The Guardian Legend (NES, 1988)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-6.5 Story-6
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Cool bosses
Long quest
Good blend of shooting and adventuring
Large weapons arsenal
Very good map system for the time (shows an area's basic layout from the get go as well as your location and the room which leads to the next shoot 'em up level (which gives you the key to the next maze area), doesn't mark shops or other locked doors)
Mini-bosses
Great art direction
Pretty fast pacedWeapon shot width (red landers), life bar (blue landers), rate of fire (5 levels), attack power (4 levels), defense (via shield items, up to 7) and movement speed (only once - 5 shields=faster movement) upgrades
+/-
Partially non-linear (gain access to three different shoot 'em up levels after getting the first key)
Area 0 is a hub that connects to the 10 other areas
Password saves (long)
Main weapon power is tied to how much ammo you have left for special weapons (power chips, which also serve as money for buying new weapons)
Yellow blocks never contain items
Wallet upgrades (red landers, can only hold 50 coins at first)
Flip screen in the maze segments
No strafe or dodge move
-
Lack of challenging puzzles (some are vague but not in a good way)
Lack of in-game storyline for the most part
Unbalanced power up system to counter cheap hits (instead of giving the player better mobility - can't manually increase speed in shooter levels and only increase it once over the course of the game)
Two-way side laser and laser saber are very overpowered
Uneven difficulty curve
Trial & error (various parts of the auto-scrolling levels, blue blocks containing money turn into yellow blocks after entering and re-entering a screen - however if you move a few screens away they'll respawn (use online maps to avoid having to backtrack), )
Palette swaps
Repetitive shooter levels
Some sloppy hit detection (non-solid walls, picking up items, large enemies)
Repeats bosses a few times
Some dead space (empty rooms)
Notes:
-Due to a bug: If you have the movement speed up (5 shields), you can walk through the indestructible pyramids by moving diagonally in between. This trick can be used against yellow pyramids/blocks and item capsules as well. You can only walk horizontally
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7 Fun-7.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Cool bosses
Long quest
Good blend of shooting and adventuring
Large weapons arsenal
Very good map system for the time (shows an area's basic layout from the get go as well as your location and the room which leads to the next shoot 'em up level (which gives you the key to the next maze area), doesn't mark shops or other locked doors)
Mini-bosses
Great art direction
Pretty fast pacedWeapon shot width (red landers), life bar (blue landers), rate of fire (5 levels), attack power (4 levels), defense (via shield items, up to 7) and movement speed (only once - 5 shields=faster movement) upgrades
+/-
Partially non-linear (gain access to three different shoot 'em up levels after getting the first key)
Area 0 is a hub that connects to the 10 other areas
Password saves (long)
Main weapon power is tied to how much ammo you have left for special weapons (power chips, which also serve as money for buying new weapons)
Yellow blocks never contain items
Wallet upgrades (red landers, can only hold 50 coins at first)
Flip screen in the maze segments
No strafe or dodge move
-
Lack of challenging puzzles (some are vague but not in a good way)
Lack of in-game storyline for the most part
Unbalanced power up system to counter cheap hits (instead of giving the player better mobility - can't manually increase speed in shooter levels and only increase it once over the course of the game)
Two-way side laser and laser saber are very overpowered
Uneven difficulty curve
Trial & error (various parts of the auto-scrolling levels, blue blocks containing money turn into yellow blocks after entering and re-entering a screen - however if you move a few screens away they'll respawn (use online maps to avoid having to backtrack), )
Palette swaps
Repetitive shooter levels
Some sloppy hit detection (non-solid walls, picking up items, large enemies)
Repeats bosses a few times
Some dead space (empty rooms)
Notes:
-Due to a bug: If you have the movement speed up (5 shields), you can walk through the indestructible pyramids by moving diagonally in between. This trick can be used against yellow pyramids/blocks and item capsules as well. You can only walk horizontally