Startropics is awesome

[A Black Falcon]

I'm in the sixth chapter now (out of eight), first dungeon (there are two in this chapter). The game's challenging, and I'll admit I've used GameFAQs some (particularly for level maps, more so than for walkthrough text), but it's a great game. Well-designed puzzles, fantastic dungeons, good combat... it's like NES Zelda, but linear, less random, and really, really fun. I mean, Zelda 1 feels pretty archaic now, with the hidden walls you can't find without random bombing things, the totally non-linear "wander around and find the dungeons for yourself" design, etc, but StarTropics feels a lot more modern in design. Sure, it has a lot of hidden passages, but they're always hinted at with some small graphical clue, if you look close enough...

Decent writing too, for a Nintendo NES game. Great tropical theme to the game as well. And some pretty good music. The whole design just works really well. This is one I'm definitely trying to finish. :)

And then I have a StarTropics II: Zoda's Revenge cart sitting there too, for when I do...