Clash at Demonhead (NES, 1989)
Graphics-7 Sound-6 Control-6.5/7*/5.5** Challenge-7 Story-6.5
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8/10*** Fun-5.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-5.5
*Jetpack and aqualung
**w/ hyper boots on
***timed bomb defusal sequence
+
ARPG/Platform Adventure elements (Shops (upgrades and new guns, jet pack - basic thrust-based flight, aqualung/scuba gear for not taking damage underwater and swimming faster, super suit/lava suit which also lets you climb icy surfaces and increases def while worn, hyper boots - run faster and jump higher+further, food (HP), dyna punch=force/exp potion), Shop call item (consumable, have to buy additional ones in the shop or find them), can also sell back items at a 2k discount; force points (exp points+ability energy combined) - gain abilities by collecting these and meeting up with the hermit (shrinking, fast travel to previously visited areas via teleportation, flight/levitation (lasts until hit, slower than jet pack), healing and temporary invincibility for 30 seconds; these all cost a certain amount of FP to use, after meeting the hermit once you'll automatically gain the rest as you collect enough FP - just go into the pause menu and select the hermit), some breakable walls, some hidden paths)
Comedic and silly tone (player char is named "Bang", most of Bang's comments have a stupid charm to them)
Decent cutscenes
Dialogue portraits w/ multiple expressions
Can destroy regular enemy shots by shooting them but it's tricky to pull off with the default weapon
Can put partially used up gear back into the inventory - good since traversal items are all consumables and their power drains pretty quickly
Can climb walls by default
Pretty good enemy variation
Decent art direction besides the mostly bland backgrounds
4 alternate ammo-based weapons and a temporary shield which also hits enemies
Some scripted events (your avatar reacting to attempts at mind control, some enemy dialogue encounters, sudden letter+money delivery on route 14 by Jake, fake death of the player when first encountering the demon, fake professor robot who blows up, etc.)
Some friendly creatures besides NPCs (these drop an item for you)
Some good bosses (flea man - 3 phases) and some decent ones (panda - 2 phases, demon eye), life bar upgrades (hermit+magic stone+apollo sword for a max total of 10 HP), decent enemy variety (however some look different but act the same and some later enemies are easier than earlier enemies, there's not really a consistent increase in enemy difficulty in the late game), one alternate bad ending (if you fail to defuse the bomb), minor sequence breaking possibilities (can skip meeting some NPCs+one boss+destroying the eggs, can skip some platforming challenges with jetpack)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (one big hub map w/ various branching paths - can take 3 different paths after the first route, routes or levels have to be traversed to get to a destination whether or not you've beaten them previously or not and you can only move between connected destinations unless you use teleportation, certain events will not occur until other actions have taken place in other routes and you'll run into dead ends if you just take a random path, need to traverse pretty much the whole map to finish the game, some gating via harder enemies or bosses, one optional boss - pandar)
Unlimited lives (restart at the beginning of the current route) however you lose half of your force points
Two entry points to most routes/levels/areas and you sometimes have to replay beaten areas (you'll enter from where you exited)
Password save (fairly long, have to buy them)
Can't shoot up/down with the default weapon
Can hit NPCs (they simply say "No" and nothing else happens)
Frequently respawning enemies (as soon as you re-enter a room/sub area or if you move away from the screen where an enemy spawned) - placed gold nuggets also respawn (can be exchanged for money on route 22)
Larger enemies don't necessarily take more hits to kill
Can't escape boss rooms
Limited inventory - can carry only 3 of any item and only 99 force points and gold bars (force point capacity is upgraded once you trade 50 points in for your first force ability however you'll max it out long before you're able to)
Minor collectathon aspect (6 medallions to stop the doomsday bomb, magic stone to reach the final boss, sword of apollo to beat the final boss)
Hilariously rushed ending dialogue
No dodge moves
-
Trial & error (bullshit 6 symbol code to disarm the bomb at the end of the game (no clues and it's randomized each time! - the only help here is that if you make a correct choice then that symbol will stay in place and there are fewer symbols to guess the rest of the code with but since you only get 5 tries it's still mostly luck-based and the only sort of reliable way to pass it is to use an exploit mentioned in a guide), lava cave pit in route 8 - lava kills you instantly, cheap hits when entering various rooms from the other direction or at the narrow paths on route 17 unless you either use a guard crystal/shield item or shoot constantly, some early shooting enemies can shoot through corners of platforms but not elsewhere on them, hard to tell where you can and can't exit a room/sub area and the game makes it look like there are exits everywhere, can't use shop call in the cave under the well and in Bapman/Bopper's fortress, figuring out where to go after the demon fight?, sometimes hard to tell if you're damaging a boss or not)
