this is the game i accidentally rented as a kid thinking it was faxanadu. not once, but TWICE

@samholdsworth420

21 күн бұрын

I wouldn't admit that 😂

@toddburgess5056

21 күн бұрын

LOL !

@HallelujahHotdog

21 күн бұрын

The dreaded double dud rental. I’ve been there.

@VanMichael21

21 күн бұрын

Lol that's hilarious

@Ratralsis

21 күн бұрын

I am so sorry that happened to you

One of the things I love about the NES is just how prolific its game publishers were. It boasts several of the straight up best games of all time, but also broken, unplayable garbage. It has hoards of knockoff clones of good games, but also completely ambitious titles like this one. The NES is a glorious landfill - you gotta dig through a mountain of trash to find the good stuff. No other console has, or ever will have, the shear variety of experimental madness that the NES produced in just a handful of years. You're on a marvelous journey. Thanks for sharing it with us.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

It’s all equally interesting to me: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

@higado2

20 күн бұрын

Very well put!

@Prodmullefc

18 күн бұрын

Legacy of the Wizard qualifies as both of those thing haha

@esmerylan

14 күн бұрын

And that's with the limitations Nintendo placed on publishers, i.e. only five titles a year, you have to let us manufacture your cartridges (though of course plenty of companies found various ways around that!). It's not even that there was a huge backlog of Famicom games to be localized, some of the weirdest stuff was made just for the US or Europe and loads of Famicom games never made it over here!

This game's graphics style is unlike any other I've seen on the NES. Interesting use of dithering to make everything look rounded, shaded, and detailed. On a CRT, it almost looks like a 16-bit game.

This video seriously just unlocked a lost memory. I faintly remember watching my step father play this game when i was like 4 or 5 and when i saw the cart in the video it all started coming back. Talk about a nostalgia bomb! And to me it doesn't matter if the game is great or is awful, its just those memories of a simpler time. Great job as always and thanks!

@hunterericson6782

21 күн бұрын

times can still be simple. just smash your smart mobile phone with a hammer and there you have it !!!

i come back home in a bad mood, walked 21 flight of stairs in this heat, cursing the day, then this awesome person drops a new video and i am smiling again. dude, i forget ur name, but man, ur a gem, a real gem, keep them videos, u and that ''u can beat video games'' guy are prolly the best people on this platform, hope u keep making these videos until we both are too old to even know what we are talking about.

@chrisd6287

21 күн бұрын

Totally agree! UCBVG is definitely one of my favorites as well.

@Dorelaxen

21 күн бұрын

His name is James, and if you want to have some fun, hang out on his live streams every Thursday. It's a really nice community and he always manages to play the HARDEST games he can find, and always suffers because of it.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

Hey thanks man!

@EpicLebaneseNerd

20 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords ur welcome James, u rock and roll , all day long.

You just need to get good. This is just an 8-bit Dark Souls. If you weren't such a n00b, you would have just grabbed the best staff from the hidden cave in level 5.

@HylianFox3

21 күн бұрын

The ironic thing about his comment is that there actually ARE staffs you can use as weapons without consuming Mana.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

I knew it!

The protagonist Paul is a reference to the Apostle Paul and his enemy Abaddon is the destroyer from the Book of Revelation that is sealed for 1000 years with his chain. For Paul says, "...was not ashamed of MY CHAIN." Like many old NES games, they are HARDER, and SHORTER. Magician is definitely a game you play multiple times. You need at least one run just to write down all the spells you can make. Well, before guides were available.

@teeonezee

10 күн бұрын

the spells, eh? Yeah, I noticed that was a huge amount of possible combinations, one could find fun testing every single combination alone.

I was an RPG junky as a child and tried this one many times, getting absolutely nowhere. You couldn't even claim bragging rights for beating it - if you tried telling people you beat Magician for NES those few that actually knew of it would say "What? Why?? Is everything ok at home?"

@broncosbreaks

21 күн бұрын

I couldn’t imagine trying to figure this one out back in the day without the Nintendo hotline

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

hahaha

Magician was one of my favorite games, actually. Something very different from anything else. To have a real shot at winning you need to already know all the spells and make them yourself while in town.

Camerica making Faxanadu is the most accurate description. But also: Those graphics are amazing.

