When it comes to a video game console’s last years on the market, those few years where developers would still release titles before the console was discontinued in favor of the much more desired item on the scene, there will be plenty of titles that will go completely unnoticed. There are many key factors that could play into this, such as a lack of interest, lack of advertising, lack of copies made or distributed, or most commonly, it is just simply outshined by what is available on next-gen hardware. This sucks too, because there are so many games that get released on a last-gen system that are actually pretty damn great, and yet nobody cares about them because they are not on the newest system that everyone wants, resulting in some games not selling well at all, and now going for an absurd amount of money on the internet just based on its rarity alone. One of the most infamous examples of this happening would be with the late NES title known as Little Samson.

If you have heard of Little Samson before, chances are that it is 99% because of how, since it is a late NES title, it goes for 2 to 5 THOUSAND dollars on online retailers, making it a rare item for collectors, which does create a lot of intrigue surrounding the game. I mean, yeah, a game may be worth all the money in the world, but is the game in question even all that good? I myself have known about this game for a very long time, and I have seen videos on it, and it looked fun, so now, I decided to finally check it out to see if it is good enough to warrant its insane price tag. Big shocker, it isn’t good enough to spend $5,000 on, but I will say, it is actually a fantastic game, and definitely one of the best titles in the NES’s last years on the market. It isn’t perfect by any means, and it definitely isn’t anything too unique, but it is still very fun to play, and it does a lot of things that many other titles for the system weren’t doing.

The story is incredibly generic, being about an evil force that is let loose, and it is up to four summoned heroes to take him down, but stories were never the most important part of NES games, so who cares, the graphics are very good, with the characters themselves looking very appealing and having great designs, but everything else does come off as what you would typically see from a game on this system, the music is pretty good, with there being plenty of good tracks throughout, but most of the time, you will be hearing the same tracks that are the themes of the characters, which does kind of suck, the control is incredibly solid for an NES game, giving you plenty to do for what kind of game it is, so I am all for it, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a game from this system, but there are plenty of aspects added in that make it unique.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Little Samson himself, Kikira the Dragon, Gamm the Golem, and K.O. the……. mouse (I mean, it’s cute and funny, but why though?), take on quite a lot of stages for a game like this, run, jump, and platform all around while defeating many different enemies that will stand in your way, gather plenty of potions and health items to not only heal yourself, but also increase your health to many different levels for each character, and take on plenty of big, threatening bosses that will put your platforming and shooting skills to the test. This is all pretty much what you would expect from an NES game for the most part, but there are plenty of things here that make this title very appealing and enjoyable, aside from the solid platforming.

Obviously, the main draw of the game is the fact that, throughout the game, you get to swap between four different characters, each having their own individual attributes and traits, and most of them are AMAZING to play as. I played as Little Samson for most of the game, as he is overall my favorite. He may not be able to do as much as others, but he can run real fast, jump really high, has an insane firing rate, and he can climb on walls and ceilings! Needless to say, he is extremely useful to use, but some of the other characters are very useful as well. Kirkira also has an insane firing rate, but his shots also go up which can help out a lot, and he can also fly around, making some platforming challenges a breeze, and while I didn’t play as him a bunch, he was pretty useful in certain circumstances. Gamm may not be able to move fast or duck, but he is a tank, having the most health of everybody, having this extendo-fist attack that is very powerful, he can walk across spikes, and he can shoot in four different directions, making him extremely useful for bosses and tight situations.

The only character out of the bunch that I didn’t really like was K.O., because in reality, he completely sucks. Sure, he does have some attributes, such as being the fastest character, climbing on walls and ceilings, and is able to go into some tight corridors for extra goodies and easier paths, but he also has so little health compared to anyone else, and his attack is pretty terrible. It is basically a Bomberman attack, where you drop these white orbs that can explode and kill anyone around him, which may work out well for a maze game like Bomberman, but for a platformer like this? Not so much. Aside from that though, as well as the music, there aren’t really too many issues with this game, apart from the last couple of levels having some repeated bosses. Yeah, there aren’t that many repeated bosses, but it is enough to feel like the game is just trying to extend its length, even when it really doesn’t need to.

