Five Forgotten Games on Nintendo

Five Forgotten Games on Nintendo

Kid Icarus

The first of the Kid Icarus series was released in 1986 on the Family Computer Disk System. This game is Greek themed and it is set in Angel land. Kid Icarus features around a protagonist called Pit on a quest to for three sacred treasures stolen by Goddess Medusa and rescue the Goddess Palutena imprisoned in the Place of the Sky. Gifted with a bow and arrow by Palutena, Pit most retrieve the three sacred treasures, the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows and the Wings of Pegasus from three different fortress gatekeepers and defeat Medusa to save Angel Land. The multiple endings this game has makes it unique and each alternative endings depend on a player’s performance. Pit can either be presented with a headgear by Palutena or can turn himself into a full grown angel. This game is a cult classic that its last installation laid dormant for over 20 year after its sequel (Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters) release in 1991, but was reintroduced in 2012.

 

Pilotwings

Pilotwings game was developed and released in 1990 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This video game is the first in the pilotwing series and it is an flight simulation game. Players join a flight school called “flight club” and train in different areas. In Pilotwings, a player has to complete a series of flight lesson in tages in order to complete certifications for a series of pilot licenses. The first event is light plane flight, the second event is skydiving, followed by rocketbelt, then hang gliding and lastly, the helicopter event. Each lesson has two to four activities and a minimum score is required to pass each activity; The normal level requires 120 points while and expert level requires 140 points. There are a few bonus stages but main aim of the game is to earn the highest pilot license and the golden ‘pilot wing’ while following instructions from four flight club instructors. There are other flight simulation games on Nintendo but a classic will remain a classic.

 

Mole Mania

Mole Mania, a puzzle video game was released in 1996 on the original GameBoy system and was re-released in 2012 on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console. This game features moles who raid a farmer’s crops and an angry cabbage farmer and his seven henchmen. The main character, mole called Muddy Mole has to dig through tunnels, find paths and move obstacles to rescue his family (wife and seven children) who have been kidnapped by the farmer, Jinbe. Obstacles included barrels, moving enemies, spikes, barrels, mooks and weights. Muddy had to move a black ball along with him, through a gate to pass each stage. The ball can be thrown, picked or pulled and digging in the wrong place meant the ball getting stuck and Muddy had to try again. The game is very addictive with well thought out characters, the dark shades wearing mole and the hoe weaponed farmer. It definitely needs to make a comeback.

 

Wario World

 

Wario World video game was introduced into the gaming industry in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube system. This video game is one of the six games in the Wario Land series. This game is filled with puzzles, enemies and lots of loot. The character Wario has to deal with an evil gem called Black Jewel, who takes over his castle, transforms it into four worlds and turns all his treasures into monsters. Wario has to recover his treasures hidden in treasure chests, rescue spritelings and battle Black Jewel for his castle. Wario must make his way through castles, deserts and forests while battling monsters by either grabbing and spinning them around, throwing them or piledriving them into the ground. In other to advance in the game , Wario has to collect a certain number of red diamonds in each level. Players who miss Wario World can take up Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine as these games are great substitutes with a similar platform navigation.

 

Golden Nugget Casino

A game of chance is a genre that is hardly ever explored on traditional console gaming systems. This ‘chance’ game was first released in 1998 on Nintendo 64 and the latest Golden Nugget Casino (2008) is featured on the Nintendo DS touch screen system. Released in 2008, the game featured a variety of classic table, card and video poker games like Craps, Roulette, BlackJack, Video Poker, Five-Card Draw, Big-Six Wheel and Traditional Slots. The game came complete with audio of dealers talking, casino background noise, sound effects. The game came in two modes, casino and tournament modes. Casino mode is basically free play in any casino games while tournament modes requires poker tournament skills. Unlike the other games listed, Golden Nugget Casino allowed you to experience the excitement of high stakes gambling without any of the risk. Sites such as www.tuxslots.com can be an excellent substitute for Golden Nugget withdrawals and getting a casino like experience without risking your cash. I would like to see a comeback of this game and more game releases in this genre.

 

Eugene lives in New Mexico and has been a life long gamer since getting his hands on an NES. Always partial to Nintendo, Eugene has made it a point to keep informed on all things Mario.