@dorpth I was today years old when I found out the other ports of Shadowgate didn't have soundtracks... suddenly my desire to play them has evaporated.
I played Shadowgate as a youth. It's neat to hear you articulate the feelings I felt as well about the brooding and dark nature of the environment and the excellent narration. Since this game was a rental, I didn't get a lot of time with it initially. I was stuck right at the entrance, not having yet built up the observational skill the game requires to proceed. As an 11-year old, I wrote a letter to Kemco-Seika's customer service department, complaining about my struggles. I remember getting a letter back, giving me a few hints to nudge me along without spoiling things too much. I wish I still had that somewhere, but alas it seems to be lost to the ether of time. As it stands now though, this is one of my favorite NES games.
It's so awesome that you got to experience some of this as a kid. I loved everything horror-themed and melancholy when I was little so I think I would've absolutely adored this game if I'd had the chance to try it back then. I wish you still had that note too! It would be really cool to look back on, but at the very least, it helped you get moving on the game and that's fantastic!
Oh my I jive with that childhood description in this game. I’d forgotten all about it for 30 years with just some images in my mind of it. This week found it again and am binging! Love how it all came back. Be well!!
@@hungrygoriya you are my favorite game, reviewer at the moment, and I have been a long viewer of this type of content. I always look forward to seeing you play some of my favorite games.
The one from the series I played the most was Deja Vu 2.. Still never had the patience to finish it lol Weirdly I didn’t have the original back in the day.. Got it now tho Maybe I’ll check it out on my next vacation.. That’s what I do revisit the oldies whilst on vacation.. What I would like to see is a remake of The Immortal by FromSoft being it had that pre Soulsbourne sorta vibe
@@hungrygoriya I can second the Deja Vu and Uninvited recommendations. Deja Vu was my favorite game growing up and doesn't have that clock aspect that Shadowgate does. But its not without its own frustrations. It's entirely possible to throw out critical items to the games progress and soft lock the game.
🙂 I enjoyed your reference to The Log-Drivers Waltz! I grew up here in Canada hearing it a lot along with the animated cartoon set to it. A quite Canadian thing, I think? It made me smile to think of you singing that as your wizard was paddling his barrel! 😊 PS - I think you do a great job with your channel. I appreciate your videos very much! 😁👍
Hey thanks! I couldn't help myself when the time came while paddling around on that barrel in The Immortal. I'm glad I'm not the only person that remembers that song. I used to get so excited when it'd come on TV back in the day. It was a little show between shows. When someone uploaded it onto RU-vid many years later and I heard it again for the first time after many years, it was blissful! And thanks for your kind words about the channel too! I appreciate it!
Lol 😂 I *also* am glad to find I’m not the only one who remembers that grand ol’ ditty. You’re welcome. 😊 Thank you for taking the time to respond, hungrygoriya. Lol, btw what do you like to be called/referred to as?
I was a real fan of the NES point and click games. Along with Shadowgate I also liked Uninvited and Deja Vu. I was thrilled when these three games recently showed up together in a collection on the Playstation Store. Deja Vu in particular was my favorite and eventually got a sequel on Game Boy as Deja Vu 1+2. As for "games that want you dead" I don't think anything from this time really sticks out for me. Back in those days I never really thought of any particular game as being more difficult or unfairly difficult. Not because I was some super gamer but just because it wasn't something I gave any thought to. And now, looking back, everything form that time is just lumped together in that category of "NES Hard". It's hard to pick out what games were unfairly difficult. Although I think I would say Castle Quest sticks out as my hardest NES game of all time. The game actually comes with a full map of the entire game and straight up tells you the map is there because this game is so hard, you're going to need the map to plot out a viable route. It also has a suicide button because you're required to get yourself into impossible situations where the only way forward is to use said button and return to a checkpoint.
Oh man... Castlequest looks like such a hard game to get through! I have a pal that adores it and I've watched him play through it a few times over the years. I have no idea how to even approach it myself, though I haven't sat down to try it out for myself yet. I think I'd either love it or hate it! And I still also need to get around to playing Uninvited and Deja Vu. I've heard that most people like Shadowgate better, but I'm curious to see what those other two are like. Thanks for the recommendations! I'm going to see if I can find that Deja Vu 1 +2 cartridge for the GBC as well.
Great review as always Goriya! One of the neatest parts about the NES library is that at the time, there was basically no "console versus PC" divide, so there are actually a fair number of games that came out for the NES (or just the Famicom in Japan) that you'd normally consider PC games, especially a surprising number of point and click games. If you've never played it before, I'd highly recommend Maniac Mansion, which does have a NES version, and Nightshade. A tie in to the film, The Goonies, Goonies 2 is also surprisingly, in the NES Point and Click Adventure Game style, oddly enough. On the Famicom side of things, Nintendo produced a few of their own adventure games too, though we never got them in the west until very, very recently. The Famicom Detective Club games were more focused on triggering the correct dialogue sequences with characters than picking up items and using them in deathtrap puzzles, and there was the Portopia Serial Murder Case game, which was again, another mystery solving adventure game, by Enix (and which was I think the first game by the creator of Dragon Quest). You'd need emulators if you wanted to play these games in English, however, since they were never translated into the NES library, though the Detective Club games were eventually remade and rereleased on the Nintendo Switch with some rather nice graphics and full Japanese voice acting! And if you liked Shadowgate in particular, it ended up having a sequel for the N64 of all platforms! It's actually a pretty solid successor too, keeping the same first person style with the massive improved graphics of low polygon 3D! I had quite a bit of fun with that one myself, and you might too.
