Are you ready for a lesser-known adventure, that is almost just as good as The Legend of Zelda itself?
First things first, the gameplay will also most-likely remind you of a adventure you may have had on the NES starring a young boy named Link who goes on a quest to save the fair maiden, Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon. Well, StarTropics casts you as Mike who goes to C-Island only to find out that his uncle, Dr. Jones, has been kidnapped! The village elder grants you with a powerful yo-yo and requests that you save your poor uncle.
The gameplay in towns and on the world map will remind you of towns from pretty much any other NES RPG/Zelda style of game. No monsters will attack you on the overworld, you are safe from random battles. In fact, you will not see any random battles throughout the game, so don't be expecting a game like Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy. Mike moves pretty slow in the towns and on the world map, and he isn't every very agile in battle either, but neither were most heroes in that time. Just like any other game of its kind, you can talk to any villager walking about the town, and when you talk to important people, the screen will switch into a NES quality cutscene in which you are talking to that person. Impressive.
Now when you enter a dungeon, your sprite all of a sudden grows much larger and you are now free to use your yo-yo, in combat of course! Think of it the same as using a sword in Zelda, just now you can jump and your sprite is a lot larger. You'll move throughout these dungeons attacking enemies, which can become quite pesky when they come in groups, especially the fast moving ones. The game also has a ton of jump puzzles where you'll have to jump on random tiles until one reveals a switch, that kind of thing. The only problem is that Mike can only jump one tile at a time, so if there's a gap in the middle with water in it and you jump it, you will die. What is also frustrating is if you fall in water you will lose all of your hearts (yes, this game has hearts, with the same purpose as hearts in Zelda), and you will have to start off at the last checkpoints. Finally, you only have a certain amount of lives, so you must be very, very careful. I've tried to jump that game many times, without thinking, only to die.
At the end of each dungeon, traditionally, there is a boss battle waiting there for you to challenge it, and most of the bosses in the game are far from easy, I warn you now. But, with a few tries, you'll eventually get the best of them. Also in the dungeons are lots of traps, some are very annoying. Just wait until you walk through a door only to fall in water and die. Yeah, stuff like that happens and you will get pissed off. In other words, StarTropics isn't for lightweight video gamers. Anyone looking for a fun challenge will find it here.
Now even though these categories are of lesser importance, especially in a NES game, I will include them: graphics and sound. Well, did you like how Zelda looked? Imagine that, just with a bit more detail. There is no serious slowdown here either. If you don't believe slowdown in NES games, try playing Metroid or Kirby's Adventure and walk in a room with a lot of enemies and you'll see some serious slowdown. Overall, the game has a great look to it backed up by good graphics.
The music, while not quite memorable, does the job just as well as it should and I have no complaints whatsoever. I'm not going to go into sound effects because it's just a ridiculous thing to include in a review of a NES game, but if it makes you feel any better, the sound effects are fine too. Overall, while not perfect, the music also is a strong point of the game.
So how is StarTropics? Well, are you ready for a lesser-known adventure, that is almost just as good as The Legend of Zelda itself? If you are, than definitely check out StarTropics for the Nintendo. You won't be disappointed!