Kurt Kalata is an ardent video gamer from New Jersey. He has founded websites such as The Castlevania Dungeon, which focuses on Konami's long running, vampire slaying series, and Hardcore Gaming 101, which gives comprehensive reviews focusing on the history of gaming. In addition to his own sites and books, his writings have appeared in Retro Gamer magazine, The Overstreet Guide to Video Game Collecting, and at 1up, Nintendo Life, Siliconera, and Gamasutra (now Game Developer).

HG101 Presents: NES Cult Classics by Kurt Kalata

Whenever anyone thinks of the best developers on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the most popular are typically Konami, Capcom, and, of course, Nintendo themselves. But what of the numerous other developers, the ones that put out games you may have read about in Nintendo Power or have vague recollections of renting on some Saturday afternoon? This book covers many of those titles, from developers like Sunsoft (Blaster Master, Journey to Silius), Natsume (Shadow of the Ninja, Shatterhand), KID (Low-G-Man, KickMaster), Irem (Holy Diver, Metal Storm), Atlus (Rockin' Kats, Xexyz), and many others. Also included are reviews of several notable Japan-only Famicom games, including Layla, Otocky, Moon Crystal, Cocoron, Cosmic Epsilon, and several others, as well as the infamous unreleased title Bio Force Ape! While these all may not be the A-listers of the NES library, this book represents some of the more interesting, offbeat, and lesser discussed titles of the system, and is essential for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of the platform!

CURATOR'S NOTE

A returning volume, NES Cult Classics offers a time capsule to the 8-bit era by analyzing some of the least-well-known games in a library of hundreds—including Low G Man, one of my favorites. -David L. Craddock, curator, StoryBundle

 

REVIEWS

  • "This is an excellent collection of overlooked NES classics (in full color!), created by gamers who truly appreciate the artistry of these forgotten games. Well-written and engaging, any fan of video games should pick this one up."

    – James Dziezynski, Amazon.com review
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Natsume is a Japanese game developer, founded in 1987, eventually became a prolific developer of quality action games, and partnered heavily with Taito on a number of titles. Their first Famicom game, Idol Hakkenden, was a Japan-only adventure game, but their second game, Abadox, received an international release and left a stronger mark.

The titular Abadox is a planet that has recently been devoured by an giant intergalactic beast known as Parasitis. As a soldier named Nazal, you are sent into the body of the beast in order to destroy it, as well as rescue the Princess Maria, before she is digested within the belly of the monster.

If that premise sounds familiar, it's because it's more or less identical to Konami's Life Force (minus the damsel-in-distress). However, the premise of that game was always somewhat undermined due to its history. It actually began as a Gradius spin-off called Salamander, where the first level had an organic setting, but the subsequent levels had nothing to do with it. When the game was released outside of Japan, it was renamed Life Force, and the Fantastic Voyage-esque theme was expanded to the entire game, with levels given hasty graphical makeovers (a subsequent re-release in Japan made even more changes). The flames on the fire planet were colored blue, as if you were flying through the digestive track. Asteroids were changed into kidney stones. And so forth. It was pretty transparent, especially considering that the NES port, which purportedly had the same concept, went wildly off the rails when you flew through Egyptian-themed ruins (had the gigantic monster swallowed a pyramid along the way?)