Little Samson (NES, 1992)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-7.5 Control-8/7* Challenge-7.5** Story-5
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*Rockman/Mouse
** Normal mode
+
Each character has its own theme
Difficulty options (easy/normal)
Switch between four chars on the fly (different abilities (Samson/Mouse - climb walls/ceilings, Rockman - shoot up/move on spikes/strong vs. most bosses, Dragon - limited flight/charge shot, Mouse - movement in tight spaces/lay mines)
Some good bosses
Some hidden alternate paths (weird ways of finding them - jump down the waterfall on second boss fight)
E-tanks
Fast paced overall
Good art direction
Great animation
Most levels have two different routes through them (usually a mouse path is one of them)
You can duck
Unlimited continues (start at beginning of stage)
+/-
Password save
Borrows heavily from Mega Man and SMB2
Only rockman shoots upwards (breaks flow in some parts where you climb walls, you need to keep him alive or take some cheap hits)
Choose your path through the short and easy intro stages (but not the rest of the game)
Plenty of 1-ups to collect
KO'd allies don't revive until you use a continue or beat a boss (the latter doesn't work in the castle)
-
Uneven difficulty (instant death from touching some bosses, disappearing platforms cave, first boss is too hard, some sections become redundant because of the flying dragon)
Can't pause while attacking/your shots are on screen
E-tanks are set to the character that picks it up
Character switching can be buggy in some spots (it's meant to not get you stuck but is sloppily implemented)
Somewhat slow falling speed
Trial & error (Rockman is invincible to spikes, boss patterns, floor traps, invisible roof at the top of the screen, spikes hit from the side...)
Stiff and slow controls for Rockman (jump stops in mid-air when pressing up to attack up)
Repeats enemies and bg tiles quite a bit
The castle escape sequence (cheap hits)
Mouse's attack not very fun or efficient and you rarely need to use it
Cheap checkpoint change on final stage (allies don't revive until the escape sequece here)
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*Rockman/Mouse
** Normal mode
+
Each character has its own theme
Difficulty options (easy/normal)
Switch between four chars on the fly (different abilities (Samson/Mouse - climb walls/ceilings, Rockman - shoot up/move on spikes/strong vs. most bosses, Dragon - limited flight/charge shot, Mouse - movement in tight spaces/lay mines)
Some good bosses
Some hidden alternate paths (weird ways of finding them - jump down the waterfall on second boss fight)
E-tanks
Fast paced overall
Good art direction
Great animation
Most levels have two different routes through them (usually a mouse path is one of them)
You can duck
Unlimited continues (start at beginning of stage)
+/-
Password save
Borrows heavily from Mega Man and SMB2
Only rockman shoots upwards (breaks flow in some parts where you climb walls, you need to keep him alive or take some cheap hits)
Choose your path through the short and easy intro stages (but not the rest of the game)
Plenty of 1-ups to collect
KO'd allies don't revive until you use a continue or beat a boss (the latter doesn't work in the castle)
-
Uneven difficulty (instant death from touching some bosses, disappearing platforms cave, first boss is too hard, some sections become redundant because of the flying dragon)
Can't pause while attacking/your shots are on screen
E-tanks are set to the character that picks it up
Character switching can be buggy in some spots (it's meant to not get you stuck but is sloppily implemented)
Somewhat slow falling speed
Trial & error (Rockman is invincible to spikes, boss patterns, floor traps, invisible roof at the top of the screen, spikes hit from the side...)
Stiff and slow controls for Rockman (jump stops in mid-air when pressing up to attack up)
Repeats enemies and bg tiles quite a bit
The castle escape sequence (cheap hits)
Mouse's attack not very fun or efficient and you rarely need to use it
Cheap checkpoint change on final stage (allies don't revive until the escape sequece here)