Nightshade (1992)

Nightshade is a very dated graphic adventure game that plays from a 2.5D perspective where you are going to be solving puzzles and exploring Metro City by exploring connected rooms to look for items to use in your environment using a Command-type interface. The game feels a lot like a second-rate Deja Vu or Shadowgate. The 2D perspective is similar to other titles like Maniac Mansion.

The puzzles in this game are about what you'd expect, very similar to other games in this period of time. Fortunately, there aren't actually a lot of interactable parts of a room, and if they actually are something, it will have text come up that says "STATUE" at the bottom of the screen if it's actually something you can work with, so no hidden pixel hunting really. This is one of the better things about the game i liked. Puzzles related to items are also mostly interesting and satisfying. Puzzles in general are okay in this.

Control scheme isn't the best but it works. I eventually got the hang of it.

Nightshade features some really nicely shaded scenes. There were things I liked and disliked with visual presentation

What turns most people off on this is probably the way it fuses these adventure elements with actual action elements in the form of a beat 'em up minigame when you bump into an enemy. There are also lots of environmental hazards to take down your health as well. And the occasional timed puzzle.

I thought these action elements were really out of place for the game and felt quirky. the beat em up minigame is at least different in some ways from being completely generic. Enemies have different attacks and weaknesses (I'm not sure this was a good thing because it means you will lose a fight over and over and over again until a guide tells you exactly what to do or you somehow get lucky)

Metro City is also very, very maze-like, and this is a tough game to get through without a guide because it's easy to miss something and not have a clue what you need to do next or what you missed. I remember back in the day I couldn't figure out how to complete this despite having infinite health with Game Genie. The game is hard both from the fact the beat em up minigame is hard, you have limited ways to heal yourself, and the adventure quest itself can lead one to be stumped.

The game is of an average quality at best. It has limited music and sound, has a repetitive kind of gameplay, has awful writing/jokes (and a silly tone i found seldom funny). I almost get the sense that whoever wrote this game was ashamed of their project..

The setting is interesting but not really expanded on in too much detail. You're like a kind of superhero in a Gotham City-like setting. It's unfortunate the story is so contrived and arbitrary as it actually wasn't a bad setting and had a decent enough backstory.

If you're curious i'd recommend a Lets Play over actually playing this. I'd only recommend this to hardened graphic adventure fans who like the idea of the beat em up minigame. The humor might win one over if appreciated, but between the fact i didn't like it or all of the games' unusual quirks i am unsure if it was worth getting off my backlog.

Don't forget you can "jump". Several puzzles can only be solved this way, and it's easy to forget.

I feel like this game was very much trying to be a Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island and while any game can be frustrating at times, those are better games for sure. This title would seem to suggest its creators planned a sequel, one that would never come. Possibly due to the adventure game format being a somewhat aged genre. Beam Software is a developer I've only played a handful of games from, but those I have were also very experimental and unusual hybrid genre designs (The Three Stooges and Back To the Future Pts II & III) It's hard to beleive that in just one year after the release of Nightshade that Shadowrun for the SNES would be released by the developer.

One of the more obscure NES games, Nightshade came out in 1992 and was one of those later NES releases that tends to be forgotten about as everyone started diverting their attention to the Super NES and Sega Genesis.

You play a detective named Mark ("Nightshade") who must solve the murder of the superhero Vortex, who was killed. Without him around to protect Metro City, crime is rising and Sutekh, one of the crime lords of the city, has combined all the gangs together to wreck havoc and cause Mayhem.

The game combines elements of point and click adventure with beat 'em up action. You must search for clues and talk to the people to help gain evidence and "popularity" points. The more popularity you have, the more people are willing to share with you.

The writing is hilarious and the game has a wonderful sense of humor. While it has a dark, film noir tinge to it, the overall attitude is very tongue-in-cheek.

The game is very tough. I would recommend playing it on the Switch Online service with save states. You get only limited continues otherwise.

Nightshade is one of the most unique NES games I've ever played. It might not be a classic, but it's one worth trying out if you are an NES fan and looking for something new to play.