Unfairly Hated: Milon's Secret Castle for NES - A Review | hungrygoriya 

Milon is cool. I wrote the AVGN episode on it. People sometimes forget, that show is about humor. I actually love Milon's Secret Castle. I need to do the second quest sometime.

I was obsessed with this game as a kid. I didn't have a manual or anything so I had built an entire elaborate mythology around it.

We used to call this "Easter Eggs: The Game". I feel it's best tackled alongside a few friends, because there's a facet of this experience that's lost without that "playground" factor. This kind of secret hunting in gaming was inherently social back then, before the Internet brought us all together and amplified the potency of that collective problem solving.

YES! I'm so happy to see someone defend this all-too-often maligned little gem of a game. Thank you!

Great review as always, Hungry!

I never, ever got past the 2nd boss in Milon's Secret Castle as a kid. I was too dumb to figure anything out! But I sort of loved it for that very reason. The game is utterly inscrutable and mysterious to the 80's youngster.

Oh sure. When Dark Souls does it, everybody gives it a pass. I'm telling you guys, Milon's Secret Castle was YEARS ahead of its time!

It is incredibly refreshing to see Milon actually getting some love for a change. I have so many fond memories of this one from childhood, even if I never beat it until getting the Game Boy port as an adult. Also, while I knew my hopes could never ever come true, that still didn't keep me from crossing my fingers for Milon or Master Higgins for Smash.

I played Milon’s Secret Castle more than any other game as a kid, and I LOVED it. I felt accomplished every time I unlocked a new instrument in the music rooms. I need to put this on my replay list, as the last time I played was around 2004.

I would happily buy a Hungry Goriya game review compilation on Blu-ray. I could imagine all the little details and Easter eggs you'd put in there given your dedication and charm while reviewing. Never disappointed and honestly my favorite reviewer.

Had Milon’s Secret Castle on GB as a kid. As far as I know, it’s a straight port of the NES version and honestly I felt it worked better as a portable title. I agree: the beginning of the game is a perfect tutorial for most of the mechanics you’ll find throughout the game - granted the game will still throw you curveballs.

I emulated this game and used a strategy guide... and it was still epic hard! It took me 5 hours to beat. This game has no mercy for the player. Most of the time I felt like the programmers were just flipping me off. If you like games that are unnecessarily hard and near impossible to solve, this is your game. I won't spoil the ending but it's equal to that feeling you get when you reach into your freezer to get some ice and there is only one cube left in the tray... Yeah, it's like that. With that said, I do appreciate the suggestion. I would never have tried this if it weren't for your awesome video. Keep up the good work!

I will never forget renting this game at 10 years old and being absolutely inundated with everything going on with absolutely no idea of what to do. Thank you for reviewing this and getting to see it 30 years later. I appreciate your content to no end.

Always an interesting game for me. I never really knew what I was doing, as never had the manuals. I just loved shooting at everything and finding hidden blocks everywhere. Nice to hear what the game is actually all about lol. Good video as always mate xx

At last, someone who understands this unfairly underrated game.

This is one of my fave games on the NES! It's such a crime this gets so much flack. It's a great platformer.

Its kinda crazy learning this games story after all this time. I remember this game very well because of its box art, It was really the first building i have ever seen like that. I have really vivid memories of it.

I owned this game as a kid and I never beat it. I was so enthralled by it though. Especially the well. I remember the first time going down there (without the lantern) and it scared the hell out of me. I didn't play the game for awhile after that! This review brought back so many memories. I'm officially obsessed with your channel and have been binging all your content. Thank you for all you do, you are so greatly appreciated

I've been really enjoying your reviews. It's so refreshing, and uncommon, to find a reviewer who can separate objectives criticism from personal preferences. They're also really well-spoken and witty.

My mom got this for me when I was a kid (NES). I couldn’t get past the first level. Nothing but frustration for me. I ended up loaning it to my friend Jerry and never saw it again. This game installed frustration and guilt that’s lived rent free in my head for 35 years.

This was one of only a handful of games I had on the NES as a kid, and it was a delight to watch you play through it on stream and figure out all the things that kid-me never could. Great review as well!

I named my store after this game. It's excellent, Great review!

This video sat in my Watch Later for a few days. Well worth the wait and an easy sub! Keep it up, I'm excited to go back and watch your previous stuff : )

I find someone tackling and mastering a game like this so much more impressive than, say, a Dark Souls or something known for its brutality towards newcomers. Patience of steel indeed!

Thanks for a great review of Milon's Secret Castle, loved this one as a kid and was a treat to catch you playing it live!

