The Wing of Madoola (1986)

Beat in slow motion mode but the game was too fast even at 40 frames per second. The game was kind of a mix between Metroid and Zelda 2 only with discrete stages rather than open world. The sword started off so weak that it was not worth fighting until after getting an upgrade. Each stage had obvious doors that led to hp or mp, a permanent upgrade, nothing or the boss. The goal each time was to navigate the stages to find upgrades, boss and exit while not getting killed by the relentlessly spawning enemies. Most bosses returned as regular enemies and all but 1 enemy type was reasonable to deal with. That 1 type though got me killed many times. The god damn purple slime things that flew around. Every other enemy had a simple pattern but these things homed in and sat on my face like metroids. The way that respawns worked had them spawn at the edge of the screen immediately after being killed which often led to worse situations than ignoring them. They often appeared during the more difficult platforming and I learned to dread the little blip noise they made. The platforming was actually very good with no instant deaths and forgiving controls. The max boot upgrade gave great jump height too. The basic sword was ok for weaker enemies but could easily lead to taking contact damage, especially how only 1 enemy could be hurt even when many were on top of each other. Flame sword had a little more range and was overall the best attack due to low mp cost and high damage. The bomb did a purely vertical attack up and down, the bounce shot horizontal across the screen and shield rotated around the character like Mega Man leaf shield. Smasher did an area effect and flash did massive damage to the entire screen. The spells were well designed with the angles and areas they could hit but I mostly stuck to the simple and effective flame sword and occasionally the shield. I had them all maxed by the end though hp and mp were not. I assume you would have to farm enemies for random drops to max them. During a later stage the boss was several respawning frogs and I looked up the walkthrough to confirm that was indeed the boss. Talk about lame. The stages got larger and more complicated but were still manageable without a map. The final stage 16 was terrible with those slimes and I had to look up where to go. Turns out there was a wing pickup that I had missed at first, since it was not behind a door. Then use that to fly up to the final boss. Took several attempts to figure out the pattern and I saw no ending after that. I had over 900 mp left and it would not let me fly. So you can't actually beat the game unless you save enough mp to fly up to the exit? There were no enemies to farm either. Seems like poor design. The boss should have restored mp upon defeat or allow flight without mp.

Not a bad game but could have been a lot better. The formulaic stage design was a little boring and the enemy spawns really needed to be changed so that killing all enemies to create safety could be a thing.

6.2/10

Preliminary: I love the concept of this, RPG-infused platformer, perfect. A bit nervous because there are lot of documented glitches and bugs, and also the password/continue system wasn't even mentioned in the documentation smh. Savestates it is, then! Not every game can be a Castlevania with a flawless Continue system, with levels built around it, I suppose :-p I love her, though, and am likely to give this a full playthrough knowing my history with platformers and action-adventures heh

Look: 8/10 Nothing spectacular but also great NES pixel sprite vibe. Good enemy sprites too.

Sound: 8/10 Again, nothing spectacular but never got old and I'd often bop to it.

Play: 9/10 I'm never a big fan of continuously spawning enemies, like I'd get a good vantage point with a ladder kill an enemy and there was no point cuz another enemy would instantly spawn and be there... But I do love platformers with upgradable equipment! And a level system no less! And lol that first boss was a joke! I assume the difficulty spikes a lot though. At least the doors/items-to-get were quite obvious so far. Grateful for that ha. Those darn purple things in the 2nd stage were a real buzzkill though. It's like Metroids but worse. And they just keep spawning. Luckily the StrategyWiki told me the stategy of crouching and attacking. Then basically when I'd get a moment I'd move a little further or jump across the gap or whatever then go right back to crouch and spam attack lol. (Ohhhh and even better pro-tip: yes duck down, but then let them all accumulate above you they wont hurt you as long as you're crouching, then attack them all at once so they die/spawn at once)

