NES Games No One Played: CASTELIAN (Nintendo Entertainment System Review)
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2021
- PATREON ► / bigolewords
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CASTELIAN ►Castelian is the tragic tale of a stumpy pigfrog named Pogo as he repeatedly endures his Sisyphean journey up, and back down, the towers of his personal hell. Play this NES game and you too can experience his pain and his ecstacy.
#retrogaming #nintendo #nes
CASTLELAN | 1991
Similar Games: Snake Rattle and Roll, Q-Bert, Marble Madness (if all those games were awful).
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After years of focusing on the best games for the NES, I decided to change gears and focus on lesser known cartridges that have, for one reason or another, generally escaped the public discussion and general nostalgia. This series highlights many of the relatively unknown, obscure, and unloved titles in the Nintendo Entertainment System's library. Some of these games are at best mediocre. Many are painfully bad, some of the worst NES games around. Most are hilarious for all the wrong reasons! Occasionally, OCCASIONALLY, a handful of them are actually good, borderline hidden gems.
While you won't find any of these on the NES Classic, some of these titles have managed to make their way onto the Nintendo Switch, so if you don't have an original Nintendo console or ROMs escape you ethically or technologically, there are several ways to play them.
Want more? Me too! Until then, lots of other articles where the pictures don't move and words have to be read can be found on my website(s):
top100nesgames.com
/ awinnerisyou
/ bigolewords
nes, nintendo, retro gaming, retro games, gaming, video games,
nes games, 8-bit, old school, nintendo entertainment system, famicom, family computer, 8-bit games, nintendo games, Nintendo gamer, 8-bit gaming, 8 bit, 8-bit gamer, 8-bit music, chiptune, chiptunes, retro gamer, 80s, 90s, 80s video games, 90s video games, game collecting, game collection, retro game collecting, retro game collection, game room tour, gaming tour, NES Hidden Gems, Bad NES Games, Funny NES Games, Nintendo Hidden gems - Hry
battletoads also uses that cool looking mechanic feature where you climb up a tower and it spins like that.
Except nobody has ever made it that far to see it in Battletoads.
“The game punishes your commitment with further masochism”…. That is a good quote.
Hey thanks! This review of Castelian is one of my favorites :)
This channel is absolutely underrated..
Hey thanks for saying that!
This game was only ever a graphical gimmick. I can't remember getting past level 2. It's very well known to Europeans though. It was genuinely impressive to a ten year old me on the Commodore Amiga.
How does this spinning ball thing distort space time by crossing the fourth dimension and sliding across the tower horizontally while the tower is rotating?
I have this. I remember being very disappointed by it because it looks awesome.
in the Many Videos I have watched about Retro Games I don't think anybody has ever talked about this one before.
And no one else has the courage to review Castelian ever again!
Magic Sword on SNES uses the moving tower mechanic (I think), as well as Ghosts & Goblins, Super Ghouls and Ghosts.
Cool! Yeah the one I thought of was Castlevania: Bloolines on the Genesis. I meant more that on the NES, Kirby's Adventure was the only example I could think of :)
Yeah.......there’s a reason no one played this then or now, and I think you covered it thoroughly. I feel bad for you having to record that footage.
The unfortunate side effect of the obscure games is that yeah, most are that way because they were terrible. This video did teach me that visual static games are much harder to edit than ones where the screen changes more than once!
execuse me, sirs, but this game was ported to different platforms 17 times, and ghosts&goblins was ported 20 times, it was more popular than you think
I vaguely remember renting this once, but once I saw the title the theme music instantly came to mind.
To be fair, this isn’t really a “NES game”, it’s a Commodore 64 game that got ported to the NES, like Last Ninja.
True, but while those are awful examples of the transition other titles like Maniac Mansion fared way better with their NES counterparts.
That explains the multiple actions assigned to a single button thing, then. C64 joysticks only had a single button, so practically any game more complicated than Pac-Man had this annoying feature. Other games would use a different option: the joystick button did one thing and then any other things were assigned to various keys on the keyboard.
