EFTWR
Entertaining For
The
Wrong
Reasons
FLYING DRAGON (NES)
Sometimes the worst games ever, can be the best games
ever. Confused by my statement? That's okay, I can't figure out what I'm
saying half the time either. Let's begin with the gameplay.
As far as I can tell, there's no point to level progression.
The level loops. Whenever you get to the end, it continues back at the
beginning. Remember Super Mario Bros.? And those castles that kept going
forever until you found the exact pattern of tunnels you needed to follow?
It's like that, but there doesn't seem to be more than one clear way to
proceed and as such, you keep playing the same level.
As for the bosses, they come on their own, once you've
walked around enough. Note: If you keep jumping, somehow this doesn't equate
to walking and the bosses will never come.
The first boss you must fight is a nine-year old girl who
throws shuriken. If you think I'm exaggerating, observe.
In the meantime, you're battling rows on rows of mohawked
white dudes that seem to always give the Japanese so much trouble in anime,
and yet fall flat on their ass after one good kick.
So, all in all, the game's rather pointless.
On an unrelated note, there are some rather convenient names
in this game.
HIRYU-NO-KEN, the dreaded Flying Dragon stance (Apparently
the creater prefers Street Fighter's Ryu over his American counterpart)
RYUHI, the hero. RYUHI is just HIRYU with different positioning
of RYU and HI.
GRAPHICS
Okay, it's not quite Da Vinci. Unless of course Da Vinci
opened up MS paint and sat on the keyboard. That would probably be how
the game creaters churned out this fearsome creature of the undead.
All in all, the graphics suck. I feel this sums up my
position as a reviewer on the quality of said game.
SOUND
The sound effects are few and far between. You won't
even notice most of them.
But the music . . . This game is one of two games that
has the most repetitive, yet addictive music you've ever heard. Play the
game for more than a few minutes, and you'll be humming the tune everwhere
you go. People on the bus are going to hit you with a briefcase to make
you shut up. Okay, maybe that's just me. But listen to it anyway.
Addictive music!
High Quality
(411 kb)
Low Quality (52 kb)
SO, WHAT MAKES IT ENTERTAINING?
Besides the music (which I'm humming as I write this)
the game is also impossibly fun for its simplicity and smooth movement.
What I particularly love is after you beat boss #2, Grim, you get super-jumping
ability. After this, I pretty much jump around until I get bored of that,
and start actually fighting bad guys again.
This game in all respects should be the most boring game
that ever existed, but somehow, it's not. It's really really fun. I don't
think there's a way I could describe this. You should find yourself a copy.
Myself, I'm going to buy two in case the first one somehow gets worn out.
And better get a new NES. Sometimes I'm tempted to leave
the game running all night. The music helps me sleep better.
The moral to this story:
Sometimes games just need one more finishing touch, like
level progression.
| GRAPHICS |
4 |
/ |
10 |
|
| SOUND |
8 |
/ |
10 |
|
| GAMEPLAY |
4 |
/ |
10 |
|
| JUMPING WHILE PLAYING MUSIC FULL BLAST |
10 |
/ |
10 |
|
| OVERALL |
7 |
/ |
10 |
012345678910 |
Note: I give sound an 8 out of 10. 8 of it is the music, and the missing
2 is for sound. I really really like the music.