@FalsebitPakoPako

19 күн бұрын

The music is also one of the most complex and nuanced on the old toaster.

This game has the most amazing soundtrack. I remember discovering it on the old youtube channel "the music of video games" and being blown away.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

Yeah it rules

Magician was novel and ambitious. I appreciate what it tried to do, even if it failed to be much fun.

@FalsebitPakoPako

19 күн бұрын

To make a personal attack: your avatar is from an ICOM Macventure (Shadowgate) - another old and obtuse game today, but challenging and character-building when it came out. (The hidden developer room in the original Mac version wasn't discovered until this decade.) But obtuse and unforgiving were the norm in a very primitive age where gamers didn't have a discerning palate. See: Druuaga, a torturous puzzling action RPG in arcades that required entire neighborhoods to replay non-stop around the clock to discover what triggers make the door to the next level open.

The cartridge actually has a really cool hidden feature. If you take it and you lay it flat down on a table you can then walk away and play a better game.

@liukang85

15 күн бұрын

😂

@cteal2018

6 күн бұрын

This was gem of a game

@adamsherman5024

Күн бұрын

HAHAHA XD

Hunger/nutrition is a mechanic that goes back to the old NETHACK computer RPG.

@jonothanthrace1530

21 күн бұрын

I'm pretty sure it goes back further, even!

@wardrich

21 күн бұрын

Yup, and I personally hated it there, too. I love roguelikes, but if I see anything like a hunger meter, I'm probably not gonna play it

@Syranovæ

21 күн бұрын

Definitely goes back further. In fact it goes back before video games to D&D, so I mean, seeing it in video games was expected.

"Wizards and Whatnot" sounds like an excellent title for a new game.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

Hahaha

Speaking of Faxanadu, I just downloaded an indie game on my switch called Infernax. It is a WONDERFUL game. Great music, gorgeous sprite work, and it plays a lot like Simon's Quest mixed with Faxanadu. It's a must play for a retro game fan.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

I've heard good things!

This game has stuck with me ever since it was covered in Nintendo Power just because it implied that goat milk got you drunk.

@analogmoz

21 күн бұрын

Maybe it does? Wanna find out?

@broncosbreaks

21 күн бұрын

Gettin crunk off gilk

@whitewolf3051

20 күн бұрын

When I saw it, I thought it might be interesting since it’s a side scrolling RPG. But the lack of backtracking and constant health management kills it for me.

@jonothanthrace1530

20 күн бұрын

@@whitewolf3051 Yeah, if I was going to play it I'd definitely put in a "hunger/thirst never goes down" cheat code.

It's great to see a review for a game that I not only haven't played, but never heard of either! This game sounds super ambitious, but sadly perhaps a little too much, haha. I was also going to comment on the soundtrack because it sounds awesome. I think Neil also composed music for a F1 game on the NES. Game itself is alright, but the soundtrack is fantastic.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge, and yeah that game ruled!

@RaulDukeKnife

2 күн бұрын

Unrelated question -- is that you in the photo on your patreon of the insert from the 80s, that was included in all our official NES titles to sub to Nintendo Power? Or do you just want to be him like we all did, and do?

For some reason that ending reminds me of Shadow Sorcerer, a game whose manual essentially says that "saving is for losers".

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

hahaha

@FalsebitPakoPako

19 күн бұрын

Oh, the manual in Magician warns you about saving too. It tells you to save often, but also that you're limited to 5 times (per save slot).

This game definitely has an interesting color palette. They seem to like pastel hues. Very Faxanadu-looking. Love the 8-bit cleavage! This is really cryptic game. It's like they assumed the player had a time machine where they could travel to the future and look up the walk-thru.

1:33 "Since they move at the same speed you do, you'll never catch them" LMAO

3 drinks 🍺 makes you pass out on the ground until the end of time 😂 Great video as always!

@ShenanHawkins

7 сағат бұрын

ah, this IS a simulation! i just KNEW i'm still laying on the floor of my dorm room in a puddle of my own vomit!

I was like damn that's Kathy Ireland and then immediately I hear the medieval Kelly Kapowski lmao

@broncosbreaks

21 күн бұрын

Kelly was so hawt

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

Ooooh that’s probably more accurate

Amazing game with several different endings. Deceased Crab did a great LP of it back in the EARLY days of LPing on youtube!

