As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #66, November 2009.

A few issues ago I wrapped up my NES'cade column by listing my top five Nintendo Entertainment System games.  I really didn't have anything special in mind for how I would follow that up but I did want to do something a little different.  I remember a few comments from both RTM readers and staff over the years expressing that they enjoy our stories, perspectives and memories more than just reading vanilla reviews of old games.  If anything I think that personal touch is what makes RTM (and Retrogaming Times before it) really stand out from other similar newsletters that have come and gone.  While I always try to put my own personal spin on everything I submit to RTM, I also try to stay in line with correct information and details pertaining to the games - especially with NES'cade.  The last thing I want to do is spread false information, claiming it as fact.  However for some time now I've wanted to come up with a feature that would allow me to express more of my unrestrained personal feelings toward games.  More along the lines of if you ran into me on the street and we started casually talking about games, the things I would talk about.  The question "what are your favorite games?" tends to be one that comes up fairly early in such conversations and since my choices are generally a little different from the norm, I thought it might make for an interesting addition to the regular columns.

That brings us back to those favorite five NES games of mine, that top five list from a few issues ago.  A key part of the film High Fidelity has to do with music snobs working out top five lists for any imaginable encounter or event in life.  Being a bit of a classic video game snob myself, I thought I'd try out yet another column along side NES'cade and Gaming Studies.  I'd love to hear some feedback about this one and if reception is favorable then I'd like to go on to other platforms as well.  So begins High Resolution, a retrogamer's mix tape ...er, classic compilation value re-release.

What better way to kick things off than with the video game console I have the most history with, the NES.  While it came after the Atari VCS in my timeline of video game ownership and many forms of hardware have come after, the Nintendo Entertainment System is still where most of the best memories were made.  And why not - it had a huge library of popular games, created a majority of the game genres that continue to this day and breathed life back into the entire video game industry.  Thanks to the genius of Gunpei Yokoi the NES was also the first home console that really got the non joystick controller right with the introduction of the directional pad.  So let's dive right in with my favorite five NES games...

5. Gun.Smoke

A superb rework of the arcade game of the same name, Gun.Smoke has been one of my top NES titles since I first played it back when it was released.  A classic western shooter with a unique three way firing scheme, it threads the perfect balance between action and strategy.  With controls that are silky smooth this is one of those games that you can settle down into "the zone" with, corralling enemies into your line of fire.  Each boss provided a solid and increasing challenge and each stage was a nice change over the previous one.  Weapon upgrades can be purchased from friendly pioneers along your journey, paid for with cash picked up on the frontier.  In fact the stages will loop indefinitely until a wanted poster is purchased for the end of stage boss.  Experienced players can take advantage of this by building up their cash inventory, thereby allowing them to build up their firearm arsenal before the final confrontation.  In fact in some of the later stages it's a flat our requirement for success.  An excellent soundtrack rounds out the already polished package.  Load your six-shooters, saddle up your horse, and ride off into the sunset.  It's easy to see why Gun.Smoke took the NES'cade column honors in RTM issue 62, as about good as it gets for an NES arcade port.

4. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos

Without a doubt Tecmo's gritty action epic Ninja Gaiden pushed gaming forward.  Perfect control, unforgiving difficulty, amazing graphics, detailed cinematic cutscenes, interesting story - it blew us all away.  The sequel kicked everything up a notch, continuing the exploits of Ryu Hayabusa, last ninja of the Dragon Clan.  Not only were the graphics and play control enhanced but the game picked up right where the previous one left off.  In my opinion the difficulty was turned down just a little from the previous title.  However this was a welcome change as it allowed the player a little more leeway in planning out each move on the fly.  Tighter controls also contributed to an over all easier difficulty level but don't get me wrong, the game is still right up there with some of the most demanding platform action games ever created.  Everything simply comes together perfectly for a game that holds up amazingly well to this day.  It's a lot more accessible than the original Ninja Gaiden and a game that everyone should take a crack at.  Quite an experience and a game I can pull out almost any time and instantly kill the better part of a day with.  Heck, the rendition of Irene Lew from the introduction screen before each act has been part of my website's letterhead for years now.

3. Palamedes

When I was conceiving this column back around the time of RTM #62 I stated that Palamedes was an original NES game.  I've since realized that was incorrect, it originally was an arcade title but was Japan only and I've never seen the game in an arcade stateside.  With that cleared up it may come as a shock to many that the puzzle game in my favorite five NES list isn't Klax, Adventures of Lolo or the Tengen version of Tetris.  No, the unconventional and largely forgotten puzzle game Palamedes takes that honor.  The concept is fairly simple.  The player character stands at the bottom of the screen holding a die.  One button cycles through the different sides of the die, repeating one through six.  Lines of dice slowly creep down from the top of the screen.  The first objective is to make your die match that of the die above it and then throw your die upward.  If the dice match then the die that was hit will appear at the bottom of the screen.  The second objective is to collect dice to make straights, pairs and the like.  The more difficult the combination made, the higher value it has.  Pressing down on the directional pad awards the line elimination value, causing the bottom rows of the descending dice to disappear.  This is the final and ultimate objective of the game, eliminating the advancing dice to meet the line objective for the stage.  Once you get the basics down this game becomes a fast and rewarding puzzler.  Palamedes was a game I discovered during my NES renaissance in the late 1990's, remembering it from the Nintendo Power classified information section many years earlier.  It's easy to start playing, becomes frantically challenging, yet remains a strangely relaxing experience.

