American title:	Star Tropics
European title:	Star Tropics
American publisher:	Nintendo
European publisher:	Nintendo
Developer:	Nintendo
Year (USA/Europe)	1990/1990
Genre:	Adventure

Nintendo is known for their consoles and their successful game series and characters. Famous examples are Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Donkey Kong. Ask a general gamer who these characters are and they have the answer for you. However if you ask 'do you know Mike Jones?', you'll probably get an answer like this: 'No, who is it? Your new neighbor?'. If you would ask it to a newbie in the NES scene, he may think it's ClawX's real name. However if you would ask me this question I'll say he's a forgotten hero from a wonderful game, who lost the competition against games like 'Bart Simpson vs. the Space Mutants'. Is it surprising that the mass chose for Bart Simpson instead of Mike Jones? No, but it's a shame that just a few people know the game where the roots of Mike Jones are: Star Tropics.

Story
You are Michael Jones, but friends just call you Mike. Last week Mike received a letter from his uncle, Dr. Jones, a famous archaeologist who is searching for lost ruins. He invites you to come to C-Island to visit his laboratory. Per helicopter you travel to C-Island, where you visit the village Coralcola. Once in the village you'll soon discover that your uncle has been abducted! The island chief gives you your first weapon, a yoyo. Here does your adventure start. On the way you'll meet many people, a parrot, a dolphin, a whale, ghosts and much more. Once you've found Dr. Jones, there's an interesting plot twist in the story. The plot of this NES game is really good, the mini-tasks also make sense, because they're perfectly implemented in the story. Besides that it's fun to talk to the village people (but don't forget to put the bananas out of your ears when talking to them).
Rating: 9/10

Game play
The game is divided into eight chapters. Mike has one basic weapon, a yoyo. Later in the game he'll get a shooting star and the Super Nova. To use these weapons, you must have a certain amount of energy (hearts). In the dungeons you will also find additional weapons, like torches and basketballs. To proceed in the game you have to solve some puzzles, for one puzzle you need a letter that was included with the original game, a very innovative concept.
The play control on the overworld is good, it's just basic, nothing to complain about, but also no room for any improvement. Mike also walks at a good speed. The control in the dungeons isn't as good though. First, the B-button lets you use your weapon and the A-button makes Mike jump. But you can only jump straight up, unless you jump to a tile and there are many tiles in this game. Mike also walks a bit strange, when you push the directional button he will not move directly. He first faces the direction you pushed him to. Although this can be an advantage, it's most of the time a problem when trying to dodge enemies. It's also not possible to walk diagonally. The biggest advantage of the control is that you can't WALK in the water or lava, only jump in it. But at the time you really need to dodge fast enemies (chapter 7), it's more than likely you master the controls. Actually I got use to it in no-time, and to be quite fair the enemies move the same.
Rating: 9/10

Graphics
The graphics of the over world are good. You can see what a cave or a town is. However they look a bit grainy. It was better if they used a bit more shadow, and the coasts are a bit too sharp. All summed up, they could have been better for a game from 1990, but they do their job right. Another plus of the overworld graphics is the fact that all the characters are animated, Mike is also animated when he doesn't move. It looks like he's dancing at the music. The graphics in the dungeons are comparable to those from 'The Legend of Zelda', but then improved, of course. The graphics are really good, although the colors green and brown are used frequently. Mike looks pretty standard, but is animated well. When you die, Mike turns into an angel and will be flying up to heaven. The enemies are all animated and are looking reasonable to great. Especially the bosses are looking cool, Zoda's (the end boss) forms look superb, especially his hand. When you talk to an important person (or animal) you'll get a screen where you see him (or her) in big. These graphics are really good. When you enter the submarine for the first time, you'll see the inside of it and Nav-Com the robot. The inside doesn't look great. Only three colors are used for the inside of 'Sub-C'. Although it doesn't look as great as Rad Gravity's spaceship in 'The Adventures of Rad Gravity', it does it's job well.
Rating: 8/10

Music & sound
As I've said earlier, it looks like Mike is dancing to the music. And I have to admit that the overworld theme sounds kind of catchy. It's a tropical and happy tune with a high tone and a lower one for the rhythm. The dungeon theme is a pretty basic tune, but it's good. The theme you hear when you've beaten a boss is superb, it's really a tune that gives you the feeling that you've accomplished a great task. The music you hear when entering 'Sub-C' is really a tune that make you say: "Aye Captain!". All those short tunes makes the game enjoyable, another good example is the tune you hear when you leave C-Island. Later in the game there are more tunes, also other overworld themes. The one that reminds me the most is the one you hear when you're in the ruins, that tune sounds really mysterious and adds to the excitement.
There's nothing wrong with the sound effects either. The sound when smashing with your yoyo sounds pretty good and the 'crack' you hear when beating an enemy is cool. The dolphin language sounds really great and almost real.
Rating: 8/10

Bottom line
Overall Star Tropics is a great game. The challenge level is perfect and once you beat this game, you'll be rewarded with one of the best endings I ever saw. Although the replay value of adventure games and RPGs is usually not very high to me, I did beat Star Tropics several times. I think it's sad that there wasn't a Star Tropics game released for the Super NES. The game did have a sequel on the NES too: Zoda's Revenge, which was, unfortunately for me, not released in Europe. If you like games such as 'The Legend of Zelda' and 'Crystalis' be sure to check out Star Tropics.

Final rating (not an average): 10 out of 10