Of the games you've recommended here, I've only had a chance to play through Maniac Mansion! Thank you for the other suggestions, especially about the Famicom games and the N64 sequel to Shadowgate! I really need to try to find a way to play all of those someday. I'd definitely like to try anything else made in the same form as Shadowgate especially since it was such a blast, and a sequel seems like a pretty good place to start.
Oh thank you! I love point and clicks and games that have great ambience and writing, so these two were great choices for me personally! I'm just glad anyone shows up to watch at all. Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
Finding your channel was the discovery of the year, I love how you communicate. I got stuck with just The Immortal as a kid for some time, and believe me, between its difficulty and the language barrier, it was a trip and a half. The OST was pretty great, and nowadays I find the NES versiok better than the Mega Drive one, specially since enemies seem to have some intelligence in their actions. Shadowgate I only got to play as an adult, but alsoa lovely game. I mean, it's pretty evil but you get it. Anyway, happy holidays, and thank you for your videos!
I think I'd like to try the Genesis version of The Immortal just to see what it's like. I have a feeling that I'll still like the NES version more because I adore that aesthetic, but I'd also like to see the extra gore/content in the other version. That's incredibly kind of you to say! Thank you so much! Hopefully I'll have a new video out soon enough. Wishing you very happy holidays as well!
Shadowgate and it's sisters Uninvited and Deja Vu are some of my most favorite experiences on the NES. There is a comfort to them that I cannot quite explain (maybe because they aren't reflex-driven experiences? I'm uncertain). Several years after playing the NES version, I acquired the DOS version of Shadowgate and was colossally disappointed with it. Even in just adding music, the NES version is just a better experience by leaps and bounds (It did the same thing for Maniac Mansion... another game you should review!) to say nothing of the better color pallete/screen layout. If I had a gripe (and there's always at least one, no matter how nitpicky it is), it's that the game has virtually ZERO replayability. There is usually exactly one way to deal with every single puzzle or challenge with no room for deviation. I feel like there are enough red herring items to pick up that some variety could have been introduced to encourage creativity. That said, the number of different responses you could see to using items in certain locations shows that the creators definitely expected the players to experiment... I suppose that feedback is it's own reward. The dungeon master of my first D&D group in the 80s was a huge fan of Shadowgate also, and it's influence was ever-present in his dungeon design. It didn't take us long to learn to check for traps early and often! Thanks again and keep 'em coming!
I find I love a wide variety of games for different reasons, but I grew up playing a few point and click games that really did a good job tapping into my love of reading and storytelling with the added benefit of being a visual medium. I think music really adds a lot to these experiences as well. I know someone mentioned a similar sentiment about Drakkhen for the PC. The SNES game adds a fantastic soundtrack which the PC versions sorely lacked. That's unfortunate! I also agree about the lack of replay value in this one. Once you know what to do, unless you wait a really long while until you forget it all, there's really nothing more to experience. Some people here have mentioned that there are multiple ways to solve some puzzles if that's your thing, but outside of that, it's a bummer that there isn't much more to the gameplay. Very cool that you got to play some Shadowgate-inspired D&D back then! What a sneaky person, including lots of debauchery in the campaign design! And it's my pleasure! Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment and taking the time to stop by! I appreciate it!
I had the fortune of growing up playing Shadowgate from as far back as I can remember. There are few reviews that really understand the uniquely gnawing feeling of "NES dread" it can imprint upon a player. Thanks! 😃
Oh lucky you! I think I would've loved it as a kid since I was (and still am) a huge fan of horror stuff in general. That NES dread you've described here is palpable in both games here. I want to have more experiences like this!
The genesis version of The Immortal is even more beautiful and atmospheric. Still quite sadistic if you don't read the manual, though. You'll be stuck without being able to complete the game if you don't acquire certain items that the manual describes, hinting at their use.
I need to try out the Genesis version sometime, just to see what differences it has. I won't read the manual if it's just a walkthrough of the game, but I'm curious to see if there are many differences between the Genesis and NES versions.
Log Drivers waltz FTW 🤣🤣🇨🇦 Reference aside, The Immortal was a refreshing take on wizards and dungeons lore and like many back then, when Nintendo Power finally showed the puzzle riddle from stage 2, I was the happiest kid cuz I was so DONE with that 🤣 Definitely an underappreciated classic
The Log Driver's Waltz is a ilttle piece of Canadiana that's been stuck in my head since my childhood. I was glad to remind so many people that it exists! I'm glad Nintendo Power came through for you when you needed it most. I wish I'd gotten to read those issues when I was little, but I never had a subscription or even got to see a copy of it until much later in life.
I might consider it! I do like keeping the channel retro-focused so I'll have to see what the game's like first! I'm very excited to see what it's all about though!
Great video. I'm probably focusing on the wrong thing here, but what are your thoughts on "Air Fortress"...? Also, would you say the magic carpet turns the Immortal into an ice-ometric game? :3
I haven't gotten through all of Air Fortress, but what I did play was fun. The difficulty got kinda crazy in the stage I left off in, but I only played it one evening for a variety stream. I've been meaning to get back to that. And I definitely would call it an ice-ometric game. Sigh haha
@@hungrygoriya I had Air Fortress back in the day. The first few stages are genuinely fun, but after fortress five or six, the difficulty just gets *ridiculous*. For me, at any rate. :)
I remember playing Shadow Gate as like a 7 year old. I had no freaking idea what I was doing. I’d say the same about A boy and his blob and Friday the 13th
I'd love that! I learned it was on the Switch Nintendo online service. Not that that counts, but I'm just glad that more people can experience that game now!
Playing Shadowgate was a great experience. I played it with my friend in high school -- I think we solved it but it's hard to remember. I remember dying a TON!
