarehouse - CAPCOM, and the fact that you played with a dude on a jetpack. The rest was all different!

This is an interesting set of reviews that you have paired up for me.

I have very specific love/hate relationships with both of these games, and in both cases a significant part of the "love" side comes from where and when I played them as a kid. In both situations they were the only game I had at a family function where there was nothing else to do, and even a solid port of Pong would have felt like the greatest game of all time.

I liked the graphics and music of POW, but the repetitive feeling of the gameplay, as well as some of the strange sound effects (killing a bad guy sounds like you kicked a puppy in the nose) really annoyed me. it felt like they were putting too much emphasis in the wrong place. SO MANY of those bad guys look exactly the same. Oh that this game had a way to add more moves to your arsenal like the original NES Double Dragon. That would have made all the difference in the world.

I worshipped Ninja Gaiden as a kid, and I felt like Astyanax was a half-hearted attempt to recreate the theatrics of Ninja Gaiden. Those cut scenes where the text crawls SO slowly, and the dialog is SO plain and boring, made me angry that they even bothered. The in-game graphics are above average but they also had a strange, unfinished look to them. Sprites were large but poorly animated, and the colors of the sprites have a "washed out" look that the rest of the game doesn't have. But worst of all, the collision detection and graphics didn't give you a real sense that you were hitting anything. It felt like you were swinging past everything, which never felt solid.

There. That's my rant on these games.

I think I have both of these games and I've never played either of them (I bought a big lot of NES games a while back). I guess I should give them a try.