Oh, so here we go.  A game I love that I’m sure most of the world wouldn’t look at, despite the fact that is shares a LOT more in common with some of the most popular games that are currently on market OR some classics of consoles past.  The story behind this game is an odd one, but as an NES title, the story is the small dab of glue holding in place a fantastic game where you never say die.

Day 2 – The most underrated game you’ve ever played

The Goonies II – NES

Konami


So, this little bastard of a game really will make you flip your wig after a good, lengthy session.  It’s not to say that the game is remarkable beyond words, but especially for its time, it did a lot, and it did most of it well.  The sequel released in NA to a predecessor that only existed here on Play Choice 10 and the Vs. Arcade machines, it does much to escape the level to level design of the original and offer something in common with one of the most highly regarded genres out there — the stupidly named Metroidvania style of play.

It’s to say that the game likely has more in common with Nintendo’s explorative space excursions than Castlevania, but considering Konami had Castlevania II and SotN (plus the million just like it afterwards), you can say that they pulled a lot from what the Goonies II had to offer — a huge world map.  Oh, excuse me, make that double sided.

The game plays like a 2D platformer, as that’s exactly what it is, but it allows for the player to explore a myriad of different locations, each accompanied by some pretty stellar 8-Bit music, including the starting game song of Cyndi Laupers “Goonies R Good Enough” rendered on Squarewaves and Triangles to give it that extra digital oomph.  But with control that is arguably better than even the early Castlevania games (you even have limited movement mid-jump), you can find weapons beyond your initial yo-yo, and some equippable upgrades such as spring shoes and sprint shoes, each, of course, having their own benefits.   Grab a handy boomerang to help take out some nasty Fratellis or penguins or floating metal skulls or whatever, and enjoy exploring the huge map!

The only caveat to the exploration side of things is the fact that whenever you enter a door, you don’t teleport to the opposite side of the map, you enter a first person mode that becomes more like a point and click adventure.  I personally loved it, as it lets you swing hammers and fists into walls, floors, boxes, and old ladies or men, just to see what you could get.  Obviously when you hit a blank wall, a safe would show up and require a key to open, maybe to get an item , maybe more keys, or maybe a vague hint that alluded to how wasting keys on unnecessary safes was not prudent in rescuing other Goonies.   So yeah, while all THAT may not sound too bad (or be up your alley, depending), the hardest thing to figure out was that when you walked in, there was a small body portrait of Mikey on the side of the screen, either facing towards or away from the player.  Depending on THAT, pressing up will either make him go backwards into a room, or forwards into one, and is never clearly explained except for right this second.  Because most won’t pay much attention to this tinny feature, it goes unnoticed, and turns a 2 door hallway into the devils labyrinth.  If you can figure out the 1st person nuances, it leads to a largely enjoyable game that has several great songs, some excellent exploration, and is a good evening killer if you want to play all the way through it. That will probably be the only way you’ll do it, because the password system is made out of the entire NES ascii library of lowercase, uppercase, and alphanumerics to ensure that you never properly copy down a password or want to even try.

Corpse Bride

Since no one could ever understand Anne Ramsay anyway, this is actually not a password, but a direct quote.

It’s truly a great game, and has just as much in common with the open exploration style games that people dig so much, so go find a copy for a few dollars and try it out.  Sadly, there is no Sloth in this game, so if you give it a 3/10 for strictly that reason, I can understand.  Otherwise, there’s no reason not to play it.

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