Some tedious aspects (take damage every time you fall into water unless you equip and remove the scuba gear each time, can only carry 3 shop call items and 3 of each traversal gear item (pointless limitation besides maybe the hyper boots - if you grinded for something needed to progress you should be able to buy and use it), some grinding for gear early on (there is a respawning gold stash at route 5 however), randomized shop inventories - fine if you're at the spring but otherwise it can screw you over if you needed a certain item, pits don't kill you however you instead end up on an underground path with some enemies and can only exit back at the beginning of the route you were on regardless of which direction you go in - pretty tedious as there are some very tight jumps here and there, breakable walls tend to take a while to destroy with the default weapon - many small tiles in a row and you can only destroy one at a time with it (these aren't used that much in the game though), the unique enemy you meet when climbing the mountain on route 42 - have to let it kill itself by stomping 5 times and you fall down a bit each time)
Some control/interface issues (can't see the numbers of the other routes on the hub map (only the ones connecting to your location and after reaching an exit) - makes it hard to plan ahead and instead you have to write them down as you go or check a guide, vertically focused jumps - see Contra, somewhat floaty movement afte taking a couple of steps (you move about one bg tile's length extra after releasing the d-pad, can't speed up dialogue text, no item explanations in shops, no quest log, slow vertical movement underwater and slow horizontal movement on land without the hyper boots, kinda slow climbing and you can't jump off of a wall properly - only fall and steer your jump, fairly high default jump height, worse mid-air control while using the hyper boots (too twitchy)+more floaty movement+higher default jump height and you also move too fast to avoid enemies in many areas so it's best to combine them with the shield - they seem the most useful vs the demon eye, lose vertical scrolling)
Poor directions and clues at times (guy on route 10: "you should go to the hermit" - doesn't say where the hermit is, "there's gold in those mountains over yonder" - means you should dive at the spring to the left of the guy, the fairy tells you to go to route 6 but not how to get to it, etc.) and some translation misses (when Jake says that "he'll send money" in his letter it actually means that you got it already via that letter, "your buddy lies at the bottom of a cliff" - what cliff!? (route 32 apparently which takes a lot of wandering around to get to), etc.)
Need to use an item that costs money to get a password (they're cheap but still)
No level maps (can only bring up the hub map to check which route you're currently on, areas are small but there are sometimes hidden paths)
Plenty of backtracking in the early-mid game (there's some even if you look up the best route) - once you gain teleportation there's a lot less of it though
Invisible roof in the sky
Enemy drops disappear after a few seconds
Can't get shop call items (nor other gear) from enemies and finding them on the routes is rare (route 5 always has one at the spring, ) but they aren't expensive to buy
Enemies keep dropping items which you already have a full stock of instead of what you need (such as gold bars (or apples (FP) though after getting your first force ability you can carry 999 FP))
Some very easy bosses (Rowdy, Final)
Sometimes overly basic level design and some areas are almost identical, the music resets when moving between rooms/screens in an area and sound design is pretty basic for a 1989 NES game (there's also not that many songs in the OST), no animation for the energize force ability
Bugs:
-Flying enemies sometimes disappear or die as they exit the screen
Old:
+ Can move backwards and forwards most of the time (sometimes you can get stuck and not be able to call the shop for the correct item), some cool items (jump/speed boots, jet pack, diving suit), shoot while walking and crouching, lots of alternate paths (choose between 3-4 routes after each level), pits usually lead to a cave and back to the beginning of the level, fantasy zone style shopping system, password save (have to buy it though), great dialogue for the time, interesting characters, decent art direction, some bizarre scenarios, interesting spells (micro form, teleportation - these are overly expensive though), expressive main character
+/- Respawning health power ups (re-enter the screen)
- Backtracking, can't view all route numbers on map screen (only the ones connecting with your location), you'll need to write down all the different quests you're given, pretty basic level design overall, some cheap hits, trial & error (bosses, fast enemies, game mechanics - swimming without a diving suit drains HP immediately (and it's impossible not to dip down a bit under the surface when avoiding enemies), some leaps of faith), invisible roof on top of screen (as in Super Turrican, gets annoying in difficult platform sections), somewhat floaty control (your character doesn't stop immediately if in the middle of a step), somewhat uneven difficulty curve, no difficulty options, some annoying music tracks, can't de-equip items, repeats level layouts and enemies a few times, somewhat poor sense of progression (you can buy most stuff early on and don't become stronger after that, new areas are reached simply by buying the correct item), no 'demon head' in the game, contrived inclusion of an alien threat near the end, easy final boss
