NES Club [5/03/04] - Shatterhand

[Darth Sensei]

This week's game was chosen by Ze_ro Next week's game will be chosen by Gideon . Please PM ASAP with your game so we can post screenshots and the rom. Also, include your challenge if you want to include one.

Shatterhand

http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/shatter1.txt http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/shatter2.txt


Download the Rom: http://www.angelfire.com/apes/madmeat/Shatterhand.zip Thanks Meat Stick

Please keep all comments about this game inside this thread and include the following:

Opinion: What did you like and dislike? Was it as good as you remembered? How does the game compare to arcade or other system if applicable?
Platform: Was it played on NES, emulated on PC, GBA, etc?
Progress: How far did you get in the game?
Challenge: If applicable, did you complete the challenge? Remember that those using emulators should not use built in features to make the challenges easier.

The Club Member list is below:
Cuewarrior
Oobgarm
Zubiac666
EnemyZero
Bratwurst
Icarwngs55
Gamemaster_ca_2003
Jive3D
Dr.Morbis
Nesman85
Ze_ro
Gideon
Portnoyd
Postermen
Kaine23
Goodwill Hunter
Damon Plus
Balloon Fight
Scooterb23
Sotenga
TRM
Alex Kidd
Spoon
Atariboy
Classicgamesdepot
adaml
TheRedEye
Goblin
slip81
Hamsnibit
AdamG
Qixmaster
DDCecil
ArnoldRimmer83
Brisco
whoisKeel
MarioAllStar2600
Quintracker
SniperCCJVQ
Needle
Sph1nx
swlovinist
ddockery
chrisballer
downfall
vintagegamecrazy
gamergary
jgenotte
supahzonik
8-bit Master
leonk
Captain Yashiro
jerkov
Sofa King Gud
Captain Nintendo

[Darth Sensei]

Ze_ro calls this:


Best damn Ninja Gaiden ripoff I've ever played.

and his challenge is:


Beat the first level (including the boss) without taking any damage

Have at it folks.

D

[sniperCCJVQ]

@cuewarrior

your avatar...yuck ! :puke:

[ManekiNeko]

I was never that fond of Natsume's other NES games (especially Shadow of the Ninja and Abadox), but this one is a real keeper. It's a macho platformer with a well armed cybernetic hero. By "well armed" I really mean it... the man's got a megaton punch capable of dismantling giant robots and throwing human enemies across the screen. He's also got the ability to construct his own android assistants by collecting Greek letters scattered throughout each stage. Putting together different combinations of Alpha and Beta result in different sidekicks, each with their own specialized weapons. Collect three more Greek letters after you build your assistant and it merges with you, turning you into a nigh-invincible android soldier for thirty seconds. It just doesn't get any more awesome than this.

Anyway, the graphics in Shatterhand are as advanced as the futuristic setting, and the gameplay is a lot of fun, with more depth than Ninja Gaiden and memorable boss battles straight out of Mega Man. If you've got an NES, feed it this tasty treat and it will love you forever.

JR

[Bratwurst]

The graphics for this one are really nice and one of the levels even sports multiple 'layers' of parallel scrolling backgrounds. Remember when this was all the rage with 16-bit SNES games? Rygar and Friday the 13th had 'em too, although in limited form.

I've already beaten it but I was cheating a little with savestates near the end; I'm debating on including it in my collection. I don't really like how the robot sidekick system works as all of the weapons are at awkward angles and you're stuck with close combat throughout the whole game. I'd be fine with this except that quite a few enemies take an insane ammount of hits.

About the power suit, you have to match the same two sets of letters in a row while your robotic buddy is still alive. It doesn't last long enough imo and I only managed to get it once, by accident in fact, right before the final boss fight.

[Azazel]

Also play the Japanese version if you can find as there were a fair amount of things that were changed when it was released in the US. There's also a translation patch for the import version to boot.

[Ze_ro]

I don't really like how the robot sidekick system works as all of the weapons are at awkward angles and you're stuck with close combat throughout the whole game.

Yeah, I thought that was rather annoying as well... I remember one of the robots would always lunge forward before he attacked, which meant he almost always ended up being hit by the enemy I was trying to attack... needless to say, he didn't last too long.

Anyways, I think this is one of the best "undiscovered" NES games that never seems to get any attention. I hope this introduces this game to some new people.

--Zero

[Balloon Fight]

Cool since I already have a review on NESworlds site.

just got it, and man was I surprised (in a good way).

Graphics: The colors fit right in with each level and are great for the NES.

Sound: I thought the sound was great, especially since it didn't just loop over and over. New songs for each stage also helped.

Gameplay: This is easily the best part of the game, because it has some great variation. The main character can only jump and punch, but if you collect three symbols, you get a side kick with different abilities. These range from a flamethrower to a laser. After they take enough damage they dissapear, then you can try to get another one. There are also bosses on each stage which take a little memorization to figure out how to beat them.

Overall: I loved Shatterhand, and I will definitely go back to playing it. There is a lot of variation in the stages and the sidekicks to keep the game fresh for a while.

Rated: 9.4 out of 10.


Also for you people struggling with the bosses here's a little code I dug up in a Nintendo Power: At the title screen- A,A,A,A,B,B,B,B,A,B,A,B,A,B,A,B.

You'll be taken to a screen with all of the bosses to practice against.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

This is one of my favorite Nes games. I didn't expect much when I bought it a few years ago, but once I started getting into I found the game to be pretty solid. It has good play control, and some nice levels. The difficulty balance is pretty good too, as the game has some tough spots but it never gets too frustrating. And I like the robot sidekicks and the power suit. This game is one of the most underrated platformers on Nes.

[jerkov]

Opinion: Just when I think I've seen & heard it all on the NES, a game like this comes straight out of left field and smacks me across the face. Why hasn't anyone told me about this game before???? I must say that the second Jaleco published game in a row to be chosen as the NES game of the week is far better than the previous one (I didn't reply to the Whomp 'Em thread, mostly because I'm not really a big fan of that game due to its awkward play control). I actually bought this game at Gamestop last night (only $1.99, not including the 30% off promotion for all the old games) because everyone on here was raving about it. I had seen the game around before, but I guess the stupid looking cover prevented me from ever giving it a chance. What a mistake that was - this is an excellent game. Excellent graphics, excellent sound, excellent play control. What more could you ask for? I actually really like the power-up system where you collect the alpha and beta letters to create a robot helper. I haven't gotten to merge with it yet to make an android soldier, but I'm sure this is a game that will find its way to the inside of my NES quite often. Overall, I'd give this game an 8/10, but more playtime could increase it to 8.5 or so (I've only messed around and beat a couple of the levels so far). Thanks for introducing me to this fantastic game!

Platform: Played on my NES.

Progress: Like I said, I've only been fooling around with the game so far. Played a little bit of all of the levels, only beat a couple as of right now.

Challenge: I played through the first level, but I got hit quite a few times. I'm very new to the game though, so give me some time.

[Jibbajaba]

Well I like this game so much that I just bought a complete copy off of ebay.