Yay for being able to Metroid/Lode Runner fall! I love when platformers don't have a death-if-fall-a-long-distance factor. On Stage 6, I've already seen several of the bugs/clunkinesses. Namely enemies stuck in the door you have to go through ha. Luckily the StrategyWiki informed me you can just leave the screen so it despawns/respawns. But lol these bosses have been a joke so far. I love how the StrategyWiki wrote so much about the Stage 4 boss and I just charged up, stopped right in front of it (I'm fresh off Deadly Towers, so maybe my responsiveness is super high) and just spam attacked while it was frozen. Dead. No magic weapons used. The regular enemies are the challenge so far... But there are 16 stages so we shall see if this is another Doraemon/Deadly Towers situation where I start out loving it and it goes downhill from there :-p

Why do all these early NES games have to have annoying Bat enemies? :-p But still enjoying it so far. Haven't had to exploit savestates, let alone something like Invincibility like I had to with Deadly Towers.

Feel: 9/10 I was getting unsure about the Sound, seemed repetitive tho I noticed a different tune whether outside or in a dungeon area, but then the Stage 5 jam came on. And my head was a-bobbin'. I am very glad there's no time limit factor in this, not only can I bob my head to the occasional good jingle, but also I can run into deadend after deadend haha.

Ugh gross that the boss regenerated his HP when he left the screen. Seems like a glitch but maybe on purpose? The bosses are definitely getting harder at Stage 7 and on, which makes sense. Also seems glitchy with spawning some of the bosses too.

Lol cute easter egg with the chick/cat tho. For all its clunkiness and glitchiness, I love how responsive the controls are. NES truly brought arcade expectations to the house. Like I was able to quickly switch the Flame Sword when I realized my regular sword wasn't enough for Stage 9 boss and still jump over it charging at me and start getting it with the projectile effect of the Flame Sword. And I love how controllable the jump is, press for longer for more air etc it felt smoother than Metroid, and that was even with a bunch of the Boot upgrades. Now if only you could jump-then-grab onto ladders.

Attachment: 9/10 Omg... a "bossfight" of the annoying frog jumping things... and I have to kill 50 of them. Here goes nothing haha. Welp, got through it. And after the first night/play session, I got to Stage 11 of 16. I would finish it all in one setting (that's a good sign!) but it's 9:40 and Michael got home so it's chill out and movie time. I hope I enjoy this tomorrow as much as I did tonight! I'm excited to have a difficult NES game that, so far, fingers crossed, doesn't let its difficulty completely take over the game. Tho it's seeming to go that way... if that ends up being the case, at least they save it for the last few levels to provide a challenge for those really good gamers. Instead of having the whole towers segment brutally hard like in Deadly Towers heh.

Welp it's the next day and I'm on these difficult levels. Thank goodness for the StrategyWiki map. (and savestates). As it is, I'm still fully enjoying the game. The upgrades to my speed and jumps mean I can dart it to a door when the pesky enemies are swarming me. No better feeling than just barely making it in a situation like that. My main pro-tip is: jumping over enemies is your friend. Running from them too. And always keep in mind your MP is restored after a stage. And there are often "Springs" to full heal you in levels. I feel like these levels are crafted as well as Castlevania levels in providing what you need to beat them (if you have a map or knowledge of where things are), while still being a challenge.

Uff I got very lost in Stage 14, but found my way through. But oooo now I'm on the final stage and gonna get the Wing of Madoola to, gasp, be able to fly?! But ah! Omg I did it! That last boss was tough but thanks to the StrategyWiki getting me all the upgrades to have 5000 health etc, I ended with plenty of health and MP (you need at least 1000 MP to finish the game after the boss). Well, plus their strategy (stand in the center of the platform with the final boss and jump up to hit him preferably with Flame Sword, if you have the Boots upgrades don't attack at the top of your jump you'll get the timing right, eventually it just devolved into me jumping and attacking and ignoring getting hit by the fireballs but best to avoid those haha). Wow I feel so proud of myself. I didn't even have to use a savestate for the final boss! Tough game for sure but doable and well-made imo. Cheesy ending but I love that it's the femme character saving the prince, rather than the usual reverse from this era. Yay! Great game! To me this is like the better Metroid? I dunno. Just personal opinion, and a nice surprise.

Completion: Main Story Playtime: 2h 15m