Nerdicus NES Review #21 : Adventures of Captain Comic

Title : Adventures of Captain Comic

Publisher : Color Dreams

Release Date : 1988

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $10-$15

I have always been a huge comic book buff. Truth be told, I have boxes upon boxes scattered about my house filled to the brim with old issues. There was this comic book store around the corner from me that I would go to every day on the way home from school. Even if I didn't have any money to buy an issue, I would still just stand around and browse. Much to the dismay of the owner.

Side story - that comic book store was obviously a front for prostitution or something. There were always scantily dressed women being escorted into the back area followed by some skeevy looking fellas. It was pretty strange to see, especially if you were a 10 year old kid just wanting to buy comics. Another side story, I actually got my very own Mortal Kombat Arcade machine from this store after it finally closed down. I just dragged it down the street after they set it out for a trash pick up.

Props goes to my friend Dave for grabbing his hand cart from his grandparents and helping me lug it back to my house. It sits in my garage to this day collecting dust.

Well, enough side stories. Now when a game comes out that's called the ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN COMIC, you would think I would fall in love with it. Unfortunately, I didn't. It just wasn't for me. BUT, I must say, for a game ENTIRELY produced by ONE PERSON, you've got to give it some credit.

The game is a pretty straight forward platformer. You take on the role of Captain Comic recovering some fabled treasures on the planet of Nambi, all while trying to survive the never ending onslaught of freaky looking enemies. You hop from one area to the next, collecting weapon upgrades, and items that help you along your way.

Simple enough, right? Nothing crazy. And it doesn't have to be. It works just fine.

Yeah, see - that's a lot of items lol.

Now I really can't say these items are just to help you, as they are more of a necessity to move on. Without finding everything, you can't beat this game. The only problem was that I had the habit of rushing through the levels and would end up missing most of the items I was supposed to have to clear it. I would make it all the way to the ending of an area, when I realized oops I forgot the key for the door to the next one. Then I would have to back track until I found it.

Sometimes it was irritating since the item would blend in with the background. I would be right next to it and just pass it right by. Oh well, I'm blind.

The environments aren't too shabby, and there's a decent variety. The graphics are VERY reminiscent of old school PC games, which makes a lot of sense since this game is ported from the PC. The UI looks like a rip from Castlevania, but it serves its purpose. The entire time I played this game I had a pretty big "commander keen" vibe. Sort of like this was a precursor to the Commander keen series (which, is one of my favorites)

All together, the game REALLY isn't that bad. I have to keep reminding myself that that this is primarily the work of one very gifted individual who brought to the NES and PC a very decent platformer. Unfortunately, this was the type of game that just didn't have any audience support.

As an addition to someones collection, I would definitely recommend picking it up. And why not try to give it a play through too if you have time. There's no crazy gimmicks in this game, and if you just enjoy a straight forward shoot em up platformer, you'll find a nice time killer with this game.

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!