Aside from learning how to code, i've been surfing the net to find good, classical games by the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), to my surprise I found a real gem to add to my collection of games!
Its name is "Crystalis", I found it quite attractive on how well built the entire game is! You start off as a young crusader in the year of 1997, the world has recently gotten corrupt and you were sent to out-do the evil enemies on Earth. Basically it is a much, much better version of the classical "Zelda" trilogy, your character can be customized by his own equipment, learn powerful magics, level up, and the old "charge up and do a special thing with your weapon" trick as well. You should really try out this game, infact I urge you to.
http://www.consoleclassix.com/index.php?cc=download
Download the NES emulator engine and search for the game "Crystalis" under the NES tab. Oh, and don't worry about the legal information, ConsoleClassix provides a 100% legal emulation for the NES and the ATARI games. Have fun!
ID:189057
 Oct 28 2003, 12:34 am
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However, the game is obviously wrong as it claimed that November 1, 1997 (or soemthing like that) would be the end of the world. The game is pretty good, however, levelling up does get quite boring.
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It's also "wrong" in that there aren't any magic swords that make swirly things flash around your head like orbiting electrons, right?
The game is fantasy, it wasn't predicting the world would end in 1997, it was saying that in this imaginary world, it did end on that date. You might as well say that Zelda is "wrong" because there's no such kingdom as Hyrule and comparatively few people you will meet in your daily life have pointy elfin ears. :P | |
Yes, that was an excellent game... they put so much (in terms of thought and content) into it that aside from the graphics, it almost seems to belong on the 16 bit SNES system.
Another great, overlooked game is Battle For Olympus (I think that's the title)... it uses an engine similar to the side-scrolling portions of Zelda II, but with some nifty innovations. | |
Yes, and I obviously condemned the whole Final Fantasy series because there's no such thing as magic. Either that or I was sarcastic.
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Hedgemistress wrote:
Another great, overlooked game is Battle For Olympus (I think that's the title)... it uses an engine similar to the side-scrolling portions of Zelda II, but with some nifty innovations. It was the first NES game I ever brought using my own money. Great game, but it had a few points at which you simply didn't know what to do (It seemed almost as though they had forgotten to program in parts of the script). I remember being stuck for like 3 weeks just going anywhere I could looking for what I should be doing (Don't laugh, I was 8 at the time). The 8-bit era was great for RPG's. They didn't focus on graphics, and they weren't all set in the same cleche settings (Ie, your a medival Knight who has to save the world). | |
(Ie, your a medival Knight who has to save the world). Uh did you forget about the whole Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy Series* :P? I think the NES RPGs defined the cliches. * Well final fantasy games before 6. After that they just started to get weird. | |
Oh it defined the cliches for console gaming alright. NES is the root of most genres, before then it was all just arcade. The thing is while it was defining the cliches it had no cliches to follow, so we got a bunch of wacky stuff that never really took off.
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Oh it defined the cliches for console gaming alright. NES is the root of most genres, before then it was all just arcade. The thing is while it was defining the cliches it had no cliches to follow, so we got a bunch of wacky stuff that never really took off. Nah most of that is just wacky far-eastern stuff. Most the "normal" cliche stuff is derived from various mythologies. | |
Contra, LOZ and Star Tropics, and Rainbow Islands Uh you're going to have to say a bit more :P. Are you agreeing with me, disagreing with me, or trying to point out something different entirly? | |
DarkView wrote:
The 8-bit era was great for RPG's. They didn't focus on graphics, and they weren't all set in the same cleche settings (Ie, your a medival Knight who has to save the world). Maybe in Japan, because game companies tended to be pretty wary of exporting RPGs back in those days, but what we got in the US was slim pickings compared to the 16-bit era. Some of the most popular and the best (these are two separate categories I'm talking about here) RPGs ever came from the SNES. That they "didn't focus on graphics" is somewhat debatable, too. Sure, nowadays we can look back at them and say "Gee, these graphics all suck; surely no one would have put much effort into producing this crap!" But back in those days, a lot of those games' graphics were pretty state-of-the-art. Game companies invested a lot of effort into getting the best graphics they could from the hardware, and those that pulled off the best effects were rewarded with brisk sales and glowing reviews. The progression of RPGs throughout the 8-bit era reveals just as much visual one-upsmanship as occurs today. | |
Another great, overlooked game is Battle For Olympus (I think that's the title)... it uses an engine similar to the side-scrolling portions of Zelda II, but with some nifty innovations. The Zelda II comparison is apt. Very apt. So apt, in fact, that the game is often considered to have ripped Zelda II off in parts (the final boss especially). I don't really agree, especially since I consider Battle of Olympus a superior game... but, I felt it worth pointing out. Although it suffers from the curse of all side-scrollers in that flying/leaping/swooping enemies are #$@!ing impossible. Stupid mountain monkeys. -AbyssDragon | |
That they "didn't focus on graphics" is somewhat debatable, too. Sure, nowadays we can look back at them and say "Gee, these graphics all suck; surely no one would have put much effort into producing this crap!" But back in those days, a lot of those games' graphics were pretty state-of-the-art. Game companies invested a lot of effort into getting the best graphics they could from the hardware, and those that pulled off the best effects were rewarded with brisk sales and glowing reviews. The progression of RPGs throughout the 8-bit era reveals just as much visual one-upsmanship as occurs today. Yeah but they couldn't spend half the development time making 10 hours of FMV either since there was no such thing. With better hardware you have to spend more time working on graphics to compete. They did compete graphic wise but they were a lot more limited so they could only spend so much time on graphics. Today with DVDs and more colors availible than the human eye can precieve all on the screen simultaniously without worrying about palletes leaves companies with a lot more room to work with graphic-wise. They are still limited in the amount the console can handle but there is a lot more room for artistic work than there was on an NES. | |
True, however today graphics count for much more. Aiming at the casual gamer using fancy graphics is perceived as being the easy road to cash in the eyes of a lot of gaming companies.