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8/10*** Fun-5.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-5.5
*Jetpack and aqualung
**w/ hyper boots on
***timed bomb defusal sequence
+
ARPG/Platform Adventure elements (Shops (upgrades and new guns, jet pack - basic thrust-based flight, aqualung/scuba gear for not taking damage underwater and swimming faster, super suit/lava suit which also lets you climb icy surfaces and increases def while worn, hyper boots - run faster and jump higher+further, food (HP), dyna punch=force/exp potion), Shop call item (consumable, have to buy additional ones in the shop or find them), can also sell back items at a 2k discount; force points (exp points+ability energy combined) - gain abilities by collecting these and meeting up with the hermit (shrinking, fast travel to previously visited areas via teleportation, flight/levitation (lasts until hit, slower than jet pack), healing and temporary invincibility for 30 seconds; these all cost a certain amount of FP to use, after meeting the hermit once you'll automatically gain the rest as you collect enough FP - just go into the pause menu and select the hermit), some breakable walls, some hidden paths)
Comedic and silly tone (player char is named "Bang", most of Bang's comments have a stupid charm to them)
Decent cutscenes
Dialogue portraits w/ multiple expressions
Can destroy regular enemy shots by shooting them but it's tricky to pull off with the default weapon
Can put partially used up gear back into the inventory - good since traversal items are all consumables and their power drains pretty quickly
Can climb walls by default
Pretty good enemy variation
Decent art direction besides the mostly bland backgrounds
4 alternate ammo-based weapons and a temporary shield which also hits enemies
Some scripted events (your avatar reacting to attempts at mind control, some enemy dialogue encounters, sudden letter+money delivery on route 14 by Jake, fake death of the player when first encountering the demon, fake professor robot who blows up, etc.)
Some friendly creatures besides NPCs (these drop an item for you)
Some good bosses (flea man - 3 phases) and some decent ones (panda - 2 phases, demon eye), life bar upgrades (hermit+magic stone+apollo sword for a max total of 10 HP), decent enemy variety (however some look different but act the same and some later enemies are easier than earlier enemies, there's not really a consistent increase in enemy difficulty in the late game), one alternate bad ending (if you fail to defuse the bomb), minor sequence breaking possibilities (can skip meeting some NPCs+one boss+destroying the eggs, can skip some platforming challenges with jetpack)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (one big hub map w/ various branching paths - can take 3 different paths after the first route, routes or levels have to be traversed to get to a destination whether or not you've beaten them previously or not and you can only move between connected destinations unless you use teleportation, certain events will not occur until other actions have taken place in other routes and you'll run into dead ends if you just take a random path, need to traverse pretty much the whole map to finish the game, some gating via harder enemies or bosses, one optional boss - pandar)
Unlimited lives (restart at the beginning of the current route) however you lose half of your force points
Two entry points to most routes/levels/areas and you sometimes have to replay beaten areas (you'll enter from where you exited)
Password save (fairly long, have to buy them)
Can't shoot up/down with the default weapon
Can hit NPCs (they simply say "No" and nothing else happens)
Frequently respawning enemies (as soon as you re-enter a room/sub area or if you move away from the screen where an enemy spawned) - placed gold nuggets also respawn (can be exchanged for money on route 22)
Larger enemies don't necessarily take more hits to kill
Can't escape boss rooms
Limited inventory - can carry only 3 of any item and only 99 force points and gold bars (force point capacity is upgraded once you trade 50 points in for your first force ability however you'll max it out long before you're able to)
Minor collectathon aspect (6 medallions to stop the doomsday bomb, magic stone to reach the final boss, sword of apollo to beat the final boss)
Hilariously rushed ending dialogue
No dodge moves
-
Trial & error (bullshit 6 symbol code to disarm the bomb at the end of the game (no clues and it's randomized each time! - the only help here is that if you make a correct choice then that symbol will stay in place and there are fewer symbols to guess the rest of the code with but since you only get 5 tries it's still mostly luck-based and the only sort of reliable way to pass it is to use an exploit mentioned in a guide), lava cave pit in route 8 - lava kills you instantly, cheap hits when entering various rooms from the other direction or at the narrow paths on route 17 unless you either use a guard crystal/shield item or shoot constantly, some early shooting enemies can shoot through corners of platforms but not elsewhere on them, hard to tell where you can and can't exit a room/sub area and the game makes it look like there are exits everywhere, can't use shop call in the cave under the well and in Bapman/Bopper's fortress, figuring out where to go after the demon fight?, sometimes hard to tell if you're damaging a boss or not)
