Totally Rad (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
351A playthrough of Jaleco's 1991 platformer for the NES, Totally Rad.
Somehow, Totally Rad doesn't stand out for its strangeness against many of Jaleco's other NES offerings. It's a fairly average game, but the strong control mechanics put it well above much of the platforming dreck on the NES.
Totally Rad (or "Magic John", in Japan) was developed by Aicom, the company that also handled the development of Jaleco's 1990 release Astyanax, and though the two aren't directly related, it's easy to see where much of the groundwork for Totally Rad was first laid.
Totally Rad stars a kid - a rad one - who speaks looks and speaks like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He is learning magic from a creepy floating wizard head named Zebediah, and as they're doing their thing, someone swoops in and kidnaps Jake's valley-girl girlfriend. Jake goes after her after she informs him that "they're like stealing me or something."
At first glance Totally Rad looks like any run-of-the-mill platformer, but there's a fair amount more to it that running to the right and jumping. Jake has access to four different forms that he can switch between at any time (providing he has enough magic to do so), and they each provide some sort of advantage. The fish can throw ninja stars and swim, the bird can fly and chuck boomerangs, the tiger can do power swipes with his claws, and as himself, Jake gets access to a chargeable fire shot that looks an awful lot like Mega Man's buster arm, as well as a few magic spells that can do things like temporarily freeze enemies or refill his life gauge.
The gameplay is straightforward and fairly smooth (even if some NES-style chugging and slowdown does show up at times), and I personally found it to be a lot of fun. There are a number of ways to go through the game based on which forms and abilities you use, but there are "ideal" choices in many situations. If you find that the game is unforgivingly difficult, mess around with your different forms - you'll probably find something that makes life a bit easier. The mini-bosses are quite difficult, and many of them require a lot of attention be paid to their attack patterns. The end-of-level bosses, however, tend to be extremely easy, which is bit disappointing considering how cool their designs are.
The graphics look great, here. It looks like a late-game NES release thanks to its impressive use of parallax, color, and the earlier mentioned boss battles. The whole story is also told in cinematic cutscenes like those found in Astyanax, and Totally Rad's cringe-inducing humor is actually pretty funny. This is not Ninja Gaiden by any means, but it does do a nice job of providing some sort of rationale for the action. The audio was a bit weak though - most of the music isn't terribly memorable, and some of it verges on super annoying thanks to the drums - are they using a square wave as toms? Whatever it is, I find it a bit grating.
Overall, Totally Rad is a quirky bit of solid NES gaming that embraces the ridiculousness of its era, and because of that, it's pretty endearing. Or dare I say... it's totally rad.
(This is a new playthrough to replace my original, ancient 240p video of the game. The video quality, and my playing, are much improved in this one.)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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