NintendoComplete | The Battle of Olympus (NES) Playthrough @NintendoComplete | Uploaded 8 months ago | Updated 13 hours ago
A playthrough of Brøderbund's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, The Battle of Olympus.
The Battle of Olympus is a platforming-focused action-adventure that places you in the role of Orpheus, a man traveling across ancient Greece on a quest to defeat Hades and rescue his girlfriend, Helene, from the depths of Tartarus.
It's often looked at as a Zelda II clone, but that label lacks nuance and fails to capture what makes The Battle of Olympus such an excellent game. The game's designer, Yukio Horimoto, spoke openly about how much he had been inspired by the Zelda games in a 2015 interview with Jeremy Parish (check out Parish's excellent USGamer article, "Legend of Love: The Making of The Battle of Olympus"), and though the parallels are undeniable, the quality of the final product speaks to the respect that Infinity's three-person development team held for Nintendo's work.
Between its sharper focus on plot development and player direction, the diversity of its dungeon designs, its tighter world design, the lack of overworld filler, and its surprisingly non-punitive attitude toward death, The Battle of Olympus does plenty to differentiate itself, and the refinements make for an arguably better game.
For anyone who can appreciate a challenge, that is. The Battle of Olympus may seem friendly at first with its generous checkpoint and password systems, but make no mistake: it's a difficult game. It's fair, but it doesn't tolerate sloppy play. If you recklessly throw yourself at enemies, you will die. If you try to tank damage, you will die. If you try to avoid the enemies, you'll be knocked back into a bottomless pit and.. well, I'm sure you get the idea.
The Battle of Olympus was seen as an underground classic in its own time and it has always enjoyed the attention of a small but devoted fanbase, but it's a real shame that it never gained much traction with the masses. If you're a fan of the classics, this is too good a game to pass up.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of Brøderbund's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, The Battle of Olympus.
The Battle of Olympus is a platforming-focused action-adventure that places you in the role of Orpheus, a man traveling across ancient Greece on a quest to defeat Hades and rescue his girlfriend, Helene, from the depths of Tartarus.
It's often looked at as a Zelda II clone, but that label lacks nuance and fails to capture what makes The Battle of Olympus such an excellent game. The game's designer, Yukio Horimoto, spoke openly about how much he had been inspired by the Zelda games in a 2015 interview with Jeremy Parish (check out Parish's excellent USGamer article, "Legend of Love: The Making of The Battle of Olympus"), and though the parallels are undeniable, the quality of the final product speaks to the respect that Infinity's three-person development team held for Nintendo's work.
Between its sharper focus on plot development and player direction, the diversity of its dungeon designs, its tighter world design, the lack of overworld filler, and its surprisingly non-punitive attitude toward death, The Battle of Olympus does plenty to differentiate itself, and the refinements make for an arguably better game.
For anyone who can appreciate a challenge, that is. The Battle of Olympus may seem friendly at first with its generous checkpoint and password systems, but make no mistake: it's a difficult game. It's fair, but it doesn't tolerate sloppy play. If you recklessly throw yourself at enemies, you will die. If you try to tank damage, you will die. If you try to avoid the enemies, you'll be knocked back into a bottomless pit and.. well, I'm sure you get the idea.
The Battle of Olympus was seen as an underground classic in its own time and it has always enjoyed the attention of a small but devoted fanbase, but it's a real shame that it never gained much traction with the masses. If you're a fan of the classics, this is too good a game to pass up.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
![X-Men (Arcade) Playthrough [Dual screen ver.]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BuMKYpO-cNY/hqdefault.jpg "X-Men (Arcade) Playthrough [Dual screen ver.]
A playthrough of Konamis 1992 license-based arcade beat em up, X-Men.
For this video, I played through the dual-screen version of the game as Wolverine on the machines default settings. Everything is presented in its original 8:3 aspect ratio.
Once the game is over, from 35:11 on, I let the attract mode cycle several times to show the character profiles and gameplay demos.
This version of the game is essentially the same as the single-screen version (https://youtu.be/yvHVwj3bzJ8), but the wider playfield and the ability to handle six players simultaneously were killer additions to an already classic Konami brawler.
I already did a write-up for the game for my playthrough of the 4:3 version, so please check that out if youd like to hear my thoughts on it.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![Ys (Famicom) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D1oD7m8wjSg/hqdefault.jpg "Ys (Famicom) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Victor Musical Industries 1988 action-RPG for the Nintendo Famicom, Ys (イース).