Pogo is a character from the nerds candy
I remember being about 7 years old and playing this at my uncle's house on his computer one time when he got babysitting duty. It wasn't very often that I saw him as a kid. He was a musician. I thought this game was pretty cool. Made the job easy for him. We then recorded some completely original music that I wish I still had the tape.
It went something like, "I'm pretty good at Nintendo, I like to play lots of games, I can almost beat Time Lord" Hahaha.... that's a lie, though. Then, as now, I can't beat the boss on the wild west level. How many times do you gotta shoot him? Is there some trick?
Maybe I should add this game to the collection, Castelian, see if it has that nostalgia kick and brings me back 30 (wtf?) years.
Great channel. I like how you pick some more obscure titles to cover.
That’s an awesome story! And Time Lord is definitely in the queue :)
I had the 7800 version and loved the game. The mini game between stages was a submarine, which made more sense as the towers are in the water and the sub would come out of the water to drop you at the start of the level. Of course, being a 7800 kid and not a nintendo kid, maybe I just had different expectations.
Whoaaaaa I played this game as a kid and forgot the game name for a long long time. And fruitless to find it. Then this clip appears. Thank you very much.
BTW. I still confused to this day about it's pig or frog.
At first I think it's adaptation of some japanese anime (Burin as I remember)
Yeah there’s not much memorable about that title!
@@BigOleWords I also remember that in gameboy version. Sometimes, The intro bgm also playing when you play the stage (Originally it's silence)
I actually love Intro BGM very much, But the game over BGM was very creepy. It's like I played Diablo haha.
Maybe the single button control was from the consule with joysticks that only had one button and was too hard or they were too lazy to take advantage of NES controllers two buttons
I think you're correct!
That cover is just...
Hilarious
And yet I never noticed how ridiculous it was til recently!
Thanks for playin this one so I don't have to! That avatar does not look like a pig to me. plus... no music in the game? Great video
That's what I'm here for! Thanks for watching :)
You can choose music OR sound in the options.
This abomination was the first game I owned after years of saving pennies (actually, Spanish Pesetas) that my parents gave me.
Well, the GameBoy version, anyway. But it was a terrible, terrible soul crushing experience. "Cruel thought experiment" is a fitting description, indeed. I'm amazed and disgusted when some people, who must be some kind of deviant masochists, have praise words for this kafkaesque instrument of torture.
Kafkaesque is a perfect term to describe Castilian! And same, when I hear people praise it I have to think they either didn’t know any better back in the day or they just hate themselves ;)
My guess: The one button thing is because the game was originally designed for microcomputers in mind
I think you are correct, but if they had to remake it for the NES why not add the button?!
@@BigOleWords if it ain't broke...
Except jump was usually up on those games.
I loved the game on amiga ^^
Japanese version was based off Kyorochan, a mascot for sweets. Kinda weird. The Protag was just a weird bird thing.
Whoa no way!
I owned this game and IIRC the protagonist is supposed to be a human that was changed into an animal by a wizard, like a pig frog thing, even though it looks more like an ottoman with eyes
I think the only reason I know this game was that there was a screenshot in one of the first EGM mags I ever bought. Boy was I underwhelmed when I finally played it!
Haha I think at quick glance Castelian could appear pretty fun!
@@BigOleWords they made it look very appealing to 8-year-old me!
This is something that shows up so often with Commodore conversions. The original game used only one button, and then whoever did the port was so completely bereft of creativity, it doesn't even occur to redesign it a bit to utilize both buttons. Like all those games that used up for jump. Just drives me crazy. Maybe send 5 mins familiarizing yourself with the platform first before you write a game port. Anyway, that rotation effect was pretty amazing on the 8-bit computers, and apparently was pretty inspirational to the Kirby devs. Unfortunately these games so rarely hold up when ported to the NES. The NES library was just such a revolution in terms of interesting game play.
