Fester's Quest (NES, 1989)(Improvement 1.0 hack)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-6.5 Challenge-7 Story-5
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6
+
Pretty good art direction (except for the family stills)
Mini-bosses (larger and faster enemies in the town)
Some good bosses (they all take too many hits to beat considering their patterns though)
Weapon and item inventories
Dynamite and homing missile sub weapons
Smart bombs (get them later on)
Temporary invincibility (improperly translated as invisibility potions)
Does a decent job at creating a creepy atmosphere (some enemies, needing to use a light in the sewers (could've been done more like in Blaster master Jr./Bomber King though), fitting color scheme, item management)
Funny and pretty well drawn intro, some large and detailed sprites
Improvement 1.0:
No weapon downgrade power ups (would've been even better if there were checkpoints and you lost one weapon level after each life lost)
Your projectiles can go through walls (this makes some enemies way easier though - the best option would've been to be able to switch between different beams that could all be upgraded but one would have to change the game a lot more)
+/-
Health and supplies refill after each beaten boss (makes potions a bit too good, they could've been found or bought in rare spots instead)
No health drops (need to stock up on potions and/or find hot dog stands where you buy 1 at a time for 15$ (each gives 1 HP)
Limited supplies (5-30 are the usual maximum stocks)
A whip as a secondary weapon (bit of an odd choice though I guess they wanted to reference Castlevania, starts out very weak but is later useful against the regenerating blobs for example)
Every key can open any door
Long invincibility time after taking a hit
Only four-way targeting
Unlimited continues (see below..)
Smart bombs would've been cooler if there was a Lurch sprite moving onto the screen and taking out enemies
You get too many smart bombs but they're pretty much needed since enemies become too hard to fight normally (without strafe and moving so slowly) in the (long) final area
-
No maps (didn't even come with the game; hard to navigate the indoors areas since everything looks the same)
No auto-fire (not a problem if using an emulator like Nestopia)
Start out with only 2 HP and it's easy to miss the first upgrade
No checkpoints (continuing puts you at the beginning of the game though it does refill your supplies and weapon power)
Dead ends and pointless detours are fairly common
Slow walking speed (should've been 10-20% faster)
Can't strafe (Select could've been used to toggle targeting modes since you don't need another pause button)
Need to have found the vice grips in one of the houses to remove the permanent (!) movement slowing effect caused by flies and some projectiles
Many overly resilient enemies considering their patterns
Enemies and "mini-bosses" also respawn almost immediately when you scroll the screen away from their spawning points (particularly annoying when the spider does it since you need to run away quite a bit even if you have dynamite to take it out)
Need to keep wasting keys to re-open doors leading into houses (at least they're easy to replenish)
Some dead space here and there
Tedious third boss (the knight - can block your attacks)
More tedious fourth boss (blocks your attacks more efficiently and is harder to dodge - use missiles and then invincibility potions + the whip here)
Some trial & error (boss patterns, finding the health upgrades (one is in a house but you don't actually see it, the other is in the family house which you need to take a path through bushes (normally impassable) to reach, it's possible to waste keys and money when you're at full supply of what you were trying to pick up/buy)
Repetitive (re-uses enemy types over and over, only two types of setting - the town and the ufo)
So-so representation of the license (NPCs say nothing - could've given you clues on how to find HP and the UFO, your family members all live in different houses for some reason (until you find them reunited in the family house - but they're still separate if you revisit the other houses), very little humour after the intro)
Somewhat stiff movement (four-way, touching a wall stops you dead)
Fester will also flash when hitting bosses with missiles and parts of the boss can disappear completely as it's attacking
Easy fifth boss
Safe spots at the final boss (huge difficulty spike without them)
No difficulty options
Pointless "clue" picture
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6
+
Pretty good art direction (except for the family stills)
Mini-bosses (larger and faster enemies in the town)
Some good bosses (they all take too many hits to beat considering their patterns though)
Weapon and item inventories
Dynamite and homing missile sub weapons
Smart bombs (get them later on)
Temporary invincibility (improperly translated as invisibility potions)
Does a decent job at creating a creepy atmosphere (some enemies, needing to use a light in the sewers (could've been done more like in Blaster master Jr./Bomber King though), fitting color scheme, item management)
Funny and pretty well drawn intro, some large and detailed sprites
Improvement 1.0:
No weapon downgrade power ups (would've been even better if there were checkpoints and you lost one weapon level after each life lost)
Your projectiles can go through walls (this makes some enemies way easier though - the best option would've been to be able to switch between different beams that could all be upgraded but one would have to change the game a lot more)
+/-
Health and supplies refill after each beaten boss (makes potions a bit too good, they could've been found or bought in rare spots instead)
No health drops (need to stock up on potions and/or find hot dog stands where you buy 1 at a time for 15$ (each gives 1 HP)
Limited supplies (5-30 are the usual maximum stocks)
A whip as a secondary weapon (bit of an odd choice though I guess they wanted to reference Castlevania, starts out very weak but is later useful against the regenerating blobs for example)
Every key can open any door
Long invincibility time after taking a hit
Only four-way targeting
Unlimited continues (see below..)
Smart bombs would've been cooler if there was a Lurch sprite moving onto the screen and taking out enemies
You get too many smart bombs but they're pretty much needed since enemies become too hard to fight normally (without strafe and moving so slowly) in the (long) final area
-
No maps (didn't even come with the game; hard to navigate the indoors areas since everything looks the same)
No auto-fire (not a problem if using an emulator like Nestopia)
Start out with only 2 HP and it's easy to miss the first upgrade
No checkpoints (continuing puts you at the beginning of the game though it does refill your supplies and weapon power)
Dead ends and pointless detours are fairly common
Slow walking speed (should've been 10-20% faster)
Can't strafe (Select could've been used to toggle targeting modes since you don't need another pause button)
Need to have found the vice grips in one of the houses to remove the permanent (!) movement slowing effect caused by flies and some projectiles
Many overly resilient enemies considering their patterns
Enemies and "mini-bosses" also respawn almost immediately when you scroll the screen away from their spawning points (particularly annoying when the spider does it since you need to run away quite a bit even if you have dynamite to take it out)
Need to keep wasting keys to re-open doors leading into houses (at least they're easy to replenish)
Some dead space here and there
Tedious third boss (the knight - can block your attacks)
More tedious fourth boss (blocks your attacks more efficiently and is harder to dodge - use missiles and then invincibility potions + the whip here)
Some trial & error (boss patterns, finding the health upgrades (one is in a house but you don't actually see it, the other is in the family house which you need to take a path through bushes (normally impassable) to reach, it's possible to waste keys and money when you're at full supply of what you were trying to pick up/buy)
Repetitive (re-uses enemy types over and over, only two types of setting - the town and the ufo)
So-so representation of the license (NPCs say nothing - could've given you clues on how to find HP and the UFO, your family members all live in different houses for some reason (until you find them reunited in the family house - but they're still separate if you revisit the other houses), very little humour after the intro)
Somewhat stiff movement (four-way, touching a wall stops you dead)
Fester will also flash when hitting bosses with missiles and parts of the boss can disappear completely as it's attacking
Easy fifth boss
Safe spots at the final boss (huge difficulty spike without them)
No difficulty options
Pointless "clue" picture