Astyanax

[MotoRoaderMike]

Anyone remember this NES classic? I loved it when I was a kid, and I've been revisiting it alot since the past month. It's a great game, but it's really tough. I don't know where the cartridge we had of the USA version is, but I bought the japanese version, which is called "The Lord Of King" to add to my Famicom collection last month. Anyway, Astyanax is a high school student in modern day America, and he keeps having dreams of a princess calling for help. One day he is transferred to the world of Remlia by a pixie named Cutie, and he can't go back until he saves Princess Rosebud from the evil wizard Blackhorn and his minions. During his journey, Astyanax and Cutie develop a strong bond between each other. And I don't want to say anything else, or I'll spoil it.

[guyjin]

My neighbor, back in the day, was nuts for this game (which, for some reason, we called "asstynacks" - we missed the second a) but I wasn't as big a fan.

[blueraven]

One of my all-time favorite side-scrollers for the NES. The charge-bar for the attacks made defeating the bosses relatively easy. I remember being perplexed in trying to figure out what kind of sword he was carrying. (The second-to-last weapon upgrade I think)

I bought it for $2 at a garage sale when the Genesis was the new rage, and played it for a good 2 weeks.

I think I picked up Faxanadu from the same garage sale...

-blueraven

[rolins]

I heard of the game in Nintendo Power once, but never played it. I did try out the arcade version in Mame before, it totally reminded me of Legendary Axe.

[MotoRoaderMike]

I heard of the game in Nintendo Power once, but never played it. I did try out the arcade version in Mame before, it totally reminded me of Legendary Axe.

The arcade version, even though I thought it was pretty fun, is a completely different game, just like the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is a completely entirely different game from the NES version and the Xbox/360/PS3/Nintendo DS versions. But I don't enjoy it as much as the NES version.

[oldskool]

Yeah I remember this game, used to love it.  Beat it years back when it was new.  I really loved the cut scenes, that was something fairly new back then.

[MotoRoaderMike]

Yeah I remember this game, used to love it.  Beat it years back when it was new.  I really loved the cut scenes, that was something fairly new back then.

The cut scenes are probably my favorite thing about the game. I love the anime look. I didn't even know what anime was back in the early 90's when I first played it.

[oldskool]

Another thing that I liked about it that you didnt see in many NES games were the large characters.

[blueraven]

Another thing that I liked about it that you didnt see in many NES games were the large characters. 

Agreed. The fact that the magic attack covered almost the entire screen was nice too.

- blueraven

[SuperDeadite]

Yeah played this one to death as a kid.  Its a cool game, with a great ending.  My only complaint was the lame boss rush at the end.  Why did so many games use a lazy boss rush? I've always hated them.

[ccovell]

...it totally reminded me of Legendary Axe.

That's because the director and designer are the same guy, Tokuhiro Takemori.
(link: wayback://hg101.kontek.net/legendaryaxe/legendaryaxe.htm)