Journey to Silius (NES) Playthrough
322A playthrough of Sunsoft's 1990 action game for the NES, Journey to Silius.
Journey to Silius, known in Japan as "Raf World" (Rough World), is one of the pillars that Sunsoft's reputation for stellar NES action carts was built upon, and in my opinion, it sits on par with Batman (https://youtu.be/sJ8i5WC70F8) in terms of playability and overall quality as one of their best.
It's a run-and-gun platformer that puts you in the shoes of Jay McCray, a man whose father was recently killed in the terrorist bombing of a space colony. Jay finds a data disk and a letter addressed to him in his father's belongings a short while later, and in the letter, his father asks him to carry on his work should anything happen. Beginning at the deserted spacy colony and culminating in a showdown at the enemy's spaceship factory, Jay's mission will see him trading fire with the terrorists across five stages.
The game was originally intended to be a licensed tie-in to The Terminator, and was even previewed in Nintendo Power as such in 1989. Sunsoft lost the rights to the license during production and had to rework much of the game before release, but the connection is still pretty clear in some of the enemy designs - the last boss, especially - and the backdrops for the first couple of stages.
It's a shame that it was stripped of the license given how poor most of the Terminator games have been over the years, because Journey to Silius is a top-notch action cart. The action is smooth and fast-paced, the challenge is stiff but fair, the controls are spot-on, the graphics are among the best you'll find on the NES, and the soundtrack is pure 8-bit magic.
When it comes to NES run-and-gunners, the Mega Man and Contra games tend to hog all the glory, and don't get me wrong - they deserve the love they get - but Journey to Silius also deserves a seat at that table.
(The NES version does, at least. The PlayStation port doesn't do the original game justice.)
Oh, and did you happen to notice the posters of Hebereke hanging on the wall at the end of the first stage (3:42)? What a neat touch.
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