Its a story of the heavens, but its difficulty will put you through hell. ( real score 6.8)
The story is that an evil goddess named Medusa has defeated and captured the godess Palutena. Imprisoned and with lost of hope, she seeks an angel named Pit whos trapped in the Underworld. Using her last ounce of strength, she gives Pit a bow and sends him off on his adventure to save Angel land. Its a decent story but its very hard to pick up on. Even though its an NES game which usually has little ( if any) story, usually the story is told to you in bits and parts. You realized in mario that you had to rescue the princess by the time your reached 1-4, You knew you had to collect the triforce once you got the 1st peice in legend of zelda, but in this game you dont find out till the very end who you are, or what you were supposed to do.
The story may be a bit confusing but the gameplay is straight forward. Its the classic platformer going from point A to point B but it throws in a few twist. Levels can be sidescrolling, vertical (bottom to top),mazes, and one level where you fly. The controls are also straight forward. The D pad moves, 2 is to jump, and 1 is to shoot. When you start to play the game as a whole, its then you start to realize the problems. The levels can be suprisingly long and with a lack of checkpoints. No matter how far you are into the level, your going to start all the way back at the begining when you die. Enemies start rapidly rushing you, your life bar takes 7 hits its but they will go fast. Defeating enemies gives you hearts which are currency to buy items at the shops youll find along the way. Its frustrating in the earlier levels because the price of the items is far to expensive. Youll be defeating a majority of enemies that only give you one heart but find that a single potion may cost at least 200 hearts. There also seems to be a large number of useless rooms. Sure some give you brutal challenges or a short minigame but its odd to come across a blank room only to realize the only thing in the room are poisoness pools. When you reach the final level of a world, your placed into a large maze which brings on a whole new set of frustrations. Its a complete guessing game of where the boss is, and one of the most annoying enemies tries to stop you several times. It throws what appear to be bombs but if you get hit you are placed with what is called an Eggplant curse. It removes the ability to shoot or even defend yourself. You maybe lost in the large maze but now with problems like this your forced to backtrack to the hospital. You can rescue small soilders to help you fight the boss but these barely help. As your progress into later worlds youll find that the difficulty curve is not what it should be. The games levels get easier but the mazes get harder. You gain more health after completing each world which will make the main levels pretty fun cause you have an easier chance of surviving, and killing enemies that give you higher amounts of money. The mazes on the other hand are just bigger, longer, and more frustrating when you have to backtrack. The highlight of the game is the last level which is nice to have the game end on a good note. It may have many problems but it is possible to have fun with this game and the last level really brings it to a nice close.
While playing through the game you will see that its presentation is pretty good. For graphics, the characters and enemies are pretty detailed for 8 bit graphics. It looks like because of this though they had to sacrafice putting anything in the backround. Its usually just one color which is mostly black.
The music is passable, your going to enjoy some tunes and hate others. Music for the main levels is adventurous and has a tone that makes you feel like your really high up in the sky. You may even hum 1 or 2 of the songs because they're so cheerful. The dungeons music however is far to repetitive. ITs not even the good kind this music will drive you nuts if you get lost for long enough. The boss music is cool, but its the same music from the challenge rooms which deplets from the suspense of the fight. Most of them are really enjoyable, but beware the few tracks that will make you turn the volume down.
Its talked about as a classic and i would have to agree. It may not be the best game out there, youll still find yourself playing all the way throught it. Even with a frustrating difficulty and presentation flaws, its still a one of a kind experience you wont find anywhere else.
Story:6.5/10
Gameplay:6/10
Graphics: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Overall 6.8/10