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 Have you ever wanted to relive the Civil
War and lead the South to victory?
Neither have I, but North
and South is the only NES game that allows you to perform this very
unpatriotic act as well many other much cooler things. North
and South was originally released by Infogrames
for the PC. In 1991 Kemco ported
it over to the NES and North and
South has quietly grown to become a highly desired but hard to find
cart.
North
and South combines
strategy and action elements to try and give you a feeling for how it
would be to lead an army in the Civil War. When you start your game you are
provided with plenty of options.
You can start as either army in any year from 1861-1864 with the
Southern army’s position worsening each year. You can also play on one of three skill
levels and choose the skill level of the computer so once you are good
you can handicap yourself by making the computer’s army much stronger
than yours.
Once your game begins you are
shown a very crude map of the United States on which you must
move your troops. The goal is to
occupy all of the forts so that your train can bring you supplies in the
form of extra troops. If you try
and take over a state controlled by the  opposing army you move to a bird’s eye
view battle screen in which you must control your cavalry, infantry and
cannons. The controls are a bit
awkward and you normally lose one-third of your army before you
blink. Once all of an army has
been destroyed the battle ends with the winning army gaining control of
the state. But beware, if you win the battle but take massive casualties,
it will be very easy for the other army to take back over the state. You can combine troops to make them
larger and stronger or you can try and spread them out so that you get
more turns than your opponent.
There are also two poorly
executed platform parts to the game.
If you try and take over a fort already spoken for by your
opponent you have to try and take over the fort Rambo
style. You enter into a race
against the clock to move from one end of the fort to the other while
avoiding your opponent’s soldiers, killer dogs and dynamite. The second platform area is when you
try and rob your opponent’s train.
If you own a state along his train tracks then you once again turn
into Rambo and must make your way across a speeding train while killing
as many of your opponent’s soldiers as possible. The two platform areas are poorly made
and take a while to figure out but once you do they are very easy to beat
(unless you are on the hardest skill level).
The only way to win in this game
is logical enough – you must completely destroy your opponent’s
army. Once he has no more troops
on the map, the war is over!
Overall, North and South has
lots of cool things going for it but the controls really take away from
the game. Consider this one a “should
have been classic” that ends up disappointing.
Positives:
The game itself is a great
idea. The open field battles are
really fun. There is a lot of
strategy concerning which states to control which varies depending on the
options selected. There are many unexpected
options. Finally, three different
game styles are incorporated into North
and South including strategy, platforming,
and overhead battle management.
Glaring
Negatives:
 The following negatives are so critical
they reduce the grade of North and
South substantially. Two-player
mode has major problems which are outlined below and include no option
for retreating and bridges which lead to stalemates. One-player mode is marred by pathetic
AI. The computer will do what no
human is willing to do in two-player mode, that
is run blindly into enemy fire until all their forces are decimated. Then when only the cannon remains with
its limited ammo, the computer repeatedly fires its canon until its ammo
is depleted and then retreats from battle. However, the wiser human patiently
conserves his ammo waiting for the computer to foolishly exhaust its
supply. You will be stunned at how
often a battle comes down to cannon on cannon and on the plus side you
always win! The mini-games are
difficult but mostly due to the awkward controls.
Graphics
and Sound: Mixed
The colors are sharp and crisp
and the cut-scenes are attractive.
However, if you have ever seen a US map you may not recognize
the “map” you are initially presented with. The northeast colonies are smushed into a single state. The mini-games while bright and crisp
still manage to be somewhat ugly and the battle mode features tiny
sprites. The sound is cool in that
the game features the signature songs of the north and south.
Gameplay
and Controls: Difficult
The controls of the mini-games
are awkward to say the least and the battle mode is far from  easy.
It is amazing how often your horses will run into the water trying
to cross a bridge. Keep in mind
you are controlling three sets of units at the same time and once you
select the horses there is no stopping them until they reach the other
side. This leads to tremendous
difficulties to both newcomers and those who have trouble managing
multiple tasks simultaneously.
Features:
Lots
Surprisingly there are a myriad
of options available in North and
South. First, you can choose
to be either the glorious North or the shameful South. Second, you can select from four different
years, each representing the shifting power struggle of the war. Third,
there are three skill levels to choose from, though none are particularly
difficult. Fourth, there are three
different options that can be selected including Europe helping whoever
occupies North Carolina,
weather conditions, and “the
Indian guy” who randomly
throws his tomahawk and decimates whichever army is currently in the Wild
West. Last and actually least,
there is a two-player mode which is wildly disappointing.
Fun?:
Somewhat
After you’ve figured out how the game works but
before you have mastered it, the game is a lot of fun. The problem is that you will quickly
master it and then the game becomes too easy. In the two-player mode the game is
extremely disappointing (scroll down to find out why…).
Challenge:
Tough at first, very easy later
When you first pop in North and South each area of the
game seems impossible but with a little practice you can figure out how
to exploit the computer’s
many weaknesses.
Replay:
Some
Due to the many options in this
game there is a substantial amount of replay for this game. The problem is that it just isn’t challenging enough for you to want to
play all of the different  variations.
2
Player: Yes
This is where we expected the
game to shine instead it performed like a waterlogged Winchester
in General Lee’s Army at the
battle of Gettysburg. Any battle that involves a bridge
easily evolves into a stalemate position in which neither party can win
without one of them attempting a suicidal mission. This problem arises because the game
doesn’t offer the necessary
retreat option that is available on the original PC version of the
game.
Online
Manual?: Yes at Nintendo Age
Yes
check Nintendo Age, they have a scan of every manual on the NES.
Bottom
Line: Almost
This game is darn close to being one
of the great hidden gems for the NES, but unfortunately it came up one
bridge short. The tagline for this
game is certainly “No
Retreat, No Surrender” (that
was for all you Van Damme fans). In the end North and South just does not provide enough fun or challenge
to overcome its intimidating price tag.
If you can find it cheap, pick it up because it is rare and
decent.
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