THE GUARDIAN LEGEND - COMPILE/BRØDERBUND - NES
Reviewed by Chuck
This brilliant game mixes vertical scrolling shooting with a sort of
Zelda-style mode where you wander around a labyrinth killing enemies,
collecting chips, and buying upgrades. This has MANY levels and MANY
bosses, so no way to show it all. Just play it on nesticle, but mind the
flickering status bar...
Controls are simple. Press and hold B to fire your main gun, and A to
fire your current special weapon. This uses chips when you do this.
Both the main and special weapons rapid-fire (and you will NEED it).
You can get chips by shooting a red-top pyramid on the landscape and
flying over a red or blue "chip" icon. You also find hearts, which give
you more energy for your shield, a tank, which totally fills you up, and
later, enemy erasers when you've earned that powerup. Enemy erasers kill
MOST enemies instantly, including some that take lots of shots to kill,
but not bosses or some others. These are rare, though, so don't expect
to find them in a flying sequence very often. Some are in the
landscape, and others are dropped when you shoot a set number of
enemies.
Cheers Chuck! Malky from SHMUPS here. Firstly, thanks to all those people introducing me to these NES shooters, like Zanac, Gun-nac and the enhanced Lifeforce. You know who you are! The NES was not a system I ever had, but I quite fancy trying to get one now! How about that for an example of roms reviving interest in dead systems eh? I'll bet theres a few people who'd like a real NeoGeo in the light of Gekko too...
Unfortunately Chuck had miles too many pics to send easily, so I'm playing it through to get some grabs myself. And having great fun at it too, it's amazing how playable it is! I'd no idea it even existed... the dual format game reminds me of Actraiser for some reason... this game should really be in a Showcase, no doubt about it. Except I don't yet have all the pics, so until then... :)
If anyone wants to try and get some of the missing ones themselves they'd be really welcome. It's like a puzzle this, fill in the missing blanks with the correct pic to go with the caption! :) What a bloody brilliant idea even if I say so myself!
Game: guardian.zip The Guardian Legend (96k)
Emulator: nesticle.zip (197k) Bloodlust's Nesticle NES emulator (latest version will be always updated here, ok?)
First is the approach to the base. You fly down a trench with top-down
view with meteors flying everywhere. Every so often a meteor will
circle around and drop about 20 others, and then they will all fly at
you. You will also see some little satellite loking thingies to dodge.
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Eventually it slows down, and ground-based guns start shooting you. you
can shoot these bullets and the guns too. Eventually, you get to the
boss, a bunch of guns. Kill-em.
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You start here. Read the story, and go off in search of powerups,
bosses, and pyramids to shoot.
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(labyrinth pic 2)
Here is one of many bosses. Note how the walls appear and block off
your escape until you kill the boss. They are all about this size, and
many are similar.
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(labyrinth pic 3)
Here is a shop. Buy stuff here. Red Lanterns up your chip max and Blue
Lanterns up your life max (or was it the other way around???) There are
many weapons. The following weapons come highly recomended.
1) Repeller (the thingie that spirals up the screen) This can score
MANY hits on a boss.
2) Hyper Laser. This is a beam that shoots straight and passes theru
nearly anything. doing heavy damage. great for some bosses.
3) Saber Laser. A light-saber. it hangs on the front of your ship and
makes mincemeat of anything it touches. Good for many bosses.
4) Cutter Laser. Two sabers that stick out the side. Good for when you
want to be at the side of the boss. :)
5) Enemy Eraser. This is a smart bomb that doesn't use chips. Comes in
VERY handy in many places.
Others: Limited use. only good in a few cases. My recomendations are
for flying levels. Some others work well in some situations in the
labyrinth. Some just suck, tho. :)
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(labyrinth pic 4)
This is a corridor. Ones numbered 11 or above open by themselves. Ones
numbered lower you have to do a special trick to open them. There are
hints in some rooom on how to open troublesome corridors.
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This is an early level. Note the aquatic theme, with fishies, seahorses,
etc. In later ones they get faster...
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Here is your first real boss. A Fleepa. don't let it bounce on you.
Dodge and shoot its missiles. You will find more, but he doesn't get
much tougher..
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The hyper laser will make short work of this buster. just get right
under it, stay low, and keep blasting you'll keep getting chips and
hearts.
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This is your first Optomon. Don't touch tendrils. Tendrils BAD.
Suggest hyper laser or repeller. Did I say don't run into a tendril?
Later Optomons have longer tendrils. ICK...
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(green marine shot)
Heres your next style of corridor. Again, enemies get faster in later
ones. This still has a marine feel, but it also has meteors and
spaceships.
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He appears, fires missiles, and vanishes. Use the Cutter or saber
laser to hurt him bad whe he appears. Repeat each time you find one.
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Cutter Laser. Go to the side of it. Slice it up. :) Repeat next time
you meet him.
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Whee, another animal. Kill it. Saber laser it when it appears. the saber
will also get his missiles.
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(volcanic level)
Now things get interesting... You have volcanoes spitting out TONS of
rocks that take many shots to kill. Hopefully you've got lotsa enemy
erasers? In the absence of those, use the saber or cutter laser to
quickly take them out.
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(flying small spaceshippy boss)
This sucker can only be hurt when it stands still. Yup, you guessed it.
Saber laser. :)
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[Eyeball boss]
Cutter laser him. Hopefully you won't die. :) You may want to try
repeller too. You'll meet him again.
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(Red bio corridor)
Here you see a return to organic feel. New enemies make their
appearance here.
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(Eyeball gun boss)
Repeller and saber recommended. Just hose him down.
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Use repeller on this badass (which you should have powered to level 3)
Fire it near the edge and the screen and move up inside to use it as a
shield and get lotsa powerups. Next time it will scroll faster, so it
will be harder to get powerups.
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(desert corrdor)
Oh no. MORE volcanoes. and you also get the goddam ice crystals again,
and also some skulls and big ass floating heads. Use a mixture of enemy
erasers, cutter and saber. Here you will have a boss review, where you
meet a buncha bosses in a row for your last corridor.
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(final corridor before and after)
Now go back to that odd room that seems useless but has music like there
used to be a corridor there. woah, now its a corridor! Here you will have a boss review, where you
meet a buncha bosses in a row for your last corridor.
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(final corridor)
You've killed all those bosses,
and the planet has blown up, so here's your trip home. Nothing much going on. Smooth sailing. Just a buncha
meteors. If you don't know how to handle meteors by now, you should play
another game. Still the music seems kinda spooky... But you shrug it off
as the meteor storm ends...
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Where the heck did this big boss with big claws come from!!! ACK! This
was supposed to be my flight home! Well he's not so tough if you have
the right weapon. Use Back Fire. Yes, that useless thingie that fires
behind you to the side. It's moment has come! By staying high you avoid
the claws and he won't go into the corner, so just stay high.
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Wow, you won. You are given a secret password. This one lets you play a
special version with JUST flying sequences. Now try and beat it without
being able to build up between levels... :) don't worry, it will give you
powerups as you beat levels.
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