Today, I'm looking at one of the several "Action Dude Man" games that were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Fans of the 8-bit console are bound to have played at least one of the titles belonging to this made-up subgenre, but for everyone else, let me give you a quick primer: Imagine your favorite 80s action movie hero starring in a video game that didn't suck. The dude of today goes by the name Nova. He wears a tank-top to show off his impressive physique, and sunglasses because he's
Nova is the lord of the ancient Power Blade, one of the finest examples of a boomerang in video game history. It does everything except fly through walls and pick up faraway power-ups. You'll be relying on this immaculate curved piece of awesomeness as well as Nova's gifts for jumping, ducking, and ladder-climbing. While you're exploring the stage for the necessary ID card to open the boss door, keep a second or third eye out for any power armor that's lying around. Until he takes three hits, Armored Dude Man cuts through everything with wall-piercing blasts. Healing rations and screen-clearing grenades are also found throughout, so stock up whenever you can. Grenades are particularly useful since all it takes is a little timing and they'll destroy most bosses before they have a chance to appear. I mean, not that you'd need to rely on a glitch to win. Unlike the Castlevanias, Mega Mans, and (maybe) Ninja Gaidens this game was inspired by, a normal playthrough is hardly what I'd consider a struggle.
As much as they'd like to pretend otherwise, Natsume knew exactly what buttered their bread. Play this side-scrolling platformer for long enough and you'll start seeing a lot of familiar faces. The skeletons of abandoned androids will crumble the second you bash them, only to re-assemble themselves a few seconds later. Smaller bots will home in on the nearest human or try to confuse them by flying in a wave-like pattern. Invincible mechs that scoot across the ground will only leave themselves open to attack if they sense someone within range of their cannons. Visuals aside, the only difference between these robots and what you've faced in similar games is the fact that the Power Blade cuts through them like house-brand tissue paper. To put it another way, this is exactly what would happen in a Castlevania game if Simon's cross could fly in eight directions, didn't cost any hearts, and was inexplicably more overpowered.
The seven boss battles that you'll contend with are very unlikely to induce stress, and that's if you haven't already erased them with the grenade glitch mentioned earlier. Most are done in with repeat boomerangs to their hard-to-miss frames. The only possible chance they have of being a threat is if you arrived at their lair with half or less health and no rations. I'm sorry, but that's a statistical impossibility. Even when accounting for the oddly short invulnerability period, the frequency of hamburgers is an assurance that you're never leaving an area without maximum health.
I've talked about perfect rentals before, but this right here is what I'd consider to be the dream rental. It has all the ingredients necessary to make a fun weekend. The level of difficulty is as close to comfy as the genre will allow, with its hardest bits often involving death-defying leaps. Tasking the player with finding a contact is a very clever idea. It teaches the values of exploration and creating routes. The variety of alternate paths adds a tinge of replay-value as well. Above all that, I believe the most important aspect of this game is how it's designed to make players feel good. There is a remarkable amount of positive feedback whenever they accomplish a goal. No doubt being a dream rental would affect the game's bottom-line, which is all the more reason I commend everyone involved for not removing continues, having enemies do 1/4th of Nova's health in a single hit, or some other cynical nonsense. A video game, at least one made during the height of the NES's popularity, has to be enjoyable. Tampering with that most essential quality isn't going to win over anyone.
For those out there desperate for some extra spice, there is the Expert Mode. Before you ask, this is not the 1-hit kill maniacs-only setting. It's actually milder than expected, as there are only two noticeable changes. The clock has been cut from 999 seconds to 300-350. This is a pretty significant change, especially for those out there who haven't memorized the locations of contacts and/or boss doors. Semi-optimal play is going to eat up about 100 to 150 of those seconds, which leaves some room for errors. However, if you're getting turned around often or continuously farming hamburgers to top Nova's health off, then time won't be on your side. Routing a path to the contact and then the boss, while allowing a detour or two to grab some power armor, lends Power Blade some much-appreciated depth. The other change is knockback. You already know what that is but look below if you need a refresher.
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| Nova getting knocked out of the air and into the abyss. |
The closest this game could get to a Maniac Mode is if you decided (for some unholy reason) to refrain from picking up power-ups entirely. That means sticking with a powerless Power Blade for the entirety of the adventure. Isn't that how it was in Power Blazer, the Famicom game that this is based on? Yeesh! No wonder so many people hate it. Actually, I take that back. The original didn't have eight-way directional throwing either. What Randy Struddard* did to turn this game around and make into a classic is nothing less than miraculous.
Power Blade is one of many NES games that I consider to be a required play. It's nowhere near the deepest or toughest, but it excels at everything it sets out to do. Nova is the perennial example of Action Dude Man. It's not just the look, but also the way he carries himself. Outside of very specific circumstances, he can't be easily defeated. The weapon he expertly wields is top-of-the-line mecha-slashing greatness. Also, since I'm 67 out of 100 on assumptions, I'm going to say that he isn't the toxic type who has dreadful opinions about any subject that isn't boomerangs. I say this because he grew up in a colony without war, and since wars are always started by men being utter shits... It's a not uneducated assumption!
*In his review of Power Blade, Twentieth Century Gamer attributed its exceptional quality to the efforts of Randy Struddard, a former Nintendo employee who was working at Taito's U.S. branch. Give this review a read the next time you have a moment. It's quite superb.
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