[NES] Abadox

Biomega

Net Ronin Of All Trades
#1
[highlight]Title:[/highlight] Abadox
[highlight]Genre:[/highlight] Side Scrolling Space Shooter
[highlight]Publisher/Producer:[/highlight]Natsume
[highlight]Console:[/highlight] NES

[highlight]Rating[/highlight]: 7.5/5

[highlight]Review:[/highlight]

(Yes, this is the one with the picture I had before)
Abadox is unique Space Shooter with a complex universe(Engrish styled :p).

Story:

In the year 5012. A hostile, parasitic, cytoplasmic, formless alien conglomerate, Parasitis, has devoured the Planet Abadox(which explains the title's strange name). A nearby colony's force, the World Live force, attacked this grotesque Mass, but has failed. A nearby hospital station was also devoured by this creature.

A princess was also got caught in this mishap. You need to rescue the princess and destroy this monster. The princess 'rescue' theme is a bit overused, but this time it came in a different suit.

You assume the role of Second Lieutenant, Nazal. Nazal was the only survivor of his team. As Nazal, you must dig deep into the monsters body and fight the horrendous monsters. Once you have reached the inside of the monster, you must save the princess from its clutches and destroy the monster's inner core.

How it ends? I am not going to tell. ;)

6/10

Graphics and Art:

I think it is one of the few NES game that has an extraordinary graphics. The
colours are used in a very resourceful fashion. The monsters, bosses,
background and the foreground are all drawn beautifully.

What is most impressive about this game is that most of the foreground
resembles real organs. Some of the organs looks like veins, arteries,
intestines, sphincters, nerves, glands and etc. To add to the realism,
some of the foreground(Organic parts) convulses and twitches to give
us the illusion of a real, animate organic bodily mass.

Also, you get to control a Man in a Power Suit instead of a Spaceship.
Many do not know this, but this is actually derived from another space
shooter, Section Z. The character design is not all that fancy, but you will
able to recognize the guy in the battle suit. Thought, it will take time when
you are in the vertical stage to see where the guy is.

Some of the monsters are original in design and beautifully drawn. Albeit some
of them are naturally absurd, like the Skull monsters(Dubbed as "Mutant
skeleton fish" in the manual!), or shooting Orifices. The Boss designs
are really remarkable and memorable. Some of them are ordinary, while
some of them are excellent.

The Game title is exceptional with its 3D look and metallic sheen, because many other space shooters used the same old sharply cut letters with neon colours or the 'shining chrome effect' for the titles. Somehow, it reminded me of some Horror games from all of that gooey liquidized organs(or blood, as it appears on the U.S box and manual).

The U.S box art is kind of bland and almost unrelated to the game; some guy wearing a green bee-keeping suit shooting at a cartoon-like fleshy monkey-slug(?). The Japanese box art is less elucidative; a huge alien bug, but perhaps it is the monster that devoured the planet. I don't know much about that, but I think the Japanese version is better made than the U.S one.

Also, it had a great opening scene -- one of a kind that you don't see much on T.V

GFX : 9/10

Sound FX and Music:

The music of the game is astounding and refreshing. Many will claim that the
music is similar to Konami's Contra and Lifeforce, this is because the
composer is the same. The music can be really impelling and enthralling,
while at times and on other stages the music can get really eerie and
atmospheric.

The Boss music theme is used for every Boss and Mini-Bosses battle.
Even though repeated, it has an alarming rhythm to it, which is
pretty good for the boss battles.

Also, the first stage music theme is repeated multiple times in other stages,
this had me really disappointed for it not having more tracks. But it serves
the game well, as the game is short and fast paced.

The sound effects aren't bad at all, but some of them are the same sound effects found in almost every other similar games. Other than that, the game does have some unique sounds. I specifically like the Three-way beam gun sound.

SFX & Music: 7/10

Difficulty/Game play/re-playability:

The game itself isn't very hard or unbeatable(I have finished it without
losing life points on my second try!), but it has proved to be tough enough
for regular gamers. It can be rather hard and vexing for those who are new
to the gaming style. There are vertical and horizontal levels, I did not
liked this aspect, as it is found in Life Force; however,
you move downwards, unlike Life Force which moves upwards
in vertical stages.

Levels are easy, so as long you memorise enemies' positions, acquire power-ups and etc. There are level that are truly hard, and takes a lot of practice to
get through without dying - level 2 is, in my opinion, the hardest level
in this game, even level 6 was a cakewalk. In many of these levels, not
only will you face the hazard of encountering enemies, but also the
environment. The surrounding areas can get really tight and
hard to manoeuvre, and the possibility of getting crushed
into the wall is very high.

Each enemy has its own pattern on how it attacks you. While some of them are stationary, they tend to shoot things at you(like the orifices), or move towards you after you come near them. While some monsters just move towards you or shoot you
while they are moving(like the "Mutant skeleton fish").

The controls are alright; however, you need to acquire power-ups, otherwise
the game can be very tough without them, and especially the Speed power-up (Yes, an Evasive power-up!). The power-ups are encased in a blue scorpion. If you don't attack it, it will crush you if you hit it. Missing the power-ups can be very problematic.
As you dive deeper into the game, the levels will be harder, and for
that the power-ups are necessary.

There are two defense power ups which can aid you throughout the game.
Orbiting Barrier shields, with it you can approach an enemy and protects
the player from fire - you can gather up to 4 Shields. Hi-Density power
protector is just a shield(blinking colour) on the surface of the
Power suit - you can gather up to 3, with each consecutive one you will gain
a better armour. Green is light and can take up to few hits, red
is more intense and can take up more hits.

The game's arsenal are quite few. You will have 3-way Beam(Tresbeam),
5-Way(Starbeam), Laser and a Large Beam gun(Paradora).You
can pick up Rocket power-up, and which act as an auxiliary weapon - if you
gather up to 2 of Rocket's power-up, the rockets will become guided, and move towards any incoming enemies that are in front of you.

There is nothing much on repeating the game other than becoming better in it, scoring higher, and not to die in the whole extent of the game.

D/G/R: 8+9+7 | 8/10

Even though, some people might brand this game as a clone to another
title which is known as Life Force(aka Salamander). I highly disagree.
This game is in its own universe. The only similarity was that Life
Force had a couple of "Inside monster" like stages, and
alternating side & vertical views stages. Other than
that, the game is a stand-alone epic from Natsume.

The game manual is very straight forward and elaborate. And explains
in detail in what to do. The images in the manual is also nice.

The Graphics is very intricate and outstanding; the music and sound effects are well made; the game play isn't at all tedious, and the game itself is truly
challenging.

This game has it all. If you happen to be a Space Shooter, Man vs. Alien and
an NES aficionado all together, then this game should not be missed.

It gets a 7.5 out of 10
 

Biomega

Net Ronin Of All Trades
#3
NES? Wow you're really old school.
NES is when games started to become more rich and complex than just Arcade-styled scoring games.

Hey, my first console was an Atari 2600, Plastic version - and I only played the in-games.

Now-a-days teenyboppers and their PS3, Xbox360, NDS and high-end PCs will never understand the whole warmth of old games; it's not just the nostalgia.

Lol TMNT, I liked Battletoads more. I wonder why they are so tough?

This game, Abadox, is really tough.

I also prefer the raw quality of Cassettes and videotapes, if we are going to talk about olden days.

Speaking of cassettes, my cousin used to have a ZX Spectrum, it played only cassettes -- the games were cassettes!!11oneone1!!1