This video was recorded with a copy of the game that had an English fan translation patch applied. You can find the patch at https://www.romhacking.net/translations/238/
Though Ys 1 for the Master System (https://youtu.be/WGy5fs7beds) was the only Ys game to hit third generation consoles in the west, Japan saw the first three games in the series brought to the Nintendo Famicom. All three were developed by Advance Communication Company, best known as the creators of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (https://youtu.be/zI3HOD4lRzQ), and were published by Victor between 1988 and 1991. The Famicoms Ys 1 landed on Japanese store shelves five weeks ahead of Segas version, making it the first version of the game to be released on a dedicated game console.
Most of the main characters and plot beats remain faithful to the original, but unlike every other port of Ys 1 to be released in the 80s, this one makes several significant changes to the core game:
-The layouts of the overworld, town, and dungeon maps have been completely redesigned.
-A couple of new story events have been added. To clear a path to the mines, a flute that you obtain from a spirit has to be played to dry up a lake, and theres a new door puzzle that has to be solved in Minea.
-There are two new bosses introduced in Darm Tower, and the final battle with Dark Fact takes place in a new location.
-Adol can only move in half-tile increments, and this simplification removes much of the strategy and challenge from the bump combat system.
-Many of the songs have been replaced with new tracks created exclusively for the Famicom port.
These changes all make Famicom Ys feel very different from its computer and Master System counterparts. The Famicom versions smooth screen scrolling is welcome and the controls are a natural fit for the gamepad, but the most substantive changes throw off the balance of the difficulty level and feel like unnecessary intrusions on Falcoms original game design, and navigation is now often frustrating thanks to the way Adol has to be right near the edge of the screen to make the playfield scroll.
Overall, its not a bad effort, but it might leave a sour taste in the mouth of anyone who first experienced the game on another platform. The TurboGrafx-CD version (https://youtu.be/KrH2uvC-zog) certainly spoiled me.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (DS) Playthrough [1 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dgib_OW7g3w/hqdefault.jpg "The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (DS) Playthrough [1 of 2]
A playthrough of Xseed Games 2009 role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.
This video shows the first half of the game, covering the Spring and Summer areas. Part two, covering Autumn and Winter, can be found here: https://youtu.be/VLh5ueggZgs
The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, known in Japan as Riz-Zoawd (リゾード, Rizoodo), is a Japanese-style role-playing game adaptation of the American novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and it was the only DS game to be created by Media Vision, the company behind Wild Guns and the later entries in Segas Valkyria Chronicles series.
Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is an entry-level RPG designed to appeal to genre newbies, much like Squares Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the Super Nintendo (https://youtu.be/OvDTBDEJEQo).The game follows Dorothy traipsing her way through Oz trying to find her way back home to Kansas. With the help of Tin Man, Strawman, and Lion, she has to travel to four lands based on the seasons in search of the magical eggs that the wizard has asked for.
The general flow of gameplay is the same as youll find in most JRPGs: you scour the dungeons, fighting enemies and looking for treasure chests as you build yourself up in preparation for the boss battles while occasionally retreating to the castle to buy supplies and upgrade your equipment.
There are, however, a couple of notable ways in which it differs from the norm. The battles use a ratio system (like Capcom vs. SNK!) that provides you four points at the beginning of each turn to be spent on battle actions. Anything Dorothy or Straw Man does consumes one point, the Lion takes two, and Tinman takes three. The characters all have elemental affinities that make them strong against specific enemy types, and only the active characters in any given turn can take damage from enemy attacks, so theres a fair amount of strategy involved. The game provides a recommended course of action at the beginning of each turn, but youre usually better off ignoring it and doing your own thing.
The touchscreen-based control scheme is quite novel, too. You move Dorothy around with a virtual trackball, and though it sounds gimmicky, it works well and is a lot more fun than merely holding the up button to move forward.
The soundtrack is pretty nice, too, but the graphics steal the show. The DS was not renowned for its ability to crunch polygons, but Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is an absolutely beautiful game. The level of detail in the character models and the environments is second-to-none - not even Nintendo or Square managed this level of fidelity on this hardware - and everything moves at a smooth 30 frames per second. Screen resolution aside, it is a fair step up from anything youd see running on the Playstation or Nintendo 64.
As a game, The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is a fun and easy RPG romp that doesnt do anything revolutionary, but as a technical showpiece for the Nintendo DS? Wow.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
