I never played thsi game but I have heard how bad and hard it is. I have heard the music in the game and it is very good. The guy who comosed the music is very talented. I probably would've never known about the Silver Surfer if it wasn't for this game.
Retro Game of the Week: Silver Surfer
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 On 08/22/2015 at 11:06 AM by The Last Ninja See More From This User » |
One of the most infamously difficult games in the universe
August is Super Hero Month for Retro Game of the Week. Join us each week as we look at different oldschool super hero games, good and bad alike.
If you've missed the reviews of the last few weeks, you can catch up with the links below.
No doubt you've heard of the Silver Surfer NES game. It's infamous for its brutal difficulty and also famous for its excellent chiptune music. Developed by Software Creations and published by Arcadia Systems, this scrolling shooter was released on the NES in 1990. It is the only Silver Surfer game you will ever find, and for good reason. But is it really as bad as people say it is? After playing it myself, I would say YES.
After the opening screen (which has awesome music), you get to choose between 5 levels (similar to Mega Man games). Each level features a villain. Those of you who are Marvelites might recognize some of these villains. The five villains are Reptyl, Mephisto, Possessor, Fire Lord, and Skull Emporer. Each level has its own theme (water, jungle, haunted house, etc.). The Mephisto level reminds me a lot of Castlevania, especially sinces ghosts come out of doors and fly around.
There are two kinds of levels: side-scrolling levels and top-down levels (which moves upwards, not sideways). Enemies will quickly fly onto screen and will often shoot bullets too. Silver Surfer can shoot pellets from his hands. You can also grab some power-ups: the "F" power-up will make your shots stronger and resemble fire; the "B" power-up is a screen-clearing bomb (you use it by pressing Select, which is tricky). Sadly, you lose these power-ups when you die.
Which brings us to the worst part of this game. It only takes one hit to die. If anything at all should happen to touch Silver Surfer, he will fall off his board. If you happen to touch the ceiling, floor, or a wall, he will also fall off his board and die. This guy's supposed to be a super hero, but the slightest thing will knock him off his board! To make matters worse, many of the enemies have sporadic movements; trying to avoid them can be nigh impossible. Also, enemies take several hits to destroy, and will often reach you before you can destroy them! The power-ups don't help because you'll lose them as soon as you die, which will happen frequently.
The levels do have checkpoints, but these are also useless as you only have five lives to finish the level, and you won't make it, even with checkpoints. But wait, that's not all! In the top-down levels, Silver Surfer's sprite is very long (his board goes way out in front of him), making it even harder--should anything touch the tip of his board, he'll fall off and die. And I should also mention that every time you die you get a shot of Silver Surfer huddled in defeat on his board. You'll see it a lot.
This one design flaw breaks the entire game. I wish I could tell you more about the game, but I couldn't get very far in any of the levels. This whole game could have been fixed if the designers had given you a life bar or even three hits before dying. That would make this game a typical hard NES game, but as it is, it's pretty much impossible. It's frustrating, unfair, and just cruel. It's stupid.
However, the game has one good thing, and that's the music. Composed by Tim Follin and Geoff Follin, the music for Silver Surfer is some of the best on the NES. It's that same kind of rad chiptune stuff that we get from games like Mega Man and Duck Tales. The title theme alone is a crazy piece of music that goes on for a minute and a half before looping! It's good, really good. However, it doesn't redeem this game at all because you won't hear much of it (you'll be too busy dying). But you can listen to some of it below without having to experience the pain of this game.
Yes, Silver Surfer, you SHOUL be ashamed of this game
Final Verdict--1 Star: A Waste of Time
Ouch! This game is really as bad as everyone says. Sure, the music is great, but when the music is the ONLY good thing about a game, you've got a really terrible game on your hands. When you can only get 20 seconds into a level every time, you've got a really terrible game on your hands. Did they have play testers for this game? Did those guys seriously say that the game felt fair and fun with only one-hit kills? This just baffles me. If they had fixed this one problem, this game would be fine, but as is, I cannot recommend you try it. This game is probably the reason why we haven't seen another Silver Surfer game since.
Join me all month long as we look at retro super hero games, good and bad alike.
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