Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
111A playthrough of Camerica's 1992 unlicensed graphic adventure game for the NES, Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade.
Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade is the sequel to the little known "Linus Spacehead," a game that was included in Camerica's Quattro Adventure. Unlike the original Linus Spacehead, this one is an old-school, PC style graphic adventure mixed with platforming action. It's an odd mix, but one that works generally quite well. It was sold on standard cartridges in addition to special Aladdin Deck Enhancer mini-cartridges.
There's little doubt, at least among those that played Commodore 64 games, that CodeMasters was a top-tier developer. They did some really excellent stuff on the machine. Since Camerica handled the distribution of CodeMasters' NES games in North America, it probably won't come as a surprise that these games tended to be of very high quality as well. They might not be officially licensed titles, but they generally compared quite favorably with the stuff being put out by the more highly-regarded official licensees. If you need examples, just look at Micro Machines, Ultimate Stuntman, or the Big Nose games. All good stuff.
And Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade is another game to add to that list. It features Linus, a guy that looks human but apparently isn't, searching for evidence that Earth is a real place. He has to run about using items in contrived ways - think Maniac Mansion, King's Quest V, Nightshade, or Shadowgate - that will hopefully get him nearer his goal of getting back to Earth for his proof. The puzzles aren't terribly difficult, but they are well put together and might make you scratch your head a few times as you work your way through. Each of the graphic adventure sections are flanked by a set of platformer stages, and these must be successfully passed in order to get to the next adventure section. The platforming bits carry the tone of the game well, but they do suffer from stiff controls that can be a bit on the unforgiving side. Overall, the game is quite fun and poses a reasonable challenge, even if it isn't quite as substantial as some of the other point-and-click type games on the NES. The writing and the humor are great, though, and give the game a distinct tone that makes it feel different than any other game of its type.
The graphics and the sound, as you might expect from CodeMasters, are top-notch. The graphics rarely suffer from any break-up, slow-down is nonexistent, and the colors are super-vibrant and fit the super-hero motif nicely. The cinematics also look surprisingly good, with large clear sprites and a fair amount of animation. The most impressive aspect of the graphics, however, is the use of color. There aren't any scenes in the game that look dithered, washed out, or out of place on the NES - it was designed specifically with the machine in mind, and it shows. The music, done by Allister Brimble, is also fantastic. Your love for the tunes will likely depend on how much you appreciate 80s PC music (much of this sounds like C64 music), but it makes good use of the hardware.
The NES version of the game was the original one. The game did appear on the Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Amiga, and Dos about a year later, but those versions weren't ports of the NES game - the game was remade from the ground-up, and hosted a number of improvements to the controls and to the graphics. I'm partial to the NES game because it was the first, but there's no doubt that the later versions improved a great deal upon an already excellent game.
If you're looking for something a bit more quirky and off-beat than the usual NES experience, Cosmic Spacehead certainly has a lot to offer. I mean, how many games allow you to use a fake ID to play bumper cars as Larry Flynt?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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