Oh man, I remember the immortal, though I'll say the nes port seems to suffer quite a bit when it comes to graphical fidelity. I think it's such a shame that this genre of more open ended puzzle/adventure games stopped being made but it's understandable why, metroidvanias tend to take a lot of the fun stuff and strip back the parts which don't appeal. If you're ever interested in playing a game of that style i recommend maze of galious
I thought the graphics looked great, but I haven't seen another version of this game to compare to. I still think there's room for these kinds of games among many other open-world adventures. These kinds of games fit in well in times where the graphics were less nice than modern day since it prodded people to use their imaginations to fill in the details. You might not get the same effect these days, but I still really enjoy what this sort of adventure brings to the table.
Wow, I didn't know The Immortal was on NES. There are much better versions on other consoles like the Megadrive. Absolutely brutal difficulty though. As for the battle system I found the best way to win is basically just dodge everything continually without attacking and once you built up your stamina meter, slash like crazy. I didn't even know there WAS a stab attack.
The NES version was what I had in the collection, so it's the version I chose to play. I'd love to see what the Genesis version's like sometime though! And that tactic of tiring out the enemy definitely works. I found I didn't really need it at the beginning when the enemy health bars were shorter, but definitely towards the end. Monsters definitely take rests sometimes even before their fatigue bar seems full, so I just waited and let it rip when the timing felt right! It's definitely fun, but it's definitely a tough one to get through.
@@hungrygoriya I think there are some differences in the encounters/quests between versions but a large part of it is apparently the combat system. In some versions you actually get the separate combat screen with the energy and life bars. On other versions it's done on the main game screen you're walking around in and you don't get the bars...
Every one of the iRem "MacVenture" titles will want you dead. The Uninvited and Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True are both are extremely rough towards you. For anyone who wants to play these games who doesn't have access to the NES there IS a viable and legal option through Steam by the 8-Bit Adventure Anthology Volume 1. This has all three games released on the NES on it. Its released on there by General Arcade and Abstraction games though a remake of Shadowgate from 2014 exists released by the company Zojoi who is ran by the original creator of the stories of the three games. It is just as hard as the original and has options to make it even harder if you wish! There is even supposed to be a sequel to it released next year! I'm personally VERY excited for it as its keeping to the feel of the original NES title.
Thanks for this information. I'm sure it'll really help out someone who's interested in trying out some of these games but isn't sure how. I'm definitely hoping to check out Uninvited and Deja Vu sometime as well.
@@hungrygoriya when you so Deja Vu don't forget to check out the Game Boy Color version as well as that one includes the oft forgotten sequel to the game. Or you very well could play the MacVenture originals via Steam as well but sacrifice the music, atmosphere and brilliant art direction brought to all the games due to the 8 but formats of the NES and Game Boy Color. The GBC version having it where you slip from Deja Vu 1 straight into Deja Vu 2. It really bolsters both stories.
@@hungrygoriya I did a little research for you, you can find it loose normally for about $25. $80 for a complete in box set. If I still had my copy I'd send it on to you but I lost that years ago in a rough move.
goriya, i haven't played these yet, i think i would like shadowgate, the screen at 2101, is that what your room would look like if you could make it look like something?
If it's wanting you dead as in check out all the ways you can die, I think Kemcos games are without peers for the most part. It is a very computer game style of design so I'd look towards Maniac Mansion and Kemcos other games like The Uninvited and Deja Vu although Deja Vu wants you dead OR arrested. :) Take one wrong step in front of someone that recognizes you and its over.
This is good to know! I've yet to try Deja Vu and The Uninvited yet, but Maniac Mansion was great! I played it on the NES a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. Thanks for the suggestions!
@hungrygoriya also I forgot to mention Kings Quest 5. Played the first one on PC and sharks will just eat you if your toe so much ad touches water...5 might be tamer....
I've heard that Shadowgate's the best of the bunch from a few people at this point. I'd still like to try Deja Vu and Uninvited anyway though! Thanks for the suggestions!
6:02 You mentioned the Log Driver's Waltz. I never heard of that before, so I did a quick search and found it (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fNiLB1Ju5J8.html). I'm not Canadian, but I found it to be delightful. I've never played either game, but they look like the kind of thing my brothers and I would spend hours trying to figure out. Thanks for the video!
I don't think you need to be Canadian to enjoy it, but being Canadian myself, it's a nice little memory nugget from my childhood. It used to air as a show between shows to fill up what would now probably be stuffed with commercials, and I used to get so excited when it would come on. I remember rediscovering it on RU-vid when that became a thing many years later and it was so nice to see it again!
Hey! I’m on the team developing the official sequel to the NES Shadowgate coming to PC. Thanks for covering the original! I’ve been a fan of your videos for years. If you want to try the new game there’s a free demo online. The full version will include Deja Vu and Uninvited chapters. Thanks again for making great content and featuring our series!
Amazing to hear from you! When I was playing Shadowgate back in March or April of this year, people in my stream chat were absolutely hyped up for the Kickstarter campaign. I'm so happy to see that the project was more than fully funded, and if you've scrolled through the comments here, lots of people are hyped for that experience! I'll definitely check out the demo sometime and see what the new game's all about.
I had no idea about the sequel. I just added it to my wishlist on Steam. I look forward to it! This is also the first I have seen of this channel. Great content! Just subbed.
This is good timing. I had to explain to my girlfriend this weekend how Shadowgate (and Adventure of Link's) game over screens gave me nightmares as a kid and she'd never seen either.
This game gave me the creeps, it had some really cool moments, but the Zelda games just made sure that I would hear that incessant beeping in my dreams
I was scared Of Zelda 2's game over screen until I was 14, but only at night. And when I used to use a nightlight, the shadows cast by the bunk bed kinda resembled Ganon's silhouette. When I showed that Game Over screen to my nieces when they were little, they thought it was funny.
