I come back to this game to complete it once or twice every year, and it's been that way for a while now. It's a solid improvement over the original Flintstones NES game in terms of balance and gemplay. Gone are the stupid ice physics and constant placement of enemies in situations where it's very easy to get knocked back and insta killed.
Instead, we are treated to more interesting levels tailored around swapping between Fred and Barney. Fred is able to pull himself up ledges like in the original game, whereas Barney is equipped with a slingshot and can climb along vines whereas Fred can't. It's a very interesting dynamic and although you could argue other NES games experimented with it (Mario 2 for instance), I still find it welcome here.
The difficulty curve is surprisingly modern. The only real difficulty spike pops up at the very end- you're chased by an insta-kill wheel and will have to swap between Fred and Barney quite often. It is ungodly fast and even when you know the level layout its still easy to get clipped by it. This section blew on my first playthrough, and I still don't care for it. That said... it's a small price to pay considering how fun the rest of the game is.
Play this one any way you can...unless you've been living under a rock (heh heh) you're probably already aware that you'd have to give your left nut to own an actual copy. Worth emulating, but not worth getting neutered for.
Instead, we are treated to more interesting levels tailored around swapping between Fred and Barney. Fred is able to pull himself up ledges like in the original game, whereas Barney is equipped with a slingshot and can climb along vines whereas Fred can't. It's a very interesting dynamic and although you could argue other NES games experimented with it (Mario 2 for instance), I still find it welcome here.
The difficulty curve is surprisingly modern. The only real difficulty spike pops up at the very end- you're chased by an insta-kill wheel and will have to swap between Fred and Barney quite often. It is ungodly fast and even when you know the level layout its still easy to get clipped by it. This section blew on my first playthrough, and I still don't care for it. That said... it's a small price to pay considering how fun the rest of the game is.
Play this one any way you can...unless you've been living under a rock (heh heh) you're probably already aware that you'd have to give your left nut to own an actual copy. Worth emulating, but not worth getting neutered for.