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Did not know there were multiple endings!

@SaxcatGamingCorner

20 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords yup, you can kill everyone in the town and get a no one left to save ending too!

Add this one to the lengthy list of “NES games that have great graphics and music but also unplayable”

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

There are a lot of em!

Yep, I remember bugging my parents to buy this game. Played it for five minutes then went back to playing Duck Hunt. Didn't touch it again until I was 17 and was hooked. You're right, it is like the 8bit version of Dark Souls lol.

Since you move at the same speed as they do, you'll never catch them. "There's nobody to talk to." XD

I love seeing these ridiculously over-ambitious old games. Truly a wild west era of gaming where everyone was just throwing stuff at the wall.

I've played it. It was surprisingly common to find on Famicom multicarts, 30% of the ones I had had either the game proper or some romhack of it.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

What a random game to include!

I absolutely love the lake theme in this game. One of those hidden musical gems that makes me want to discover what else I've been missing

@BigOleWords

12 күн бұрын

Yeah that's a jammer

Hey that's a cool intro. I really like how it was short and sweet and not dragged out good job I subbed!

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Hey thanks so much!

Renting this for the weekend would have resulted in aggravation and sibling fights

I grew up in the heyday of Nintendo in the late 80s early 90s and I never saw this one. The game play reminds me of Friday the 13th. Great vid

You have the best NES channel on KZread, James. We love you!

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

Haha wow thanks, that’s so kind!

I am firmly in the minority, and I know it, but I loved Magician. I rented it probably a dozen times, and would have begged to own it if I’d ever seen a copy for sale (would probably still grab it if I saw it today and it was decently priced, even though I don’t have any way to play an NES cart)… but at the same time, I’m aware it’s a deeply broken game, and I totally get where folks are coming from when they hate it. I actually agree with quite a few of your criticisms - the controls and the fiddling with power levels of the spells in particular. Still, something about the game pleased me, despite its flaws. I was so happy to see it again. My nostalgia glasses are firmly in place. Thank you for covering this, even though it appears to have caused you great pain. 🤣

Pretty sure renting this was the first time I ever even heard of a game with a crafting system. Also, to continue the Faxanadu comparisons, this is another one of those games that doesn't look very good on modern displays but is maybe not gorgeous but really nice looking on a CRT where that mess of grainy looking pixel work blends together into smooth shading that rivals some early Genesis and SNES titles. I never made it far out of that first town without getting bored, though.

I rented this one from a local place back when it came out, no manual included so that was the biggest bummer of a weekend but watching you play it, I didn't miss anything I would've liked.

Friday the 13th on NES meets legend of Zelda 2?

In the section where you used the big jumps I used the fly spell & somehow got it to work where I’d fly between lightning strikes, haha. I didn’t get anywhere near the final boss though, I think I got to one level past that fly/lightning (or in your case big jump) section. I don’t think I ever found where to purchase or how to create the jump spell. I was quite impressed with how ambitious this game was, even more-so now hearing that it was their first game. Truly a game where I can confidently say I have not played another game like it.

I love this! You can feel the faxanadu vibes right off. Looks like a very creative effort, despite the flaws. Going to have to try this out. Edit: Love your intro by the way.

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Definitely in that vein! And thanks :)

The OST for this is phenomenal

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Yeah it was!

Looks like the kind of game that would have drove me crazy but I would have beat it a couple of years later just because I only had like a handful of game options back in the day and GameFAQs was a thing by the mid 90's (how I finally beat Dungeon Magic). It was awesome to run into you on Saturday at the Southeast Game Exchange! Looking forward to seeing some reviews/videos on those crazy bootleg games that you picked up!

I caught the David Cross Mr. Show singing. New sub just for that but cool video

@BigOleWords

5 сағат бұрын

I was in the 18th hoooolllleeee!

Never heard of this game, and as you say, it seems very ambitious, but bad in execution. Maybe a polished remake would help making a comeback? The graphics I think are very good as well

Awesome video!

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Hey thanks!

This looks like an interesting curiosity :D

heck yeah, thanks for the sign :D :D

I remember renting this one waaaaay back in the day. (yeah I'm that old.) I really wanted to like it, I did like the way you could construct spells, but I just couldn't get very far. I've got it in my collection today, but I still haven't been able to play it very well. Great video by the way.

