Star Tropics (NES, 1990)
Graphics-8 Sound-7 Control-6.5/7* Challenge-8 Story-7
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*No movement delay hack (see below)
+
Original setting (mediterranean island hopping)
Decent in-game cutscenes and nice ending (which also has an in-game epilogue part)
Origin of the >100% temporary health power up (vitamin x power up; Quake, as well as Quake‘s first boss idea!)
Some good bosses (big ghost, alien statue in chapter 6, gold robot, computer core, final boss) - most only have one pattern though
Upgrade your main weapon two times
Throw ninja stars that split into two in mid-air (controlled manually)
Hidden items (extra hearts (not that important since you can get maximum health later on), life containers for later use, ammo, hp)
Some interesting items (2x jump length power up (however it only lasts until you exit the current room), snowman (freezes enemies and you can choose when to use it, works on bosses, very rare though), mirror item for reflecting certain projectiles - Zelda 2) and weapons (shuriken that can be detonated in mid-air so that they split and move sideways)
Smart bombs (ammo-based power up, makes you jump kick every enemy on screen which looks cool, very rare though)
Some large and detailed sprites
Humorous tone
Adventurous atmosphere
A couple of good puzzles (fourth wall breaker, piano puzzle) and some decent ones (dark rooms where you need to observe enemy movement to not jump to your death, spatial reasoning in the volcano and chapter 6, platforming puzzle in the spaceship)
Good dialogue for the time (some spelling errors)
Introduces some level designs used in later Zelda games
Great ending (partly interactive)
Good enemy variety
The walker mini-boss in the spaceship that you have to make fall into a pit (inspired Super Metroid?)
+/-
Very linear (chapter-based structure - no backtracking to previous ones, can't go back to previous areas at all (often not even sub areas in the same chapter either), partially non-linear spaceship dungeon)
Saves your progress after every segment
Instant death from falling into liquids and pits
No lifebar refill after beating a boss
Ammo based alternate weapons
Extra lives in an AA game - checkpoints are somewhat far apart (a couple per dungeon)
Heart and heart piece/star drops from enemies are rare
Snowman and potion items are rare
Enemies respawn when leaving the room they're in
Various rooms where you have to kill all enemies to progress
-
Cheap deaths (first dungeon, Bell's dungeon, lava dungeon) and hits (lava monster boss, spaceship mini-boss, some of the floor spike/pole traps, chapter 6, some platforming parts in the spaceship, several parts of the final area)
You only regain three hearts after death
Some other trial & error (trick exits that make you repeat a dungeon, chests respawn when re-entering the room they were in but not their contents, lacking clues for some hidden rooms (dungeon after the melted metal thing, chapter 6), breakable walls without good clues in chapter 7 - once you've noticed the first you're fine though)
Hard to spot some entrances/exits (invisible paths on world map which aren't hinted at such as near the bottle in chapter 2 or at one point in the whale maze in chapter 4, hidden hole in a chapter dungeon, chapter 6 sub part)
Stiff tile-based controls (your avatar takes half a second to start moving when changing direction, the mirror item's usage is inconsistent (they deflect some bullets but not others) - Mostly fixed by a hack however when moving in narrow paths where you hit the wall/other side of the tile while moving the delay is still there+you can't quickly move in circular patterns. There's also about a second of movement delay after entering a new room for some reason (which enemies don't get leading to cheap hits)
Somewhat repetitive dungeon design - it gets tedious trying to find the right switches by jumping on every tile all the time
Some frustrating platforming (jumping into water/pits/lava spells instant death, volcano dungeon has a lot of disappearing platforms, can only jump upwards unless trying to jump over water/pits/lava)
Some tedious aspects (various points of no return in the dungeons, lit rooms don't stay lit, some dead space and dead ends, boring mazes in chapters 4 and 6+7 (end of the spaceship) - no area or dungeon maps besides the robot assistant giving you the coordinates to your goal in chapter 6)
Lose your main weapon upgrade if you lose too much health (making the game harder for newbies) - Blaster Master
You lose any collected power ups and even extra lives after each dungeon - none of them carry over which leads to an uneven difficulty
Some annoying sfx (beeping when low on health)
Can't choose when to use the stopwatch however you can choose when to use the snowman
Somewhat lacking overworld/RPG part graphics (at least the movement is more responsive)
The rods shouldn't have been a consumable item (reveals invisible enemies+you can't even hit such enemies without it)
Easy seashell boss
Start with 3 HP in the final level (right after you gain the last health upgrade and a health refill - wtf?)