Overall, despite the repetitive music, repeating bosses, and K.O. being an absolute waste of a character, Little Samson is without a doubt one of the best platformers on the NES that isn’t a Mario or a Mega Man, and I am so glad that I finally decided to check it out after all this time. I definitely recommend it for those who are fans of old-school platformers, or for those who are fans of those other two franchises I just mentioned, because there is definitely something from this game that is going to make you smile and have fun when playing it. Just, you know, play this on an emulator, because there is NO WAY you are getting an actual physical copy of this game without spending thousands of dollars on it. And for those of you who actually do own a legitimate physical copy of this game, I am extremely jealous of you, and I am gonna go cry in a corner now.

Game #377

This may be the best NES game I have played and I know for a fact the bosses don’t match the cuteness of the main character sprites. That one dragon would of easily gave me nightmares back in the day just like the old pixelated Mario used to. Great music, ahead of its time character swapping and level design with some great NES tunes in the mix. This feels like an Snes game for Nes and cannot recommend enough. Some checkpoints can be alittle unforgiving at times, but you do get boss checkpoints which is great. Play this game friends!!

Recommended by @Gare for this list.

I think many people are familiar with Little Samson and how even back in the day when retro games were far cheaper, it was ridiculously expensive. This is mainly due to it selling very poorly, only to receive a cult following years later. Sorry Mom, but I think I’ve gotta join the cult on this one.

Little Samson isn’t overtly revolutionary, unlike many beloved NES games. For this game, I think many would agree with the description of “Wonder Boy III combined with Castlevania III.” Certainly, this game takes a lot from the former (Multiple controllable characters, a few RPG elements) and a bit from the latter (Linear stages with a few branching paths, switching characters in-level). However, I think that misses a lot of why this game really works for me. To me, the biggest strength is how well the game is designed around pretty much any combination of your characters. The titular Samson is the all-rounder, the Dragon can fly but attacking and defense is sub-par, the Golem is slow but has the best attack and defense, and even the mouse, while very frail, is also very agile and can be surprisingly effective against some bosses. This isn’t everything that these characters can and can’t do, but it demonstrates the main choices a player will be making. You could fly over many gaps with the Dragon but abusing it too much could cause the Dragon to die which would result in you losing it for the level, inevitably causing problems down the line. The Golem can take a ton of shots before dying, but it also is the only character that can walk on spikes, so is it worth it to use it as a tank all the time instead of waiting for an area with spikes? Which character should I heal or increase the max health of? No matter what though, the level design feels well made for any character(s). What ties this together is that every character goes away permanently before being restored on a game over, which honestly makes replaying levels a little more fun, as your new try at a level will most likely be different from the last. It also creates a natural requirement for players to use each character to the fullest to succeed.

Every character goes away, that is, except Samson himself. He will always be playable. Honestly, I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity. This means the strategy is always to switch to Samson if your other guys are low on health, especially on boss fights. It also means that one of the strengths of the mouse, running on walls and ceilings, is basically null and void as Samson can do these as well and you might as well just use him instead in most cases. It’s not that bad, especially since the revival potions kinda negate the issue, but I do think the game would be better if Samson was treated the same as the other members, although a few challenges would need to be tweaked to compensate.

I also think it’s worth mentioning that this game has an easy mode! It’s far from the best implementation of a difficulty mode in a game (That goes to Armored Core: For Answer and Wario Land 4), but it is well made overall. There are some distinct but not ridiculous tweaks to enemy placement, health, bosses and more. Usually, I wouldn’t care about this kind of thing, and while this game is far from the hardest NES game, it’s difficult enough (Especially near the end, which seems to be a rule for NES games) that I think this option was a good idea.