Okay, out of ALL the games you've covered, I think this is the ONE that I've heard of before ONLY in retrospect, but NEVER tried. I remember it NOW, having seen it in an edition of Nintendo Power back in the day, but I forgot completely about it until about 15 minutes ago.

I'm a fan of your content. I'm gonna subscribe. I intentionally typed that out like a robot.

@BigOleWords

21 күн бұрын

I like it!

Siiiiick... James droppin' a review on one of my favorites on my birthday. Awesome~... though to clarify, it's not one of my favorite games to play, just uh... favorite... weird games? If that makes sense.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Hey happy birthday!

Love the theme song

I feel like Link would choose burritos over burgers.

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Haha maybe!

Another excellent review from Big Ole Words, as usual. Speaking of magicians, is it possible you would ever do a review of *Magician Lord* for the Neo Geo? I'm guessing not since I've only seen Nintendo games featured on this channel, but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

At this point I'm probably all in on NES, but that game does sound rad!

@FalsebitPakoPako

19 күн бұрын

If you have the time, see clips of Eternal Darkness (GameCube); it has spell building, waiting in real time to recover, etc., but is much less frustrating with more dedicated buttons to talk, correct items are used automatically, and there's a forgiving aim-lock feature.

Good work again

Magician-heads... lol. I'm keeping an eye out to see if they pop off in the comments section of this video... all 2 of them that are out there.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

They're out there!

If "paying the ferryman" is something you need to have a game explain to you, this might not be your genera of game. Charon would be like "Don't you know who I am? You think this ride is free?".

@maltheopia

20 күн бұрын

A lot of games did that crap back then of expecting you to know pop cultural/mythological references using knowledge outside of the game. And not just for Easter Eggs, I mean things like knowing the kissable xenomorph in Space Quest was a slow game over if not avoided. Personally, not a fan of that design ethos from a metafictional perspective. It's fourth-wall breaking and amateurish, which is okay if the game is supposed to be silly like the aforementioned Space Quest. Infuriating in situations like this.

@Matthamatic

20 күн бұрын

@@maltheopia It does not break the forth wall. The sprite does not wink at you while you pay the ferryman. It perfectly fits within the logic and setting of the game. The games setting appears to be well after the advent of boats, bartering and money. The concept of a ferry is very old, and we still have them, AND they still cost money. It is a really very basic logic puzzle, but it does what it needs to do, so I still wouldn't call it amateurish. You don't need to know about Charon to solve this. It's not a huge leap in logic, more like "Oh hey. I have money. Maybe I can pay that guy to take me across." I'm curious. Would it also ruin your immersion if a game in a modern setting had a yellow taxi? That is a reference to something the game never had to establish, everybody just knows that yellow car as a taxi. Also cars, the game never bothers to teach you about them either. You are just expected to know what a car is, and what it does.

@maltheopia

19 күн бұрын

@@Matthamatic The way you interact with the ferry requires a leap of faith that is only intuitive if you have a specific mythological idea of how it works. You don’t talk to the man before you get in, there’s no way to know where the boat is going, and it’s not even clear that it’s a ferrying business. Like you said, you need to go ‘lol you gotta pay the silent ferryman a toll what do you expect, it’s like Charon’. Considering you can just straight up die unless you interact with it in the exact way the game expects, it’s a stupid puzzle. And yes, it is a fourth wall break. Directly addressing the audience isn’t the only way to abuse the fourth wall. Anything that breaks willing suspension of disbelief by drawing attention to itself that the narrative is a video game as opposed to a story is a fourth wall break, which is what that puzzle does. The entire shenanigans operates by video game logic.

@Matthamatic

19 күн бұрын

@@maltheopia The reason it operates using video game logic is it is a video game. You see a man on a boat you know you need to do some thing with that, otherwise it wouldn’t be there. Using the minimalist of critical thinking you should be able to solve this. No outside knowledge is required. It’s just a dude on a boat so no fourth walls are being broken. Like, it’s a little ridiculous we’re having this conversation. It’s such a simple puzzle. Anybody who has two brain cells rub together should be able to figure it out.