Shadowgate is one of my favorites, partly because it was the first of very, very few NES games to receive a Swedish translation. Playing a game in my own language, especially one with such gruesome death scenes, was an unforgettable experience for me as a child.
Amazing that it was available to you in Swedish! I imagine that must've been a rarity back then. I hope the translation was good, but at the very least, it made a long-lasting impression on you with all the deaths!
The translation had some flaws though. "GÄ" and "SLÄ" were the main ones instead of Gå and slå, go or hit or whatever they might be in english. There were also some puzzles that became really weird because of the translation.. And we all remember "Crest" translated to Krön, which is a crest of a hill not an emblem. As kids we thought that was the real name in Swedish.😂 Luckily some older guys in school made a huge guide to the game that we were allowed to photocopy. Good old 90's memories. The game was really cool though and the music is still great. 😊 21:12
Nice, this was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video. I also like how the comment will make no sense to non-Swedish speakers. Gå and slå probably sounds like the language of Mordor to most. 😂
I haven't tried Uninvited yet. I actually played Shadowgate and The Immortal back to back and was surprised at how similar they were in their themes and tone.
@@hungrygoriya well fair warning if you play uninvited. It is pure horror fuel. Scarlet O'Zombie alone is creepy enough. But you can actually die on the first screen rather easily
Besides the fact you explore hidden retro gems, it amazes me how you tell us so much about the games without falling into a fixed and predictable narrative structure. Your videos are a delight!
Hey thanks! I'm glad each video feels different because that's my intention with the writing. I like each script to have its own flow based on what's being discussed rather than trying to shove certain games into boxes they don't fit into.
For Shadowgate's timed aspect: What I'd recommend is something similar to what you're doing. Make a save, then light your torch and go experiment. Light a new torch every time you need to. Once you make what you feel is progress, just reload, do those things, and save your game again. Repeat.
I feel like I've said some variation of this opening line on a dozen of your videos, but that just speaks to the topics you cover, I suppose: I played both The Immortal and Shadowgate when I was a little kid. I remember having a friend over and the two of us not getting very far. I was so young that I had to read the game's text out loud to my friend because he could not yet read well enough to do so without me. That's how young we were, and you can guess that we did not far in that game! But my dad? This was another of those games that he'd obsessively play on weekends. He had an entire legal pad of notes. He wrote down EVERY word of every dream dreamt on a hay bed, every clue, mapped out those rooms of spikes and worm pits, and, of course, all of the passwords. When he finally finished the game, he dove right back in and got the second ending based on whether or not he gave Ana her ring. He was deservedly very proud of himself. Shadowgate, though? My dad and I never finished that one. I found out years later, in middle school, from an older kid, that we were missing that ice orb. We just never found the darn thing on our own. A couple of years later, it was rereleased on Gameboy Color, and I played through my copy of that at least a dozen times, trying to get through it in the smallest number of turns (measured by how many torches I used, of course) as possible. I'm sure I was far from the top of any speedrunning leaderboards, but I had fun. You'd think the other Macventure games, Deja Vu and Uninvited, would have been favorites of mine, too, but they aren't. I don't know what makes Shadowgate special, but it's the only one of them I clicked with. Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane. I don't think of either of these games very often these days, and it's really wonderful to see an adult discover them for the first time and enjoy working their way through them like they're new. I still remember back when they really were.
It sounds like you have some awesome memories with this one. I really appreciate you sharing them with me too! I remember getting stuck in games I was playing as a kid like Curse of Monkey Island or King's Quest VI for months on end because I'd missed a small detail like you did with the ice orb. And even if you had the ice orb, the way you use it (and need to pick it up again!!!) is also tricky! I'm glad you eventually got through it. I need to see what the Game Boy version is like sometime! I'd also like to try Deja Vu and Uninvited one of these days too, though the consensus seems to be that I've already played the best of the three. Still though, I enjoy these kinds of games and look forward to playing them too.
Absolutely loved both of these games when I was a kid. Little wonder that one day I would love Dark Souls for many of the same reasons. Mystery, dark fantasy--and lots of learning by dying.
I've only played King's Field, which I think was a very early "souls"-type game. I definitely felt some of that same sentiment while playing that one, but I imagine the more modern games with all the brilliantly choreographed fights are even more rewarding to work through. I'll have to take the plunge and try Dark Souls one of these days.
I had to a do a double check for "Log Rider's Watz". I thought you were saying an alternative title for the "Volga Boatman" and was going to suggest "Erie Canal" but I've learned something completely new instead.
The Log Driver's Waltz is a staple from my childhood. It used to come on as an animated short between TV shows, and I would be over the moon every time I got to listen to it.
I remember being at a friends, we were playing Shadowgate. He had to call the Nintendo Hotline twice :D I'm glad it got me to experience that hotline from the front row seat. (Guys were fast, and correct) Looks weird how a lot of things (mainly the border) renders so colourful in your video instead of a greyish grid :(
I hope he didn't get in trouble for all the phone charges! And yeah, that's the composite output. It looks a bit weird with the capture setup, but it looked grey on my CRT while I was playing.
My childhood anxiety just came back listening to that Shadowgate theme!! man I loved that game. Nothing on the NES came as close as anxiety inducing as hearing that theme when your last torch starts to run out and you know the grim reaper screen is lurking! Loved how crazy that game was, something always waiting to kill you haha.
These games were some of the most fun I've had playing the NES lately. There's so much suspense at all times in both games, and many great laugh out loud moments. I appreciate both titles very much!
Shadowgate has a pretty wonderful remake on Steam if this aesthetic is turning anyone off. You can click to select things, all the puzzles and solutions are the same, and there are even difficulty modifiers.
That's good to know! I personally like the fuzzy pixel aesthetic, but good to know there's options for people that prefer something a little more modern-looking!
