Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril, a new Nintendo Entertainment System title, is almost ready for all those who didn't get a next-gen system for the holidays. BK:FoP, designed by Sivak Games, will be available on an NES cartridge through website RetroZone sometime this month. The website also sells tools to make original NES games.
Battle Kid reminds us of Mega Man mixed with more Mega Man -- minus the suit. A lack of preview build or five-month lead to develop a 3,000 word feature for Joystiq magazine (also available in French) has prevented us from getting a real feel for what the game is about. Check out a video of the 8-bit gameplay after the break and prepare to rock your NES like it's 1988.
I just found out this weekend that my NES still works! Woo hoo! Unfortunately, my Gameboy (which was the reason I was digging through old videogame stuff) does not work :(
That said, I hope they do a WiiWare release of this.
If it was $5 or $10, it might be worth checking out. However, that site lists most of it's custom games from $30 to $60. That's a bit pricey, imo. Too bad too, because the game looks fun.
you obviously understand jack about the cost of producing a cartridge, frankly the $30-$40 cost is pretty damn reasonable compared to some other limited run aftermarket game releases. they can run anywhere from $60 - $100 and in most cases even in runs of 50-100 they are lucky to break even on the cost of manufacture. A cost of $5 - $10 would be unrealistic unless they could somehow afford to produce a lot of 50,000 but there wouldn't be enough demand so they'd lose a lot of money on the unsold carts
Nintendo should do something like what Sony's doing with PSP Minis, only that they make new games for NES and you can buy them on Virtual Console. I'm still awaiting a 4th Castlevania on NES.
Unfortunately they can't. Capcom isn't running the NES development software to make MegaMan 10 (or 9), which is why the game is, like, 30MBs or some ridiculously high file size. It wouldn't work on the NES, as awesome as that would be.
Could this not be made as a WiiWare game as well? Retro works well on WiiWare and if it has a good quality (or even as much as works - WiiWare has shovelware alongside good games) then it could do better sales.
I played a demo, it's not that floaty. My guess is he's underwater in those parts, or he's got some floaty item. Controls are tight, gravity is a bit different from Mega Man tho.
I was kinda excited about this until I saw the video. Not a fan of the "I Wanna Be the Guy" school of game design at all.
And yeah, Retrozone is basically a rip-off, as far as I can tell. I'd considered getting a copy of Airball from them before, but there are other makers of reproduction cartridges that do it cheaper, and I've heard RetroZone doesn't even use a clean ROM.
As for everyone calling RetroZone a rip off and saying they could do better, I challenge you to prove it. People are so used to corporate pricing models in which a megacorporation like Walmart underpays its employees, undercuts competing distributors, and gets items from distributors that are selling in such bulk quantities, with components sourced from such environmentally-irresponsible Chinese factories that they can keep prices low.
When you see something like Retrozone, you have to remember that it's probably a couple of guys and gals doing it out of a house (and there's nothing wrong with that!) and just like the bigger compaines, they want to make ends meet and a make a profit. They don't sell large numbers of these things, but they do put a lot of work into them and provide a unique service.
As for the game, I think it looks awesome, and as someone with and active NES and Famicom collection, I'm glad to see an occassional game for the system instead of just WiiWare, DSiware, PSN, or livearcade releases!
"floaty Mega Man" or not, it looks like they've put some awesome ideas and serious challenge into this game, and I'll take a classic 2D sidescroller when I can afford it!
I tell you for a fact that this game has been in development for over a year. It's very well done. It's not a short, simple homebrew. It's a full, as good as any commercial nes game.
I'd suspect it'll be around $40 when released just judging from the size of the game and what I know about parts cost.
Really not that bad, if you know how much work has to go into making a good nes game. The cart can't even be made for $5 or $10.
It's not a floaty megaman. There are items that let you kinda float-fall. That's not an all-time thing.
As for the calling retrozone's airball repro crap, I'll have to laugh in your face about that one. Retrozone purchased the prototype for airball, and released it. The other people who make reproductions of that game got the dump from retrozone. The ppol challenege game was also a purchased AVE proto. edited so that it would be stolen like airball was.
So, I'm confused; is it an OFFICIAL game, like Mario/Zelda/etc? Or is it just a "fanmade ROM hack"-type of thing that happens to be on a real cartridge? Because I mean, if it's "official", then wouldn't Nintendo have to license/publish/approve/something it? That dosen't seem likely...
Forgive my noobish ignorance, but I don't know how some of the video game industry stuff works.
It is an official game, with its very own cartridge, its very own sleve, its very own manual, its very own story, its very own code…… well, nes code :P. To cut it short, it is official and written from scratch.
This was the first homebrew I felt was worth the purchase and I'm glad I did. Just received my copy in the mail today and have been playing for a couple hours now. This game is really well programmed with very tight, fast-paced gameplay - which is a very good thing, given how difficult it is. Not as absurdly difficult as IWBTG but pretty damn hard. You will die over and over playing this game, but none of them cheap deaths, thanks again to excellent programming. Fortunately, there's also plenty of continue points and a password system. Despite the difficulty, this is game is surprisingly not frustrating and I genuinely enjoy playing through each screen again and again until I'd either honed my skills, timing, or just plain memorized the playfield well enough to make it to the next checkpoint. After two hours I am only past the first boss (the flower, from the vid) and just got the jump powerup in level 2 before I had to give up for the night after my 99th death by fireball. Hopefully I will replay the game in my dreams tonight to solidify my skills for another run tomorrow. Seriously guys, this is no Cheetahmen II - this is a really well done game with good ole fashioned, frantic 80's gameplay, harkening back to all those nights you stayed up late at your friend's house taking turns at failing to beat that yellow blob thing from the 1st Dr. Wily level. It's also got a really nice intro scene and some pretty decent music. Plus, it comes in a cool translucent green cartridge with a professionally done game manual that looks as good as anything from the NES days. I'm extremely satisified with the $30 + 6 I spent on this and I urge you to give this one a shot. If you're a collector, diehard 8-bit gamer, fan of IWBTG-style games, or just want something cool and unique to brag about (while your girlfriend smiles at you uncomprehendingly and tells you "aww, that's nice sweetie") - grab a copy of BK:FoP while you have the chance. tl;dr buy it, it's fun as nuts
