 Sssssssssnnn that's struck. Robinhood Prince of Thieves is a game I've wanted to look at for a long time and it's really only because it was the feature game in one of the first issues of Nintendo power I had ever seen. Plus they gave the game a good review. But what's interesting is that it's on the basis of accurately representing the movie's story. Yeah, in case you're not aware, this game is based on the Kevin Costner film from 1991, although the actor's likenesses are not in the game. But yeah, this is one of those games that, evidently, would have been a lot more fun back when it was first released than it is to play now. Nintendo Power even said, what really stands out is the way the story unfolds clearly and logically. It's almost like you're in the movie. Uh, yeah, maybe back then since you were forced to use your imagination, but certainly not now. But meanwhile, Nintendo Power gave the actual gameplay an average rating of 3 out of 5, huh? And sure enough, you're following the story of the movie practically seen for scene. You're kind of locked into that structure from the get-go. You start out in a jail, in an overhead viewpoint, then you fight a guard and it switches to a one-on-one fighting mode. You defeat the guard and pop back into the overhead view, and, uh, kay, now what do I do? Press start, and that'll bring up a menu, and that has you looking and searching for stuff. Eventually, you find a hidden passage, and you're out in the catacombs, fighting guards like it's Legend of Zelda. Then the game mode switches again. This time, the two allies that have joined you up to this point fight alongside you, only they're AI-controlled. The game refers to this as the melee mode. As you can see, there is a lot going on in this game. You spend most of the game in the Zelda-like overhead mode, but there's the computer-controlled allies sections, the one-on-one duel sections, there's another part where you're getting chased on horseback by enemies and you have to outrun them, and in addition to that, there's also RPG elements here, experience points, equipping weapons, and using items. It's pretty cool. For as many half-assed movie-licensed games as the NES had, Robin Hood is not one of them. The developers busted their asses to provide something different with this one. The only thing is that it's just kind of a bummer that you're locked into the movie story. This game is very linear and it would have been nice to have a little bit of freedom to mess around with some of these ideas. The story isn't bad, it doesn't follow the movie exactly, but the presentation is pretty sloppy looking, unfortunately. They did the best they could considering it's an NES game, but still the faces here look just a little strange, and they go a bit overboard with the earth tones here. I get that they wanted to create a similar vibe to the movie, but on the NES it just looks really drab. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves shows its age in other ways as well. For as many good ideas as there are in this game, everything is hampered by the slow and limited interface. For example, going back to where you start the game, you have to be standing in a specific spot and select search in order to get out of the jail. And you have to use that search function here and there in order to progress with the game, and at times it feels like a crapshoot, and it's just kind of a drag to use because it doesn't mesh all that well with the game's action segments. In addition, as much as I like the overhead and melee modes, the one-on-one dual mode is choppy as hell and just not very fun. I found those sections to be a total slog. Overall though, I have to say I enjoyed Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It's certainly unique for an NES game, and now I definitely know why it was chosen as a feature game for Nintendo Power. I like the melee mode quite a bit. Managing and leveling up your party is fun, and the top-down action mode is satisfying as well. You gotta love how these guys just explode. It's just the menu system and constantly searching for stuff when you get stuck is gonna be a deal breaker for some people. It wasn't for me, but I can see how someone would get fed up with that. While I would have loved to have more freedom instead of being locked into the story structure, Robin Hood is still a worthwhile playthrough, even if it does have some flaws.