Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. Video games and product placement are an odd pairing. Sometimes they haven’t gone all that well. Take for example the legendarily bad Kool-Aid game, and who can forget Chase the Chuck Wagon? Not to mention more recent debacles like the Burger King Xbox games (Sneak King? Really?). But for every bad one, there are some positive exceptions. Cool Spot was a surprisingly good platformer starring the lovable 7-Up spots. Same sitch with M.C Kids (Even if I feel like the only one who actually believes that). So, which way does the pendulum swing with our game of the week? Does it deliver the goods, or is it just too cheesy.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1990
PUBLISHER: Capcom
GENRE: Action Platformer
In March of 1990, Capcom released a little game called Kamen No Ninja Hanamaru, or Masked Ninja Hanamaru, for the Famicom. The game had you play as a young ninja, who uses his pet bird to attack the waves of enemies he would encounter in his adventure. At the end of each stage, he would face a boss. The gimmick however was that these bosses would face off with you in the form of a card battle. Despite being a decent enough game, it didn’t look very likely that the game would see a release in North America. Likely for it’s still very Japanese feel. But through kismet, the game would still wind up with a US release. Though certainly not how it once was.
In the late 80’s, a pizza chain known as Domino’s Pizza began to earn prominence thanks to its claymation mascot known as the Noid. The creation of legendary Will Vinton Studios, the Noid was a weird little man in a bunny costume who would find enjoyment out of ruining your pizza. Be it from squashing it, freezing it, or other such nefarious acts. But Domino’s made the promise that they would be able to “avoid the noid”. Hence a classic catchphrase, and character earned their prominence in pop culture. The Noid earned huge popularity. Hell, he even made an appearance in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker movie. So, with the popularity there, I guess it convinced Domino’s to release a video game. And luckily it was Capcom that would be the company to make it so. However, instead of making a brand new game from scratch, they would take Kamen No Ninja Hanamaru, and modify it as a brand new game starring the Noid. But, in the end was this a wise decision? Let’s continue on.
COVER STORY
The cover is fine, and depicts the action of the game pretty well. You have the Noid, and the main enemy of the game, Mr. Green. You also have one of the many items in the game, the Pizza Crusher in action. I wouldn’t say it’s a personal favorite cover of mine, but it’s still a nice one nonetheless.
STORY
The evil Mr. Green, and his gang of no-goodnicks have run amok in the town. The Mayer (no, that’s not a typo of mine, that is actually how the game intro spells it) knows that only The Noid can stop them. So, with his Yo-Yo in tow, the Noid sets off to stop the all of the baddies.
GAMEPLAY
Yo! Noid is a one player action platformer. You control the Noid, who has to travel from level to level in order to defeat the enemies and other Noids before facing off with Mr. Green, the head baddie. The Noid moves left and right with the D-Pad, jumps with the A button, and attacks with his yo-yo with the B button. The yo-yo will only attack in a straight path however, but it still has a favorable length when dealing with enemies in the game.
The game is 14 levels long. Each of which has its own unique look and feel. You’ll go from the harbor docks to the city streets. Sewers, skyscrapers, carnivals, and factories are just some of the stages that await you as you traverse through. Every level has it’s own unique enemies, though most are just basic running enemies. Some levels even have their own unique gameplay options aside from being another “walk to the finish” stage. There’s a park where you’ll use a skateboard to deal with enemies. There are also a couple of levels where the Noid will use a backpack helicopter to dodge through tons of spiky obstacles.
But for the most part, it’s basic platforming stages that will have you jump, dodge, and attack to try and survive in the game. One major downside is the fact that the Noid only has one hit, which makes for a rather difficult challenge ahead of him. Not to mention lack of checkpoints in the level can make for a real pain. You get only a couple lives at the start, and a few continues. But you can earn more continues as the game progresses. We’ll get to how very shortly.
Throughout each level are scrolls and cards you can pick up. We’ll get to the cards shortly, but let’s focus on what the scrolls do. Mini-scrolls will add a point to the meter at the bottom of the screen, while the bigger closed scrolls add far more. A full meter can have the Noid execute one a special attack with Down + B. To get the special attacks, you have to unravel one of the big scrolls by hitting it with the yo-yo. Most of the special attacks are basic, in that all they do is get rid of all enemies on screen. Sometimes there’s a black Noid power-up, which will give you invincibility for a short period of time.
