Nerdicus NES Review #78 : Battleship

Title : Battleship

Publisher : Mindscape

Genre : Turn Based Strategy

Players : 1 Player

Release Date : 1993

Estimated Value (as of today's date) : $5-$7

You already know how I feel about board games being turned into video games. But when you take a bonafide classic board game and add a few little quirks to make it that much more enjoyable, well then you have my attention. And that's what Mindscape did here with BATTLESHIP. You know Battleship. You probably played it hundreds of times when you were a kid.

"OH NOES!!! YOU SUNKS MY BATTLESHIPS!" 

I would scream that all the time, then flip the board over in frustration. Of course I would always try to take a peek at my opponent too. Ah what can I say. I used to cheat at board games. SO, WHAT? WANNA DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!?

Ahem....

Anyway, here we go. A classic board game with the added bonus of extra weapons and far-fetched scenarios that unfortunately, you can't play with friend :( 

Ah well, let's see how it plays out.

Usually, when you think of Battleship, you think of playing against your friends. Unfortunately, it's downright impossible to make a video game about Battleship that's two player back in the day. There was no internet multi-player, so the best I could think of is that you had to take turns covering your eyes. Yeah that wouldn't work. So with this game, you're going to have to make do with the fact that it's single player only.

The NES version follows the classic gameplay that we've all grown to love. Each player places their ships upon a grid, and then you try to blow em up by randomly targeting squares. You've got subs, battleships, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers, which each take up a certain number of squares. I don't even know why I'm explaining this, lol.

Side - note, WHO CHEATED by saying MISS when it was actually a hit and moving your ship to a different square? Only me? Bah...liars...

You are taken on around 40 missions, and you may say to yourself. "40 missions of battleship? How is that fun?" Well, it's not just any battleship. New weapons are added to your arsenal and you have a slew of repetitious campaigns. Sense my sarcasm? It's not all that it's cracked up to be.

Cannons, Torpedoes, Depth Charges, and Missiles all make an appearance in this game and all have a different ability. Cannons are the standard one shot, torpedos are slower, and take more than one turn to hit your enemy but usually blow em up in one shot. Depth charges are used against submarines who you can't attack on the surface. Missiles are one shot one kill if you know where the ship is, so save those bad boys for when you know where the enemy ship is.

The game is self-explantory and straight forward. Each mission has a different set up, and sometimes the odds are against you. In fact, MOST times odds are against you. The only thing I had a hard time figuring out was how the "grid" system worked. I would miss, bu the right next to the ship apparently...then I'd fire again, and I'd miss again...but I SWEAR I aimed it for the spot where the ship would be. You've gotta see where your missiles land in the water when you have a miss based on where the ship is on the screen.

It takes practice, and it's confusing to explain without a video visual, so go look it up on youtube lol. You'll see what I mean.

All in all, not that bad of a game, but nothing worth while to keep me interested. If only there was some way to get 2 player capability on here, it would have been a lot better. After all games like this are meant to be played with friends. But in the grand scheme of things it's just a board game on a console and at least they TRIED making it a little bit more entertaining with whole new scenarios and weapons added. But...my interest was held only so long.

Side note - The music in this game...it's way too happy to be about war....

Final Score (out of 5) :

Until next time. Keep on gaming!