Atlantis no Nazo (1986)

Preliminary: Cool secrets in this, but too hard for a gamer like me. The NES sure had precise collision masks, better than some of the contemporary arcade games!

Hmmmm, welllllll, maybe I should at least try to do the speed route of this (see here

Look: 7/10 Functional enough, cute ending guy... You can tell they were trying to go with a Mario look, tho their goal was to surpass Mario in all ways... definitely failed in that.

Sound: -/10 Mostly annoying, but also not awful or fully detract from the game. It probly would get a 6 or a 7 but it wouldn't be fair to include it, I don't typically include this era of game's sound (tho now that I've done the Atari and earlier era, I kinda feel like I should... I mean the C64 had some jamsssss why shouldn't the NES manage to too?)

Play: 6/10 Cmonnn nowwwww how's there no mid-jump movement. Lame! I was getting into this too! Thanks to the specific short route with a video to reference with the absurd secret warps and path.... but that jump factor... That's a big bummer. And the jump with its momentum in general feels super awkward and poorly done, tho it'd be easily resolved with a mid-jump movement mechanic!!! Smh!

Like the video said, sure it's nice that there's very responsive jump where you can immediately jump again when you land. But this momentum factor to movement is sooooo clunky and poorly done. It makes movement feel so awkward. I have every reason to stop playing, but I'm super curious because of the secret warps and also because this short 6 minute route is--well-just 6 minutes for this dude to do it. So Imma try to press on. (To be clear, for anyone who tries this, your momentum for jumps falls and movement is not based on, well, how much momentum you've got going/how much you've moved... who knows what it's based on though lol). I do find it frustrating when people call games like this "hard" (it is, mind you), but it implies that clunky controls is some sort of difficulty-increasing mechanic. When, in my eyes, it's just a fault.

Feel: 8/10 So cool how there's so many different routes you could take, while still retaining the Mario vibe they wanted (and the Mario-style secrets too). People said there's no ending, which I never like, but I do like how it embraces the nonlinearity in the sense that you could go back through and try different routes or just explore whatever (if only the controls made it worth "just exploring"). Such great ideas here. Like the Mario-style secret in the 97th Zone where you jump up and over the level itself to a secret area. I love that type stuff. Again, if only the controls made it fun enough to find these on my own, instead of just following that super short route guide (which ,I admit, was fun despite the poor controls).

Attachment: 7/10 Welp, that was super short indeed ha. Here I am going into the Final Zone! And with the Star from this route (soooo OP, it makes you immune to all enemies/whatnot, just die from your own dynamites or falling which, as clunky as the controls were, I had mostly gotten down good.... mostly.... and phew, the final zone has no jumps you just run through the fireballs.... tho I can only imagine how tough that'd be without the Star powerup)

I was real crabby tonight--had a bad day and frustrating night--plus still getting over a flu and lingering headaches/irritability... the fact this technically frustrating game was fun to play through tonight says a lot. And here we are, the uh ending screen ha

Playtime: ~20 mins in total, including playtest time. The actual successful run was only about 10 mins Completion: Short route, beat the game though