The Mysterious Murasame Castle is one of the early Nintendo games from the 1980s. Interestingly though, unlike virtually every other game they made at that time, this game was pretty much completely forgotten for the next twenty years. In fact, other than a few recent cameos and references, it’s still very obscure.

So, I guess you’re thinking “Since it was mostly forgotten about, it must be pretty bad” right? Well, if so, you’d be wrong. It may not be best game of that era (or, indeed, any era) but it’s still nice and fun and an interesting slice of Nintendo history.

What’s the story line? Take a guess. You play as Takamaru who must travel to four castles in order to defeat evils villains and rescue princesses. Nothing exciting, but then again it was the standard of the time. Also it does have a historical setting (17th century Japan) rather than just using a fantasy world, which is quite nice.

The game plays in the pseudo 3D top-down style that a lot of RPGs use and each level goes something like this; first you have to explore fields and forests in order to find a castle (the end of the level being signified by a group of tanuki) and then you have to make your way through a castle in order to find a boss and kill it. This is how it works for each of the four castles. It sounds nice and straight forward, but there are so many enemies!

Ninjas jump out from all angles and throw shurikens, bombs and fire balls all over the place and you have to be really skilled in order to maneuver your way around them because if you get hit three times, you’re dead. You, meanwhile, have a sword and some shurikens of your own (though you can upgrade weapons); the sword is very powerful and will kill pretty much anything in one hit, but you can only use it short range, and the shurikens are weaker, but much more useful.

The downside, beside the high level of difficulty, is that the game’s environments can sometimes seem a bit bland and there’s also not much variation with the soundtrack either (it’s essentially the same song all the time). The final level, however, is a refreshing change and quite spooky and sinister (the final boss is great too), but around the time of the penultimate stage, things may seem a bit boring.

So, this is a game which I think Nintendo fans (or fans of retro gaming in general) might enjoy but it’s appeal might not stretch to more casual players. I don’t mean to sound too negative; I’m certainly pleased I played it and the game is not without its charms, but it does feel a little dated.

Rating: 6/10

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With Donkey Kong Country a huge success on the SNES, there was, of course, a demand for a handheld counterpart on the Game Boy. With Rare being a top notch developer, they didn’t just want to make an inferior port of the game to fit the Game Boy’s limitations, so instead they made Donkey Kong Land, a completely unique game.

Quite nicely, the game’s storyline reflects that it was made to tie-in with the first game; Donkey Kong and Diddy are relaxing after saving the day in Donkey Kong Country when Cranky starts complaining that their last game was only popular because it had good graphics and there’s no way they’d be able to do it again on the inferior Game Boy system. Eventually, they give in to his criticisms and Cranky calls up K. Rool and arranges for him to steal the Kongs’ banana hoard once again.

But while it is technically the same thing again, each of the game’s worlds are entirely unique and, while certain level archetypes (like jungles and caves) are reused, you also get some brand new things as well. There’s a place called Big Ape City where you have levels where you’re running around in a very realistic looking city and I absolutely loved that. You also have some levels on board pirate ships, which are pretty fun and, if you know about the rest of the series, are a nice precursor to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. There are also completely new enemies (even bosses) throughout the game, including Hogwash, a flying pig which I’m quite fond of.

Though, while this is a fun game, there are certain draw backs which are not present in its SNES counterpart. Obviously, graphics and music have been cut down significantly in order to work for the Game Boy, but I don’t mind that (graphics aren’t everything). It’s other design flaws that I find problematic; firstly, the jumping doesn’t feel quite right. When you jump, it feels quite stiff and that takes some getting used to. There are also some Chimpanzee Clouds levels which are unique to this game; in them you’re in a surreal cloud world and, while there aren’t very many of them, they aren’t very good at all. There’s a lot of riding on really slow platforms and unfair deaths which you don’t think would have happened if the jumping was better.

So, on the whole, I think it’s a nice little game and, if you like Donkey Kong Country I’m pretty sure you’ll like this too. If you’ve not really played many Donkey Kong games, however, there are better choices for your first try!

Rating: 8.2/10

Super Metroid is the third game in the Metroid series and the game which truly earned the franchise its reputation as one of Nintendo’s best. Though, story-wise, it is better to have knowledge of the first two games, there’s a recap of the events of previous entries at the start, so this could be a good place to begin, if you’ve not played a Metroid game before.

