Lode Runner (NES) Playthrough
218A playthrough of Broderbund's 1987 action-puzzle game for the NES, Lode Runner.
Lode Runner was one of the first third-party licensed games to be released on the Famicom in 1984, and it was a port of an amazingly popular computer game released back in 1983.
The premise is deceptively simple: armed with just a shovel and your wits, you must collect all of the treasure in each cave and escape. The catch is that the caves are filled with monsters - or in the NES version, Bombermen - that will do their utmost to ruin your day. They will pursue you relentlessly, and you have to be careful to not let them trap you. You can temporarily stop them by digging holes for them to fall into, but it doesn't take them long to climb out and resume their chase, and if you kill one, a new one spawns to replace it.
If you've ever played any Lode Runner game, you'll feel immediately comfortable here. Though it's a port of the very first game in the series, the mechanics and flow of the gameplay haven't changed much over the years. If you haven't played a Lode Runner game, this one is a good place to start. It has 50 levels (adapted from the original designs to accommodate the differences in video resolution), the difficulty curve is reasonable (compared to the later games, at least), and it stars Bombermen as the bad guys!
I just wish that it had an ending. A simple message would've been nice, but the game simply loops back to stage one without any sort of acknowledgement.
If you like a bit of strategy with your action, I recommend this one without reservation. Lode Runner is good gaming. I can't say I was much surprised to learn that this was one of the NES's first games to sell over a million copies.
Here's a random bit of trivia: Lode Runner's stage clear tune is the title screen jingle from Mario Bros. Special, a game Hudson released for Japanese PCs. The stage intro also sounds a lot like the one in Mickey Mousecapade ( • Mickey Mousecapade (NES) Playthrough ).
And here's a weird piece of trivia for anyone who hasn't played NES Bomberman ( • Bomberman (NES) Playthrough - Nintend... ). When you win the game, you get a screen that reads:
"CONGRATULATIONS
YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN
HELPING BOMBERMAN TO BECOME
A HUMAN BEING
MAYBE YOU CAN RECOGNIZE HIM IN ANOTHER HUDSON SOFT GAME
GOOD BYE"
Human being Bomberman then walks across the screen, and lo! Like a phoenix from the ashes, a Lode Runner is born!
(Does anyone know if that was the basis for Bomberman Act Zero's story?)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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