@maltheopia

19 күн бұрын

@@Matthamatic You do have to make concessions between narrative conceit and gameplay, yes. But the game kills you if you don’t interact with the puzzle in a very specific manner. No getting on the boat to talk to the ferryman, no sign that tells you what’s up, not even any foreshadowing. It’s: drop the coins without question or you die, which requires you to either be familiar with Greek Mythology or crappy adventure game design you see in games like King’s Quest. Terrible gameplay, and Magician is full of this ‘play the game exact as we want you to or suffer the consequences.’ It’s not even like the ferryman is the worst instance, it’s just one of many.

The "8-bit joyless agonizing Dark Souls" summary is deserved. It's still amazingly over ambitious. But two things you didn't get tripped up by: (1.) Beat it a 3rd time straight and Paul manages to open the door unlike Fred Flintstone who gets permanently locked out by his pets at the end of every episode. (2.) You have a LIMITED NUMBER OF SAVES. You get multiple slots, but you can only save 5 times to each slot before they're "locked" until you restart your quest. (See: manual) The "repeat quest" is kind of nice, only because you can re-create end-game magic at the start (don't miswrite the spell name or you die!) and steamroll over everybody. And like Ultima and other WRPGs, if you run out of enemies to kill for XP, kill townsfolk.

the game 'totally rad' was an interesting rental of mine back in the day. I kinda want to own it.. no one plays that lost title.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

I reviewed ol' Totally Rad a while back: kzread.info/dash/bejne/g4iXuZeHY67PqNI.html

Man, I never played this game as a kid, so my first experience with it was a walkthrough video that was deeply impressive in how thoroughly practiced and knowledgeable the creator was, but it also showed off just how complicated and hard this game is. Like how you should know what's in treasure chests before you open them, which can only be done by playing the game many times, so that you don't open them while your inventory is full because then the item's gone forever. I'm sure some people find that satisfying, but I don't think I'm ever going to play this.

This is a fantastic review of a strange game meant for an audience that I've never met. My older brother and I both rented this as younglings and not nowhere; not because we were idiots, but because it was sooooo boring and repetitive regarding keeping your stats up. Ideally, you have to spend like a half an hour in town just maxing out your shields and waiting for mana to restore; it's ridiculous.

It would’ve been awesome if using the secret name of the spell like that made it more powerful.

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

See that’s a cool idea. Maybe buying gets you level 1-2 but the secret name gets you 1-4.

Ambitious indeed. It looks good

I've never heard of this game till now (which is shocking since I like this genre and I like the NES). Anyway, that thing where you need all those highly missable items to beat the final boss is absurd and something which I HATE when games pull that crap (it's insane for a player to reach the end of the game, fight the final boss, and notice the boss is unbeatable because they missed secretly hidden items, which they can't backtrack to get unless they restart the entire game. That type of stuff makes me rage quit a game). Anyway, the graphics to this game look AWESOME (very nice details, I love the graphics) and the music sounds nice, too bad the game appears to be wretchedly difficult in a very unfair way.

I've played this once or twice sadly at the time I wasn't big on it at the time. I need to give it another chance 😅

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

You’re a braver man than I!

spot on! I appreciate your props to the great Neil Baldwin. I'm sure the game had its place and time for the adult hardcore gamers of the era.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

He rules, I especially like Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge.

I cannot wait for Jeff Gerstmann to be utterly perplexed by this.

I remember playing Chrono Trigger and that Food and Water mechanic was there too. This game takes from the best. What a great mechanic to put into a game, you eat...... but your still hungry.

@bluedistortions

3 сағат бұрын

There was no hunger/thirst mechanic in Chrono Trigger.

This was what I used to call a "weekend ruiner." Rented it for a weekend, of friggin' course it had no instructions (not even the little placard they'd tape to the inside of the plastic rental case, either!), and it was just a confusing, bullshit mess from the very start. I, too, have tried going back to it from time to time since then, but it's still not a fun experience even if I know what I'm supposed to do.

@broncosbreaks

21 күн бұрын

I can only imagine going to school to talk to friends for tips on this game only to find out no one in my state had ever heard of it

Thank you for sparing me having to try this atrocity! Hahaha

Never heard of this one, which is surprising since the genre is right up my alley! I suppose I was too busy with TurboGrafx and Genesis to be bothered with NES games after 1990 or so.

