StarTropics
System: NES
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Nintendo R&D3, Locomotive Corporation
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Adventure
Take a trip to the Coral Sea to help Uncle Steve find some lost ruins in StarTropics! Ace pitcher Mike Jones has a famous archaeologist uncle who has requested his assistance. Experience Mike’s adventure as he travels through 8 chapters of island hopping, dungeon clearing, and mystery solving action.
There are two main modes of play. The overworld adventure mode where you talk to people, solve the occasional puzzle, and find out where to go next. And the dungeon action mode where you move through rooms, fighting enemies, and figure out your way to the end. Mike is equipped right away with a yo-yo that he uses to attack baddies. Over the course of the game, this weapon is upgraded to a morningstar, which gives the attack some range, and the Super-nova, which attacks across the screen. You must have enough health, or the weapon will revert to its earlier forms.
There are plenty of special weapons that are found in the dungeons, as well. These are placed at specific spots for specific reasons. They are usually required to get through a room properly or defeat a boss more easily. The fire for this serpent boss for example. This octopus boss is defeated easily if you freeze the lake and go to town on him with your attacks. These throwing stars split and shoot to their sides if you press the B Button twice. It would have been nice to realize that to defeat these snakes…
The adventure portions have you walking around the overworld and seeking passages to make it to the next set piece. You’re typically given an easy task that then turns into something else. It’s important to keep an eye on color differences in terrain to find hidden passages. Sometimes you need to find an item to move forward. The towns all have Cola in their name and that seems to be a running gag throughout the game.
At the end of your quest chain, is a dungeon. These consist of a number of rooms that you’ll be doing a lot of jumping and fighting in. There are green blocks that many times hide switches that need to be pressed to open doors or show items. They also act as platforms that you can jump to in water or lava and not die.
As you try to figure out how to move to the next room, there will be enemies. Lots of enemies. They, for the most part, seem to be reskinned right out of the Legend of Zelda. These enemies occasionally drop stars and hearts. Hearts add to your health meter, replenishing what has been lost. Every five stars you collect will act as a heart. You’ll be avoiding enemies and projectiles as best you can by jumping. You just have to be careful not to jump into the water or lava.
The first dungeon does an excellent job of laying out most things you’ll need to keep an eye out for the rest of the game. Especially that you will be cast into unavoidable death situations that you won’t know about until it’s too late. Items and potions are only good for the dungeon you’re currently in and will disappear when you leave. For this reason, it’s best to use your potions before you leave the level, as health doesn’t automatically replenish.
There’s even a bit of copy protection present. In the middle of the game, you need to dip a physical letter you received with the manual of the game into water to reveal the passcode 747. Though the internet exists and would have told me this, I still remember it from when I was a kid playing StarTropics. Over all the years I had it, I never sat down to finish the game, so was happy to finally uncover the mystery of the Southern Cross and Dr. J’s dealings. The end has a nice slide show of your adventures in the Coral Sea.
Graphics: 3.5
Sprites look good in the action area. Everything’s a bit less detailed in the overworld, but main characters get neat looking conversation sprites.
Sound: 3.0
Music and sound effects are solid. The main dungeon theme is a bit of an ear worm.
Gameplay: 3.0
The biggest downside to gameplay is Mike’s movements, which are a bit sticky and momentum-based. This makes being precise a chore, though I know experts likely use it to their advantage.
Difficulty: 3.0
Dungeons are mostly fair and you can’t lock yourself out of moving forward in the adventure mode. If you die, you’re brought back with three hearts, which can make finishing the dungeons very difficult.
Fun Factor: 3.5
I had a good time in my nearly four hours of play. I always enjoyed StarTropics, but am happy I can put it behind me.
Overall Rating: 3.2
StarTropics earns a B+. I give this one a strong recommendation. There’s certainly some BS present, but that’s true about most NES games. Overall, we’ve got a good one here that you should play.