A Bit of Marvel: Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer has been claimed, by many, to have been one of the more difficult releases for NES. This is primarily because the main character, Silver Surfer from Marvel Comics, was squishy as all get out and would die after a single hit, no matter what the enemy he was facing. While this may have been frustrating for many players, it was the g-dang NES—I don't really know what you guys were expecting. Also, it is apparently now retailing for close to $125, which obviously speaks to its stellar quality. :]

The gameplay was based on a series of levels (either side-scroller or overhead), that each end with a mini-boss—I know, pretty generic, right? The game begins with Galactus (also from the Marvel Universe) sending Silver Surfer into a "Magik Domain" to find a cosmic device from an unnamed (and ultimately until the very end of the game) unknown enemy, which sets the Silver Surfer game in motion. Unfortunately the plot is basically that, and we do not really get much more of a feel for what the prerogatives of the Silver Surfer, or Galactus are meant to be. In this realm, while there was a ton of room for potential, there wasn't much of a solid execution. Bummer.

As was previously mentioned, the game play was difficult—the Silver Surfer is only able to shoot silver "pellets" unless he gets a power-up, or uses the neat password-entry functionality to gain something like invincibility to help him avoid getting totally crushed by even the most harmless of enemies. Another similar benefit is that, similar to Mega Man and games like it, there was a stage selection for the game making it easy to choose which stage you want to play as well as select if you want to replay a certain stage for the "maybe-I-can-do-this-better-this-time" fun of it.

I think my favorite part about this game are the enemies, so I've decided to focus more on those than the  purported "poor and difficult gameplay and plot" that usually gets the focus. I appreciate that the bosses in this game are taken from the Marvel Universe as well, despite the fact that the final boss isn't really.

Here is a breakdown of the top, coolest bad guys in my book:

Reptyl—Badass leader of a gang of space pirates (and protector of skrulls) from the comics.









Mephisto—Another alien, kidnapper of Dr Doom's mom and general jerk.









Dorrek VII—emperor of the aforementioned skrulls

Firelord—aka Pyreus Kril, originally of the Thor storyline.

and Possessor—aka Kamo Tharnn, one of the Elders of the Universe. Basically a really, really boss librarian.










If all of these things don't make you want to at least try the game, then too bad. Here's the link anyway, suckah. Go take a quick sec' to play a rad old game and see what life was like before Animal Crossing.