Oh my grandma had this game! we never made it past the first pit, without a manual this game was unplayable, which was too bad as it had some of the coolest cover art

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Grandma?! Man she must've been a wild lady to tackle some Magician!

@FalsebitPakoPako

19 күн бұрын

No one ever knows much about their grandparents. But given that they're much older, they probably had some tales to tell.

This review video is from the point of view of someone who is young and never learned to appreciate thinking on their own, and wants everything done for them. When this game came out, system limitations meant you couldn't have massive games like there are now, so the developers of good games put a lot of thought into it in order to make you think about what you are seeing on the screen, and we were not babied, you learned the hard way, and if you missed something, that will teach you to not skip over things but get them done as you come across them. The spell book was a good feature because if you did something crazy, like oh I don't know, actually writing down the spells on a real piece of paper, then all it cost was 50 mana (which is always replenishing) and so you could save your money so that you always had enough food and water. People used to appreciate needing to develop skill and strategies in order to actually become good at something. Now everyone just wants to pop in a game and mindlessly progress through it without having to think, learn or improve themselves. There was nothing keeping track of the mana? We learned to keep track of that ourselves as we cast spells, and figure out what enemies were worth fighting and which ones could just be ignored and passed. We figured out that you only needed to buy one key and it could be used for all chests as they don't deplete, so we remembered on the next playthrough and figured out the money management mechanic, and just like real life, you are responsible for all of your actions, so either learn from it or keep making the same mistake over and over. Like real life, it is fun when you get good at it.

@BigOleWords

4 күн бұрын

That's me, young James, 42 going on 14!

Love yer vids man. W

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Hey thanks!

YES finally! This game rocks! You are my hero for making this video. ❤🧙 EDIT: Oookay, I guess I was expecting a more glowing review. I mean WOW the game can be rough and requires a lot of trial-and-error, but it is not the unplayable garbage you make it out to be. Maybe I'm biased because I played this using a FAQ, but it really is a cool game with a surprising amount of depth. That said, the game does have issues. Most of the spells are crap, and it can be hard to wait for Mana to regenerate since you also constantly deplete Food/Water. It also is annoying how if you open a chest and can't carry any more of that item, you're forced to leave it behind. There's no denying that the graphics and sound are amazing for an NES title. That alone makes the game worth playing through at least once.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Haha spoke too soon huh? :) Yeah, I played it kinda half blind / half using a FAQ and that was pretty damn confusing. Can't imagine owning this back in the day.

@HylianFox3

20 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords Playing it on real hardware probably makes a difference. Something you didn't mention was the game has a limited number of saves (although there are 4 slots you can use, which is good if you need to go back to an earlier stage). I dunno, it's not that I'm trying to invalidate your opinion or anything, but I did feel you would find this to be more of a hidden gem than "WTF is this crap?" lol. Shows what little I know, right? I'd love to see a remake/hack of this game with some QOL improvements, because it's tragic to see this flounder in obscurity.

It was one of those games you had to do every thing right and it would flow like water. Otherwise like every NES game, do it wrong and it’s like Metroid when you fall in that fricken lava and can’t hop out cuz enemy spawns right above you.

@BigOleWords

12 күн бұрын

I thought I was doing everything relatively right until I got to the end and cursed this game's name!

0:06 Magician sounds terrible, I could just imagine you Try to catch those towns people for a chat 😂😂😂 It doesn't surprise me that nobody played it, A lot of the things you said about the game made me laugh, Great video

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

Glad you liked it :)

I used to rent this from the liquor store back in the day. 89-90? SmallTown Illinois.

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Was that the name of the liquor store or the town?

@aaronmoore6275

20 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords you wouldn't have heard of it. Tevis's Store.

@aaronmoore6275

19 күн бұрын

It was the sketchiest, country-assed, pre-computer kind of deal. Vess soda for a quarter, plain PayDay for 50 cents, maybe 2 bucks per game, per day. While being EASILY in walking distance. They used to get stuff that Nintendo power barely mentioned. Complete with badly-translated instruction manual printed on/in the plastic rental case.