Yet again another awesome video. Your indepth takes on these are fantastic. 👌

As a kid in the early 90s I played this on a Japanese bootleg version with no instruction manual. Just imagine how hard that was to figure out. I managed to beat the second boss eventually, but never completed it, I still want to finish it sometime.

As a south american, these are exactly the kinds of games we maybe wouldn't play because they were in Japanese! Or English at best. And we were little kids and couldn't read them. (Though we did play a lot of Captain Tsubasa in Japanese, the soccer/RPG hybrid). It's nice to get to know about such an unusual game!

Loving how casual and chill your reviews are while still being so thorough. Your channel is criminally underrated, just sayin'. Keep up the great content. ❤️

When I was a kid I thought this game was cool even though I couldn’t figure it out. My brother and I discovered that the second controller could move the character also, so we had fun making him moon walk 😆.

Thanks for making such great videos!

I rented this a lot back in the 80's. And yes, it has that sweet 'explore/where am I' factor going on. I also found the graphics really cute, like the crow monster and the chomping green apple head. Also, I'd swear Milon looks like he could have been an early precursor to one of the dolls in Mendel Palace. That said, this is a hard game. It's vexing to find what blocks one needs to hit with a short range diagonal shot and I felt like I may as well have had the fire button on automatic since much of the game has that stumble across hidden important items factor, similar to Super Pitfall. Milon also doesn't maneuver very well, at least far as as the hit boxes went with jumping. But it was satisfying to eventually navigate through a maze correctly. Too often puzzle games from that era (Lolo for example) had a feeling where the puzzle wasn't necessarily gratifying to complete, only that it was a rigid task to be done. Bosses were a pain, but I rather liked the myriad of small odd looking enemies. They had very chaotic movements and even if they died easily, they were still challenging because of their ability to easily outpace and run circles around Milon like they were high on sugar. It's a good game, but maybe a bit too long and challenging for most.

While I don’t personally enjoy the game it’s nice to hear someone saying something positive about it for once

Your thorough and thoughtful breakdown of this game makes me think I could maybe actually tackle this one. It seems like a fun blend of music, platforming, hunting, and getting stuck a bunch haha.

I have to say, you are quite the hardcore player and your videos are really nice to watch. Today, it's all about collecting retro games, but very few players give them the respect and playtime they deserve, like you do.

Thanks so much for reviewing this NES classic! I thought I was one of the only few who appreciated this one. I actually beat this as a teen in the eighties. But I did cheat slightly with the methods available at that time. I had to call the NES Game Counselors to find out about the initial block push. I remember my mom asking “who called Seattle Washington long distance?” after reviewing the phone bill 😂. I also used the slow mo, aka rapid pause,on my NES Advantage controller to beat the bosses!

A new hungrygoriya video makes any bad day better! Thanks for shining on a light on this gem

My dad would rent me video games from a local video store when I was a kid. I have a vivid memory of playing this game and being stuck in a corner. I was probably only 5 and didn't understand the game mechanics. This game and Karnov I have the most vivid memory of renting.

I've been trying to remember this game for years. I kept conflating it with other games like Solomon's Key. Thanks for covering this game.

Nice to hear something positive about this game, I'm glad you liked it.

Haha you got me! I really thought for a second that the shopkeeper was spouting the Faxanadu game over phrase. Nice!

I never played this game, but I still have fond memories of it because of an old NES Advantage VHS I used to have that I would watch on repeat just to see games I didn't have.

Man, I have very vague memories of my sister's telling me that this game would be too hard for my age then (5ish). A side-scroller adventure I haven't heard you mention is the Golden Axe spin-off "Ax Battler" for Game Gear. I'm sure you'll love it

After watching your review...I'm not sure I ever remember playing this game beyond the first scene...and certainly not for quite some time. STOP MAKING ME WANT TO PLAY MORE GAMES. Another stellar review, friend!

I never watch your videos the minute they come out. I am a father to 3 and it's amazing seriously. But these reviews are reserved for me and I allways save them for a time I have to myself : ) Thanks Hungry 😊 .

I'm glad the internet wasn't available when I was young and playing this game. I loved it at the time and played through it multiple times!

Back in the 80s when renting NES games from the video store was a new thing, THIS was the first game I ever rented. I've gone back and replayed it since then, but I've never managed to finish it. Fun game, but brutally difficult

Just stumbled on your channel. I am finding your content quite enjoyable. Subbed.👍

Great review of an underrated classic! I wish Milon got another chance in a game with that Zelda exploration style, since he only appears later on the SNES Doremi Fantasy, but that was a sidescrolling platform game.

