Totally Rad
System: NES
Release Date: March 1991
Developer: Aicom
Publisher: Jaleco
Genre: Action
Get ready for some most excellent and bodacious action in Totally Rad! So this gnarly old magician dude named Zebediah has been training this regular dude named Jake in the way of totally unbogus magic. Not the kiddy stuff at birthday parties, but radical stuff, like turning into a fish, tiger, or eagle! That, plus the ability to heal, stop time, and using the elements at will make saving the very righteous babe, Allison, and her dad from the Undergrounders a piece of cake. Let’s get ready to take out all the baddies through 12 levels of magnificent magical action!
This is a Mega Man style action platformer, but it is quite different. Jake runs to the right, can jump with the A Button and shoot with the B Button. It’s possible to power up your shot by holding the B Button, but it doesn’t always work when you intend it to. Jumping while powering up your shot shoots it immediately, which sucks, but you can fall down to another platform and keep your charge. Enemies fall much quicker to the third power shot than the first.
Levels are pretty short, but they can be difficult. You only have six life points and twelve magic points. Most of my magic use was replenishing health. Spend four points to get to maximum life or two to add three. I suggest sticking with the life half up because it’s more economical. There’s both the stop time and damage shield spells that I can see some uses for now, but was more worried about replenishing health. The problem is there are lots of enemies, but they don’t drop any powerups. You have 12 points of magic until you reach the next stage. If you use a lot before the boss, good luck, as you don’t have anything left.
Dying sends you to the beginning of the level, so don’t die. You gain lives by killing enemies on the multiple of 100. I find this to be incredibly tedious, so hopefully you gain a few lives over the course of your adventure. The only times I was in real trouble were on the bosses. They have a life bar on the bottom, but it may take a moment to figure out, but once you do, they’re easy to defeat. There are a number of attack magics, fire, water, wind, and stone, but I got very little use out of them and really only tried them on the sub boss of the final level.
The special gimmick is the magic to transform. Jake can turn into Tigerman, Fishman, or Eagleman. Tigerman gives you an invincible jump, but low distance attack and is useless. Fishman allows you to swim in water in the few times it’s useful. Eagleman allows you to fly and has more utility and I even used it to make a boss pretty easy. The final boss has two forms, but they have the same pattern and were easy to beat.
Graphics: 3.0
I like the sprites, animations, and backgrounds, but they aren’t top tier.
Sound: 2.5
I think the sound is novel, especially the play on the traditional circus music. Again, nowhere close to top tier, though.
Gameplay: 3.0
Everything controls well and you have a lot of magic to mess around with, but the lack of drops is kind of egregious.
Difficulty: 3.0
You can grind to earn lives and I think you can continue as much as you want, but dying sending you back to the beginning of the level is rough.
Fun Factor: 3.0
I enjoyed the playthrough, despite it not being perfect.
Overall Rating: 2.9
Totally Rad earns a B. This is a solid game, though it isn’t amazing. You could probably have yourself a good time with the magic system.