This is a lost gem buried in Time.

some neat concepts in this game, and the graphics don't seem too bad but bad game design decisions aside, the flashing of the text when it scrolls at the bottom would be too much for me - makes it so hard to read...

One of the best soundtracks on the NES in my opinion is The Battle of Olympus whiz if I remember also has some amazing uplifting oceanic 🌊 sounds lol😂

This game looks really good. Like amazing sprite work.

I always think I know the library and you keep pulling these games out of a different dimension it witchcraft! Big fan and love your stuff!

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

I haven't even begun to reach the bizarre depths of this console!

For nes, that game looks 9 out of 10. I would of loved this as a kid.

This is one of those titles I think every kid back in the day rented but never got very far. I went and picked up a copy mostly out of nostalgia as I remember actually liking it. I also remember not getting very far 😅 after finding a good copy on EBay I realized just how terribly hard this one was! I think the biggest thing that wasn’t mentioned was *limited saves*! I am not kidding! So the usual save all the time does not work here. That alone put this game at the bottom of my “I’ll beat one day” list. Get good? More like get wrecked!

_Magician_ brings a lot of promise to the table in concept but always seemed clunky in execution to me. Always felt like a modern interpretation of the game with better controls would work well (basically everything you’d expect in an action-adventure platformer), but make it truly open-world, and keep the RPG progression and the spellbook concept where you have to actually learn (and scribe) spells before you can use them, including undocumented spells that have various effects, some good and some bad, that can be modifications of existing known ones or spells made entirely of whole cloth. It’s a bit like incorporating a Game Genie as a game mechanic in the game.

11:06 yeah 🤷🏾‍♀️ i would've too 😂 after having to restart hours in. My ps4 save files got corrupted 😂 so yeah, i haven't played them again yet. I had so many hours in those games. Ans your hair is awesome dude

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

It is?! Thanks :)

@jeremyhall2727

19 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords totally dude

i absolutely loved this game, its old and clunky and hard as hell but what nes game wasnt

This game seems incredibly ambitious for its time period. The execution is clearly not great, but that is the case with many games ambitious games.

To me, it sounds like they had a lot of good ideas but lacked experience and possibly had the wrong platform. If they made a few more simple games first, they might have understood what works and what doesn't better. If they tried working on PC, they would have had to compromise on the graphics and real-time parts but might have made something decent that kept the depth.

@BigOleWords

11 күн бұрын

Agreed. It’s really not that far off from being a decent game, but it’s still needs A LOT to get there

WAKEY WAKEY

Points for saying abstruse instead of obtuse

@BigOleWords

18 күн бұрын

I think I’ve been chastised about it in the past ;)

The website is down bro. Did you abandon it?

@BigOleWords

12 күн бұрын

Yes and no. I was supposed to renew not the domain but something else and didn’t. I keep meaning to get it restored and keep forgetting!

Would love to see a video on the bards tale

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Ooof I don't know if I have it in me!

@jboy8735

20 күн бұрын

@@BigOleWords i still need to beat the game I’m in the catacombs but man it gets old with the mazes and you get lost but man the music 10/10

I played and beat this game when it came out, no problem

I loved this game when I rented it as a kid. BUt having it for only one knight,, I was usper into tyring to fiogure out where to go and how and where to find new spells, I also mae at least one spell fopr free by guesdsing spell names at random and thaty was a super rush to discover. BUt I was a kid with unlimited patience and a whole knight alone with just this one game and no other gaming options. So I was super into it and had awesome time. BUt now I see all the flaws. I stil want to read th emnaual again and give th egame another tryo, for nostalgia sake, and see how that goes

I have never played the game, but visually it’s like an Atari computer Black Lamp but with a few more extra colors and that’s great!! I love how it looks. So bad the gameplay had to be ruined.

I really like the pixel art and color palette in this game. Looks like this game had a ton of potential but poor execution.

This game is really like nothing else on the system, huh? Never played this one, but it looks like a Euro game through and through; pretty much a Commodore 64 game on a console. Wouldn't be surprised if that's how it was conceived initially... it was too ambitious for its own good though, it seems. (agree though, the OST seems great!)

@BigOleWords

20 күн бұрын

Very much a Euro made/style game.

The best game mechanic is the health one where you have to eat all the time, just like in real life. Because real life is FUN!!!!