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 That's right, we're changing the title of this weekly feature. While we love the Retro Weekly tag, it's not quite accurate as we're going to talk about games that aren't quite "retro" in the weeks to come. While SNES, Genesis, and N64 games aren't particularly new, they are totally viable as entertainment even in today's super-shiny HD graphics age. If this is your first time reading "Do You Remember...", here's the idea: every week, I’ll dig up an old gem from my personal cartridge library (subjective, naturally) and talk about it. This isn’t a retro review – just a look into the games of the past, games many of “this generation’s” gamers may have missed out on, and let you know what the game's about and why you should track it down! Since consoles are more and more supporting old titles (Virtual Console, etc) through downloads or compilation discs, a lot of the games we'll discuss from now on are games that are either available or ones we wish were available. This week, we're talking about StarTropics and StarTropics 2: Zoda's Revenge. Both of these are on the Wii's virtual console now. Last week we talked about Flying Dragon: The Secret Scrolls, a hybrid side-scrolling/fighting game. This week we're concentrating on a game that really took challenging puzzles and grid-based action gameplay to the extreme. StarTropics and its sequel are two of my favorite games on the NES and hopefully after discussing them a bit, you'll be tempted to check them out yourself.
Genre The StarTropics games are similar to The Legend of Zelda: action/adventure titles with puzzle elements. You have both an overworld view, common in RPGs, and a dungeon view that shows your character and the environment is much greater detail. In the games, you'll make use of a variety of different weapons and meet a variety of characters. The two games need to be taken as a whole - they're direct sequels. I'm going to write about all games in a franchise that are direct sequels in this condensed manner, so we don't have to set aside several weeks for what boils down to a single game. Story The story of StarTropics begins with you, Mike Jones, getting a message from your archaeologist uncle known as Dr. J by the island folk he was visiting. You go to visit him and learn he has gone missing. Much of the game is spent trying to find your lost uncle and meeting various people on the way, including the islanders (often comically stereotypical and/or vaguely racist in depiction), monkeys, dolphins, a robot, and make use of a submarine. It turns out, Dr. J was abducted by aliens, specifically one named Zoda, seeking to learn about his research on three cubes from the planet Argonia. You eventually rescue Dr. J, defeat Zoda, destroy an alien spaceship, reclaim the cubes, and release some survivors of planet Argonia from said cubes. Mike then decides to go back and enjoy high school, playing baseball like every other kid in the universe (in his eyes, anyway). Not so much of that peaceful stuff. StarTropics II kicks off right as Mike has gotten used to high school. He gets a message from Mica, one of the Argonians he and Dr. J rescued in the first game, describing a way to decode a cipher found in the alien spaceship he destroyed. Sure enough, as Mike speaks the cipher out loud, he is transported through time. The rest of the game is spent trying to get Mike back to his own time, all the while visiting historic/fictional locales and people, collecting blocks called “tetrads”, and defeating Zoda and his clones who have also weaseled their way throughout time. The end of the game involves putting the Tetrads together and helping the Argonians one last time. I won’t spoil anything more, but it’s wacky, cheesy, and awesome stuff all at the same time. Gameplay The gameplay varies between the games – in the first StarTropics, you’re essentially confined to moving on a grid. You can move in the four cardinal directions, but often one square at a time (technically only when you’re on tiled surfaces, but these really do make up a majority of the game). Your attacks with weapons are also confined to the same mechanic – they can attack one, two, or three squares ahead of you. Projectiles vary… I’m simplifying, but you can probably get the idea that strategy is a pretty fair element in the game, factoring in that weapon strength varies by its range (close-range weapons are strong, projectiles are weak, etc). You can jump one square at a time, or across one square of water at a time. Jumping puzzles abound! Many boss fights also take place on jumping puzzles, forcing you to calmly judge where you can jump and how to evade their attacks. It’s cool.  In the second game, these strategic/confining elements are removed. You can move in eight directions, attack diagonally, and jump diagonally. Basically, it eases much of the challenge of the action areas, but gives you more exploration options and puzzles to solve. In both of the games, it would be wise to keep a little notepad and pencil nearby to write down clues and puzzle solutions – many are too long to complex to remember offhand. One puzzle in particular in the first game actually stumped a majority of gamers, especially those who bought the game used or rented/borrowed it. With the original copy of the game, you were given a piece of parchment, written by “Dr. J”. In the game, you are asked at one point to dip “Dr. J’s letter” into the water. You also received a letter in the game, leading to great confusion – you were supposed to dip your physical letter in water to get a numerical code and progress in the game. The code, 747, is immortalized in the minds of many gamers because of its implementation (sort of like the X-Men game for the Sega Genesis where Professor X demands you “reset the Danger Room”, referring to the Genesis itself, to reach Magneto’s stage… but I digress).  Overall I had a lot to say about these games, a lot more than what is already here, but since this is getting lengthy enough, I’ll just say this: these games are excellent examples of the best NES has to offer. I often wonder why Nintendo didn’t try to reboot the franchise since the second game, but it’s likely because Mike wasn’t as colorful a mascot as Mario, Link, Kirby, Samus, and their ilk and kin. He was an everyman, and he fought aliens. These games are great and their challenge is fair – not cheap, not purposely withholding. Find these well-made games on the Wii Virtual Console and give them the time they deserve!
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