Guest Post – Nintendo Blacksheep: StarTropics

For those of you readers who don’t know me (which I’m sure is 99.9% of you), my name is Anthony DeVirgilis, and I’ve been writing at GameGravy.com for around 4 years on and off.  I consider myself a well-rounded gamer, owning just about every console and willing to give a game in any genre at least a chance.  Enough about me though, the reason I am here and writing this article is to defend my case for the NES Quest to have started with StarTropics, the often overlooked and forgotten about franchise in Nintendo’s vast library of Intellectual Properties.

Let me give you a little background on the history of StarTropics, one of my favorite NES franchises (yes franchise, there was a second game on NES: Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II).  Developed by Nintendo IRD, best known for Punch-Out! and Super Punch-Out!, in StarTropics you play as Mike Jones, visiting your uncle Dr. J on C-Island.  As you arrive you find out that he has gone missing.  You are then sent on a quest to find your abducted uncle.  I am going to stop there because I expect, nay, demand that this game be played at some point on the NES Quest.

There are a few things that make this game special for anyone around my age.  First, I remember reading each issue of Nintendo Power from cover-to-cover multiple times.  This was our only source of Nintendo news at the time.  There was no Internet, there weren’t really any demos or ways to try games out (besides the then thriving video rental shops).  I remember just being amazed by the screen shots from StarTropics at the time.  It was like The Legend of Zelda but with better graphics and in a more modern setting. Second, it was targeted for North America, which is still almost unheard of from Nintendo, as most of their titles hit Japan earlier.  In fact, Nintendo never even released StarTropics in Japan, though it did see a European release shortly after it hit the shores of NA.  Lastly, it saw Nintendo taking innovative steps and thinking outside the box with the inclusion of  “The Letter” inside the box with the game manual that was essential to your progression through the game (And I’m not talking about the 15 minute long eShop title).  They included “The Letter” in the eManual in the Virtual Console release as well.