No difficulty options
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*No movement delay hack (see below)
+
Original setting (mediterranean island hopping)
Decent in-game cutscenes and nice ending (which also has an in-game epilogue part)
Origin of the >100% temporary health power up (vitamin x power up; Quake, as well as Quake‘s first boss idea!)
Some good bosses (big ghost, alien statue in chapter 6, gold robot, computer core, final boss) - most only have one pattern though
Upgrade your main weapon two times
Throw ninja stars that split into two in mid-air (controlled manually)
Hidden items (extra hearts (not that important since you can get maximum health later on), life containers for later use, ammo, hp)
Some interesting items (2x jump length power up (however it only lasts until you exit the current room), snowman (freezes enemies and you can choose when to use it, works on bosses, very rare though), mirror item for reflecting certain projectiles - Zelda 2) and weapons (shuriken that can be detonated in mid-air so that they split and move sideways)
Smart bombs (ammo-based power up, makes you jump kick every enemy on screen which looks cool, very rare though)
Some large and detailed sprites
Humorous tone
Adventurous atmosphere
A couple of good puzzles (fourth wall breaker, piano puzzle) and some decent ones (dark rooms where you need to observe enemy movement to not jump to your death, spatial reasoning in the volcano and chapter 6, platforming puzzle in the spaceship)
Good dialogue for the time (some spelling errors)
Introduces some level designs used in later Zelda games
Great ending (partly interactive)
Good enemy variety
The walker mini-boss in the spaceship that you have to make fall into a pit (inspired Super Metroid?)
+/-
Very linear (chapter-based structure - no backtracking to previous ones, can't go back to previous areas at all (often not even sub areas in the same chapter either), partially non-linear spaceship dungeon)
Saves your progress after every segment
Instant death from falling into liquids and pits
No lifebar refill after beating a boss
Ammo based alternate weapons
Extra lives in an AA game - checkpoints are somewhat far apart (a couple per dungeon)
Heart and heart piece/star drops from enemies are rare
Snowman and potion items are rare
Enemies respawn when leaving the room they're in
Various rooms where you have to kill all enemies to progress
-
Cheap deaths (first dungeon, Bell's dungeon, lava dungeon) and hits (lava monster boss, spaceship mini-boss, some of the floor spike/pole traps, chapter 6, some platforming parts in the spaceship, several parts of the final area)
You only regain three hearts after death
Some other trial & error (trick exits that make you repeat a dungeon, chests respawn when re-entering the room they were in but not their contents, lacking clues for some hidden rooms (dungeon after the melted metal thing, chapter 6), breakable walls without good clues in chapter 7 - once you've noticed the first you're fine though)
Hard to spot some entrances/exits (invisible paths on world map which aren't hinted at such as near the bottle in chapter 2 or at one point in the whale maze in chapter 4, hidden hole in a chapter dungeon, chapter 6 sub part)
Stiff tile-based controls (your avatar takes half a second to start moving when changing direction, the mirror item's usage is inconsistent (they deflect some bullets but not others) - Mostly fixed by a hack however when moving in narrow paths where you hit the wall/other side of the tile while moving the delay is still there+you can't quickly move in circular patterns. There's also about a second of movement delay after entering a new room for some reason (which enemies don't get leading to cheap hits)
Somewhat repetitive dungeon design - it gets tedious trying to find the right switches by jumping on every tile all the time
Some frustrating platforming (jumping into water/pits/lava spells instant death, volcano dungeon has a lot of disappearing platforms, can only jump upwards unless trying to jump over water/pits/lava)
Some tedious aspects (various points of no return in the dungeons, lit rooms don't stay lit, some dead space and dead ends, boring mazes in chapters 4 and 6+7 (end of the spaceship) - no area or dungeon maps besides the robot assistant giving you the coordinates to your goal in chapter 6)
Lose your main weapon upgrade if you lose too much health (making the game harder for newbies) - Blaster Master
You lose any collected power ups and even extra lives after each dungeon - none of them carry over which leads to an uneven difficulty
Some annoying sfx (beeping when low on health)
Can't choose when to use the stopwatch however you can choose when to use the snowman
Somewhat lacking overworld/RPG part graphics (at least the movement is more responsive)
The rods shouldn't have been a consumable item (reveals invisible enemies+you can't even hit such enemies without it)
Easy seashell boss
Start with 3 HP in the final level (right after you gain the last health upgrade and a health refill - wtf?)
No difficulty options