As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #22, March 2006.

I'll be honest in saying that Skull & Crossbones was the Tengen NES game I looked the least forward to comparing against its arcade counterpart.  With only a few more Tengen ports left on the list I figured I'd get this one out of the way now before moving on to better games.  If you've ever played the arcade version of Skull & Crossbones then after reading this review you'll know why I forever dread playing the NES port.  Released in 1989 by Atari Games, Skull & Crossbones is another arcade title that as with Vindicators, was grossly overlooked for the most part.  Players take the role of either One-Eye or Red Dog, a pair of pirates on a swashbuckling adventure to reclaim their treasure and defeat the Evil Wizard who took it from them.  What followed was a game that centered around something I have always enjoyed - sword fighting.

The execution is what made things stand out in my mind as the controls were slightly unconventional compared to other games.  While player movement was controlled via a standard joystick there was one button to use your sword and another to turn around.  Using the sword button along with different joystick directions allowed you to pull off different fencing moves.  Since you would face the same direction even when moving back with the joystick, a certain amount of realism came into play.  Instead of mindlessly going up to foes and beating on them until they die, you're in a full on sword fight with every enemy you encounter.  Move up, lunge forward, parry to the side, take a step back, lunge forward again, turn around, slash the guy creeping up on you - it was great!  Along the way buried treasure could be dug up for bonuses, event markers on the ground would trigger things such as swinging on ropes, and there was excellent audio and graphics throughout.  Oh look, here comes the Tengen NES port to throw all that out the window.

First off the story has changed, instead of recovering treasure you are now on a quest to rescue a princess that the Evil Wizard captured.  Why would pirates be rescuing a princess, it makes no sense but that's only the first misstep.  Instead of being what was basically a pirate sword fighting simulation the core gameplay is changed to that of a platformer.  No longer are you moving along through intense strategic sword fights, now you're jumping around like you're playing a bad hack of Rygar.  Move around each of the small levels killing enemies that seem to randomly respawn until the game says you've killed enough and allows you to move on.  Instead of your trusty sword, weapon powerups must be found and picked up throughout the level, most of the time you'll end up throwing knives or using a gun.  Also the graphics are downright ugly, especially when compared to the beautiful artwork of the arcade original.

I will give a nod to Tengen for keeping the two player simultaneous gameplay in there.  However the screen is divided horizontally with player one up top and player two on the bottom, which makes the amount of the screen you can see far too small considering how large the sprites are.  From a technical aspect, split screen multiplayer on the NES always impressed me but the game is just not fun.  Considering the core changes, most of the stages are in there and an attempt has been made to make them somewhat like they were in the arcade but this just isn't Skull & Crossbones.

Skull & Crossbones in the arcade was hack and slash with realism and strategy.  Skull & Crossbones on the NES is a reworked, rushed, and poorly conceived platformer.  Not much to say, it's just bad.  Is there anything redeeming about the Tengen port?  Well the box art is really nice, reminiscent of hand drawn movie posters of old.  Aside from that, this game is horrible and should be avoided at all costs.  Without a doubt the only place the NES version of Skull & Crossbones belongs is walking the plank.
 

"InsaneDavid" also runs a slowly growing gaming site at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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