Cadash (TurboGrafx-16) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
316A playthrough of Working Designs' 1991 platforming action-RPG for the TurboGrafx-16, Cadash.
Played through as the ninja.
Cadash was a fairly popular arcade game by Taito that was originally released in 1989. It is a fantasy-based platformer, but in an unusual twist for an arcade title of its age, it incorporated several gameplay elements that were typically seen only in console and PC games of its time. Crossing the action from games like Rastan with the light RPG mechanics of The Adventures of Link or Rygar, Cadash is a pretty offbeat, memorable game.
The kingdom's princess has been kidnapped by and evil wizard named Balrog (related to neither the street-fighting boxer nor the demon in the mines of Moria), and the king summons the four greatest fighters of the land to save her and to take down the menace.
You get your choice from these four characters to play as: the fighter is good in close-quarters but can't use magic, the mage has powerful spells but can't withstand much punishment, the priestess is slow but has good reach and both healing and defense spells, and finally, the ninja gets lightning speed and projectile weapons.
The character you pick largely dictates the flow of the game, since their abilities provide several unique ways to approach the stages. If you want a harder game, the fighter makes a good choice thanks to his reliance on items and melee attacks. If you want things a bit easier to handle, the priestess's magic and the range of her weapon make her a good choice for first-timers.
The TurboGrafx-16 version of Cadash was the first port of the game to consoles, and it is pretty faithful to the arcade version. Two-player co-op is supported, and unlike the Sega Genesis port, all four characters have been retained.
This version made some welcome "quality of life" tweaks to the mechanics, as well. The characters were rebalanced to even out the arcade's harsh difficulty spikes, and the time limit was removed entirely, making the whole experience much nicer. A little grinding is still needed, but overall, I found the Turbo version to be more fun than the arcade game because of these changes.
The levels are laid out slightly differently, but they're still recognizable if you are familiar with the original's, and in what has to be my favorite change to the game overall, the graphics have all been redone for the Turbo. Things are much brighter and more colorful here, and it generally looks cleaner and more inviting than the Genesis port. It lacks some parallax effects and the sprites are a bit smaller, but the Turbo's cutscenes look great and make for a worthwhile trade-off.
Though I think it would've benefitted from a bit more content, I really enjoyed the TurboGrafx's version of Cadash. It's an surprisingly accurate conversion that plays to the system's strengths, and the mash-up of genres makes it feel far fresher than the garden-variety hack-and-slash games that came out around the same time. It's not perfect, but if you're a fan of the Turbo, Cadash is well worth checking out, and I was glad to see it included on the TG16 Mini!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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