Mission: Impossible
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Ultra Games
Genre: Action
Prepare to self-destruct while on Mission: Impossible! Dr. O has been kidnapped and it’s up to the Impossible Missions Force to save him. Hop around the world in seven stages of espionage action to put an end to the Sinister 7 and ultimately, save the world! Take the roles of Max Harte, Grant Collier, and Nicholas Black to defeat enemies and find your objectives in each level.
Each agent comes equipped with an A weapon and a B weapon. Agents are easy to switch between, merely pressing the Start Button and scrolling among them. Max is your heavy gunner with a long range rifle and remote control bombs. His drawback is his incredibly slow movement, which isn’t fast enough to get through some later obstacles. Grant is super quick, but is held back by not equipping a weapon and only have the range of his fists. His B weapon is a sleeping gas bomb that knocks enemies out for a moment so you can wail away. Nicholas is your average guy, with average speed, and average range on his boomerangs, though they come back so can hit enemies both coming and going. This is useful to hit guys hiding behind a wall or box 2 tiles long. His B weapon is a disguise that allows you to walk by most enemies without being attacked. Useful against sentry enemies who shoot without much of an opening. All the agents have their time to shine, but I used Grant a lot to move through the levels more quickly.
If an agent gets knocked out, falls into water or the abyss, or is captured, you switch to the next available agent and restart the room. Levels are extremely long and if you lose your crew, you have to start from the beginning of the entire level. This is a pain, because levels require a ton of trial and error, not only with where to go, and the traps and obstacles that are in your way, but with enemies that require precise steps to kill. They will inevitably get you first until you figure those steps out. Seriously, if you enter a room as the wrong guy, you’re as good as dead, as with this floor that immediately begins falling as you enter. Both the boating and skiing levels leave you nearly defenseless as obstacles come on screen quickly and unexpectedly. Look, a crack in the ground just formed without warning.
The steps on a typical level revolve around finding an NPC that gives you a pass, turning switches that control traps and hazards blocking your path off, then finding your way to the door the pass opens. These levels can easily take a half hour to complete as you walk back and forth between objectives. Along the way, you’ll face green punching guys, pink shooting guys, molotov cocktail throwing brutes, and more. Many rooms you enter have cameras that you must avoid, just like Metal Gear. Making many timing puzzles that you’ll screw up by one pixel. There are also walking robots that alert enemies if you enter their line of sight. I think my favorite part was this room with magnets that had an affect on the trajectory of bullets and boomerangs. Curving them into enemies made me feel clever.
Some rooms will give you fits, like this moving statue room. Only punches and bombs work on them and you’re going to take massive damage if you try to swing away. (Vid 3; 30:00) The boss that gave me fits was this ninja. Trying to kill him with attacks proved untenable, as the ground quickly cracks and falls as you stand on it. I was clued into a better strategy by Twitch user Iwill_beback, who suggested I walk around the perimeter of the room dropping floor tiles. After many tries, I got it to work and was satisfied. (vid 3; 40:00) I’m not ashamed to say I used save states liberally. I don’t know if I would have gotten through level 3 without them, let alone the rest of the game. While medpacks and B weapon refreshing briefcases exist, there are only a few on each level. After a long slog of backtracking in the final level, the end sequence is out of War Games, forcing you to outsmart a computer, then you save the world and prepare for your next Mission: Impossibler.
Graphics: 2.5
The top down view isn’t that great and the animation all looks stilted. It’s not terrible, though.
Sound: 3.0
It definitely sounds like a Konami game. I feel like the titles published by Ultra Games have the same sound designer.
Gameplay: 2.5
It’s easy to change among the agents and they all have strengths and weaknesses to help you in different situations.
Difficulty: 1.0
It’s trial and error difficulty that I hate. Move forward into your death multiple times until you learn the placement of enemies.
Fun Factor: 1.0
It’s more frustrating than fun, but once you get a level memorized, it’s kind of nice mowing everyone down.
Overall Rating: 2.0
Mission: Impossible earns a C. If you want a game that coasts by on style over substance, here it is. This is one mission you probably shouldn’t accept.