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Amazing RPG for the NES

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Hydlide just about turned me off forever in the world of RPG for NES, but of course that was a terrible mistake, because Shadowgate is tons better. 3-D type dungeon graphics with a wonderful, easy to operate menu, as well as some truly killer music to go with it which is so much better than that awful music of Hydlide that words fail me. It's a real fun game where you look for keys in all sorts of weird places, read scrolls to obtain spells, get parts for the staff so you can kill the beast at the end of the game. I got a lot of fun finding the sphere so I can take it to the room with the shark infested waters which has the skeleton that has that key. I drop the sphere in the water and I can safely grab the key without being killed by the shark. Another favorite of mine is when you stick a rod by the stairways, lightening strikes it, a skeleton hand reaches out of the ground and you received the wand which you need when you end up in the room with the snake across the broken bridge. I don't want to spoil it all, but for 8-bit NES, the graphics are way cool, and the game is really fun to play. Once you figured out how to beat the game, it becomes real easy, but I never get tired of it. So if you like RPGs for the old NES, you're sure to enjoy this!

Fantastic retro RPG!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Knowing how far video games have come in the past few years, it is easy to forget the classics. "Shadowgate" is considered by many to be one of the best and most innovative RPGs of it's time, and is still a hot item amongst older gamers (like me) to this day.

You are an adventurer who is on a quest to stop the evil Warlock Lord, who has the power to destroy humanity. So you enter Castle Shadowgate in order to seek out the Warlok Lord and end his reign. Of coarse, nothing come easy. You encounter dangerous beasts, ghosts, and if you fail, death himself. You also have to solve mind-bending puzzles, which is the main appeal of this game. You have to rely more on your brains and wits rather than your sword. The game is quite difficult the first time through, and will definitely keep you busy for a few days at least. But there in lies the big flaw in "Shadowgate". There is no replay value. Once you have beaten the game, you know all the secrets and can easily breeze through the second time around. I beat this game in two weeks, but the second time I beat it in less than 45 minutes. But considering the age of this game, it is not a huge downer. It is still a fun trip down memory lane.

In terms of graphics, they are great by NES standards. The colors and textures add depth to any given situation, while the music also compliments the mood. Since this is an old-school RPG, the emphasis is more on story and puzzles rather than action and fighting.

For games who want to experience games from their childhood, or see where games like "Final Fantasy" came from, you should check out "Shadowgate".

A Suggestion In A Similar Vein...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Seika Corp. trilogy of SHADOWGATE (1989), DEJA VU (1989) and UNINVITED (1991) provided countless hours of fun, frustration and head-scratching for Nintendo owners some years back, myself included. These titles were uniform in design and execution, being of the "enter-a-room-and-enter-a-command" format, and each brought a bit of welcome levity to the otherwise grim settings. I enjoyed all three back in the heyday of the Nintendo; yet there was another title, similarly conceived but with certain notable differences, which I enjoyed even more. It has fallen into obscurity (actually, it was always obscure) and is not available for review here on Amazon, so I'll use the occasion of SHADOWGATE to say a bit about it. (Or as Bill Cosby once said, "I told you that story so I could tell you this one...")

I refer to TOMBS & TREASURE by Infocom, a game which made its way to the Nintendo in 1990 but was actually a home computer game dating from 1986. As in the three aforementioned Kemco-Seika titles, the object is to enter rooms -- in this case, rooms modeled on the actual ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza -- and solve what puzzles may be found there. This is done through the agency of various commands which are familiar to any SHADOWGATE player, actions such HIT, MOVE, PUSH, PULL, JOIN, et al.

Unlike SHADOWGATE and its sequels, however, the player is not confined to one structure. In TOMBS & TREASURE, it is necessary to move from ruin to ruin and discover the secrets long-buried in each locality -- and not always in the order which might be presumed. But before the secrets can even be plumbed, you must first clear the place of demons who lurk in the ruins; if you've come along far enough, you have a good chance of rebuffing them, but if you're too big for your britches, they'll send you packing in a hurry. So, TOMBS & TREASURE, in addition to room-to-room exploration, also entails some LEGEND OF ZELDA-ish wandering from place to place, as well as the turn-taking battles found in FINAL FANTASY. Oh, and I might mention that you are not alone, but in fact a party of three, and can switch between members of the group to perform different actions when called for.

It is not the game-play alone which makes TOMBS & TREASURE so enjoyable to me, though the secrets are great fun to uncover (and more than a bit baffling at times -- you can and likely will make a wrong move on occasion which stops you cold and forces you to push the dreaded reset button.) This game simply has a charm to it which I cannot adequately describe, and which few others on small licenses seemed to possess. Despite the fact that you are doing the exciting, Indiana Jones-esque work of vanquishing demons, avoiding traps and unearthing centuries-old mysteries, this is balanced by a sort of placid, serene atmosphere of wandering dreamily through a now-deserted antique city erected by what was once the most advanced civilization on Earth. At times while playing, I thought it would have been appropriate to hear Leonard Nimoy's narration in the background, as though these were three South American explorers being featured on the old IN SEARCH OF television program. There is a moody calmness pervading this game which a mere 8 bits of computer power shouldn't by rights be able to generate -- but it does.

There are also a couple of genuine surprises which unfold toward and at the end of the game -- the latter of which adds a different dimension to it entirely and lifts the whole story up into another realm of fantasy. And should you manage through persistence and cleverness to win at TOMBS & TREASURE, take the chance to fiddle with the controls on the final screen displayed, and grin a bit with delight. That's what you can expect from this game: a unique brand of fun to the very last moment!

Nostalgia-gate

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I remember playing this game in my teens. For some reason, I had a hankering to replay it in my adult life. Still a lot of fun, but a bit short. I can finish the game in 15-20 minutes.

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