 When we talk about great NES games, why does nobody ever bring up Star Tropics? Real talk for a moment, I did not grow up with an NES. The Super Nintendo was the first console of my childhood. But having three older brothers, I was no stranger to the NES library. I've played so many of the classics that the NES has to offer and yet never had I heard a word about this gem of a game. It wasn't until I got the NES Classic Edition, also known as the NES Mini, that I got to experience Star Tropics for the first time. And I can't help but wonder why this game doesn't stand out to people the same way Metroid and Zelda do. Maybe it's just my opinion, but this game deserves a lot more attention and praise than you'll commonly hear. Let's take a closer look. When you start up Star Tropics, the first thing you'll notice is the beautiful tropical setting that we're going to be spending our time in. Once we get past the title screen, things might start to feel familiar. We've pretty much got a Zelda here, that's the Zelda menu. Star Tropics actually feels like it borrows some of the best elements from quite a few Nintendo games. From Zelda 1 we got our hearts, our items, our potions, our top-down perspective, hidden secrets. We've got what reminds me of somewhere between Zelda 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3's overworld maps, the yo-yo and baseball bat as weapons kind of bring Earthbound and Mother 1 to mind. Uh, that's an Octo Rock. Actually, the game feels quite a bit like a Zelda game. But let's keep the setting in mind. We do not have a fantasy setting here. Our protagonist, Mike Jones, is an average modern, well, modern for the 80s American kid from Seattle. He's an all-star pitcher apparently, like this kid is good at baseball and these village people seem to put a lot of stock into that. Yeah, you heard me right, village people. Mike is from the US but the game takes place in the aforementioned tropical setting. Mike's uncle, Steve Jones, is an archaeologist doing research in the tropics and Mike is invited to visit him. The game actually starts off with us landing on Sea Island, wonder why it's called that. But when we get there Uncle Steve, or Dr. Jones, is missing. So it's up to us to travel between tropical islands to search for and rescue our uncle. Down the road we have some far more brilliant plot twists than you'd expect from an NES game but I will not be having any spoilers here. Why no spoilers you ask? I mean, I've done the spoiler thing in videos before but the ending of this game is just too good to spoil, especially for an NES game. It's just something you're better off playing yourself. I mean that. All I'll say is that the stakes get raised in a big way. So let's get back into the game. We're sent out by the village chief to find our uncle who was abducted because he discovered something in some ancient ruins. So off we go armed with not but a yo-yo, also known as the star. The dungeons here are the real meat of the gameplay. Again, this top-down perspective may feel familiar but unlike Link, Mike is going to be doing a lot of jumping. It may feel strange but we're locked down to a grid and at first this may feel awkward because there isn't always an instant stop when you release the d-pad. If you are just tapping forward, Mike will complete his walk into the next grid space instead of freezing instantly. For any other game, I'd call this a nitpick or a poor design choice but I feel like this was quite intentional here. The dungeons and combat seem to be designed around having this gridlock and since the enemies are mostly also tied down to the grid, it doesn't feel unfair. And the grid gives us certainty about things like combat and jumping range. So as much as I'd like more freedom and multi-directional movement, this restriction actually aids the flow of the game. In fact, when I first started playing the game, I was ready to lambast this design choice in this video but by the time I had completed it, my opinion changed to praising it. The design choice brings a sense of strategy to the combat that I didn't expect. If you play this and feel restricted, just give it some time and you will get used to it. The dungeons themselves are very well designed, I never felt the enemy placement to be unfair and the game is genuinely challenging. I will nitpick that there are trap rooms that are very unfair, especially this one that's completely pitch black and you're surrounded by water with no idea where it's safe to jump. This one room had me so frustrated. The game saves automatically before and after dungeons with a checkpoint in the dungeon but there is no way to play through this room without getting a game over unless you have either the layout memorized or you use suspend points on whatever you downloaded the game from. This one room nearly destroyed an otherwise brilliant experience. But beyond that, the puzzle solving and combat in the dungeons is a genuine joy to play through. There's something about connecting that yo-yo hit with an enemy that is so satisfying. I honestly can't describe it. I really enjoy the boss battles too. I was concerned between the first two boss fights that they would all start to feel really samey, you know, just dodge dodge then strike, dodge dodge then strike. But really the bosses turn out to be quite diverse, especially when the roster of weapons that you carry starts to expand. Something I do wish though was that when you complete a dungeon you would be able to take your inventory with you. Even if you have 50 of these fireball torch things, when you finish the level as soon as you leave you lose them all for some reason. But even with the temporary weapons the yo-yo is such a satisfying weapon to use that I'm willing to look past it. Traversing the world you'll gain use of the submarine called subsea which will allow you to travel between the various islands that the game takes place on. Oh and look you get a little robot. This is navcom and I can't possibly think of where they got the design inspiration from. So navrob acts as your navigator when you're on board the submarine but when you're out and about in the overworld you'll have to rely on the villagers to help you solve the puzzles and progress. I actually really like the way the overworld is broken into chapters containing their own puzzles like this. Some of the area's puzzles between the dungeons and the overworld are connected. Like in the graveyard where you have to open the water flow in the dungeon in order to drain the lake and find out what you're looking for in the overworld. And some of the overworld puzzles may surprise you. Like when you encounter this bird who seems to be talking nonsense until you find this giant piano and realizing it's jabbering was actually called for what musical notes to play. Overall some of these puzzles may give your brain a bit of a tease but there's nothing that should have you stumped for hours and end up pouring over a walkthrough...except. At one point while tracking down your uncle you will be asked to input a radio frequency that is hidden on a letter you get from your uncle. The letter was actually packaged with the original cartridge of the game but finding one now 17 years later is a different story. Thankfully we do live in the age of the internet however the virtual console version of the game does come with a digital version of the letter. I couldn't find one to go with the NES mini however. Unfortunately it isn't difficult to find online. Overall when we chalk it all up the presentation the actually good story and the engaging as well as challenging gameplay Star Tropics had all the makings of a classic. There was a sequel which I haven't played but sadly that's where the franchise ends. Two games on the NES that have been forgotten by most. It's a real pity that this title never made it more into the spotlight. I would have loved to see where the series could go next. But alas that is all we get to see of Star Tropics. A game that I didn't know I needed. You should just go buy it and play it. Hey guys thanks for watching this video. If you liked what you saw maybe give it a like and subscribe to Nintendo Prime for more videos like this one. Oh and make sure to check out some of our other videos. Alright guys thanks for watching. Bye bye.