Memoirs of an English Major

“Evil aliens from a distant planet… tell my nephew to use Code 1776. Tell Mike to dip my letter in water.” - Dr. Jones

Yes my friends, that is a StarTropics quote up there, so what does that mean? An official review of one the few games I hate to love. It was one of the games that as a kid, I heard so much about that when I finally had the time, I ran the ROM and played the game. As stated, this week is all about content at any means and And armed with my RetroUSB and my NES Max , it’s time for the review.

StarTropics follows the adventures of Mike Jones, an ace pitcher from Seattle. Right away, the game begins as your are thrown on a quest to find your lost uncle, a refreshing pace from current games of now, with about an hour and half of cut scenes. The game itself is a pretty simple action game, where the only rule is if it moves, kill it.

The game engine has a lot of issues, with the controls being incredibly sticky and somewhat clunky, though these do have its advantages. In most games, it’s nearly impossible to turn around or to the side with out moving a pixel up or down, but in StarTropics, you have the ability the rotate around, picking the direction you want to move Mike around. At first, it is extremely frustrating, though you eventually get used to the controls and eventually, the weakness starts to fade away, but that isn’t for a couple of levels.

If you can get around the issues, it’s still a great game and well worth a play. The story is somewhat basic, but it is a quick play and probably one of the few games that was made for the western market. I wouldn’t rank it above such classics as Zelda or Metroid, but it does serve a spot in my collection of fun adventure games. Maybe I’m a bit impartial on this game due to the fact this was the hyped game during my youth, courtesy of Nintendo Power. Regardless, it’s still a great game and quick to pick up. Out of ten, I give it a 7.5