StarTropics

StarTropics was hailed as one of the great games of its time. It had an original story, great gameplay(with a couple of flaws), and the music was wonderful.

The game puts you in the role of Mike, an ace pitcher(baseball) from Americola. Mike gets called down to C-Island, where his uncle Dr. Jones has been abducted. Mike gets his hands on a submarine, one that eventually takes him to Jones' location (after 6 levels: gets swallowed by a whale, battles an octopus, becomes a woman just to name a few events.). There Jones tells Mike of a plan very sinister: aliens, whos leader is a Godzilla lookalike named Zoda are trying to use three special magic cubes to obliterate another hapless race of telepaths. Even though the story tends to accelerate near the end of the game, it's pulled together very nicely.

The game has Mike wandering and fighting his way through a series of linear (for the most part) caves, tombs, and a spaceship. These levels play a lot like some of the the earlier Zelda games (i.e. defeat all enemies here or push this button and the next door will open). At the end of each main level, there is a boss to defeat, which usually requires a special talent on the behalf of the player. However, some areas of the game also have mini-levels, which can be fairly frustrating. One such level has a set of stairs in every room; all but one set take Mike back to the beginning.

However, the game is not without its flaws. A piece of paper is required to progress any further than level 4. The player is supposed to take this paper and dip it in water where it will yield a number (747) to be inputted to continue in the game. This can very easily frustrate second-hand purchasers. Also, there is about a half-second delay between the time a directional key is pressed and when Mike actually moves. This is a common source of failure against the speedier enemies.