Preliminary: Ooooo right off the bat I'm noticing the NES-quality controls. Responsive and tight; able to move mid-air (which should be a basic feature in '86 yet even arcade games started retracting it for some reason..); and I love the cape-based floating aspect. Not perfect by any means, and some of the collision masks were noticeably bad--but I do like the NES's quality for controls when it comes to '86! Plus, I read it's either 16 or 17 stages (which each have 2 parts but still)--that seems doable! First stage done, let's do this.

Look: 7/10 Nothing special, but that classic NES look for sure. And endearing enough

Sound: 8/10 Pleasant, classic NES sound. All the melodies have that positive upward motion to its tones that I expect from the NES. The main jingle/s are almost dreamy. Indeed, it grew on me, and the ending song solidified it a bit higher

Play: 8/10 These precise controls really allow for those arcade-game last-second dodges that I love sooo much. Makes me tolerate difficulty. Indeed, I had read many people remark how hard this game is, but so far (I'm only on Stage 3 writing this lol), it's the right kind of difficult thanks to the tight controls and learnable mechanics. That being said, people probably were trying to get most the chests, and I'm only getting convenient ones. I'm sure it's much more difficult when chasing a hi score, which is what the programmers wanted after all. Esp with the 2 player aspect. I noticed the enemies don't stick to very simple mechanics, which is both frustrating and rewarding. Like sometimes they'll patrol back and forth but then that same enemy may change it up and drop down. Only frustrating enemy mechanic that didn't have a positive like that was the constant spawns that sometimes happened in certain spots. But hey, they needed difficulty in some way! And with tight controls and pretty good collision masks, I was able to time moving under them and duck and dodge etc!

I do wish there were some sort of attack mechanic (beyond the Pac-Man style power-up where enemies become coins for points)... and I do wish you could open chests by running into them or maybe attacking them if there were an attack. I realize it's a fundamental part of the gameplay, so it was clearly intentional, but I think something like that would have added to the fast-paced and responsive gameplay, while how it is sort of detracts from the constant forward movement and excitement. Clearly it adds to the challenge, though, and if going for highest score situations, would force you to be around a lot of enemies to practice them swift moves. But like how am I supposed to open this chest??? There must be a way?? is there an attack? Hm let me do some research

Pro-tip: jump out of screen of enemies to make them despawn and have to respawn, superrrr helpful when the screen gets crowded

Another pro-tip: while an enemy is spawning or changing-to-a-new-enemy, they can't hurt you ;)

Feel: 9/10 I'll put most of the 2nd playthrough in this section, since the fact I replayed it really added to the feel and now I understand the nuances better (who knew there'd be this many nuances in an early NES platformer). I read up about the Sphinx unlocking treasure rooms and secret passageways (I thought it was just a linear platformer!); invisible treasure chests; secret items and easter eggs like the crystal balls and most of all the Tecmo Plate. This is so cool, these are the kinds of games I was looking forward to playing. Wow! And there are apparently even different endings based on the Crystal Ball collection, on top of the rating at the end. This is so ahead of its time.

Wow the Crystal Ball collection is so elaborate. I'm on my first one, on Stage 7, and uh, thank goodness for Strategywiki lol. Especially the Japanese version. Oh 1986 Japanese games and their love of absurd secrets :-p

There are not only ways to warp ahead but also to warp back in stages, handy if you missed something for an ending or whatever you want. At this point (Stage 11, third play session), I decided I would go for the good ending (all Crystal Balls), but not necessarily shoot for a super high rating or score, and started ignoring some of the Treasure Rooms, Sphinxes, and other optional stuff. I was still enjoying the game but it's so long! And a Good Ending playthrough is pretty awesome anyway :-p

Attachment: 9/10 Wow it wasn't until Stage 6 that I resorted to looking at StrategyWiki and frankly getting overwhelmed with all the nuances in this game! Much more than just a fast-paced, tightly-controlled platformer (which is adequate as that!). Very cool. I love the maps on the StrategyWiki, which reveals to me that the chests have set rewards. Some may prefer randomized, but that intrigues me especially for future replays. And now I'm reading about these Sphinxes and basically secret parts of levels? Intriguing indeed! I'm a good chunk into the game and apparently I should restart and use this knowledge about levels of power, Sphinxes, being able to smash through things (hopefully akin to the attack mechanic I wanted??)--very exciting! The fact I'm even open to starting from the beginning, especially from an '86 game let alone a home game not an arcade game, says a lot. And without some particularly striking C64 sid music track or a particularly moving Look or anything!

And omg! It's like several of my gameplay ideas to add to the fast-paced, fun nature of the game were exactly what they did! Very cool they built it in to arcade-game-style power-ups too! (I need to remember, NES is one of those consoles where manuals are actually meaningful haha) Time to start over with this knowledge and understand the nuances of the levels better!

Oh my gosh, I love everything I just read on this page. You get a rating at the end of the game; you could just play it to survive and finish, or you could go for a higher rating or highest score or speedrun and/or the bombs-in-right-order which is another whole layer; there are homages to original Bomb Jack through the palace levels; the Torture Room mechanic, though potentially frustrating, is an interesting mechanic; and the way it is timed but a) you can def make it through if you just want to get through fast and b) there are ways to add ticks to the timer. Love it! Tonight I plan to start over, so this is gonna be one of those sloppy multi-layered reviews ha like good ol Moon Patrol's review.

Dang this game is long!! 3 play sessions, probably about 1.5 maybe even 2 hours later, and still only getting through Stage 7.

And a fourth play session, which I resisted bossing for,

I wasn't sure if I got 5 Secret Coins because I didn't realize how important they would be--I thought it was just the Crystal Balls for best ending! Good thing I apparently did! (After all, how could I resist collecting Secret Coins?) Without a guide/map, this would have been impossible to get Best Ending... Oh wow we destroyed the pyramid!

Cute little jingle at the end screen

Completion: Both Crystal Balls and 5 Secret Coins, To The Ending Playtime: ~4 hours, maybe even more