Absolutely love this game and this piece. You always bring a fresh set of critical eyes to games I had long stopped really thinking about. Mighty Bomb Jack was an absolute childhood favorite growing up, too.
How did I not know that even the NES had a weird fitness gamepad game?
Meanwhile, I'll still be sitting here waiting for whatever the next iteration of DDR is 😂
I've only crossed paths with a couple of these, and even that was when I was young enough to not remember many specifics about the games I was playing. It's fun to get caught up a bit on things I missed
There are a handful of weird fitness games for the NES!
My favorite has to be Dance Aerobics. It’s basically Jazzercise for the NES, it’s fantastic.
I miss DDR so much! I wish it was still around.
Starting around mid-1987, NES games start becoming a lot more interesting. My favorites in this group would have to be Kid Icarus, Rygar and Solomon’s Key. If you’re interested and you have a Switch, they’re available to play on the NES app.
NES Jazzercise is definitely not one I would have guessed.
I'll have to look up what's in the NES app on the switch. For some reason I'd always assumed it was in the higher priced subscription level that has the N64 games.
If you have the $20/year subscription, you get access to NES, SNES, and Game Boy games, but you have to download their respective apps from the eShop. Definitely worth the low cost IMO
Kid Icarus is a game that I've never been able to get into. Maybe for me, the issue is that it doesn't feel like it should be as difficult as it is. I feel like it's trying to invite me on a grand adventure in which I can lean back, only to find it's actually looking to destroy me and I need to lean forward the whole time. By contrast, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden communicate, in their pacing and music, that this is a lean-forward experience, and they make me WANT to lean forward.
The only game here for which I have true nostalgia is Rygar, which one of my best friends owned. I've always thought the soundtrack has some amazing tunes. The gameplay is uneven, but I always felt that its presentation conveys a real sense of adventure and exploration which I didn't get out of most of other early Metroidvanias like Blaster Master and Metroid itself. That made me want to push ahead. Castlevania 2 was also pretty good on the adventure/exploration side but was even more confusing and frustrating than anything in Rygar.
Scare ‘em into buying your product! I wonder how effective the ad was…
Yeah, Kid Icarus does feel slower and more relaxed, given its high difficulty, but… I don’t know, that never bothered me much. Obviously, the game wasn’t as popular as Nintendo’s other series so clearly it didn’t resonate with players.
Rygar is a little jank, but it’s such a fun experience. I’m glad it’s on Switch Online.
That NES ad haunts your dreams. Although the tagline of “you cannot beat us” held true for a large portion of the NES catalog.
Even more impressive that when this ad came out (‘87, I believe), they had no way of knowing how stacked the NES catalog would eventually become.
Shedding a tear for the NES Night Court game we never got.
The children wept for a John Larroquette sprite.
Absolutely love this game and this piece. You always bring a fresh set of critical eyes to games I had long stopped really thinking about. Mighty Bomb Jack was an absolute childhood favorite growing up, too.
Thanks for the kind words, Paul!
I could see being into Mighty Bomb Jack as a kid, but it has aged... curiously. It's very unique at least!
How did I not know that even the NES had a weird fitness gamepad game?
Meanwhile, I'll still be sitting here waiting for whatever the next iteration of DDR is 😂
I've only crossed paths with a couple of these, and even that was when I was young enough to not remember many specifics about the games I was playing. It's fun to get caught up a bit on things I missed
There are a handful of weird fitness games for the NES!
My favorite has to be Dance Aerobics. It’s basically Jazzercise for the NES, it’s fantastic.
I miss DDR so much! I wish it was still around.
Starting around mid-1987, NES games start becoming a lot more interesting. My favorites in this group would have to be Kid Icarus, Rygar and Solomon’s Key. If you’re interested and you have a Switch, they’re available to play on the NES app.
NES Jazzercise is definitely not one I would have guessed.
I'll have to look up what's in the NES app on the switch. For some reason I'd always assumed it was in the higher priced subscription level that has the N64 games.
If you have the $20/year subscription, you get access to NES, SNES, and Game Boy games, but you have to download their respective apps from the eShop. Definitely worth the low cost IMO
Oh, nice. We already have the online subscription.
Now to find the time to actually play some of said games….
That Australian ad is wild, love it.
I'll look forward to the full reviews.
Kid Icarus is a game that I've never been able to get into. Maybe for me, the issue is that it doesn't feel like it should be as difficult as it is. I feel like it's trying to invite me on a grand adventure in which I can lean back, only to find it's actually looking to destroy me and I need to lean forward the whole time. By contrast, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden communicate, in their pacing and music, that this is a lean-forward experience, and they make me WANT to lean forward.
The only game here for which I have true nostalgia is Rygar, which one of my best friends owned. I've always thought the soundtrack has some amazing tunes. The gameplay is uneven, but I always felt that its presentation conveys a real sense of adventure and exploration which I didn't get out of most of other early Metroidvanias like Blaster Master and Metroid itself. That made me want to push ahead. Castlevania 2 was also pretty good on the adventure/exploration side but was even more confusing and frustrating than anything in Rygar.
Scare ‘em into buying your product! I wonder how effective the ad was…
Yeah, Kid Icarus does feel slower and more relaxed, given its high difficulty, but… I don’t know, that never bothered me much. Obviously, the game wasn’t as popular as Nintendo’s other series so clearly it didn’t resonate with players.
Rygar is a little jank, but it’s such a fun experience. I’m glad it’s on Switch Online.