In the vein of games that want you dead... Solstice. Another isometric puzzle game. I loved Shadowgate but I was never able to get Immortal. I was probably too young.
I loved Solstice! I have a review of that one on the channel already and adore isometric games. It was right up my alley! I imagine The Immortal being really tough when you're young. Shadowgate too, just because of how you have to think about some of the items you have. They're both good games in my opinion, but I'm very glad I got to play them as an adult in many ways. I think I would've enjoyed them as a kid, but they're more approachable with my adult brain!
Castle Shadowgate took 2 blocks of gamer kids, 1 mom and 13 years to finally be completed. The only reason it was finished was due to the invention of the internet and me being able to "Dogpile" a walkthrough. The kids these days have no idea.
I love Shadowgate and all of it's spinoffs and while I never played the NES version much, it's probably the most famous version due to having a wider audience get to enjoy the experience. I've seen The Immortal before covered in videos like this, but I've never played it, but it looks like something I might be in to, so maybe I'll play it sooner rather than later.
I hope you give The Immortal a try. It's not easy but it's very interesting to make progress in it. I'm curious about other versions of Shadowgate as well, just to see what some of the graphical differences might be like!
Maniac Mansion, Deja Vu, and Ultima: Exodus were my own sadomasochistic sandboxes. There's just an artificial innocence to the overall library that makes it feel like you're actually getting away with something, but like, in a fun way instead of a depressing slog through mandatory nihilism. The PSP version of Sims 2 was another example of genuine "Are they really letting me go there?" And I hear Balder's Gate III regarded this kind of flexibility as a mission statement?
Yeah, I definitely felt sneaky playing Shadowgate especially! I'm really curious about Baldur's Gate 3. It's been held in such high regard, but I have so much retro to play. It might be a while before I get to it!
@@hungrygoriya If you're looking for more console point and clicks, may I suggest the Sega CD library? But only if load times aren't a deal breaker for you. Also, Scooby Doo on Genesis and GBC were two games in that style which reviewed surprisingly well. (Lowered expectations might be an issue, but I haven't gotten to either one yet. Like you said, there's a lot of retro out there. I'm currently exploring DS and GBA.)
I spent a lot of time playing through point and clicks on PC like The Curse of Monkey Island, King's Quest VI and Fable (not the XBox games!) and can relate to this. Loving every minute but not making it very far was fine by me!
Shadow Gate is a game my sister and I completed together in our youths and I'll never forget the satisfaction of completing it. We also had UNINVITED a very similar title for NES. I'd highly recommend it as well for its quirky writing and puzzles.
What wonderful memories with your family! I used to play Super Mario Bros. 2 with my mom and I treasure those times very much. I'd definitely like to try Uninvited one of these days, as well as Deja Vu, and possibly even Nightshade even though it's not a pure point and click. I need more of this kind of thing in my life!
The Macventure trilogy is always good. Deja Vu (noir) Uninvited (haunted house) and Shadowgate (spooky castle). To my mind, few games revolutionized the way we play video games more than these did, and they are by far among the most popular point and click games of the time period. All 3 deserve high quality high fan fidelity remakes, and Shadowgate has a few sequels if I'm not mistaken, though I never played the sequels.
I wish I'd gotten the chance to play Shadowgate and the others in this "series" back when they were new. Better late than never I guess! I agree about the deserved remake status. I think revisiting these games nowadays would be really special for a lot of people.
@@hungrygoriya I completely agree. Why not stream shadowgate sometime? I'll bet anything if someone came along who wanted to do a serious respectful remake of any of these people would put money behind it.
Shadowgate looks so interesting. Might have to give it a try. Thanks for a great video! Wasn't aware of these games before despite exploring NES titles quite a bit.
I hope you give it a try! There are others in a little trilogy of games that came forward from old Mac computers, and they're called Uninvited and Deja Vu. I've heard that Shadowgate's supposed to be the best of the three and I haven't tried the others, but I hope you enjoy your time with Shadowgate!
@@hungrygoriya oh that's cool. The game does definitely give off old Mac game vibes, or at least that's how I picture those games, never really played them myself.
I agree on both fronts! I'd love to see what the Game Boy Colour version's like. I also learned that Deja Vu and its sequel are also on the GBC. Lots of cool similar games to enjoy on that little handheld!
I'm sure people managed, but figuring out some of the hard stuff would've been an absolute'y thrilling thing to experience! I fumbled my way through King's Quest V on NES as a kid and I remember how excited I was whenever I figured anything out.
The bathtime brush line definitely got me; I'd never seen it like that before, even though I did always think the machete looked like a giant feather, but now I can't unsee it. I'm tempted to bring up the rest of the MacVenture trilogy (Deja Vu and The Uninvited), but they weren't quite as ridiculous with the deaths as Shadowgate was, and I've only played the sequel to Deja Vu once (the Game Boy Color port), so I don't remember if that had a lot of deaths, either. There is also Shadowgate's ill-fated Turbo CD sequel that's going to be getting a remake in this first-person style (the original was something more akin to King's Quest, but more action-oriented, and again, ON A CONSOLE), and given that it's going to be made by the same company that did the Shadowgate remake (which was a lot of the same people who worked on the original game), I think that's going to be another game that celebrates death in such a way. My go-to for laugh-out-loud deaths, though is I Wanna be the Guy, which is a freeware Platformer for the PC. On the first screen, your snake your way down through some passages, and in what feels like two frames of animation, a spike wall flies out and VAPORIZES you faster than you can blink. So, you notice an opening at the top, and you go up instead; walk under a tree, and a piece of fruit turns you into a fine spray again. So you VERY CAREFULLY, tempt the arborian ovules to drop and retreat, making your way to the other side; you hop up, cross over the top, and the fruit FALLS UP AT YOU. This is the second screen of the game. It's one of those old masocore titles that gave rise to the likes of Super Meat Boy and Celeste, and will test your reflexes (and patience; one screen had me yelling incoherently in Spanish), but almost every death has a great deal of humor to it.
