The Battle of Olympus (NES) Playthrough
285A playthrough of Brøderbund's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, The Battle of Olympus.
The Battle of Olympus is a platforming-focused action-adventure that places you in the role of Orpheus, a man traveling across ancient Greece on a quest to defeat Hades and rescue his girlfriend, Helene, from the depths of Tartarus.
It's often looked at as a Zelda II clone, but that label lacks nuance and fails to capture what makes The Battle of Olympus such an excellent game. The game's designer, Yukio Horimoto, spoke openly about how much he had been inspired by the Zelda games in a 2015 interview with Jeremy Parish (check out Parish's excellent USGamer article, "Legend of Love: The Making of The Battle of Olympus"), and though the parallels are undeniable, the quality of the final product speaks to the respect that Infinity's three-person development team held for Nintendo's work.
Between its sharper focus on plot development and player direction, the diversity of its dungeon designs, its tighter world design, the lack of overworld filler, and its surprisingly non-punitive attitude toward death, The Battle of Olympus does plenty to differentiate itself, and the refinements make for an arguably better game.
For anyone who can appreciate a challenge, that is. The Battle of Olympus may seem friendly at first with its generous checkpoint and password systems, but make no mistake: it's a difficult game. It's fair, but it doesn't tolerate sloppy play. If you recklessly throw yourself at enemies, you will die. If you try to tank damage, you will die. If you try to avoid the enemies, you'll be knocked back into a bottomless pit and.. well, I'm sure you get the idea.
The Battle of Olympus was seen as an underground classic in its own time and it has always enjoyed the attention of a small but devoted fanbase, but it's a real shame that it never gained much traction with the masses. If you're a fan of the classics, this is too good a game to pass up.
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