Micro Mages

Hay una copia del juego para NES escondida en los archivos del juego. De nada. Le he dedicado más horas de manera portátil en mi Anbernic que en Steam.

This game is basically a technical showcase rather than an entertainment product, which is incredible, because it's somehow entertaining enough to have been an actual beloved NES game, something very very few homebrew games can say for themselves. But for all the zoomers wondering why something like this wasn't made "back in the day", it is not because 80s programmers were stupid. Most modern programmers are at the intellectual level of rocks compared to 80s programmers. The real reason is something you would never intuitively understand after hooking up your NES to your flatscreen or your CRT from 2003: Many gamers back in the NES era were using extremely old TVs with very blurry pictures that would make it very hard to see an 8x8 sprite as a recognizable character, which is the main trick this game uses to pack so much into 40 kilobytes. Your 2003 CRT you found on the curb and the 1971 model used by a normal family in 1987 who just aren't the upgrading type are not cut from the same cloth. This game is still fun, but it's not as impressive as you think it is.

Easily one of the best, if not THE best game on the NES, and definitely not by chance. Taking modern game design and fitting it into a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NES cartridge is one hell of a feat, and it's all so beautifully simple. My playtime on Steam says I have 0.3 hours, but the actual hours on all of my devices with NES emulators has gotta be closer to 30-40. Its aesthetic fits perfectly in with every other NES game out there while ditching how clunky most of those games feel. When I think of NES games, I definitely think of games that are a bit primitive, a bit underdeveloped, and overall pretty hard to play when comparing them to modern titles. And this game shows us that they don't just play bad because of hardware limitations or developers having to go through hurdles to get ♥♥♥♥ working, but because they were legitimately inexperienced with game development! I say that like it's news to people, which it's not, the NES was very early in the history of gaming, so they didn't have much to go off of, but seeing those limitations that they had back then being used to a game's advantage feels incredibly refreshing to see! This game gives you the charm of the NES's limited hardware and graphical capabilities, without sacrificing any modern game design principles that allow games to actually be fun to play, without nostalgia getting in the way. 10/10 game. Accomplishes its goal flawlessly of being quality, simple, pick-up and play fun.

It's not clunky like other NES games.

Six years ago, I watched an enthralling YouTube video from Morphcat Games that described their process of creating a brand new video game that could still fit on the hardware for the original Nintendo cartridge. Of course, this was in itself an advertisement for their game, Micro Mages. Since I still owned the hardware to run an original Nintendo game, I backed their Kickstarter and eventually received my game. Now I show this game off to my friends at regular intervals and let them in on the secret: it came out in 2019. The game itself is fairly simple, but with just enough difficulty to require a few play-throughs to get a hang of it and beat the last boss. Its vertical platformer layout is unique for its genre, but it’s even more unique in its ability to support four players simultaneously (assuming you have the adapters for the Nintendo to expand the controller spots from two to four). As for the controls, these characters have really smooth movements that are easy to control and are satisfying to use. While Micro Mages provides the player with many chances to increase the difficulty of their climb up these towers via alternate routes and areas that are challenging to reach as the level scrolls slowly upward, the easiest path doesn’t provide too much of a challenge once you figure out the enemy attack patterns. If you know what you’re doing, you can easily get through the game in a half hour. Probably even less if you’re playing with equally skilled friends. Still, I have to hand it to Morphcat Games for creating an iconic retro experience that one can still play on retro hardware. A modern retro platformer, I give Micro Mages 3.5 stars out of 5.

Bought for local co-op and the controllers for additional players don't work. Hard pass on games like this that can't get basic functionality right.

It's great, simple fun. Nothing extravagant, but it doesn't feel clunky & you can climb the skill ceiling to get faster. Death isn't too punishing, & the encounters are well designed. I got this game on sale for a 1$, more than worth the purchase!