Another useful item, but a rarely available one, is the pizza crusher. A pogo stick that can flatten enemies, and lasts for a very minor amount of time. The downside I find with it is that timing jumps can be a bit tricky. Other than that, you’ll pretty much have to depend on luck and skill to get through this game. This game is, in my opinion, one of the tougher games on the NES. Some of the last levels are insanely tough due to the downside of one hit and no checkpoints, as mentioned previously. This will require a lot of patience, and a ton of continues. But how can you earn more continues?
One way is through the “boss fights” at the end of certain levels. Some levels will end with a pizza eating contest, where the Noid will battle a different colored Noid to see who can eat the most pizzas at one time. That doesn’t make much logical sense, since the Noid was known for destroying pizzas, but whatever. They needed to find a way to modify Hanamaru’s card battle mode somehow.
You can choose one a card with a certain numerical value to try to get more points than your opponent. The cards range from 1-5 in number. There are also ways to ensure a better chance at victory. If your enemy has a bigger card than you have, you can use one of the cards you earned in the levels to modify your card, or use in defense. You get X2 and X3 cards which can multiply the number of pizzas you’ll eat. There are also hot sauce and black pepper cards that can destroy your opponent’s pizzas entirely, giving them no points. First one to eat their pizza amount first wins. If you can get a clean sweep on your opponent, you will get a continue.
The other way to earn continues is through a bonus game found in certain levels. If you hit a precise area in a level with your yo-yo, it will trigger a whack-a-mole style mini-game. In it, you are forced to try and whack as many enemies as possible before time runs out. Without hitting duds, or moles themselves, of course. move around with the D-Pad, and hit the emerging enemy with the B button.If you can get to the amount needed before time runs out, you finish the level early, and get a continue.
So, with all of that mentioned, that must mean the game is pretty flawless, right? Well, yes, and definitely no. I find the core gameplay itself to be really good, and handled quite well. But the biggest prevailing issue is a bad case of poor hit detection. The most noticeable time this occurs is during the skateboard level, where you now can only defeat certain enemies with a skateboard jump to the head. This can be very iffy at times, and sometimes you’ll still end up losing a life even if it looks like you’ve done a perfect direct hit. The jumping in the game can also be very tricky to get used to at times, and can make timing that much needed perfect jump somewhat of a total pain. It makes for what can be considered a major detriment to what is honestly a decent game overall.
GRAPHICS
As expected, Capcom delivers once more in the graphics department. All the characters are well detailed, and the levels are really well done. For a game that was another game redone for a whole different market, it’s amazing how well of a job was done. This was an excellent job by Capcom.
MUSIC
Capcom’s music is once again awesome as always. A top notch soundtrack that sounds near perfect. The game does have a few really catchy songs, including the first level and the pizza contest especially. In terms of actual ear worm level, I’d say that there are a few songs that will be stuck in your head for quite a long time, but nothing that is extremely spectacular. But despite that, Capcom once again proved why they were the masters of 8-bit music magic.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Yo! Noid is a game that’s great in it’s ideas, but quite poor in its execution. The game does have some solid platforming, along with some unique level ideas. But they become sadly bogged by the game’s spotty hit detection, cheap one-hit deaths, and an annoying difficulty that can be infuriating by the end. While the game is graphically impressive, and hosts a solid soundtrack, the controls and gameplay still hurt it. However, despite all of the game’s negative aspects, I personally don’t hate this game as much as most people do. Don’t get me wrong, it annoys me a lot, but I still find it to be fun. Unlike other games of my childhood where the novelty wore off, this one surprisingly manages to hang in there despite it’s major flaws. While I like it however, I will admit it certainly won’t win the favors of everyone. If you can manage to find a copy, try it foe yourself, and make your own judgment. For me however, I consider it to be a guilty pizza pleasure that I simply cannot avoid.
RATING: Thumbs in the Middle