So I guess 2009 hasn’t been a much better year for blogging, has it? Two months, three posts apiece. Sounds about up to par. Oh well. Consider it a concession to that nagging voice in my head that’s yelling at me for not blogging about anything interesting.
But ho! Have I got something interesting to talk about today! If you look at video game news at all, you should know that there’s a little gem of a DS game going around called Retro Game Challenge. It’s packed full of NES games that never existed, and it’s an absolutely essential play for anyone with fond memories of gaming in the 80’s. Parish and his cronies won’t shut up about Guadia Quest, the RPG of the bunch, but there is so much more to enjoy here! Me, I love me some Robot Ninja Haggleman!
Robot Ninja Haggleman is a simple action game, sort of a strange mash-up between
Super Mario Bros and…
Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle maybe? I’m not sure, really. The whole “map full of doors” reminds me of
Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. The game is simple, requiring you, as Haggleman, to rid the room of enemies and then defeat the boss that appears. The twist is that each room has a plethora of doors, which serve many purposes. First, Haggleman can hide behind doors to avoid enemies, and a swinging door will stun/kill any bad guys that are too close. Entering a door also swings the doors of every like-coloured door, so you can set up combo kills by switching door colours. There are also items hidden behind certain doors, and the boss character can be flushed out before the peons are all dead by opening the door he’s hiding behind. It’s a pretty easy game, since Haggleman is not only able to kill enemies with doors and by stomping on them, but he’s also got ninja stars which stun baddies and there are powerups that make him even faster and stronger. Not to mention that it’s only 16 stages long, which is not bad by early NES standards. It’s super fun though.
The sequel,
Robot Ninja Haggleman 2, as you may expect is even better. It’s the same basic game, but with many little improvements that add up to a lot. The title screen and cutscenes now have backgrounds, but otherwise the graphics are all the same. Gameplay tweaks like vertically scrolling stages (the original game’s stages only move horizontally) and the ability to delay your special attacks seem tiny but add a lot more to the game. It’s also noticeably more difficult, with smarter minor enemies and tougher bosses (they now take three hits to kill, as opposed to one in the first
Robot Ninja Haggleman). It’s really all you could ever want from a sequel: the exact same game with a ton more polish and some nice gameplay additions.
Haggleman 3, however, is where the series really shines. It is entirely different from the previous games, and is probably the best NES game that was never made. It’s the last game in
Retro Game Challenge and is truly a smashing finish to the game. Taking
Metroid-style exploration and upgrading and putting a
Ninja Gaiden mask over top of it is genius. It’s even got annoying bird that fly out of nowhere and knock you into bottomless pits! The game’s look is entirely different, with large, dramatic-looking sprites as opposed to the cartoony style of the previous installments, and the gameplay follows suit. It’s awesome. I don’t know how many times I’m gonna say that.
Seriously, Haggleman 3 is the apex of 8-bit gaming. The controls are fluid, and the stages are huge. Haggleman tosses ninja stars by default, but getting in close to enemies will get him to start swinging his sword. Stages are no longer a big series of halls and doors, they’re now huge areas with tons of different paths and secrets everywhere. Doors now lead only to hints and stores. In the stores, Haggleman can buy life, special weapons, and gears. The gears can be installed to give Haggleman increases abilities, like stronger attacks or higher jumps, but only three can be equipped at any time and they have to be under a certain power limit, so that gives it a slight puzzle element in having to know what gears to have equipped at the right time.
I really can’t continue and keep pretending that this is interesting for anyone but me, so I’ll stop here, but let it be known that
Robot Ninja Haggleman is my new hero. Truly, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of
Retro Game Challenge if you own a DS and love 8-bit gaming (who doesn’t?). What’s even better is that the sequel just hit store shelves in Japan. It’s not a huge deal yet because the first game took almost a year and a half to be localized, but maybe the mass of hype around it will speed up that process for the sequel. Early fall release, maybe? Please?
