StarTropics - NES

Boy, was I a happy camper when I got this for Christmas. Seeing all the previews for it on TV, the talk on the gaming shows. It was all very hyped up for me. I stuck the game in and away I went.

And I wasn't disappointed with what I got. Great graphics and gameplay for its time. Some really fun and not insane puzzles (up to a point) Fighting with neat weapons. Its a a bunch of fun.

Now....I was a kid that didn't throw anything away. If it was up to me, I still have all the boxes and booklets for all my toys and games. Which thinking about it, I guess my parents didn't want a bunch of empty boxes sitting around the house. But there are 2 things that my mom threw out on my when I was a kid. 1- I just got a bunch of new Starwars guys for Christmas, so I put all their weapons in a little baggy. My mom threw out the baggy thinking it was garbage. 2-She threw out the map and booklet that came with STARTROPICS. Now that didn't bother me has much has the starwars weapons, because I didn't realize what was in store for me.

Lesson learned, don't leave anything lying around or my mother would throw it out. So I continued on in the game and got to a point where I need to travel to another island in a sub. but theres a little robot there who wants a 3 digit code to continue. Wheres this code I wonder..whats he talking about..put the map in water?!...what map..I didn't find any map in the game?!....the map...oh god the map??..NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!This game had a map that if you put it in water it would reveal a code to continue the game. Smart!!..My map was in the dump.

Unlike times of today, you just go look on the internet, I didn't have that luxury, all I had was a crappy Gaming tv show with a red head teen who was way to excited to be giving put codes. So I figured, well, its only 3 digits, that means theres only 999 combinations. I can do that. So off I went.........and the magic number is 747. I did it , I'm awesome and sad at the same time.

So very pleased with myself I continue on with the game. What I remember next is a parrot that has me to play keys in a certain order. I don't remember how old I was when this came out, but I remeber not knowing what the heck I was suppose to do, where do I get this info to continue?? Where, did I miss something??....So it was at this point that I actualy gave up on a game. The 3 digit code had taken all life outta me...I didn't have any left to figure out what correct keys to play and what order by color or note. I was done.

Now that being said, I did enjoy playing the game, it was fun. The puzzles after you get to a certain point are stupid hard, or they were for me. Did I miss something, am I suppose to learn to read music to figure out parts. Next I would have to learn Brail or a second language to get past the next puzzle.

Its sad I know. But recently I picked it up again and started playing it again to finish it this time. Its not bad, it was and is a decent game. The puzzles are nuts, but thats what the internet is for today. Despite all this, I did enjoy playing the parts of the game I played. But I remember looking at the game sitting in my room and it making me mad, stupid key notes and 3 digit code....

7/10

Written By: Darryl