Little Samson
Main game
3.84 average rating based on 50 ratings
- Platforms
- Family Computer, Nintendo Entertainment System
- Genres
- Adventure, Platform
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Little Samson?
Related Content
Really Enjoyable Shovel Knight-type Platformer
This review is for the Nintendo Entertainment System version
Nice game! Looks and sounds great with rich colorful backgrounds. Nice shooting action platforming with a variety of different characters that feature different movement and attacking abilities. Not terribly hard though the end of the game (and some boss battles) are quite tedious. There is little to criticize the game of, other than it lacking 2-player action!
High Quality NES Game, Tho Decidedly Still An NES Platformer (Both Pros & Cons Therein)
This review is for the Nintendo Entertainment System version
Preliminary: I'm enjoying this more than I expected.Surprise surprise I like a platformer :-p but I dunno I just thought the NES limits would make it lacking for me, but so far it's real nice. Good tunes, fun gameplay. The enemies are getting repetitive but I think I'm in an intro segment for each kind of character.
Oh shoot I just read I had to be on Normal to get the "true final boss" Welp too late cuz I'm a good way through on Easy :-p And tho I'm enjoying it (like 4 or maybe 3 star enjoying), I'm not enjoying it enough to replay all the intro stages.
Day 1
Argh so begins the sprite slowdown and other NES frustrations I was worried about already on the first true stage. And some of the tunes aren't great. But I do like that I seem able to hit away most projectiles, and the controls are tight and quick, and as always I like when you can fight back in a platformer (tho that is the norm by 92).
Ugh and they have the infinitely spawning enemy factor that drives me nuts about NES games. Good thing the different characters and …
Preliminary: I'm enjoying this more than I expected.Surprise surprise I like a platformer :-p but I dunno I just thought the NES limits would make it lacking for me, but so far it's real nice. Good tunes, fun gameplay. The enemies are getting repetitive but I think I'm in an intro segment for each kind of character.
Oh shoot I just read I had to be on Normal to get the "true final boss" Welp too late cuz I'm a good way through on Easy :-p And tho I'm enjoying it (like 4 or maybe 3 star enjoying), I'm not enjoying it enough to replay all the intro stages.
Day 1
Argh so begins the sprite slowdown and other NES frustrations I was worried about already on the first true stage. And some of the tunes aren't great. But I do like that I seem able to hit away most projectiles, and the controls are tight and quick, and as always I like when you can fight back in a platformer (tho that is the norm by 92).
Ugh and they have the infinitely spawning enemy factor that drives me nuts about NES games. Good thing the different characters and the straightforward platforming gameplay will probly get me to push through this nonetheless. Or at least a good chunk of it. Cuz those NES limitations and frustrations are creeping up quickly!
Day 2
I continue to get frustrated with the NES difficulty, Megaman-esque qualities, and NES limitations, but here I am on at least stage 8 or higher and still playing and switching characters and solving my frustrations :-p Sign of a good game, even if perhaps not a game I will love due to it being a bit too frustrating for me. The bosses are particularly frustrating, tho I suppose I must find dsome pride in pushing through. The tunes are good but I suppose I wish they were better or perhaps I just expect PC/Sega CD quality tunes in 92 so really these bumping grooves aren't hitting as well as they should/could.
I'm thinnnnking this ice castle level will be the end of it for me. Great game, just a bit too much for me. Definitely worth a play! (Oh wow, apparently this is quite near the end, I just checked a faq for the first time. I will return to this later and give it one more shot since I got so close to the end it really might be worthy of a completion and 4 star after all)
Ok ok yea I pushed through later that day lol. More and more I'm learning the quirks of the level design and really liking that, even if the bosses continue to be a bit frustrating and the infinitely respawning enemies is always disliked for me.
The gotcha damage is getting quite ridiculous as I'm on the Ancient Castle stage right before the 3-part final stage, but that makes sense since it's endgame of an NES platformer heh. I wish the music were better the dungeon and "epic"/battley music is mostly just tinsely and annoying. Oh! Perfect. Apparently this level and boss are the ending of the Easy Mode, which is what I picked! So this really was quite well balanced, after all.
Buttttt this Ancient Castle boss is ridiculously hard... and the music ridiculously annoying haha
Lol wow. Only thanks to reading the FAQ recommending Mouse, whom I had not used at all for bosses, and with just one hitpoint left, I finished Easy Mode! And am proud of it lol. 
