need some help NES- Guardian Legend

[RJ]

Got this yest. no manual, I have no idea what's going on in the underground(?) "on foot" parts. A brief rundown on whats happening would be appreciated!

[aaron7]

One of my favorite games of all time.

Best site here: http://shmups.classicgaming.gamespy.com/guardianlegend/

[Press_Start]

In a nutshell...you're suppose to find the 10 triggers that activate self-destruct sequence. The menu screen provides a map with blinking squares indicating the next corridor or "dungeon". Little chance to get lost like in Zelda. But it's locked and opening requires solving little puzzles or performing certain tasks.

To give you a start, open the first corridor by simply shooting at the entrance until it does. Directions or "hints" are hidden in nearby areas but unlike Zelda where you access a hidden room by blowing up a blow. Usually destroying the blocks adjacent to the wall reveals a door.

Bonus advice: Search the entire area for minibosses, upgrades, and weapons before entering the corridor as the experience and power-ups does better your chance in boss battles, some can be a serious pain-in-the-ass to beat. Trust me, I know. Red Grimgrin still haunts my dream till this day.

Oh...one last thing, the extra corridors (11-20) don't automatically open but don't count toward the 10 mechanism you have to trigger. But a good way to improve and get a nice upgrade to boot.

All n' all, Guardian Legend is a fantastic, underrated game. Too bad it didn't get the recognition it deserved. I did a review for a few months. Clicking on the link in my sig will take you to my youtube account. Enjoy!

[StakeRaiser]

This is my favorite NES game, I would say I've played it through it about 5 times. I can't believe it isn't regarded in the top 10 of NES games, maybe if Nintendo marketed it instead of Broderbund it would have been.

If you get stuck on opening any corridor, just check gamefaqs or something. Some are pretty tricky.

[Graham Mitchell]

Got nothing to add, just wanted to say that this is also one of my favorite NES games, if not my absolute favorite. After all these years, I still haven't beaten it on "TGL" mode--the forest bosses are awful and you're so underpowered in general when you skip the underground corridors.

[jperryss]

If you get stuck on opening any corridor, just check gamefaqs or something. Some are pretty tricky.

Don't forget that if you're in any of the rooms that give you hints, you can hold Select while hitting the B button and it will cycle through ALL of the hints for opening the corridors.

Got nothing to add, just wanted to say that this is also one of my favorite NES games, if not my absolute favorite. After all these years, I still haven't beaten it on "TGL" mode--the forest bosses are awful and you're so underpowered in general when you skip the underground corridors.

TGL mode is brutal. I try to kill as much as possible in each level because the amount of power-ups you get after each stage seems to depend on your kill score.

[kupomogli]

Got nothing to add, just wanted to say that this is also one of my favorite NES games, if not my absolute favorite. After all these years, I still haven't beaten it on "TGL" mode--the forest bosses are awful and you're so underpowered in general when you skip the underground corridors.

TGL mode is brutal. I try to kill as much as possible in each level because the amount of power-ups you get after each stage seems to depend on your kill score.

Actually. You get every power up and chip power up that is available to you through each key you currently have(if you have the keys and could grab that power up in the normal game before going to specific area, then you'll get that power up on TGL.) The only thing points do, whether you're on TGL or regular mode is raise your max HP.

[skaar]

From that Shrine posted further up... can't stop laughing. Who knew Chun-Li fired lasers from there?

[Ed Oscuro]

Who knew Chun-Li fired lasers from there?

every japanese h-artist

:S

XD

BACK ON TOPIC:

I tried out Guardian Legend a bit, but it seems to fail at shooting, and at the top-down exploration. Of course, I don't *really* like the original Legend of Zelda either, but this seems worse.

[skaar]

I'm going to dig through the collection and see if I have a copy to give this a go.

[StakeRaiser]

I'm going to dig through the collection and see if I have a copy to give this a go.

Well, even if you don't have it, it won't cost you much, can typically be found on ebay for
Five to Eight dollars, and that's including the shipping. Super bargain for such a cool game.

[MachineGex]

This is why I love this site. I can't believe I missed this game....
I have well over 600 NES games and dont recall playing this one. I had a copy hidden behind some others games, I almost thought I didnt own it. I was a click away from buying another on ebay until I checked again. I have it pulled out for tomorrow, when I will give it a spin.

[Garry Silljo]

This is definately in my NES top 10. Maybe all time top 10 too. There are many games that try and mix genres and fail miserably. Here it works all too well.

[Graham Mitchell]

This is definately in my NES top 10. Maybe all time top 10 too. There are many games that try and mix genres and fail miserably. Here it works all too well.

Compile experimented with that formula a few times.