That makes sense. Castelian is the only time I’ve ever experienced it, but surely there are other examples.
c64 games are less accessible, usually you must read manual, most roms are hacked to add manual into game, but it is more unexpected wild library, "space taxi" "jumpman" "bruce lee" "kikstart" would kick some butts of "baloon fight" "donkey kong"' "kung fu" "excitebike" =) but i cant remember any fun platformer as supermariobros1 at 1985 or before, or i cant even imagine game for 8-bit computer that was better than arcade as nes Contra was
That's a title I definitely missed. Would have been more fun with music, but the button mapping (or lack thereof) sounds really frustrating.
You didn't miss much! Thanks for watching :)
Dad Racer. This was the first game I owned. The button layout isn't even the worst part.
@@radornkeldam Yikes!
Had this as a kid, rarely played it because i never got past level 3. Now i tried again using an emulator...i didn't remember how shitty the controls were, really terrible. Glad i discovered that the quality of the ending is as good as the controls, so that i won't have any regrets
They are no joke!
Mickey mania also use rotated tower
That’s true!
Instead of music, I think this video would have been more bouncier if we had the silence and bouncing ball sounds in the background the whole time.
A feast for the eyes and ears!
dont know how about you, but i like puzzle platformers, it is not "when to jump" but "where", and it took me a week to complite the game, i was only sad because i wasnt able to make work amiga emulator on my PC for the exclusive sequel Nebulus2
also "solomon's key" 'camelot warriors" "myth: history in the making" "blade warrior" "frightmare" "cauldron" "house of usher" (spectrum/amstrad/c64/atari...) at the same genre.
"there are no music" - it is because usually it disturbs you when you must think,
i noticed you jumped in water by your own at 3:45 , 3:50 , and i m sure you pushed buttons as hard as you could to outrun enemie at 2:21, 2:36 , 2:45 , 4:21 - impatience =) and you tell us about unavoidable traps =)
c'mon you are not fair, "it is bad because i cant complite game on the first try" - it is bad mood
The bonus levels are actually vital to beating the game because you need a certain number of points to get extra lives. I beat this game on hard and it was a total nightmare but once you know how to beat it you can beat it as many times as you want, it's less of a game and more of an order memorization thing. Sadly, I owned this game as a kid despite my parent warning me not to pick this one because it looked like crap. I think I just liked the little frog thing.
Kind of like the last level of battletoads
Whoa you’re right, colors and all! Clearly I’ve never made it this far in Battletoads or I would’ve mentioned it!
I was like, this looks ripped right from battletoads. As you said, colors, graphics, nearly everything. Someone was on shrooms watching a buddy play the last level and said "I can make a game!"
I remember seeing this cover at the rental place, but never got it. The cover art wasn't very compelling
Yeah I went with one of the other versions for the thumbnail, but it’s not too much better than the NES version :)
A buddy of mine had this one for the Gameboy when I was a kid and the fake 3D trick was extremely impressive for the time...the actual game on the other hand was pretty mediocre.
You support Ukraine? You support tens of billions of dollars being stolen from American taxpayers. Nuke Ukraine.
I don’t practice Santeria
I ain’t got no crystal ball
Subline’s greatest hits!
This game looks like without an attack molecule and good, responsive controls, it could have been a pretty fun puzzle platformer. Shame about the shitty stuff. Theres so many action platformer "dude/girl/robot runs/jumps right/left and shoots/swords/martial arts monsters/humans to death" NES that having something different is kind of special.
If it isnt shit that is.
I'm a big fan of your channel and I always enjoy your videos but I have to say as a long time computer nerd it literally killed me inside to hear "zee" x spectrum...and I'm an American
If only I’d immediately followed it by clarifying the English specific pronunciation!
I heard that Space Football is a garbage pinball-soccer hybrid.
Space Football? I’m not familiar!
@@BigOleWords it’s one of triffix’s 2 other games
Brock Landers, who’s ranked every SNES game, calls this one of the worst
@@juliab1954 Oh god. Well I'm off to play it now, thanks!