Heroes Never Die...

Pretty much went in blind with this, not knowing anything about it other than how great a save room theme it has (as well as the vocal version) and had a surprisingly good time with it. The controls were a bit clunky in some areas, like the lack of being able to look down and no quick turn, which made for a bit of sluggish dodging and weaving during boss fights. Only died once on the final boss due to the aim snapping to way above its head, making me unable to move the aim back down in time. Other than that, the third person movement is slightly rough, being pre-RE4, but still definitely manageable, with the one benefit being that you can at least move around a bit while aiming, even if very slowly. Definitely came a long way from the first Survivor game. Another thing of note is that ammo is in absolute abundance in this. I often found myself having to leave some good ammo behind because I just had so much shotgun ammo, pretty much being the main gun I used through most of the game. Doesn't help that enemies sometimes also drop ammo, made more ridiculous when you kill a zombified maintenence worker and they drop a frickin 100 round assault rifle mag. The guns are quite satisfying in this, even if the flash of the assault rifle is quite bright.

The story was a little weird, but entertaining. Cowboy Bruce McGivern and, after a brief rivalry, his newfound Chinese partner Fong Ling, aboard a ship at sea, both after ̶S̶e̶p̶h̶i̶r̶o̶t̶h̶ Morpheus (not that one), a dude turned hot, intelligent electric female tyrant turned abomination, with a bunch of other typical boss creatures thrown in throughout as they find themselves in yet another Umbrella facility. Lots of over the top slow motion moments, almost to comedic effect. Some good enemy designs mixed in with surprisingly good atmosphere, having multiple areas that were actually creepy, and some moments that can actually get a jump out of you or get your butt clenching.

It's a bit of a short experience, finishable in under 3 hours, but it's definitely worth checking out.

The Quest of Ki goes for the platformer approach but the challenge is still very much there. The design feels like it’s made to punish over the smallest of mistakes. But I end up enjoying just how simple and fast the game feels. It really feels fitting for a Famicom game and something you could easily just pop in for fun every once in a while.

The game loves to play tricks on you and even has some nods to the original Tower of Druaga, in fact this is actually a prequel to it as it ends with Ki turning into a stone. Though once you conquer all 60 floors, you’ll be treated to 40 bonus floors that are really challenging and even feature Namco enemies like Nyamco from Mappy and Inky from Pac-Man. Apparently there’s also a parody of the Healing Slime enemy from DQ, even to the point said enemy is in the special thanks section. Sadly I couldn’t get far with my skills…

This is a fun game that you should give a try if you think you’d enjoy it. I’m glad to have finally sat down with this one even if it fooled me and killed me too many times. Even with Namco moving on to the PC Engine, it was nice seeing something of this quality still arriving on the Famicom. Just make sure you don’t take the early levels for granted. You’ll be taking a while to beat this one until you get good.