1. Antarctic Adventure (Famicom)
2. Nuts & Milk (Famicom)
This little gem from Hudson Soft is quite the important game. Not just because it has perhaps the greatest (and most innuendo-laden) title ever, but because it was the first third-party game to ever grace the Famicom.
Nuts & Milk never made it stateside, which is a shame as it's quite fun and would have made a perfect 1985 "black label" NES entry.
The history of this one is pretty interesting. The game was originally released on Japanese home computers -- and the Famicom "port" is more of a complete reimagining. The game's viewpoint was flipped from top-down to side-scrolling and graphics were retooled to resemble the likes of
Donkey Kong,
Mario Bros., and
Popeye. You've got your nice big chunky pixels, scaffold-based single-screen "climbing" level designs, and the stereotypical stark black background. Even the title screen was modified to look Nintendo-ish, and there are several available "modes" of play (some superfluous, like the alternating two-player mode).
Characters are all proto-Kirby puffballs. The protagonist, Milk, is tasked with saving his love interest, Yogurt, from the villain known as Nuts. Each stage has several pieces of fruit scattered around. Once these are gathered, Yogurt will open the door to her house where Milk must reunite with the cutie pie before time runs out. Avoiding Nuts is key here. He tracks Milk around the stage but is mercifully pretty easy to contend with. Not only can Nuts be hopped over, but the enemy AI is pretty exploitable, For instance, one way to bust a Nut is to lead him to a pitfall and then quickly change direction. Nuts will plop down into the abyss, where a few precious seconds are granted before a respawn. Expect to see a pair of Nuts, or even a trio, from time to time.
Most stages are both intuitive and well-crafted. Some of the later ones are downright bizarre and hilarious, like the one featuring a couple of Nuts that immediately spawn and drop down into a water pit (and then respawn above), thus creating a sort of Nut waterfall. Besides the antagonist there are additional hazards, mainly in the form of numerous pitfalls and bobbing fireballs (ripped straight from
Mario Bros. I suspect). Levels are generally comprised of platforms, rope ladders, and trampolines that grant extra-long jumps. There's no "fall damage" in this game, instead Milk is momentarily stunned. Similar to the Nintendo classics of this era the screen loops from one side to the next, and since Nuts cannot loop Milk can use this to his advantage. There's something irresistible about games with 30-second quick 'n cute bite-sized stages, and
Nuts & Milk is no exception. Fans of
Wrecking Crew and
Ice Climber will feel right at home here. An additional perk is the de facto "continue" system. Basically, any level can be skipped with a simple press of the select button. Sure, one can use this trick to skip the final stage immediately (pointless as there's no "ending" sequence) -- I used the "select" method to pick up where I had previously left off, as completing all fifty stages on the three allotted lives in one go is entirely unfeasible.
Graphics and music are exactly what one would expect. This is a 1984 Famicom game. Everything looks delightfully retro and a simple pleasant ditty plays throughout. Overall aesthetics are undeniably kawaii, and I wish these characters had appeared in other Hudson games.
Unfortunately, there's one egregious flaw present that prevents the game from gaining all-time classic status. The jump controls are terrible. Milk can't jump properly from a standstill, some initial momentum is required. He can't jump from a rope ladder, even if standing at the very top, which "makes sense" from a real-life physics standpoint but feels incredibly awkward within the game, especially considering the abundance of said ladders. That said, the worst offender is the trampolines. I still have no idea how these "work." Supposedly hitting the jump button when Milk makes contact with one will initiate a super-jump but the required timing is so precise it borders on the ridiculous. Two trampolines in a row? Forgot about it. This problematic jumping skews the game's difficulty in a strange fashion, in that levels that require several jumps are the hardest in the game. Thus, something like level 17 (a double-trampoline disaster) is exponentially harder than even the final stage. The only silver lining is that Nuts is pretty crummy at making the jumps himself. One observation I've made is that Milk can just barely clear a "two-square" hole, while Nuts will
never clear one. Use this to your advantage.
One additional feature, and perhaps the best singular thing, is the edit mode. Here existing levels can be altered, and levels can theoretically be made "from scratch" should one choose to first delete all the existing elements. It's great for kids (my daughter is obsessed with this game) as one even has the option to remove Nuts (or trap him just to watch him suffer), strike every pitfall and awkward jump sequence, and essentially transform the whole thing into a race against the clock.
Despite the janky controls,
Nuts & Milk is still pretty irresistible and required playing for anyone into the old single-screeners. The cart price remains agreeable and those who wish to hold the Nuts up close can also find the game on
Hudson Best Collection Vol. 4: Nazotoki Collection for the Game Boy Advance.
