NES Talk #6:StarTropics

Channel:

Andrew Mullens

Subscribers:

821

Published on January 10, 2023 8:08:07 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9RjIK3k9SQ

Game:

StarTropics (1990)

Duration: 8:16

29 views

3

1990 was a different time for the NES, for it would soon have competition from Sega in the form of the Genesis, and in its last years, the NES was showing its age, but it still kept up the pace releasing hits all until its demise in the USA in 1995. This is a game I never owned but after seeing footage of it, as someone who has played Legend of Zelda, I knew it'd be worth looking into.

StarTropics is a top a down 2D adventure game developed by Nintendo's R&D group and Locomotive Corporation and published by Nintendo on December 1rst 1990 in North America, August 20th 1992 in Europe. Its story follows Mike Jones, a 15-year-old and son of Professor, Dr. Steven Jones, we're on vacation following a high school baseball game to C-Island, a group of islands in the south sea, but it seems Steven has been abducted by aliens so now its up to us to save him and defeat these aliens.

The basic gameplay of StarTropics is that we're moving on an overworld map talking to the locals of these islands learning more about the land and monsters that we'll encounter. When we enter caves the overworld moves to a closer 2D camera of exploring the caves and battling monsters with our trusty yo-yo which is used by pressing the B button, these segments can be tricky as you'll need to memorize that Mike cannot jump more than 2 squares or 1 square depending on where the switch controls to a door or the next landmass is in these caves.

Health can be a problem as all monsters inflict damage on us differently and we start with 3 hearts total, there are health additions to increase your health but I never could find any of them, Bosses are tough and will challenge the most hardened of adventurer gamers with you needing to stay constantly moving to avoid dying, I didn't get too far into StarTropics but I'd call it a hidden gem for those who like Zelda-esq games.