The Guardian Legend

The Good
This game possesses numerous advantages that certainly attract the attention of an average player. First-its length. I can't count many NEW games that are beatable within a day, maybe two. Not TGL. The supply of the complex passwords system should already give you an idea how long this is. Not only that, you will spend numerous hours memorizing the bosses' patterns and I can assure you-they're tough and numerous. The world is a vast maze of halls and stationary points, like entrances to the flight areas (corridors) shops and password points (where you receive a game generated password for you to continue the game from this specific moment if you break the fun, like in having the bad luck of going to work). There is a large number of power-ups which makes this game more RPG, than a shooter as you can develop your character as well as enhance the power of your battle equipment. Many times you will have to explore great numbers of halls of NAJU and defeat many mini bosses, by which you could raise your abilities and prepare Yourself for the next flight and the next boss.This game is simply a plethora of gameplay, there is so much to do that you will possibly get lost in the maze and objectives, fortunately your handy automap comes here.

The graphics are very high quality-the colours are rich and the rainbow of the palette flashes before your eyes as you play. Little sprites are quite detailed with each pixel having its purpose-definitely a lot of work was put into them...(read below)

The music is, as you may think for a Japanese game-great. One could think-this is simple Anime melodies with more techno beats. No, this is a great mixture of a cinema-near atmospheric tunes, each, even the generic NAJU surface tune doing the job. The only bad thing I find about the tunes-is that they are short and could get repetitive after a while, if they didn't sound so good.

Of course I could not not mention the main character. Although we can see her as a jet many times, her animations are quite good, definitely better than in some of the earlier games. In the ending cutscene we are also rewarded with her cute smile that is thoroughly worth beating this game :)

The Bad
While many graphics shine with work put into them, a lot are simple recoloured variants of others. I found that the authors were quite lazy, when I saw the same boss, just in a different colour for the third time..

The labyrinths are very dull with repetitive tiles in every step and the enemies, mini-bosses and numerous barricades and blocks being the only attraction-there are of course stationary points (pimp up) each looking the same (pimp off).

The game is also very hard. It takes great time to master the simple maze, then there are the bosses. Many times you won't even reach them, as the flights are also very hard. Enemies come from different ways, and as you try to desperately reach for the supply that just felt down your ships accelerates to an enormous rate and you achieve the speed of your projectiles. Can you imagine fighting at such a speed? I certainly find it hard.

The Bottom Line
Get it, because it's worth it. In this year (2004) the game is having it's bronze age (15 years) so it's just another solid argument of getting the game. If you like long games and if you like good games, this one is certainly for you. Don't get me wrong tough. This is not something to beat with a couple of chums, bottles of beer and one good evening. You need time for this game if you don't want it to dust to death on the shelf. Sit down, relax and prepare yourself and your heroine for a long adventure you will surely remember to the end of your mortal existence. Is this journey worth sacrificing other plans just to beat this hard game and remember it? I say yes.

The Good
Sub weapons! They are so interesting to try each one and see their upgrades. The SHMUP sections are great and intense, and the breaks between them in adventure exploration works perfect. The visual style is quite unique. Gameplay is great!

The Bad
Weapons disbalance. Some weapons feel overpowered and some kinda weak compare to others. Some bosses are too weak. And some harder bosses placed earlier than they should.

The Bottom Line
The game design in 1988 wasn't that polished as today. So the cons are quite typical to any game of that time. Think Contra or Castlevania or Megaman and many others, they have the same issues with weapons and bosses. So this game is pure 10/10 for its year. It has mysterious unique vibe, very well delivered genre split, great gameplay.

The Good
The best part of the game is the 2 types of gameplay. Both the overworld and the shooting stages are fun with varied environments. The gameplay is fun and challenging in both sections.

The graphics are good for an NES game. Each section has different artwork with a good variety of enemies. A lot of the enemies are reskinned versions of earlier enemies. This was a common practice in this era to save space on the cartridge.

There is a variety of weapons that you can use with different

The Bad
The game is hard!!! A lot of the bosses in the flying stages are bullet sponges that will hit you hard. It took us many attempts just to survive the opening boss before you even get to the overworld stages.

Due to the massive amount of stuff on the screen, things will drop out on occasion as the sytem is pushed to it's limit.

The Bottom Line
Really a neat game and concept. Definitely worth a try for anyone into retro games.