Also, for the record, The Battle for Olympus wasn't good graphically at the time, and neither were a lot of the now classic RPGs. From what I remember it was the movie turned games that tended to boast the high cash graphics (Ie, Jarrasic Park, Terminator 2, Total Recall, ect) | |
The Zelda II comparison is apt. Very apt. So apt, in fact, that the game is often considered to have ripped Zelda II off in parts (the final boss especially). I don't think of it as a rip-off... I would be very surprised (not necessarily skeptical) to learn that there was no tie between the two, either in terms of collaboration or simple inspiration... but the fact is that Battle of Olympus stands more strongly on its own than TLOZ2TAOL* stands as part of the Zelda series. Zelda II had an interesting interface, but frankly, if there was ever a series that didn't need innovation, it was LOZ... I would've loved it if they'd cranked out three or four more NES games using incrementally enhanced versions of the original engine. [EDIT] This is why, although I enjoy the 64 bit Zelda games (the first one more so than the gimmicky second), my favorite two entries in the series are the original and A Link to the Past... to my mind, Zelda III kept as much of the spirt and the feel original game as was practical and added what enhancements were logical without abandoning its roots. [END EDIT] *Yes, I like to acronymize titles that are so complicated that they defy the whole purpose of using an acronym. My favorite movies this past summer were OUATIM and POTCTCOTBP. | |
Hedgemistress wrote:
my favorite two entries in the series are the original and A Link to the Past... I never pictured you as the sort of person who would like the original Zelda. It just doesn't seem like it would have enough of an active script for you*. As for a series that didn't need inovation, I think the total opposite. Take a look at the second Zelda game to come out on each platform. NES - Good game, did pretty well. Wasn't just a add on to the original. SNES - Didn't have one. GameBoy - Never even noticed it got released. I belive it was something about the Four Seasons (Unless you count the remakes of Link's Awakening). Pretty much the same thing. Had a new twist or two, but nothing great. Nintendo 64 - Majora's Mask, what can I say about Majora's Mask? This had a new twist, but nothing else really changed. It did poorly. It seems that the series does better when it flashes something new at us. Although I must admit, Majora's Mask would have been a pretty good game if you weren't stuck in Clock Town. *Not that I really know you, you just talk a lot when you like/dislike something. | |
I liked the classic Zelda games as well, but in my opinion I feel that Zelda 64 (Z64 for lexy) was the best one. But of course I'd be greatly biast because of my love for art, The NES and SNES games had more to them game-wise, but Z64 was a great game as well (Even if the gameplay wasn't as good in the eyes of some) but a good game with great graphics usually attracts me quicker than a great game with poor graphics. Possibly why it's very hard for me to find a game I like on BYOND (Except for your Guildmastery, that was my favorite game).
As a side note: I loved Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl as well, but I'm looking forward to the final Matrix movie next wednesday even if the main actor is convincingly retarded. ~Ken~ | |
DarkView wrote:
Hedgemistress wrote: It's a product of its times. Back when Zelda came out, "storyline" was largely something that happened before and after the game, not during. As for a series that didn't need inovation, I think the total opposite. Take a look at the second Zelda game to come out on each platform. I did. :P They're all overly gimmicky, and none are as good as the first game on each platform... even though there's room for disagreement on these points, looking at the existing Zelda games is a flawed refutation of my point because the innovation which comes as an improvement comes along when the series is moved to another platform. What I'm saying is that rather than developing new, gimmicky systems for a single sequel, they could have developed more adventures using the existing engine until the next platform comes out. Unfortunately, there's no way to settle this because we can't turn back the clock and see how a LOZ 2 through 4 would have done using the original engine, but I stand by my guess that they would've done well. People are still playing LOZ after all these years, after all, and the number one lament people have over Zelda games seems to be "That's all? Give me more!" While they're all good games, Ocarina of Time isn't more of Link to the Past, and Link to the Past isn't more Legend of Zelda. | |
Just to be safe you can buy the GBC re-release which I think is still being sold. So you can support the company that makes the games you like!
Also it's interesting to note that SNK made Crystalis. SNK is known mainly for thier arcade fighter games so it seems real strange that they were involved with Crystalis.