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Thread: Game of the Day 2/28/2016: Impossible Mission

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    celerystalker is a poindexter celerystalker's Avatar
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    Default Game of the Day 2/28/2016: Impossible Mission

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    Impossible Mission is a minor classic on the Commodore 64, and has a fairly interesting legacy of its own, including inspirung Sega's Zillion on the Master System. The version I'm talking about today, though, is the one I've played the most: Impossible Mission for Nintendo DS. It was a fairly early budget title on the handheld, and I believe a GameStop exclusive at the time, launching at the hefty MSRP of $9.99. Seeing it, I promptly snapped it up. I mean, hey, portable Impossible Mission, a game I wasn't crazy about... so I didn't worry about whether it sucked. I'd just finished Zillion and thought it might be something to do.

    Well, as it would turn out, Impossible Mission, if you don't know, puts the player in the shoes of a secret agent tasked with sneaking through the underground base of a mad scientist, attempting to gather all of the pieces of his password and solving its puzzle in order to stop him from using his doomsday device. You travel narrow corridors and elevators to gain access to single-screen rooms, which contain various password pieces, codes to shut down security, and to reset lifts in computer terminals, desks, lockers, etc. You must escape robots, solve lift and jumping puzzles, and avoid pits and electrocution in order to succeed within your time limit, which by default is eight hours of real time on DS, or six in original mode. Die, and you lose ten minutes.

    Speaking of original, there is an "original" mode that takes the graphics back to the C64 style, a new look overhaul, and a hybrid with the new backgrounds, but old sprites, which is nice. The DS game offers some other improvements, though, such as saving, tighter control, and faster searching that leaves you less vulnerable. These serve to make the game just easier enough to be more accessible, and it works.

    Honestly, I think Impossible Mission actually works better as a portable game. For one, the way the game is presented with the map on the second screen and being on a handheld make it more apparent that it is meant to be played less like an action/adventure game and more like a single screen platform/puzzle game. Also, the fact that the game is randomized every playthrough gives it portable legs, and the time limit and saving combo make it easy to work your way through a few rooms, save, and keep going later, or it's short enough to get through a solid road trip.

    Impossible Mission is kind of love it or hate it by nature, but the DS version with its newfound accessibility really won me over in a big way that it had never pulled at me before. The remake pays respect to the original while carefully addressing its flaws in a way that doesn't feel like a cheap cash-in, even if it is a budget release. If you like Zillion, Impossible Mission, or like the concept but were put off by some of the clunkiness of the classic game, this may be worth a look.

    Played it?

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    ServBot (Level 11) Edmond Dantes's Avatar
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    A long time ago I used to have one of those unlicensed NES carts of Impossible Mission II, tho it sounds exactly the same as its predecessor. (For the longest time I thought it was a sequel to Konami's Mission Impossible game).

    It was always a game that struck me as kind of "huh?" deal. I enjoyed the jumping and platforming but never quite understood what I was doing... of course, my copy came with no manual so I was on my own.

    It's weirdly gratifying to hear that its legacy persisted into the Nintendo DS.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Steve W's Avatar
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    I have played the PSP version in emulation. I never managed to solve the original back in the day, maybe one day I'll play the PSP one all the way through.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) AdamAnt316's Avatar
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    I remember digging the Commodore 64 version of both Impossible Mission, and Impossible Mission 2. I also had the Atari 7800 version of IM, which actually is impossible. For funzies, here's a recording of the intro message/music for Impossible Mission 2.
    -Adam

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) Emperor Megas's Avatar
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    I've never played the original, or this DS version...BUT I own the DS version. I couldn't pass on a new DS title that looked interesting for $9.99.

    Side note, when I think of Impossible Mission, I think of a picture a guy next to a wall, holding a boomerang. Does this have anything to do with any version of Impossible Mission?

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    Chaos Knight
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    The DS port is nice. Not perfect, just nice. Nothing will ever compare to the C64 original, a game I have ploughed hundreds of hours in playing, and still don't get bored of it. Calling it a "minor classic" on the C64 is a dis-service, it is frequently mentioned in people's best ever games lists, and there is practically no fault with it. Bar the NTSC bug that fries your agent anywhere under certain conditions if you play it in PAL, but Dennis Caswell had no idea about that until I told him. Grab the REMEMBER version online as that fixes it properly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Emperor Megas View Post
    Side note, when I think of Impossible Mission, I think of a picture a guy next to a wall, holding a boomerang. Does this have anything to do with any version of Impossible Mission?
    Are you thinking of the Italian (pirate) artwork for the game? Although there's no boomerang. I'd be fascinated to see an image of THAT!

    http://www.lemon64.com/covers/full/i...e)_(italy).jpg

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    celerystalker is a poindexter celerystalker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mayhem View Post
    The DS port is nice. Not perfect, just nice. Nothing will ever compare to the C64 original, a game I have ploughed hundreds of hours in playing, and still don't get bored of it. Calling it a "minor classic" on the C64 is a dis-service, it is frequently mentioned in people's best ever games lists, and there is practically no fault with it. Bar the NTSC bug that fries your agent anywhere under certain conditions if you play it in PAL, but Dennis Caswell had no idea about that until I told him. Grab the REMEMBER version online as that fixes it properly.


    Are you thinking of the Italian (pirate) artwork for the game? Although there's no boomerang. I'd be fascinated to see an image of THAT!

    http://www.lemon64.com/covers/full/i...e)_(italy).jpg
    I certainly had no intent to malign the game by calling it a minor classic. In C64 terms, it's a megahit. In the larger scope of video games, though, it doesn't carry the kind of fanbase that the Marios, Zeldas, Halos, Sonics, Metroids, Contras, etc. have, but it wasn't a knock on the game's quality... just a statement about its overall brand awareness. In gameplay terms and in classic PC terms, it's a bonafide classic. I probably should use better qualifiers.

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) Emperor Megas's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mayhem View Post
    Are you thinking of the Italian (pirate) artwork for the game? Although there's no boomerang. I'd be fascinated to see an image of THAT!

    http://www.lemon64.com/covers/full/i...e)_(italy).jpg
    Wow! No, that's not it, but man did that give me a HEARTY freakin' laugh. That looks SO flamboyantly gay! Those goofy, exaggerated mannerisms. Just wow! Thanks man, that shit made my morning, big time!
    Last edited by Emperor Megas; 02-29-2016 at 10:20 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Emperor Megas View Post
    I've never played the original, or this DS version...BUT I own the DS version. I couldn't pass on a new DS title that looked interesting for $9.99.

    Side note, when I think of Impossible Mission, I think of a picture a guy next to a wall, holding a boomerang. Does this have anything to do with any version of Impossible Mission?
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    That look like it?

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    Ah! So then I was confusing the two games. I'll bet a lot people did that.

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    Ah, it's the NES artwork for MI. IM does have a handle to that classic TV series though, as explained by Dennis Caswell...

    During most of its development, I don't recall that Impossible Mission had a title. Eventually, it became time to prepare to market the thing, so we had to start calling it something. Somebody noticed the similarity to the TV show and suggested that Mission: Impossible would be appropriate but, of course, we couldnąt actually use that, so we cheated and gave it a title that was legal while still creating the desired association. A bit embarrassing, I suppose, but most people seem to have forgiven us.

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