Toki Nintendo

Taito is known for making some excellent arcade conversions.  Toki for the Nintendo, which was originally manufactured by TAD for the arcade is an excellent adaptation.  Although, I wish that Taito focused their efforts on making a version of Rastan...

The game was a sleeper, being released near the end of the life of the Nintendo NES in the United States.  But it definitely shows what the NES was truly capable of hardware-wise.  If games like this were released along side the launch of the NES, then I imagine the Super Nintendo could have been pushed off a few more years, sans competition from SEGA.  There are alot of amazing things that can be done with a palette of 16 colors.  It requires alot of creativity and patience.

So anyways, you're a caveman of sorts whose woman has been kidnapped by a "giant fist" which you set out to rescue.  A wizard appears and turns you into a money/chimp/ape what have you.  A bunch of enemies, including other apes attempt to attack you.  As an ape you can spit fire and pick up items that will make you spit more fire.  You can pick up a football helmet and wear it and you'll be invincible.  As you can see, the plot is ridiculous.  But who cares, the music, gameplay, graphics, and controls are fantastic.

Each stage is highly detailed and beautiful, so much so you can almost feel the jungle breeze and smell the ape dung.  There is one drawback however.  There is sooooooooo much flicker.  A trade off could have been slowdown, which may have broken away from the gameplay, but if you can look past the flicker (or through it)  this is an excellent platformer, and definately has an arcade feel to it.

Hahahaha, I can't believe I made a blog post about ape dung.  It reminds me of the time I visited the Denver Zoo with a laser pointer.  Apparently it's against the law to tease a gorilla with one.  If I ever go back perhaps I'll bring a taser or pepperspray instead.  I'm just kidding.  Apes, chimps, meth addicts, and gorillas are people too -well maybe not the apes and meth-addicts.  Speaking of meth-addics I've never seen a gorilla that was an amputee.  Confused yet?  I sure am. I'm just sad because Taito could have made Rastan but instead made Toki.