This was a late NES game, and it’s one of the prettier games on the console. The backgrounds look really good, and the animations are pretty smooth for the NES. This game was released two years after the SNES came out, but I feel it’s still worth mentioning. However, it seems the music took a hit as a result. There aren’t actual stage themes here, but character themes. If you’re playing as Samson, you’ll always hear his singular theme, and the same goes for every other party member. The music itself is solid, but not enough to stave off the repetition.

Overall though, this is undoubtedly one of the best games of the 8-bit era. Is it worth thousands of dollars? Uh… maybe if I was a millionaire, I’d shell out that kind of cash. Although, I did win a bet with @Gare, who said he’d give me a million dollars. I gotta collect soon… anyway, 9/10, definitely closer to an 8 though.

This game is outstanding, it amazes me how much fun it is to control these 4 characters for the situations of each level. Sure the level design isn't the greatest in the world and it probably won't interest people who want a challenge but I enjoyed most of the game. I do wish the game had more music though, a lot of the levels use the same 4 songs depending who you're playing as and it can get old. Also at the very end of the game when you're escaping the final area, there's this weird rectangle block at the very end and I had no idea how to get past it without damage boosting. It feels very sloppily done compared to the whole game. Also I can't stand when games lock the full game behind a higher difficulty but this game is really fun so I didn't mind it. Easily worth a play but not worth the price people sell it for because sheesh it's ridiculous!

possibly the best nes game ive played. super tight controls, the playable characters are all a lot of fun to play and feel like they fulfill roles that encourage switching between them in a level, theres a good level of challenge but also enough healing and 1ups to balance it out. i think really the only parts that were really that bad were the decent difficulty curve in the second to last level and some parts of the final area and the dragon boss that just has a random instant kill. glad i found out about this game from a random stream i was watching on twitch though, definitely worth a play

One of those absolute gems I never had growing up that I love discovering as an old man. The sprite animations alone in in Little Samson... My goodness! The four characters and their techniques are a spectacularly fun variety. The music is good enough. And the platforming is tight. It's like Super Mario Bros 2 on steroids, with projectiles!

Little Samson is an aboslutely amazing NES game, simple as that. I'd seen it on many lists or hidden gem recommendations over the years. Very happy to have finally played it. I enjoyed every minute of it.

[Emulated/played on Miyoo Mini v2]

Da mesma galera de Cocoron esse aqui, dá de notar pela semelhança no visual e outras decisões de design. É um jogo bem sólido, cada personagem é bem único e eu realmente me vi usando todos eles direto, até mesmo o rato, que parece ser o mais inútil, mas na verdade é ótimo na luta contra a morte por exemplo. O jogo ainda tem uns probleminhas, como a sua vida simplesmente evaporar ao encostar no inimigo, em alguns casos é até hit kill, e algumas áreas simplesmente spammarem inimigos, mas eu me diverti muito e é isso o que importa nesse tipo de jogo.
Ah, é bom arrumar um patch para o efeito sonoro do tiro do Lickle, ele vai te ensurdecer.

Maravilhoso jogo que não ganhou atenção nenhuma na época, resultando no valor exagerado que ele tem hoje, por dois motivos: Foi lançado em meio ao hype do SNES, e também porque muita gente achou que ia ser jogo bíblico meia-boca por causa do título, e não é esse o caso.

Você controla 4 personagens no jogo, cada um com suas habilidades distintas.
- Samson, um garoto que escala paredes e atira alguma coisa, parece sininhos de gato (??), e tem força média;
- Um dragão que pra mim é o melhor personagem, seu ataque de fogo tem um alto alcance, ainda mais carregado que nem em Mega Man, e ele consegue voar por um bom tempo, tornando as plataformas uma piada;
- Um monstro de pedra, Golem, que anda bem devagar e desfere socos extremamente fortes. Possui a maior vida entre todos;
- E por fim, um ratinho minúsculo que começa com dois pontos de vida, consegue subir paredes que nem Samson e seu ataque é um bombinha que ele coloca no lugar que está. Por isso é um personagem extremamente casual e serve apenas para passar por espaços apertados a troco de vida, talvez.

