It Came From the Desert (TurboGrafx CD) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
195A playthrough of NEC's 1991 interactive movie/adventure game for the TurboGrafx CD, It Came From the Desert.
It Came From the Desert on the Turbo is a reimagining of a 1989 Amiga game by Cinemaware, well known for games like Defender of the Crown, The Three Stooges, Rocket Ranger, Lords of the Rising Sun (also on the Turbo), amongst others. Cinemaware's titles, as the company's name would imply, were far more cinematic in nature than most games of the late 80s, relying on the latest hardware to create experiences that were never before possible.
Random aside: for those that care, the cop is played by the same guy that played Carno in Phantasmagoria for PC!
The original It Came From the Desert was formed in the same mold, and the TurboGrafx CD became the platform upon which the game got pushed to even greater technological heights. Rather than being a port of the computer adventure/RPG game, the console iteration has become a full-blown FMV adventure interspersed with top-down and side-scrollling shooter sections. The plot has also changed: now you play Buzz, a intellectually challenged herp-derp whose town is being taken over by giant killer ants, and with the aid of the local "crazy scientist," you have to figure out how to save your town, and the planet, from certain doom.
If you've seen Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, you already understand the vibe that this game evokes.
While opinions tend to vary on the game, I personally adore the multimedia approach that this version takes. Resembling a 50s B-movie, It Came From the Desert makes extensive use of FMV to convey its super cheesy, gritty vibe, and it does it pretty effectively. Granted, the video is not of terribly high quality, it's damned impressive given the RAM limitations of the Turbo when using the base 2.0 system card - it may be super low color, but it avoids the ugly dithered pixel-mush that Sega CD video often turned into, blends in well with the photo backgrounds, and is more than clean enough to make out any necessary details. The sound quality is about the same - the in-game digital effects and voices never come close to approaching CD quality, but the distortion and compression generally leave everything sounding clear enough that there aren't any problems understanding it. The music deserves special mention - the in-game redbook audio tracks are great, but I can't get enough of that title theme, Sea of Love. It's as awful and as corny as it sounds, and it fits the camp-tastic mood of the game perfectly.
As far as gameplay goes, it's pretty simple: you are given a choice of places to go, and when you arrive, you'll either witness a conversation between Buzz (the player character) and whoever is around, or you'll be attacked and sent into a battle with giant ant swarms. These actions scenes are done pretty well - they may look simplistic and ugly when you compare them to all of the glitzy video, but they are easy to figure out and easy to play. They're challenging, but they are fair and provide the game a good sense of variety.
It's not got a lot of replayability - once you've figured it all out and beaten it (and maybe played through another time or two to see the FMVs you missed the first time around), there isn't much else to see or do. However, that first trip or two is something pretty magical. It's a pretty jaw-dropping title for 1991, and while it's not got the meat of a more "traditional" adventure, it's not a game you're likely to forget about anytime soon.
Anyone that loves interactive movies or monster movies filled with canned sound effects and rubber suits NEEDS to play this. It's totally unlike anything else on the Turbo (or pretty much anything else), and it's a TurboGrafx exclusive, so there's a good chance you've never gotten the chance to experience it. You should fix that. Seriously.
Final note: I uploaded a video of this a couple of years ago, so if you've been around the channel that long, the title is probably familiar to you. However, I wanted to replace it with a higher quality recording, and this playthrough shows more of optional videos than the first did, so here we go!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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