2. Barker Bill's Trick Shooting

Light gun games have always been one of my favorite genres and many of my favorite light gun games were on the NES.  Games such as Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley are undisputed classics of the NES era and the NES Zapper has gone on to obtain a level of legendary status among gaming peripherals.  Yet the NES light gun game I'd rather play than any other is a title that many don't remember or have never played.  Barker Bill's Trick Shooting could be considered the spiritual sequel to Duck Hunt, it even has the hunting dog from that famous game.  Instead of shooting ducks and clay pigeons, you'll shoot various objects carnival style across three main games and bonus rounds as well.  Balloons, plates, falling objects, gold coins, a variety of targets and shooting situations keep the variety rolling.  The game has a very cartoony feel with vivid colors and detailed graphics throughout.  The hunting dog, Barker Bill and his bunny suited assistant are all well animated and react to missed shots or perfect shooting performances.  The presentation is top notch and always brings a smile to my face with each and every play.  After all these years this game still hasn't gotten old and that's saying quite a bit when it comes to a light gun game.  This is a criminally overlooked title that more people should at least try.  It is the perfect 8 bit arcade shooting game and is accessible for all skill levels.  All it'll take is a couple plays and you'll be hooked.  Oh, and yes, you can finally shoot the hunting dog in this game - no need to worry, he's fine afterward.

1. StarTropics

It was in Volume 21 of Nintendo Power (February 1991 for those keeping track) that I and many others first learned of the game StarTropics.  Looking back, Nintendo was pushing the tittle pretty hard with a huge feature that would spill over into the next issue as well.  A test of island courage, StarTropics tells the story of Mike Jones, a high school student from Seattle on his summer vacation.  Mike is going to visit his uncle, an archeologist named Steve Jones, on C-Island in the tropics.  Upon his arrival Mike learns that his uncle has been abducted and the tunnels under the island have become overrun by monsters.  Knowing that Mike is an ace pitcher, the chief of C-Island's village Coralcola gives Mike a powerful Island Yo-yo to use as his primary weapon.  After climbing aboard Dr. J's personal submersible craft, the Sub-C, Mike sets off to find his missing uncle and return peace under the Southern Cross.

If it all sounds very different from most other games, it is.  StarTropics is a bit of a rarity, a game developed in the United States by Japanese developers, specifically for American players.  StarTropics never originally had a release outside of the USA, so it has a different feel than almost every other NES adventure game.  Instead of getting a reworked and rewritten translation we got the prime product first run, specifically for the "home audience."  The game plays like a mix of an RPG and an action title.  Villages and towns are drawn in the traditional overhead RPG style, as are the areas of travel between action stages.  Here conversation and exploration are the main objectives and the same viewpoint is used when operating the Sub-C.  The dialogue is well written and humorous with nothing seeming out of place.  Once an action area is entered the game first saves the data and then changes perspective to show Mike at full size.  The action scenes play a little like the overhead Zelda games but from a more three dimensional perspective.  Movement mechanics are a little different than anything else however since Mike can turn and face four different directions without walking.  It's almost as if everything is attached to a grid and this confuses and frustrates some players.  However this unique control method is critical for how the game's puzzles work, such as turning around mid-jump to quickly clear submergible tiles.  It also allows you to attack enemies without having to get directly in front of their line of fire or path of movement.

The game isn't as open ended as most RPG's or the Zelda games but it tells a solid story, which is why everything progresses as it does.  Of course the most well known part of StarTropics takes place at the end of Chapter 4 where Mike is told to put Dr. J's letter in water.  What many people didn't understand was that the game was telling the player to physically do something.  Along with the instruction booklet, a letter from Mike's Uncle Steve was included with the game.  Upon immersing it in water a secret message would appear along with the search frequency code, 747 MHz.  Since not everyone has the original documentation, this was a hang up point for many people.  I myself fell victim to this as my copy of StarTropics was purchased used, with a photocopied manual (which I did soak in water until it nearly dissolved), from a video game booth at the Santa Clara County Fair about a year after it had been released.  Nintendo Power would finally publish the code in their Counselor's Corner due to the heavy amount of calls that they were receiving asking about the code.  A couple years ago I was able to purchase a large assortment of boxed and sealed NES games from a local flea market dealer that I had good history with.  Sadly most of the games had been subject to moisture and humidity, ruining them from the inside out.  Among the games that I purchased were two sealed copies of StarTropics.  One of them had mold growing under the plastic so I opened it up, finally seeing in person Uncle Steve's letter to Mike.  The years of humidity had made the secret message visible without immersing it in water.  Nothing was salvageable from that copy and it all was discarded.  Out of caution, I opened the other copy and was happy to see that everything was in perfect shape inside except for a little oxidization on the instruction booklet staples.  After replacing those it was boxed back up and remains one of my favorite collectibles.

It still amazes me how few people have played StarTropics.  Within the past few years I've introduced a few people to the game and they now too consider it an unsung classic of the NES era.  The game was popular enough to warrant a direct sequel, the second to last officially licensed NES game to ever be released, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II.  While I don't enjoy the sequel as much as the original, it's still a great game and really rounds out the over all story very nicely.  There really is nothing like StarTropics on the NES or any other system for that matter.  Marooned on C-Island, trapped in the belly of a giant whale or a stowaway on an alien spacecraft - StarTropics is the only NES game I'd need with me.
 

"InsaneDavid" also covers all types of video gaming at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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