The story starts with Samus heading to a research station to hand over the last known Metroid in existence (a baby). Sadly, this quickly takes a bad turn when Ridley (the evil space dragon member of the Space Pirates) shows up and steals it. Samus chases after him in her ship and ends up, once again, on the planet Zebes where she needs to explore the huge cave system in order to find and eliminate all the key Space Pirates to stop them from exploiting the power of the Metroids.

Exploring Zebes is a really satisfying experience as the game has a very nice art style and a beautiful soundtrack which perfectly sets the tone of each of the different areas. What’s great is that you’re not really given too much direction and you feel quite free to explore as you wish (and there’s an extremely handy map screen too, for the first time in the series). Also, I should be clear that Zebes is definitely not only made up of caves; sometimes you’re even on the planet’s surface (the game starts on the surface during a beautiful rainy day), sometimes you’re in an underground swamp, sometimes caverns which are completely submerged in water and even a haunted (space)ship wreck.

As you progress through the labyrinthine cave system, you find various items which give you more powers and you then use these powers to access areas which you’d not have been able to get to before. This gives the game a linear sense of progression without ever making you feel stifled in your freedom. I suppose this is where the only real downside comes in, and that’s that, when I was playing I had a moment or two where I couldn’t figure out exactly what I was supposed to do, but it never lasted too long.

So, this is a game I very strongly suggest you try (especially since it’s quite easy to get hold of via the Virtual Console) the difficulty is always at a comfortable level and the whole experience is hugely enjoyable. I have to say, even though the story doesn’t take a huge focus, there’s still a moment in the game which I found quite emotional, so it holds up in that department too. I wish it could have been a bit longer, but it wasn’t too short, just shorter than I’d have liked.

Rating: 9.4/10

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I know that a lot of gamers have one game which is their absolute favourite; it was probably one of their first experiences with gaming and may well hold some nostalgic value too. For me, it’s Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. And these are games which people think will always be their favourite and of such a quality that they doubt they’ll play a game they like as much again. For me, Minecraft is the first game I’ve played since then that I’ve enjoyed equally (and I’ve played a lot of games that I really, really like).

Normally I like to give a short one sentence description of what a game is at the start of these reviews, but I’m finding it a little hard here (I’ll try my best). There’s no real story to Minecraft and essentially, all that happens is that you start in the middle of a huge blocky wilderness and you just have to survive. That may not sound like much, but really it’s a scenario which you can pour an endless number of hours into.

The first thing you’ll want to do is cut down some trees and use the wood to build a house, a workbench (to help make more things) and a bed (which will also require some wool from a sheep). You don’t have to do this first, it’s just that you’ll almost certainly die if you don’t because, while the world may be beautifully quiet and serene during the day, as soon as the sun goes down giant spiders, skeleton archers, zombies and creepers (which are weird exploding creatures) will be everywhere.

After this, the world is your oyster; you might decide to mine down into the earth in order to find good materials for making tools, or maybe you’ll build a farm with crops and animals to ensure you’ve got a good food supply. Maybe you’ll try and build portals to the two other mysterious realms (The Nether and The End) or maybe you’ll decide to try and figure out a way to build a floating fortress in the sky. You can virtually make anything you can think of. There’s also a kind of ‘ending’ the game has, but you’re given next to no direction regarding it and you could happily play for an extremely long time without realising. I will say, however, that this ‘ending’ is very satisfying.

If that sounds too strenuous for you, there’s also a Creative Mode where you are given unlimited resources and the ability to fly. This certainly makes creating things a lot easier, but it also feels less rewarding. Outside of Creative Mode I managed to build an underwater house (which is a great place to hide from monsters), and so for Creative Mode I decided to expand that idea and am in the process of flooding an entire world in order to build an underwater city (inside a glass dome) but it’ll take me a long time. So, for me, Creative Mode is a nice feature in that it allows you to build things which would otherwise be impossible.

What’s important to bear in mind is that there are differences between the console and PC versions; on PC the world is infinite (or, as good as), while the console versions have a big world, but one which is much smaller (although you can generate as many worlds as you like). On the other hand, the console versions have some official skin packs (including, very nicely, characters from Banjo-Kazooie and Doctor Who) which I appreciate, but which might not be enjoyed by everyone because you can create any skin you like in the PC version. There are a few other changes (it’s easier to make items in the console version) but otherwise there are no huge changes.

So, anyway, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. It’s always hugely thrilling to explore the huge open world and it’s accompanied with such a deeply immersive soundtrack that it really is one of those games which you’ll start playing (either by yourself or with friends) and just sink loads of hours into it. Rating: 10/10

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