Hahaha I couldn't unsee Jason's bathtime brush once I noticed it the first time, so you're welcome! I can't wait to see what the remake you mentioned is going to be like! It's cool that there are people out there that still want to breathe life into that series and make it new again. I'd still like to try the old games on the TG-16 and the N64 just to see what they're all about, but an official sequel coming out as well as a remake are both very exciting pieces of news for fans! I know I Wanna be the Guy in name only, but it's good to know that there are some hilarious death moments in that game. I haven't played anything like Super Meat Boy or Celeste, but I've watched a lot of people play through those games on Twitch. I'll see if I can find someone streaming I Wanna be the Guy because I think I'd much rather enjoy watching a game like that than playing it myself. While I don't know Spanish, I'd hate to start yelling at my TV incoherently in English out of frustration!
@@hungrygoriya If you're looking to follow the remake, Friday Night Arcade did a really good video on it a while back; I don't know where the project is at as far as funding or any of that, but at present, there isn't a Steam page for it, so it's probably going to be a little while. I did try the other two games, but didn't get all that far; Beyond Shadowgate does look really cool, but with the mechanics being the way that they are, I just watched the U Can Beat Video Games guide instead of trying to drag myself through it.
Other games that want you dead: _King's Quest V, Maniac Mansion, Ninja Gaiden III_ (US version) (And of course: _The Uninvited_ and both _Déjà Vu_ games.)
Funny how Shadowgate is what most people think of when they think of 8-bit console adventure games in the West (I still see games in this style made to this day - in fact, a sequel in the same style is in the works; Beyond Shadowgate), but not in Japan, since Portopia was the main template there. You may know this, but this game had a bad first-person Japanese translation which became a source of memes and jokes in Japan - yeah, it wasn't well received there. I tried playing it in Japanese and I'd agree that it's basically their equivalent of A Winner is You, just with hundreds of lines instead of one.
@@BDBD16 There is- and it's not half-bad, but doesn't quite grab the original's feel. This new game looks like it's going to be good. The kickstarter is late, but they're very open about the development and it seems to be coming along nicely. :)
Portopia eh? I can't say I've even heard of that game before, but I might be familiar with some of the memes if I saw them. That's really too bad that the writing's so poorly done :(
@@hungrygoriya Yup, that's unfortunate, MacVenture games (all of them had this issue) didn't deserve this. Portopia was a big hit that even influenced people like Hideo Kojima to make games. One of those cases where a massively influential game stayed in Japan... well, kind of. We got a crappy port with 'AI dialogues' on Steam recently. It's so bad/broken that it's best to forget about its existence, though. : D
I know not the ShadowGate but the Immortal is one of the most brutal, least forgiving video games from the early generation. I'm most familiar with the Genesis version, which has an additional trap compared to the NES version: bloody deaths that you want to see, so you keep playing through the torturous difficulty.
The Immortal is definitely one of the most trying games I've played. Mostly because of how many ways I died before getting the right idea on how to proceed, but also because my thumb started hurting trying to fight the monsters off over and over whenever I'd lose all my lives and inevitably have to work through each level multiple times! I personally enjoy this kind of thing and the challenge that comes with it, so I was glad to keep up the torture to see what was around the next corner.
As an adult, I realized the trick when you're stuck is to keep a save with torches to reload after futile death wandering around. As a child, just hit continue and start where you are with no torches, unable to do anything. :C
I'm glad you like it! It's definitely a staple of my childhood. It used to come on as a little show between shows on a TV station called TV Ontario. I used to get so excited when it would start up.
I played Shadowgate a ton. So many deaths. Learned to save often. And the certain music loop is stuck in my head thanks to the Gaming in the Clinton years videos
@@hungrygoriya its a rabbit hole... with some wild opinions and odd reviews. But they put the music from Shadowgate in the opening. So it took me months to place it because I knew the tune
I do miss Shadowgate. Never even remotely finished that back in the day when it came out. I mean...you rented a Nintendo for a weekend. $120 to buy one was big chunk.
I love when you make new content because I get to talk to someone else about my experiences with a game, & I love Shadowgate (but not as much as Deja Vu). It took me years to figure out how to beat the game. I was stuck on the screen with two bridges (one sturdy, one flimsy ). Then finally a friend in my class told me to drink the potion which is described as "the vial feels impossibly light". I was sure the solution was to defeat the fire hound, but nothing in my inventory worked. I played The Immortal once. I thought it looked awesome, but it was absolutely merciless. I remember thinking it was a rip off that the Genesis version was gorier.
I had a heck of a time with that bridge and learned that I could possibly softlock on the other side if I didn't have enough potion bottles in my inventory. The game was pretty open but also oddly specific sometimes in the order in which you had to complete certain parts, but softlocking was a constant fear for me. I started writing out the steps I took to get through the game at first just in case! The Immortal's pretty merciless when you start out with it, but it's truly one of the more rewarding experiences I've had on the NES. It's pretty neat to see your skills getting better, though sometimes fighting the monsters over and over when you get put back at the beginning of a stage was hard on the thumb too! I've yet to try the Genesis version but I'd like to see what that version looks like sometime. Thanks for the thoughtful comment here! I appreciate you stopping by!
Shadowgate used to give me SERIOUS gibbles when I was a wee lad 😬 Immortal was REAL cool on the Genesis, my brother and I trialed and error it completion when we were wee lads - very frustrating! But the elation we got after was second to none. 😁 thanks for sharing!
