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Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise (NES)

Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise review

Game: Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise
Platform: NES
Genre: Action
Developer: Color Dreams

Reader review by strawhat

August 11, 2006

There are some games where the beginning of the game is really awful, but then later on the story gets whipped into shape or you get used to slightly sloppy controls and see that other aspects of the game aren't so bad. Very rarely will you see a game like this that is just so many synonyms of bad from the beginning until the end, or however far you can get.

The point of this game is to help a lost scout. You go through many different environments defeating baddies with your only attack: a kick. This stubby little kick doesn't have enough reach for anything. Most enemies in the game take multiple hits to kill. With your short range, you must go RIGHT in front of them in order to hit. It's unbelievably difficult to get an enemy dead on, especially if they're flying and can knock you over from below, where you can't hit. You'll be knocked far for each hit you take, far enough to fall into a pit and not be able to do anything about. You also can't recover from enemies that fire projectiles. They fire again as soon as you recover from the previous so you cant escape once you begin to get hit. All in all, fighting enemies while jumping across platforms with many pits is not fun.

Enemies aren't the only thing that you'll be bombarded with as you progress though the game. Sometimes, these flying objects will just zoom across the screen. I don't think anybody can tell what they are. They're just large triangles that zoom across the screen and damage you. The only way to escape those is to go through a door that leads to a different area. Areas will instantly change as you walk through them. One miraculous door leads you from a forest to a city. This makes the game seem unrealistic and fake, but the different areas are probably the best part of the game.

The areas of the game are colored decently enough so your eyes don't bleed. You can tell that you're in a forest because there are vines; you can tell you're in a sewer because of the water flowing out of pipes. Although some places are still a little mysterious(area with floating blocks in a black background) and bland, the graphics and environments are the least things on your mind as you play the game.

Other than the environment and graphics which are just below mediocre, everything else is awful. The controls are one thing that I just MUST gripe about. To use a tool, you must press Select and the D-Pad, both on the left side of the controller. What the hell is this? The game creators expect you to cramp your hands over to use something like a map or dynamite to create a super jump. It's a terrible concept that even the sillyest user on a video game website wouldn't think of. Add in the fact that you run by pressing D-Pad and B, which is the same button you use to kick. You'll have to kick once before you can run anywhere. And also, each time you kick your character waves his arms in a poor attempt to look awesome. The music in the game is poor quality just like everything else. There are very few tracks and they all sound the game. They're all equally bad.

This game is one of the few that I think are just unplayable. The controls are unresponsive, you can't kill enemies, the levels are confusing to progress through, the music makes your ears bleed, and so on. Stupid concepts like triangles flying through the air ruin it even more and the pose your character while kicking irks me. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone, not even the annoying 3 year old kid next door who throws rocks at the cat. This game is beyond awful. For everything that is holy, always stand at least five feet away from this game.

Rating: 1/10

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