Seeing as this is my first official entry in my Game Analysis Journal, I’m going to apologize in advanced as it will take me time to figure out how best to format my thoughts on these games. But, if you’re willing to bear with me, I’m sure there will be some fun to be had here. So let’s get to it!
I chose StarTropics for my first entry for a couple reasons: one, I just played it, so it’s fresh on my mind, and two, I feel like this is a game that isn’t discussed enough. StarTropics is an odd game for me, personally. I consider myself a Nintendo aficionado, I love games made by the “Big N” more than any other. And I always make it a point to at least familiarize myself with all its IP, but StarTropics was the IP that had somehow eluded me. I’d heard the name in the past, but that was it. I didn’t even know it was a game made by Nintendo. It wasn’t until I read the manual online (thank you NES Classic Mini) that I really became aware of the game. After reading that old manual (an activity I sorely miss in these modern times), I knew I had to play it. It just sounded so fun. Luckily, I was mostly right.
StarTropics seems like the combination of a variety of games, all culminating into one great adventure. It has the dungeon crawling and combat action similar to the original Legend of Zelda, the open world exploration of the original Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, mixed with the bizarre humor akin the Earthbound (Mother) series.
The game sets you up like any good RPG should, by giving you a heroic quest. In this case, Mike (the protagonist) is told that his Uncle, famed archaeologist Dr. Jones, has gone missing. And it is up to you to search the various islands of the game to find and rescue him. Armed with a magic yo-yo given to you by the tribal chieftain, you’re sent on your way.
As I said before, the game is split up into two parts, exploration and dungeon crawling. Both have their merits, but it is the dungeon crawling that I’d like to touch upon first. What really appealed to me, before playing the game, was the thought of having another 2D Zelda-like game to play. While there have been plenty of games in the Zelda series to scratch that itch, something unique, something not tied down by the tropes of that particular series, really appealed to me.
Unfortunately, this is where the game suffers from a horrible flaw. A design flaw that can only be attributed to the archaic design practices of the past. While it is completely unfair to hold all games to the measuring stick of today’s modern practices, there are some issues just too glaring to ignore, and Mike’s movement is certainly one of those issues. You control Mike from a top-down/isometric view in either mode of the game, but when “dungeoning” precise movement is so much more crucial. Unfortunately, Mike can only move on an invisible “grid.” You can go up, down, left, and right, but never fluidly. He would often pause between these movements, too. Move up one “square,” pause, move left one square, pause, etc. I suffered many a death, simply because I couldn’t maneuver Mike quickly enough around the screen. One scene in particular required me to outmaneuver a constantly rolling bowling ball. And let me tell you, with the jarring movement I had to deal with, this was a very frustrating task. While the issue was glaring, I did get over it. Because behind the flaws, the game was good.
Using the magic yo-yo (and later, the upgraded flail and super nova, whatever that was supposed to be) felt good. If I couldn’t move as precisely as I wanted, at least I didn’t have to get right up in the face of my enemy in order to kill it. That’s not to say combat was a cakewalk, movement issues or not, the game was challenging. And some enemies required special weapons to kill. I will admit that it took me way longer to figure out how to even access the weapons I picked up in the first place (pause the game and press “Up”). I had thought my game was bugged or something. Yet another archaic design issue.
Boss fights were also very unique. Some required precise timing, others required that you not fight at all, but rather solve a puzzle. And others still, required perfection, otherwise it was a one hit death waiting for you. Almost all the fights, however, made use of a mechanic that was very unique to StarTropics (in it’s genre, at least): Jumping. I know jumping in Zelda was unheard of at that time, and I feel that was a mechanic that really gave the game a unique feel.
In boss fights, and often in the dungeons as a whole, you were required to jump across platforms, and jump over enemy projectiles. Sometimes you would need to jump on random blocks to make secret switches appear. While this was a fun element to solving the puzzles in the game, it sometimes got redundant. For example, all chests need to be opened by a switch. So I first had to jump on various random blocks in the room, until I found the one that revealed the switch, then I had to jump on the switch, then go get the now opened treasure chest.
Another aspect of the dungeons that I found both fun and frustrating were the secret walls. Hidden within many of the dungeons were secret walls, sections that you could just pass through to find a hidden room. These walls were marked by small bits of debris on the ground. Unfortunately, seeing that small clue wasn’t always easy for me, and there were many times I walked in circles trying to figure out what I had done wrong. The fact that there were many dead ends in the dungeons simply compounded this issue at times. But that’s really all just a part of the dungeon crawling experience. If it were always a straight path, it wouldn’t be any fun.
Moving away from the dungeon side of things, I’d like to talk a bit about the overworld exploration aspects of the game. In the overworld, you were often put on a single island, which more often than not, wouldn’t have much to it. A cave here, a town there. On rare occasion, the inquisitive gamer could also find hidden hearts which would increase your total health.
It was during these portions of the game that you were given most of the narrative. Upon reaching a new island, you’d find the town and figure out what to do next. Usually, you would just need to talk to the tribal chieftain. This was an unnecessarily difficult task at times, however, as there would almost always be a guard, blocking your way to the chief’s hut. And only after talking to literally everyone in the village (including pointless NPC’s like Miss Coral 1990) would he allow you to enter. This was quite annoying on one village in particular, because to get to the hut, I had to wade through a forest of movement blocking trees. I often enjoy talking to NPC’s just for fun, but being forced to do so, for no real reason, bothered me.
Aside from narrative progression, health pickups, and finding the next dungeon; the overworld provided some of the game’s most obscure puzzles. Such as playing a song on a gigantic keyboard, finding a worm to make a parrot talk, or providing your submarine’s robotic co-pilot an access code that could only be found by dipping a page of the original game manual in water. While I applaud the bizarre approach to in-game puzzles, that manual thing must have been a nightmare for kids that had thrown out or lost the manual before reaching that point (thank you, internet).
Overall, StarTropics is hardly a perfect game. And seeing as I’ve only played it once, this is really just my first take. I’m no expert on the game. That said, it is still a very fun game. If you can overcome the archaic design flaws, and harsh difficulty, you’ll find a hidden gem that is so full of potential. It deeply saddens me that there was only ever one other game released for the franchise. Because this is definitely a series that I would love to see Nintendo revive for the modern age.
If you’ve made it this far, then kudos! Thanks for reading my first entry, I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully there will be many more to come.