Exceptional review. This is a game I loved, though came close to beating. It was too random, and though I tried and tried I couldn't figure it out. Excellent job covering this classic title.

I remember renting this as a kid, but I swear my entire life I've been reading that as "Milton's Secret Castle." To be fair I probably haven't thought about this game in 30 years before your video.

This is the only game where I watch a walkthrough and not think 'oh, that is what I was supposed to do'. Instead I just yell 'WTF' over and over.

I literally woke up this morning to a longplay of this game while asking myself "what IS this, Little Nemo 0.5??" ... Then you come along at the perfect time to answer my questions! Great video as always, despite it not looking like a game I'd want to play :P

I'd guess that for some people, having to diligently continue to search for clues and figure out how to put it all together just isn't fun, but I'm happy that I find the payoff of such things tremendously satisfying, and that's what I felt playing through this game for the first time. The secrets and mystery were too enticing to put down, and I'm quite sure you felt similarly. Having to think about how things might work when manuals don't explicitly detail them out is part of the fun, because when you finally hit on a solution, it's the best. Also, once you do figure things out or find hidden helpful items, they're always in the same spots, so bit by bit you assemble more and more knowledge to inch your way closer to victory. Such a satisfying game to complete. So glad you enjoyed it overall.

Excellent work. This game isn't an easy one to go through, but you gave it the justice it deserved.

I remember becoming obsessed with this game in high school, almost 20 years after it released. It's nice to hear somebody say nice things about it.

When you review Milon's Secret Castle, it's a fun adventure game from our childhood. When the Nerd reviewed this game, he had a rage fit! I guess it depends on who is playing the game. 😄

Nice Faxanadu cameo! I really enjoyed this one, and have played through the NES version countless times. The SNES game was really good, too, and has a very interesting soundtrack; it's more of a straight Platformer, but I still recommend it. I've recommended this video to a Backloggery buddy for whom I made a Milon's Secret Castle banner, too.

You are super dope! Thank you. One of my favorites when I was little

this is a nostalgic one for me, getting through the first floor is knowledge older than i can remember. i didn't know about the continue feature back then, though, and rarely made it past the well as a kid. went back and beat it as a teenager.

Nice take on this underrated game. Gotta love Hudson Soft. The successor to this is the fantastic „DoReMi Fantasy Milon no DokiDoki Daibouken“ on the SNES :)

I never played this one, but in the old days of the internet I remember seeing multiple people recommend this game in classic game discussions. This was a long time before the AVGN episode

I struggle to understand why some people hate games that let you explore and discover. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. You find a piece, you look around for a piece that looks like it goes together. Trial and error. It's a completely valid way to design a game.

I really liked Milon's as a kid and it was a memorable completion for me. A couple of the last stages are also hard to forget.

Awesome review and anything with the Hudson Bee on it, I generally liked back in the day. It's a good game just difficult.

I remember renting this as a kid, but never really being able to get into it (I think the fact that I was stuck with a Permastruct instead of the actual manual didn't help matters any). This video makes me want to give it another shot! Well played!

Love this game, only beaten the gameboy version but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was to go through the game and figuring it out. Shot out to the manual art for being adorable too, love this era of Hudson soft.

Love this game can be difficult and very frustrating at first. Don't know how we did it back before internet. There was more social interaction with friends trying to figure them out.

I always thought this game was hard when I was little. Nice and fair review.

Rented this game as a kid. Played for about 20 minutes and went to something else. Couldn't get it and kept dying. Then I pick it up the next morning and go on an 8 hour search a thon loving every minute of it. Get to the final boss, get him to barely any health but die. Couldn't believe I was so close so I press Start to get back into it and try it again. Yep, I forgot to hold left. Started a new game instead. I was CRUSHED and cried so hard. My whole day wasted with nothing to show for it. Needless to say I never went back to it again. But it was REALLY fun once you figure it out. Definitely a hidden gem.

Awesome vid!! ^_^

Very fond memories of this game. I had a lot of the same experiences grinding for hearts, trying to find well hidden secrets, and the difficult bosses.

I'm happy to be convinced to play another NES game! thanks for the Review!

This was one of the games I had for NES when I was kid. In fact, I still have it more than 30 years later. Since I was 5 at the time, I couldn't wrap my head around games like this and I never played it more than 10 minutes at a time. I should probably revisit it at some point, but I feel like the punishing difficulty of these old games would drive me insane. I'm too used to modern games. I'd have to do this on an emulator with save states.