Some tedious aspects (take damage every time you fall into water unless you equip and remove the scuba gear each time, can only carry 3 shop call items and 3 of each traversal gear item (pointless limitation besides maybe the hyper boots - if you grinded for something needed to progress you should be able to buy and use it), some grinding for gear early on (there is a respawning gold stash at route 5 however), randomized shop inventories - fine if you're at the spring but otherwise it can screw you over if you needed a certain item, pits don't kill you however you instead end up on an underground path with some enemies and can only exit back at the beginning of the route you were on regardless of which direction you go in - pretty tedious as there are some very tight jumps here and there, breakable walls tend to take a while to destroy with the default weapon - many small tiles in a row and you can only destroy one at a time with it (these aren't used that much in the game though), the unique enemy you meet when climbing the mountain on route 42 - have to let it kill itself by stomping 5 times and you fall down a bit each time)
Some control/interface issues (can't see the numbers of the other routes on the hub map (only the ones connecting to your location and after reaching an exit) - makes it hard to plan ahead and instead you have to write them down as you go or check a guide, vertically focused jumps - see Contra, somewhat floaty movement afte taking a couple of steps (you move about one bg tile's length extra after releasing the d-pad, can't speed up dialogue text, no item explanations in shops, no quest log, slow vertical movement underwater and slow horizontal movement on land without the hyper boots, kinda slow climbing and you can't jump off of a wall properly - only fall and steer your jump, fairly high default jump height, worse mid-air control while using the hyper boots (too twitchy)+more floaty movement+higher default jump height and you also move too fast to avoid enemies in many areas so it's best to combine them with the shield - they seem the most useful vs the demon eye, lose vertical scrolling)
Poor directions and clues at times (guy on route 10: "you should go to the hermit" - doesn't say where the hermit is, "there's gold in those mountains over yonder" - means you should dive at the spring to the left of the guy, the fairy tells you to go to route 6 but not how to get to it, etc.) and some translation misses (when Jake says that "he'll send money" in his letter it actually means that you got it already via that letter, "your buddy lies at the bottom of a cliff" - what cliff!? (route 32 apparently which takes a lot of wandering around to get to), etc.)
Need to use an item that costs money to get a password (they're cheap but still)
No level maps (can only bring up the hub map to check which route you're currently on, areas are small but there are sometimes hidden paths)
Plenty of backtracking in the early-mid game (there's some even if you look up the best route) - once you gain teleportation there's a lot less of it though
Invisible roof in the sky
Enemy drops disappear after a few seconds
Can't get shop call items (nor other gear) from enemies and finding them on the routes is rare (route 5 always has one at the spring, ) but they aren't expensive to buy
Enemies keep dropping items which you already have a full stock of instead of what you need (such as gold bars (or apples (FP) though after getting your first force ability you can carry 999 FP))
Some very easy bosses (Rowdy, Final)
Sometimes overly basic level design and some areas are almost identical, the music resets when moving between rooms/screens in an area and sound design is pretty basic for a 1989 NES game (there's also not that many songs in the OST), no animation for the energize force ability
Bugs:
-Flying enemies sometimes disappear or die as they exit the screen
Old:
+ Can move backwards and forwards most of the time (sometimes you can get stuck and not be able to call the shop for the correct item), some cool items (jump/speed boots, jet pack, diving suit), shoot while walking and crouching, lots of alternate paths (choose between 3-4 routes after each level), pits usually lead to a cave and back to the beginning of the level, fantasy zone style shopping system, password save (have to buy it though), great dialogue for the time, interesting characters, decent art direction, some bizarre scenarios, interesting spells (micro form, teleportation - these are overly expensive though), expressive main character
+/- Respawning health power ups (re-enter the screen)
- Backtracking, can't view all route numbers on map screen (only the ones connecting with your location), you'll need to write down all the different quests you're given, pretty basic level design overall, some cheap hits, trial & error (bosses, fast enemies, game mechanics - swimming without a diving suit drains HP immediately (and it's impossible not to dip down a bit under the surface when avoiding enemies), some leaps of faith), invisible roof on top of screen (as in Super Turrican, gets annoying in difficult platform sections), somewhat floaty control (your character doesn't stop immediately if in the middle of a step), somewhat uneven difficulty curve, no difficulty options, some annoying music tracks, can't de-equip items, repeats level layouts and enemies a few times, somewhat poor sense of progression (you can buy most stuff early on and don't become stronger after that, new areas are reached simply by buying the correct item), no 'demon head' in the game, contrived inclusion of an alien threat near the end, easy final boss