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Spiritual Warfare is one of the
most underrated classics in NES history.
There are a few reasons for this.
First off, it is an unlicensed game, and since there are not many high-quality
unlicensed games it is probably assumed that this game bites. Secondly, it is made by Wisdom Tree,
which means it is a game rooted in Christianity. Finally, it is considered to be a
Legend of Zelda rip-off. What I
wonder is why people think that this is a bad thing. I sure wish more games would have
ripped off Zelda. Instead we ended
up with about 200 rip-offs of Super Mario Bros. but were left
with only a handful of Zelda clones.
Admittedly this game is a hard-core Zelda rip-off but I took that
into consideration when I dropped its grade from an A to an A-.
In this game you play a boy who
apparently has been chosen by God to rid his city of a demon that is
infecting the town with impure thoughts and actions. As the boy you must throw various
fruits of life at your enemies, which causes them to kneel in prayer as
their Christianity overtakes them.
Along the way you pick up heart containers and items such a raft,
torch and sword. You can also gain
Spirit points, which are used like money to buy items that will help you
stay alive. You can only carry up
to 255 Spirit points at any one time.
All of this should sound familiar as it’s just a Christian spin on
The Legend of Zelda (even down to the max of 255 rupees!). Also familiar should be the vast overworld and dungeons that must be entered to defeat
the bad guys and gain powerful items.
In fact the overworld in Spiritual
Warfare is similar in size to Zelda but the dungeons are often only boss
rooms as opposed to intricate mazes leading to a boss room. The major exception is the 6th
and final dungeon in Spiritual Warfare, which is quite complex and time
consuming (in comparison to the rest of the game). Overall, this game is the Legend of
Zelda of unlicensed games, the game to measure all others by, but of
course it completely pales in comparison to the game it is copying
itself.
Positives:
Spiritual Warfare has an immense
charm to it. Other reviewers have
complained that the Christian aspect of the game bothered them but that very
uniqueness is what I found pleasing.
The fact that this game came from such a low-budget company really
lets you know that there is no excuse for a bad NES game. Everything that is cool about The
Legend of Zelda applies to Spiritual Warfare except that everything is on
a much more basic level.
This game is truly a non-linear
adventure game. You only really
have to beat a couple bosses along the way to be able to go to the
Demon’s Lair and defeat the devil.
Of course the game is richer and more fun if you go beat each boss
but I like that there isn’t a set order that things have to be done
in. It’s cool how you have many
different fruits to chose from, each with different abilities such as
zigzagging, scattering, or flying in a straight line. You can pick up items to help you like
a torch, but you can rough it without them and do just fine. It is essential to pick up the sword,
Samson’s jawbone and the raft.
Those three you will need to find certain bosses and the sword is
needed to slay the Devil. I also
liked that an angel comes down to ask you Bible Trivia questions (don’t
those appear in every Wisdom Tree game?) because every right answer gains
you Spirit Points and a chance for a health bonus. There’s nothing like learning useless
information while playing Nintendo!
Glaring
Negatives:
I can’t lie, there are some
glaring negatives. The graphics
are laughable. They look very
juvenile, almost Atari-like. The
music was very grating for me and I ended up choosing the option of no
music. Of course the main negative
is the password system. It is
about 20 digits long and includes 0’s and O’s, 6’s and G’s and I’s and l’s. There are uppercase and lowercase
letters along with numbers, periods and exclamation points. I messed up my password once and had to
redo a large chunk of the game.
Graphics
and Sound: Poor
There is no way around the poor
graphics and sound but that didn’t stop me from completely enjoying this
game, in fact it might have enhanced my enjoyment because it reminded me how
good everything else was.
Gameplay and Controls:
Awesome
You have many different weapons
to choose from, you can travel through the towns in whatever order you
choose, and there are many puzzles to solve. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and found
no problems with the controls.
Features:
Password
The crazy password system can be
frustrating but it does allow for the game to be much larger than it
would be without it.
Fun?:
Tons
This is a game that I could
definitely see myself playing again.
I didn’t find near everything this time around. There were two treasure rooms and a
bunch of fruits that I missed along the way.
Challenge:
Not much
This is a pretty easy game. You shouldn’t have much trouble at all
beating it. It can become more
difficult though if you try and find everything.
Replay:
Yes
I will definitely give this one
another go someday to try and find all the things I missed.
2
Player: No
I wish…
Online
Manual?: Yes
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/manuals/spwarfare.txt
Bottom
Line: Get It Now
This is a great conversation
piece as well as a very fun game.
This one is a no-brainer.
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