Nintendo is Great is devoted to exploring the world of Nintendo - their games, their consoles, their merchandise - in mostly chronological order, from the NES to the Switch 2.
If you’re interested in following/playing along, or if you’d just like to catch up on previous posts, the Master Games List will help!
Some posts are free, some are for paid subscribers only. Don’t forget to sign up below. Thanks for reading!
Karnov
PUBLISHER: Data East
DEVELOPER: SAS Sakata
RELEASE DATE: Dec. 18th, 1987 (JP), Jan. 1988 (US)
ALSO AVAILABLE ON: Arcade, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Mac, PC, Sinclair ZX81/Spectrum
Karnov is not a fun character to control. He lumbers along like he’s got a tack in his foot, but he can’t be bothered to get it out.
I know why Karnov is slow. He’s a strongman of unknown descent, as big and as bald as they come. He’s heavy, in other words. Not fat, just large. He’s not a taut American soldier or a nimble Japanese warrior. And, if I may impose some of my own thoughts about his character, he’s in no particular hurry to complete his adventure. Sure, the lost Babylonian treasure might be in the hands of a demonic dragon, but it’s not like the dragon will ever destroy the treasure. He’ll just throw it into his pile because, ya know… he’s a dragon. They hoard treasure, that’s their identity. “I’ll get there when I get there” might be Karnov’s eternal motto.
Karnov has to go find this Babylonian treasure, kill Ryu the evil dragon for taking it in the first place, and restore the treasure to his homeland of “Creamina” (not Crimea, heavens no).
To accomplish this, Karnov shoots fireballs from within himself and collects miscellaneous items strewn about that help him. Items like ladders which let Karnov climb to the heavens (his jumping ability is also lacking), bombs (blow up enemies and destructible walls), a shield (gives Karnov extra protection), and many more.
Karnov can also upgrade his fireball power to triple strength, which is three rows of fireballs at once. Quite the spread and the only way to progress. When you die, though, it’s back to one row of fireballs. If you’re already on a later level, starting from scratch with your main weapon creates quite the challenge.
Imagine a horizontal shoot-em-up where enemies are constantly coming at you and you gotta lay on the fire button to deal with them all, but your “ship” is a bald strongman with poor maneuverability. This is Karnov. Karnov must deal with mostly flying enemies appearing out of thin air, tiny projectiles that kill you, and bosses that shoot rows of inescapable projectiles. Can Karnov conquer this? Of course! But you’ll acquire many a strongman corpse in the trying. Frankly, I’m not sure the game’s quality warrants such dedication.
What does Karnov have in its favor? A unique, albeit ill-equipped protagonist. A variety of only occasionally helpful items. Level design that feels both otherworldly and monotonous. Challenge. Lots and lots of challenge. “NES Hard,” they say. Sounds about right.
Karnov Gets Around
As for Karnov himself, Data East liked him so much that he’d go on to star in other productions of theirs, mostly as a bad guy. In the beat-em-up Bad Dudes, he’s the first boss. In the fighting game, Fighter’s History, he’s the final boss. And in the Fighter’s History sequel, Karnov’s Revenge, he becomes a playable character, although he’s still an enemy. He also shows up in miscellaneous other Data East games, but the strongman never saw a direct sequel to his own game. Probably for the best.
A while back there was an interview with some former Data East employees… they revealed that Karnov’s appearance was based on a boss at Data East. And said boss was none too happy when he found out. Although the game did become a pretty big hit for the company.
Ha! Entertaining review. Hadn't thought about this one in a long time. I'm pretty sure I rented it back in the day. I do remember the box art grabbing my attention, but not the gameplay. I'm not sure who, exactly, I most expect to be battling dinosaurs unarmed (if not a caveman or something), but not a bald, shirtless fire-spitting mustached man in fancy red pants. That wasn't on my bingo card.
It seems that Karnov is supposed to be fat, based on his sprite and other depictions of him, but I like to think the box art there is how Karnov imagines himself. How can the ladies resist?
And you know, it's funny, in my mind, Data East was a reasonably good company. But when I try to think of their best games, I realize my impression may be based entirely on another dinosaur-killing game of theirs: Joe and Mac. Which I don't think is even that good a game, but it embodies happy memories as a key early SNES co-op game for me and a friend, and it memorably includes an awkward voice sample saying "Data East" at the beginning.
The SNES really did lack good multiplayer options at the start. Think about the fact that SNES Final Fight is 1P-only, for example. Same for F-Zero. Contrast this with all of the NES 2P-simultaneous games we had been enjoying for years, even going back to Balloon Fight. In that context, Joe and Mac is good.