Awesome video. I bought this game thanks to some intriguing screen shots in Nintendo Power, and I bludgeoned my way through with a tip from said magazine and a long distance phone call to Hudson Soft to help me get the final floor boss to show up. Beating the only one true Maharito was my Al Bundy four touchdowns moment of growing up with Nintendo, and this remains my number one underrated janky masterpiece of all time. So glad to see it get a fair shake, warts and all!

oh wow, RU-vid took 3 days to recommend me this video! D: Good video though! But I do feel the reason why Milon's Castle is hated is mostly due to the AVGN. People often forget he's playing a character

Now you made me want to play the sequel on the SNES, I loved this video!

I love this game. It's frustrating but I still have tons of fun while playing this game back in the day. One of my favorites.

I've never heard of this game. But, after watching your video I think I might like it. Thank you for making this video.

9:31 Person 1: How are you? What did you do today? Hungry Goriya: "Grind up the hearts of my fallen foes." Person 1: 😧

I loved this game as a child. I vividly remember the first time I beat the first boss. My heart was pounding, and it was the fisrt time I ever had such a reaction from a video game.

I love the narrative 👏👍❤️

I thought obtuseness was part of the package for NES action-adventure games. I beat Milon's Secret Castle as a teenager, and that's without all the creature comforts gamers have today, like instant save states. It took at least two hours, and I had to peel myself out of the pleather recliner when I was finished, but it CAN be done!

I actually picked up an NES cart for this at a thrift store not too long ago! I haven't jumped into it yet, but I am looking forward to it when the NES mood strikes me again, it looks like a lot of fun (and thanks for sharing the continue code xD)

Great review. My friends and family just couldn't get into this game when it was released. We played and beat just about every game that was out at the time (including some of the toughest ones) but this was one game that we found so annoying we just stopped playing it. This game had the potential to be one of the greats, but without a save or password feature it seemed doomed to remain in obscurity.

You’re making a good case for Milon here. I’ve never played it, the game wasn’t even released in Europe. Still, if the game is al about revealing secrets with bubbles, I guess it succeeds? To be fair, maybe it’s not that far from bombing every rock in Metroid? I never thought about it like that. And yeah, my beloved Zelda had some serious needles in haystacks too. Milon’s Secret Castle doesn’t look a polished the Nintendo games, but I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Great video and I love your channel! By the way, there actually IS a way to collect infinite cash, although it can be only done in one of the game's rooms. In the fireplace room on the 3rd level, if you enter and then leave the shop, all 16 of the stone money blocks will respawn every time, allowing you to collect up to the max of $999. Additionally, for every $256 you accumulate using this technique, you will be awarded with an extra health bar (same effect as the honeycomb icon) up to the max of 16 bars. Just note that this counter will reset to zero if you exit the room completely (even though the money blocks will continue to respawn indefinitely).

I played this game because I was tired of my other games. I thought it looked lame, but once I got some momentum, I realized it’s a solid game and I beat it.

Great video! I like the link between the somewhat repetitive soundtrack and Milon's original purpose for setting forth. Milon's Secret Castle always felt like one of those classic games that needed just one more pass to get into that upper echelon; just one more playthrough by someone who didn't really play games to let them know what was frustrating about it.

I really like the actual capture footage as it looks more how the games played. It's not a pixel perfect capture, but looks far more natural.

Ugh. This game was tuff yet fun. I loved jumping around shooting every single square cm on the screen with bubbles. Yet me and my friends only ever got past like three levels. Decades later I bought a copy and got a number of rooms further only to set it aside again

this is a great video. Very interesting

I rented this game when I was a kid and remember rather enjoying it. I found out later that it apparently despised by a lot of people and I remember being surprised by that. I thought it was fun.

I really enjoyed this game when i was younger. It took a few years to figure out, and i didn't really have the ability to use a strategy guide or the internet to help me out with it. I'd often get past the first floor only to get killed soon after and it being a 2nd hand game, had no manual so i didn't know about the continue code until long after i had beaten the game for the first time.

I had no idea this game’s lore has the concept of a musical language. Ive been making a musical language as a hobby project for years.

They is very well read and put together so great, every other review of this game is just someone trashing it, but you really gave it a chance and the way you explained certain aspects make me at least respect this game much more now. Thank you

I've never given this game a chance because of a certain angry review that I watched years ago. I probably still won't play it any time soon, but on the strength of your review I'll add it to my folder of all the good NES/Famicom ROMs ;)

Nice review! I only ever hear negative stuff about this game, so it's good to hear about it's better aspects for once.

I always thought it was Million Secrets Castle until one day in college I took a good look at my cartridge lol

I only beat this game as a kid using the NES Advantage slow-mo and turbo features.