Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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A playthrough of Vic Tokai's 1990 strategy game for the NES, Conflict.

This video shows every scenario played on the highest difficulty setting (Blue Level 3) for the best ending.

Conflict is a turn-based war sim that pits east versus west in a Cold War-era campaign that plays out over the course of sixteen battles. Neither the game nor the manual mention anything remotely political in nature, but the bad guys are referred to as "Red," and the units available to each side make the connection obvious.

The goal is to take out the enemy commander, but you first need to build up your forces and establish an advantage. At the beginning of each battle, both sides have a handful of starter units, a commander unit (an Abrams tank for blue, and a T-80 for red), and a pair of factories for producing ground and air units. When a town or airstrip is captured by one of your units, your army can use it as a base to replenish ammo, refuel, and repair battle damage.

Fame points (FP) dictate which units you can produce, making them the deciding factor in most battles. With zero fame, you're stuck with basic infantry units. The better units, including armored tanks, F-16s, and bombers, are unlocked as your points increase.

FP is generated every turn by any towns or airstrips you've captured, it's won by destroying enemy units, and it's lost when one of your units is destroyed. The amount of FP scales with the power of the unit that was defeated, so the fight for FP turns battle into a tug-of-war. By taking out the enemy's strongest units first, you'll drain their reserves and cripple their ability to rebuild, and if you're not careful to manage your losses, you might end up in the same boat.

When units clash, the game switches to the battle mode, and here's where Conflict throws a curveball. In a series of narrated cutscenes and menu-based commands, the units jockey for openings, fire off attacks, and scramble to evade counterattacks. It works a lot like a JRPG battle system, but with the emphasis placed on positioning. It's a cool twist, but if you don't want to handle battles yourself, there's a handy auto-battle option available.

Conflict is a game that I've had on my to-do list for years. Every time I'd look at the box, the complete lack of screenshots would arouse my suspicions and my inner monologue would say something along the lines of, "No way, get that shit outta here." But a few months ago, tired of it hanging over my head, I finally cracked the manual, smoothed out the included poster map, and popped in the cartridge. I had no clue what I was doing and got smoked countless times, but it wasn't long before I'd cottoned on to the basics. The more I understood of what was going on, the more it drew me in. I learned the ropes with the easy level, took away several key lessons from the medium level, and then powered through the hard level a few times back-to-back, growing better with each pass. I played it obsessively for weeks, and I had an excellent time. I'm still not particularly good at it, but I don't mind. It was challenging in ways that most NES games aren't, and that was what engaged me. I found it super satisfying.

Though Conflict was an NES exclusive, it's not hard to imagine that you're playing a PC-88 game if you squint your eyes. The map screen prioritizes functionality over style, there's no overarching story, it was the first NES war sim to use hex-based map layouts, and the gameplay is more involved than most games of this style on the console. It's accessible, though - *much* easier to learn than Koei's games! - and the interface isn't nearly as obtuse as you might imagine for a game of its age. The music is pretty good, too. It's a little sharp on the ears, but the tunes are memorable. The compositions reminded me of youtu.be/dwbsRUyLmvA, and when I looked up the composer, it turned out that both games were indeed scored by Michiharu Yasuya.

Conflict wasn't at all what I expected from the people who brought us youtu.be/BwqqKQ_7d18, youtu.be/UHIJX1m6hvI, and youtu.be/qqVW5S21sAU, but it turned out be one of the happiest surprises the NES library has sprung on me in quite some time.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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