Any fans of this game should try Golvellius: Valley of Doom on the SMS, another Compile adventure game (it's on the MSX too, I believe, but I haven't tried that.) Anyway, it has more than a few similarities to the Guardian Legend, and even has some of the same music. I guess it gets lukewarm reactions from people, but I think it's really good. Anything that resembles TGL in some way can't be all bad.

[A Black Falcon]

The Guardian Legend... I agree with many in this thread, it's a fantastic game that's definitely among the NES's best. The only real negative to mention is the overly long passwords (they're like 30 characters long... argh!). Other than that though it's fantastic, with great gameplay, good graphics, great design, plenty of challenge without being completely impossible... everything a great NES game needs.

I think that it's fairly popular, really, if just with harder-core gamers... it wasn't a mainstream hit, but a lot of the people who played it loved it. And for good reason. It was one of a friend of mine's favorite NES games too. It was critically acclaimed at the time and shows up on a good number of "best of" NES lists.

Oh, and Chun Li vs. Alyssa? That's not a fair fight... Alyssa is The Guardian and can transform into a spaceship. Chun Li... can't quite match that.

Oh... the Japanese boxart is perhaps some of the best boxart ever. The US cover is pretty boring, but this...


(note - that's supposed to be Guardic, not Goardic. Oops. Also, the Japanese title is "Guardic Gaiden", not "The Legend of Guardic". The Japanese text there probably says "Guardic Gaiden", I'd imagine. The cover art, though, is awesome...)

Oh, I have Hudson's somewhat-similar Xexyz as well. It's one part shmup, one part side-scrolling action-RPG... great game too, if not quite as good as The Guardian Legend.

[Press_Start]

Black_Falcon, the Japanese boxart looks great! Splendid and well-detailed! BUT...it's the European cover that takes the cake. Elegant, simple, and beautiful! (What can I say? I got a thing for metal angels turning into jets. )

Fun Fact: In Europe, TGL was published by Nintendo in 1990. Does that technically make it a first-party title?



(BTW, TGL passwords are 16 characters long. Clash at Demonhead has 30-character passwords. )

[Graham Mitchell]

@Black Falcon: Xexyz is a Compile-developed game as well. It's got Blue Landers!

And that Japanese box art kills. I don't think the US art is necessarily bad, I just can't tell what the hell it's supposed to be. But that J-region art is just stunning. It's so...graceful? A perfect compliment to the game.

[A Black Falcon]

Black_Falcon, the Japanese boxart looks great! Splendid and well-detailed! BUT...it's the European cover that takes the cake. Elegant, simple, and beautiful! (What can I say? I got a thing for metal angels turning into jets. )

Fun Fact: In Europe, TGL was published by Nintendo in 1990. Does that technically make it a first-party title?

http://shmups.classicgaming.gamespy....ea8/eurogl.jpg

(BTW, TGL passwords are 16 characters long. Clash at Demonhead has 30-character passwords. )

The European box is nice, but I definitely think the Japanese box is better. It's better, more detailed and interesting, art... the European art certainly does blow away the lame American art, though. Eyes? Huh?

As for the passwords... okay, it was only 16? Still too long...

Legacy of the Wizard does have 30 character passwords. It's enough to get me to not want to play the game... even beyond the frustrating, directionless world you have to explore and figure out (unless you go through it with a guide, it's going to be very difficult to figure out what to do).

By the end of Faxanadu your passwords reach up to 24 characters, but they start at just 13 characters early in the game.

The Faery Tale Adventure on Genesis has up to THIRTY SIX CHARACTER passwords!

The longest passwords of any game I have, though, other than the Golden Sun-Golden Sun TLA transfer password, is Gauntlet IV for Genesis. There is a 30-character password that saves your character (level, items, which dungeons you've beaten, stuff like that), plus an additional 10-character password to save your progress in the dungeon you're currently in. So yeah, 40 characters. That's just cruel.

I do like passwords because unlike a battery save or chip, as long as you hold on to the paper you have the password written on, you won't turn the game on and find the file gone... but it really only works when the passwords are short, maybe 8 characters or less. Above that, it just gets annoying.

@Black Falcon: Xexyz is a Compile-developed game as well. It's got Blue Landers!

And that Japanese box art kills. I don't think the US art is necessarily bad, I just can't tell what the hell it's supposed to be. But that J-region art is just stunning. It's so...graceful? A perfect compliment to the game.

Compile, really? It's credited to Hudson... does Compile really have something to do with the game?

Anyway, yeah, that art is spectacular. Game box art is usually not that good.

[StakeRaiser]

One thing I loved about the game, while it didn't do it as well as Metroid, this seemed to be one of the few games where I felt the "isolation" while in some of the corridors. When you get back to the main part you breathe a sigh of relief. I thought Broderbund did it with Legacy of the Wizard as well.

[skaar]

I think the US cover/boxart killed my interest in it back in the day. It just looked like some generic shooter as opposed to an actual adventure game. Looking forward to firing it up.