I don't blame you for getting the willies playing Shadowgate. It has such an unsettling quality to it that I absolutely adore. And congrats on getting through The Immortal back then! That's amazing!
Also you and I have very similar tastes in games 😂 Of the point and click nes titles I always found Dejavu the most unsettling, that seems a true nightmare scenario to me.
I think Shadowgate definitely earned the nod as a classic. Not only is it a great game with the right tone for a generation that grew up with DnD and early stage fantasy, but it also embodies the true meaning of NES hard. You had to keep on trying and trying to make it through this adventure puzzle game. I bet anyone born in the 80s would be able to identify that death screen immediately. "It's a sad thing that you adventures have ended here!!"... and here!! ... and here!!... You catch my drift :-)
I've tried playing The Immortal, and I just can't with it. It's what SnesDrunk would probably call a "Pick Up and Die" game, because players will spend more time getting clobbered by just about everything before making any progress.
Always a good day when you upload! I played both of these as a kid, and can honestly say i couldn't figure out a damn thing with either lol i owned (and still do) shadowgate, it's sound track still gets used in my d&d games =) i rented the immortal once, and couldn't get past the fist monster you have to fight! That one was just to hard for younger me lol
Maybe it's a good thing for older you to try sometime, yeah? I'm sure you could get through The Immortal if you gave it a solid try. I'm a big fan of the idea that if I can do it, so can you! The Shadowgate music's really good. I'm not surprised to hear that it's made its way into other facets of your life. It'd definitely fit that D&D vibe for sure!
@@hungrygoriya i belive it's on the switch now that i think about it. Perhaps it's time a take another crack at it lol Keep up the great work, and thanks for the encouragement ;)
I remember wanting The Immortal for the Genesis back when it was new but I never got it. I see now that I would not have had the patience for it back then. I'm kinda tempted to try it now, though. Shadowgate too.
I hope you do give them both a try! They have their quirks but I really enjoyed how funny they were right alongside all the experimenting with where to go.
These games both rule. Thanks for the fun double review. For your troubles with the carpet, I recommend a nice bottle of seltzer.. worked wonders for me. "..I found it much more fulfilling to fiddle around a bit, let my torch go out, and then reload..." ...all while torturing your loyal viewers....... just passing along the cruelty, I guess. I'll never forget this nor forgive you.
The bottle of seltzer trick... taking some notes now... And dude, all the crankiness of chat whenever the torch song would come on brought me such joy. Thank you for being part of the collective groan!
I am a huge Shadowgate fan. I was one of probably few people who owned Shadowgate 64 (like way too many N64 games, it wasn't good). Anyway, the NES version actually takes it easy on you. In addition to the torches, the PC and Mac version have another timer where, if mess around too long, the Warlock Lord just succeeds in his plans and the game is over.
Kudos for playing without guides! I’ll be honest, I don’t have enough patience or time at this stage of my life to try these blind xd I still need to try Shadowgate but I’ve seen so many videos about the game that I already know many of the puzzles so I don’t know if the charm will still be there. I played The Immortal back in the day and that battle theme is still between my fave. Any link to watch the stream on these? I checked your twitch and couldn’t find it, so I watched your StarCraft’Duran stream instead :)
Hey thanks! I try my best to go in without hints or help, but sometimes I will bug my stream chat for assistance when I need it. I hope you do get to try out Shadowgate someday. It's a surprisingly huge game with so much in it that you might feel like you know more about it than you actually do. Hopefully that's the case! The Immortal's battle music gets me absolutely pumped up! It's such a good change of pace in the game. The whole soundtrack's pretty dreamy, and then that just comes out swinging! Love it! Unfortunately Twitch only keeps my old streams for two months and then they get deleted off the site. I've been considering uploading some vods here on RU-vid for a while, but I don't have anything up on screen other than the game. I also spend a lot of time chatting with people, so I don't know if they'd even be interesting to watch. I try to keep the live experience on Twitch separate from this produced RU-vid stuff. And thanks for checking out the StarCraft vods! I've been working on that game for months by this point (and the expansion) and it's my first time with an RTS. It's a blast and Duran's such a jerk. It was nice seeing him explode a few times towards the end of that mission I wrapped up last night!
I loved that you opened with Blaster Master! I loved that game, as well as Shadowgate. I never made it all the way through, I don't think. To this day, I'm scared of running out of torches and dying instantly.
The beautiful part is that if you save your game even with a low torch, you get to reload with it at full. It's annoying listening to the low torch music so often but it's a way to make sure you don't paint yourself into a corner and have to start over completely. On the flipside, once you know where to go, you can optimize your path too! Don't be scared!
Deija Vu and Uninvited are similar to Shadowgate, in that they’re first person graphical adventure games that involve trial and error and insta-deaths (but no torch mechanism.) You should check them out 😊
I am so mad right now! Okay so! We literally spoke about games, that I was wqaiting for right? xD xD I PROMISED Friends I cannot look at Shadowgate before we all get gaming on that together, lol. so I canNOT watch this video yet! xD but that said.. you got "Shadowgate" and the Immortal... you got "uninvited" and "Deja Vu" as games LIKE Shadowgate.....