Acredito que o fator replay do jogo seja enorme devido às possibilidades que cada personagem entrega em cada fase, além de ser uma aventura muito divertida aos moldes de um jogo de plataforma clássico do NES, mas feito com muito amor e dedicação.

Genuinely one of the best NES era titles, I think I can confidently state it blows a large selection of other NES platformers out of the water.

The Good: The basic gameplay is satisfying, the level design is (mostly) fantastic and there are so many little things that actually incentivise switching between the four characters!
I generally find when I play games with larger character rosters, or different "powers" (i.e. the mega man franchise) that there are characters or weapons that fulfill the niche of others much better, but here I found great uses for all characters. The mouse being able to demolish the first phase of almost every boss was wonderful to discover. The final boss rush levels were a little overwhelming at first but once I got into the flow I ended up enjoying them a ton.

- There's a hidden crab level?! And it's awesome?! You get it (as far as I can tell) by falling into the waterfall during the boss fight in the waterfall stage. The crab level also teaches you to grab onto the ceiling as Samson to avoid certain obstacles, which became very useful in some later levels. My friend completely skipped this level by beating the boss so when I accidentally plummeted into this level it was a really cool experience for both of us. The crab also looks awesome.

- The animations in this game are really charming! I love Samson's little spin when he jumps, the Golem's punching animation or how silly the mouse looks when hanging upside down. They help make the more frustrating sections a lot more tolerable, and add to the overall charm of the game.

The Bad:
- Being a NES title, it still suffers from a lot of little tricks used to make the game "harder" and extend the runtime through unfair difficulty. The main way Little Samson achieves this is by leaving characters besides Samson dead until you complete the level, which especially makes some of the later levels aggrevating without save states (If you're looking to get into this game, make sure you have a save state with everyone alive and healthy before going into the level, it will save you a ton of headache.)

- Since the themes are character specific, you'll be hearing the same four tracks throughout the entire game. The tracks are good, but after hour 2-3 they start to become a bit tedious to listen to.

- I find some of the ways the platform models overlap a bit visually unappealing. Just feels like they slapped a bunch of already existing models on top of each other without trying to make them visually cohesive. But thats a minor gripe.

Conclusion: Absolutely worth a play if you're into some of the NES classics like Mario or Castlevania. A hidden gem that I wish more people would give a try!

This one just really didn’t click with me. I really thought I’d enjoy it more, what with it being a late-era NES platformer, but by the time I was around 2/3 of the way in, I just couldn’t take it anymore and started using save states. I think what took this game from challenging to frustrating can be boiled down to a single design decision: if you die as any character but the lead, that character is permanently gone until you game over or finish the stage. Now, this is a game that clearly wants you to constantly swap between its four protagonists to solve problems as they appear. You can choose to tackle each problem with any character. However, it definitely feels like some characters are much more optimal than others in each situation, especially for the bosses. If I’m trying to beat a boss with the dragon, and upon dying, I can no longer play as the dragon, it just makes me want to stop playing. No other character can deal with this situation the way the dragon can and repeatedly dying to game over and get her back sounds like a waste of my time. I think this system is trying to incentivize me to try more characters, but personally I’d prefer to have the choice to bang my head against a problem as many times as I’d like before deciding to switch. It’s incredible how a single factor can really ruin the experience.

As for what I liked, there was quite a bit. The music is memorable, and the graphics are gorgeous (though they get kind of messy in some places). Where this game really excels is control. All four characters feel smooth and responsive to play, and over time you really get a strong sense of when to swap to use their unique strengths.

If I were to suggest a change, it would be to revive all characters when you die. This would make things much less frustrating and would also free up the lead character to have an ability other than climbing, since that’s the mouse’s power. Personally I’d give him a spread shot or something since none of the characters are great at dealing with threats that come in diagonally.

Maybe I’ll warm up to this over time. Like many NES games, it probably gets better on repeat playthroughs as you learn the mechanics.