Just as every 11-year-old boy has a deeply felt TikTok-informed take on the long-term decline of Family Guy, every early 20s gamer has a peak-Channel-Awesome-era YouTube-approved opinion on the legacy of cult NES platformers. My experiences are universal.
It's funny to cite him as a vaunted academic of a past era (though with how few people treated video games as art worth genuine discussion ~15 years ago, he kind of is), especially with the dated comedy of the ninja character and their, uh, 'dubious' accent in the video, but AngryVideoGameNerd kinda nailed it on this one.
This IS glorious B-movie cheese. The nonsensical and poorly translated story IS spectacular in its embracing of film noir, samurai iconography and the most awesomest cutscenes ever to this point (look at those camera pans, Toby Fox eat your heart out). It IS one of the tightest platformers ever made, with a sick as fuck look and sound to match. And it IS nearly ruined by a late-game difficulty spike (in large part caused by a bug they intentionally left in, Dear Lord) so intense it feels impossible. The man was on the money!
I'm not here to nitpick my predecessors, but there is one major element of the game Rolfe didn't touch on enough (though you have to remember, he only had 15 minutes for the video and at least 20 of those were dedicated to quasi-racist ninja jokes so it's a miracle he crammed in as much analysis as he did really). The level design is super weird and constantly shooting itself in the foot. This game has a deeply compelling interplay between yourself and the edge of the screen. The speed enemies spawn in and out makes despawning them at the sides (and moving at maximum pace forward) far more effective than direct engagements. People (the Nerd included) complain about the rapid respawns this causes as an unfair or aggravating mistake in the game's design. For me, it's one of the best things about the game. It adds a unique layer to combat / movement and keeps the whole thing moving deliriously quickly. The devs, however, have a limited view of how this quirk can be weaponised as an obstacle. When this game turns into 'jumping over a pit onto an empty platform, oh wait an enemy spawned in while I was in mid-air and has knocked me into the pit' the movie, which it does frequently, I can't help but roll my eyes. This one note gets played billions of times, and my ears start getting sore. I struggle with artificial difficulty as a concept. What I do believe in is boring difficulty. It's the sole thing the game throws at you that I'd call actively uncompelling. It can't stop this from being dope as hell, but it does stop it from rising to the top of my favourites. Thems the breaks.
Just for posterity, I played with save states. Call me a poser, call it a skill issue, call it 'I live a human life in the real world and cannot spend the next 35 years of my existence trying to beat stage 6 legitimately.' I have no shame. I remember what happened at the end of the video. Even the ninja couldn't beat this shit. Save states are God's gift to gamers who enjoy beating 80s games with evil checkpoint systems during their natural lifespans.
No points if you beat this legit. I don't seek to reward evangelical ideologues on self-endangering moral quests. Go back to the Crusades.
It's funny to cite him as a vaunted academic of a past era (though with how few people treated video games as art worth genuine discussion ~15 years ago, he kind of is), especially with the dated comedy of the ninja character and their, uh, 'dubious' accent in the video, but AngryVideoGameNerd kinda nailed it on this one.
This IS glorious B-movie cheese. The nonsensical and poorly translated story IS spectacular in its embracing of film noir, samurai iconography and the most awesomest cutscenes ever to this point (look at those camera pans, Toby Fox eat your heart out). It IS one of the tightest platformers ever made, with a sick as fuck look and sound to match. And it IS nearly ruined by a late-game difficulty spike (in large part caused by a bug they intentionally left in, Dear Lord) so intense it feels impossible. The man was on the money!
I'm not here to nitpick my predecessors, but there is one major element of the game Rolfe didn't touch on enough (though you have to remember, he only had 15 minutes for the video and at least 20 of those were dedicated to quasi-racist ninja jokes so it's a miracle he crammed in as much analysis as he did really). The level design is super weird and constantly shooting itself in the foot. This game has a deeply compelling interplay between yourself and the edge of the screen. The speed enemies spawn in and out makes despawning them at the sides (and moving at maximum pace forward) far more effective than direct engagements. People (the Nerd included) complain about the rapid respawns this causes as an unfair or aggravating mistake in the game's design. For me, it's one of the best things about the game. It adds a unique layer to combat / movement and keeps the whole thing moving deliriously quickly. The devs, however, have a limited view of how this quirk can be weaponised as an obstacle. When this game turns into 'jumping over a pit onto an empty platform, oh wait an enemy spawned in while I was in mid-air and has knocked me into the pit' the movie, which it does frequently, I can't help but roll my eyes. This one note gets played billions of times, and my ears start getting sore. I struggle with artificial difficulty as a concept. What I do believe in is boring difficulty. It's the sole thing the game throws at you that I'd call actively uncompelling. It can't stop this from being dope as hell, but it does stop it from rising to the top of my favourites. Thems the breaks.
Just for posterity, I played with save states. Call me a poser, call it a skill issue, call it 'I live a human life in the real world and cannot spend the next 35 years of my existence trying to beat stage 6 legitimately.' I have no shame. I remember what happened at the end of the video. Even the ninja couldn't beat this shit. Save states are God's gift to gamers who enjoy beating 80s games with evil checkpoint systems during their natural lifespans.
No points if you beat this legit. I don't seek to reward evangelical ideologues on self-endangering moral quests. Go back to the Crusades.