Ahhh, there’s nothing like a cool, refreshing Crystal…Palace.
Conquest of the Crystal Palace is an NES exclusive made by Asmik, a company that is far from a household name. Most of their output was only released in Japan, though they have a few other US releases, including a Dreamcast game based on the same book series that inspired the horror film The Ring. Apparently that game is really bad. They also released something in Japan called LSD: Dream Emulator, which looks absolutely bonkers:
As with a lot of games, this one had a cooler name in Japan – over there, this was called Demon Heaven Boy. That version also had markedly different content – the original has “ghost children” as enemies at one point, which are replaced in the U.S. version by bugs of some sort. Nintendo wasn’t big on, uh…deceased kids.
Anyway, Conquest of the Crystal Palace is, for better worse, nothing like that. The story of the game is fairly simple – there’s a big dumb bad guy named Zaras who killed basically everyone in the Crystal Palace except you and your talking dog. That’s not cool, so you need to go stop him. It also has nothing to do with this Crystal Palace:
At first glance, this mostly seems like it’s just a bunch of sword-swinging and platforming – each level has a long, labyrinthine path to follow, filled with enemies and pits. Thankfully, there’s a bit more to Conquest of the Crystal Palace than that.
At the start of the game, you’re given a choice between three magic crystals, and whatever you choose is the one you have for the rest of the game – one gives you extra fighting power, one gives you extra health, and the other gives you a higher jump. I tend to choose the last of these, as the platforming is already a bit cumbersome.
You know those bird things in Ninja Gaiden that will knock you back in a way that sends you plunging to your death if you don’t deal with them at the right time? This game is full of those. As with Ninja Gaiden, it’s just a matter of getting the timing down when fighting them, but it can be pretty frustrating.
At any point in the game, you can summon Zap, your cool dog who runs around and will kill stuff and pick up money for you, just like in real life (I don’t have a dog, but I assume this is how it works).
Where the game gets really interesting is that at various points, you encounter Kim, who runs a shop that sells power-ups, healing items, weapons, and so forth. There are a surprising number of options available, and some of them are pretty awesome, like a helix-shaped projectile called the Double Death. Kim is also a great example of another weird thing that can happen when a game gets brought from Japan to the U.S. Here’s what she looks like in the game:
…but here’s what she looks like in the manual:
Hmm. That’s certainly a choice. For some reason, Kim also presents the in-game news:
I wasn’t expecting much from Conquest of the Crystal Palace, but it’s honestly pretty sweet. I appreciate that it strives to be more than just a simple action platformer, and gives the player meaningful choices to make – what items to buy, when to use Zap, and so on. Despite the occasionally brutal difficulty, jerk-ish enemies, and a relatively short playing time (just 5 levels, though each is decently big), this is a solid pickup for any NES fan. It’s a reasonably affordable title as well, at around $20.
Conquest of the Crystal Palace was notably the first game developed by Yasumi Matsuno, who went on to direct Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle. If you enjoy those and want to see the designer’s roots, look no further.
Next week’s game is a late-90′s Midway shooter that doesn’t get much attention, and I suspect there’s a reason for that. We’ll find out, though, won’t we? I’ll see you then.