Joust (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
194A playthrough of Hal's 1988 arcade action game for the NES, Joust.
The game has no ending, so I play until I get a game over on Wave 29.
Joust for the NES is a conversion of Williams' 1982 hit coin-op, and it was also one of the first NES games to be programmed by Satoru Iwata. It was part of a line of early 80s arcade classics that Hal brought to the console, which also included Millipede and Defender II.
If you aren't familiar with Joust, the concept is simple: you are an ostrich-riding knight who finds himself trapped in a lava-filled cavern. Each round, several other ostrich-riding knights will rise from the floor and attempt to take you down, so what's a knight to do? Well, the title provides a pretty good hint.
In order to wipe out your enemies, you fly into them, and if your lance is higher than theirs at the time of impact, you win. Once an enemy has been wiped out, they drop an egg. If you don't destroy the egg quickly enough, a new ostrich will hatch and you'll have a new enemy to deal with.
To say that Balloon Fight (https://youtu.be/i9cp4tlrGYY ) was inspired by Joust would be a huge understatement.
The NES port stays quite faithful to the arcade version. The graphics are strikingly similar despite the adjustments made for a lower screen resolution, the sound effects are a close approximation of the original's, the controls are smooth and responsive, and the game physics have been recreated with an infuriatingly high level of accuracy. You will find yourself helplessly careening into enemies and lava pits just as often here as on the arcade game, and that's a good thing. That's how it's supposed to feel.
I should note here that the US release saw a few upgrades from the 1987 Famicom release. The graphics are improved, a fancy new font is used, and that bad-ass picture on the "Welcome to Joust" screen is a new addition for the American cart.
It is a bit odd that the game uses music from other Nintendo games, and being a port of such an old arcade game means that there isn't much content here, but ultimately, those things don't really matter. Joust was so successful in the arcades because it was a great example of "easy to learn, difficult to master" gameplay, and this console recreation nails that feeling perfectly.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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