I wanted to talk about another game in my last comment, but there was no context & I needed time to articulate my opinion. Castlevania Legends was the only game in the series I never played, & I finally did a few days after Halloween. I found out it was on the Switch as part of Nintendo's Online Gameboy Collection. For years, I heard nothing but hate for this game. I know for a fact that the director said it was "Somewhat of an embarrassment." Despite that, I had to try it for myself, & I didn't hate it at all. I think if Legends was the first Castlevania title for Gameboy & not Adventure, fans would at least regard it as a solid first attempt. The biggest problem is it had to follow in the footsteps of Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge. Castlevania 2 was faster, looked better, had catchy music & just felt more like a Castlevania (especially with the inclusion of the axe and holy water as sub-weapons). Castlevania Legends (CONS) -slow -fully upgraded whip is too short -monster design is lazy and uninspired (bats, slugs, knights, skull heads, zombies, ghosts) -levels feel designed to intentionally waste time, too many diversions and dead ends -no sub weapons, collectibles instead -levels are too long & mostly empty, barely enough time to complete each level -no money bags hidden in candles, only hearts -magic abilities attained from bosses are mostly unused -has a feminist feel (Alucard thinks Sonia isn't strong enough to defeat him, Dracula calls Sonia "girl" in a dismissive tone a few times, the good ending implies the Belmont clan wouldn't exist without her. Who is her son? Leon? Christopher? Trevor? Simon? Richter?) -Dracula's final form (a disappearing/reappearing dragon head against the static image of a dragon's body) Castlevania Legends (PROS) -1st level music is memorable -defeating 2nd level boss grants ability to heal -pressing A&B together makes Sonia faster & stronger for a limited time once per level -inclusion of Alucard -end level bosses are well designed -has Castlevania atmosphere (whipping monsters, platforming and climbing) I know my Cons outnumber my Pros, but I do like Legends. I had fun with it & I'm happy I finally got to experience it for myself
I'm glad you ended up liking it! The timing of Legends' release on the Switch was very funny since I haven't been able to find a physical copy in all my years of collecting, and literally days after I put out my big Castlevania video, they released it. Couldn't have asked for more inconvenient timing, but oh well! I played it a bit on the Nintendo online service, and I don't feel like it plays much differently than Belmont's revenge. I also didn't come anywhere close to finishing it, but I'll be curious to try it out for myself completely one of these days. Good to know there are some extra bells and whistles in there to enjoy too, like healing and other "magic" by the sounds of it.
I’ve been watching you for awhile now. Two things I look for in RU-vidrs are great writing and unique perspectives. You certainly qualify lol. Big Ups! I appreciate your work. *Wasn’t The Immortal for the Genesis too? I wasn’t aware it was on the NES at all. Very cool. It’s a fun, unique experience. I’ve heard it referred to as a proto-roguelike.
That's extremely kind of you to say! Glad to know my channel fits the bill on both fronts :) The Immortal's also on the Genesis, and from what I understand, it has gorier graphics and a bit of extra content. It's all scripted so I don't think it'd qualify as a rogue-like on that point alone. I'd love to try the Genesis version sometime just to see all the neat death scenes!
Never played The Immortal, but Shadowgate...omg, it was that period of time where I got a game, and it was going to be a month before I could get another. No Internet. No guide book. Woo..
I had that experience with King's Quest V on NES as a kid. I remember getting the internet when I was about 12 and immediately looking up how to finish the game because I got stuck!
So funny thing, the NES version of Shadowgate was actually a lot more forgiving than the PC version. Your comment about the game expecting you to do everything in a perfect run before you run out of torches.... in the NES one, you get a lot of breathing room as long as you're remembering to light new torches (which the game gives you an abundance of), but on PC they run out stupidly fast, so you likely will die... and the PC version does not have the convenient "you get to revive with a full torch" thing, either. I also seem to remember one part involving passing a spirit on a bridge that on PC you can only do twice--once with a spear and again with a spell. But the NES makes all spells unlimited-use, so you can pass this guy multiple times.
The thing is that most point and click stuff you are SUPPOSED to die a lot because part of the game is to find different ways for your character to lose/die (try Space Quest if you want to see what I'm talking about). Except for Quest for Glory and Herioines Quest, your character has 1 hit point and everything will either kill you or it won't. However if it does kill you, you just go back to the last screen you were on to try again/reload an earlier save (King's Quest REQUIRES you to go back to an earlier save once you make the the unwinnable by using up/losing/missing an important plot item, instead of game overing you). DIfferent game genres have different expectations; Roguelikes like Shirren the Wanderer are antithetical to game like this because reloading an earlier save when something bad happens is frowned upon rather than encouraged. I tried playing Immortal on the NES version and couldn't stand it; it was too much like a twitchy arcade game that instant killed you despite having a life meter 90% of the time; the PC version I played was more relaxed; you don't have unlimited fireballs in the original version and you have to save them, plus there are no annoying bats. Immortal is unlike other point and clicks once you die you have to go through all of that AGAIN just to get back to where you died which is a no-no in point and clicks.
I played a few point and clicks growing up and got myself into all sorts of trouble. I did enjoy Space Quest 2 when I got around to it, but have yet to play Quest for Glory or Heroine's Quest. I am a very diligent saver in case I end up getting myself softlocked without an important item, but it looks like some of those games you mentioned had fail-safes for those sorts of situations. What a nice change of pace! I love the way you described The Immortal on NES. I'm blown away that the PC version (and apparently the Genesis version) has no bats! That would be such a relief on its own, but I don't know how I'd feel about the limited fireballs. I guess if I wasn't needing to unleash them on bats all the time, maybe I could've done with fewer... I didn't mind replaying the stages again if I died, but I can see why that would frustrate some people. I looked at it more like an adventure action game than a point and click, but I also loved honing my skills at combat and trying to figure out the fiddly details of some of the puzzles. All in all I thought the NES version was fun, but I can totally understand why most people might not enjoy the experience!
Dang, I actually forgot that I have Shadowgate Classic on GBC. I remember playing it like 23 years ago and even calling the Nintendo Hotline for help when I got stuck. Maybe it's time I replayed it, since I've forgotten most of the solutions to the various puzzles by now. Thanks for reminding me of it!
