NES Game Review Battle of Olympus By J.D. Turbeville
Introduction --------------------
It is ancient Greece and you are the hero in search of your kidnapped heroine. She is taken from the underworld god Hades and you must ask for all the other gods' help in order to rescue her. Gain items as you progress, and find the five ambrosias to add to your life meter. Will you rescue your girl or will you let Hades torment her for eternity!
Plot ---------------------
The idea is to navigate through each city meeting with each god and obtaining crucial items to aid you in your quest. You need the unit of currency, the olive, to purchase at times. You must also find these items by searching. For example, to find the red sword, you must kneel and strike a tree in the Peleponnesius Forest.
The main focal point of this game is to find the three nymphs that were captured by Hades. You can find the first in Argolis in the left cave, the second in pythia, and the third in Crete. There are certain methods in which to find them, but it's your job to find them!
Sound ----------------------
76/100
Pretty interesting choice of sounds. In each city, you get to hear a different one. Also each god or goddess has the same song which is probably familiar to most people. The best songs are in Crete and when you go into the underworld to face Hades, particularly the second half of the world.
Graphics ----------------------
72/100
I think the graphics are similar as Faxanadu, but some may beg to differ. The backgrounds can be hard to distinguish characters at times because of the pixelated images that are eminent. I would value the other aspects of this game more than the graphics, but this facet is what holds it back from greatness from many video gamers.
Challenge -----------------------
87/100
This is one of the tougher games for the system that isn't a RPG. Finding the three nymphs was a challenge, especially knowing where they are. I should stress this idea a lot: "TALK WITH EVERYONE YOU SEE IN THE VILLAGES." After giving up and just screwing around in self-pity, I just walked around in a village and found the key for the second nymph. I'd better shut up now because I'm giving too much away.
Gameplay ------------------------
77/100
It isn't bad, but it could use a little bit more tweaking. The idea that you have to do a "special jump" to continue in the underworld which requires the enemies to be in a specific location and a perfectly timed jump is frustrating. Apparently, when I called Nintendo Game Counselors for this, the person responded with this (which I have the audio tape on hand), "It's a very tough jump". Now apparently it wasn't in his computer or I was probably talking to the video game champion, Skip Rogers.
Fun Factor ------------------------
85/100
I don't know much of the replay value of this game. From experience, I didn't really want to play this game through again once I beat it. It's one of those "long" games that once you beat, you throw it back into the bin and forget about it. I think to date, I've beaten it about four times, but I've been through a lot which is why I memorize a lot of facts which were needed to write this review.
This is the game I wanted to play as a kid because the commercials tantalized me. I give great respect to this game over some of them because it was one tough game to go through. I may have lost my patience on this game, but I needed to get through it to gain any sense of my "game god" status in the Nintendo world. I bet some people may think this game sucks, but I feel it was one of those games that had an everlasting impact on my mind. While it may not look good on the outside (looking at it), the inside (challenge) is what prevails in this game. I recommend this game to anybody who needs to learn about Greek mythology and want a Zeldaesque or Faxanaduesque game, but want different characters to play with.
Judgement: (average the scores Linque!)
-jt