Neat little way they hint at there being an even greater enemy to fight by showing the different Wizards or whatever they were and then an additional one flashing on the throne, tho I suppose that could've been interpreted as hinting at a sequel, I guess most people would then try Normal Mode. That's enough for me, but it did wind up earning its 3 possible 4 star after all! Classic NES platformer with a well-done character switching gimmick that's just a bit too difficult and NES-y for my current 1992 taste, but still undeniably good. Oh and I liked this logo thing 
Look: 8/10 Very much so NES, but I like the world map and some good backgrounds.
Sound: 7.5/10 Several very bumping tunes, several very NES limited tunes.
Play: 8.5/10 The best parts of Megaman, a series I don't love, with a sorta-Adventure Island--II gimmick that was surprisingly well done. I suppose I'm slightly overrating Play thist o make it stand out amidst the many 92 3 stars, but I dunno. Something to be said about me pushing through despite the NES limitations and difficulty, and this definitely would've stood out if I only had access to an NES.
Feel: 8/10
Attachment: 8/10 It would definitely make the cut of NES platformers to return to, when in that retro mood, not positive it would make the cut of best 1992 games or anything but it's definitely well-made.
Overall: 8/10
Completion: All of Easy Mode
Playtime: ~2 hours
Little dragon more like since the dragon was by far the best and most important character. Beat in slow motion mode on Normal. I mostly used the dragon for levels and boss fights, only switching when he was low hp or the situation allowed exploiting another character. The dragon could hover by pressing jump again while in the air, just like in Gargoyles quest. Hover was great for skipping enemies and jumps, avoiding shots, and getting right up in a boss's face for massive dps with turbo shots. His shots fired in a very unusual but effective arc; dropping a little bit at close range before arcing upward. I never realized the shot could be charged up since I was using the turbo button the entire time. It might have killed a few bosses slightly faster and been more useful on original hardware with no turbo. Samson was good in combat too though his shots simply went straight ahead. Sometimes that was more useful, especially while crouched. He could also grab onto and climb walls, which was needed in a few places that were too high for jumping. Apparently he could also do the ceiling but I never realized, instead …
Little dragon more like since the dragon was by far the best and most important character. Beat in slow motion mode on Normal. I mostly used the dragon for levels and boss fights, only switching when he was low hp or the situation allowed exploiting another character. The dragon could hover by pressing jump again while in the air, just like in Gargoyles quest. Hover was great for skipping enemies and jumps, avoiding shots, and getting right up in a boss's face for massive dps with turbo shots. His shots fired in a very unusual but effective arc; dropping a little bit at close range before arcing upward. I never realized the shot could be charged up since I was using the turbo button the entire time. It might have killed a few bosses slightly faster and been more useful on original hardware with no turbo. Samson was good in combat too though his shots simply went straight ahead. Sometimes that was more useful, especially while crouched. He could also grab onto and climb walls, which was needed in a few places that were too high for jumping. Apparently he could also do the ceiling but I never realized, instead using the mouse for all ceiling work. The mouse was better at climbing anyway due to being so fast and tiny. The narrow passages for him often led to nice loot or skipped enemies. I noticed that enemies despawned after getting so far past them. The mouse attacked with bombs that ignored gravity. The last golem guy was slow and bad at jumping while being by far the most durable and immune to spikes. It was easy enough to avoid spikes with hover or climbing though. His attacks were melee with limited range but could be aimed in the 4 cardinal directions, so I mostly used him to hit directly up and to soak hits. Down attack was not really useful and it was a shame that no character could attack down diagonal. The only limit on switching was that none of their attacks could still be on screen, otherwise you could freely swap at any time. It was a lot of fun switching back and forth to best deal with each situation and to manage the 4 hp bars. Reading the basics afterwards I learned that potions were a full heal that had to be used from the menu and each character could carry 1. Would have been nice to know but save state scumming worked just as well. The bosses were not that difficult, with the dragon usually hard countering them. Final form of the final boss was the toughest and every character seen some use, though I never attacked with the mouse. Mostly it was point blank hover to the face then using the others to escape when I was getting cornered.
This game was a lot of fun with the switching mechanics putting it up there with Mega Man 2, Kirby and Castlevania 3. The only real complaint I have (other than no story text in the game) is that there was not more. And the map between levels was pointless because there was no indication of the path. They just meandered around but still better than nothing.
9.0/10
Completed on Easy.
A great title. Loved the on-the-fly character switching and the bosses. The controls are very responsive and the music is better than average.
One of my favorites from the NES