083 · KID NIKI: RADICAL NINJA

• Introductions
• Development
  • Irem made the Arcade version - Kung Fu, Deadly Towers (Broderbund), Sqoon
    • On January 25, 2018 Kid Niki Radical Ninja was published for the Nintendo Switch by HAMSTER as part of their Arcade Archives series.
  • Data East made the port - BreakThru, Burger Time, Karate Champ, Ring King, Tag Team Wrestling
• First Impressions
• Tales from the Manual
  • Pause - If you wish to interrupt play in the middle of a game…
  • Back of the box shows the ARCADE GFX
• Gameplay
  • Super Mario with weapons
  • Work your way through 7 scenes
    • The stages are also a bit longer, containing 14 segments rather than 10.
    • Different themes
    • Secret Areas
  • Spinning Sword
  • Bells
  • Power Ups
  • Boss Fights
  • Repetitive Music
• Computer Gaming World called Kid Niki "yet another in the seemingly endless parade of horizontally-scrolling/running/jumping/shooting games" for the NES. While the reviewer stated that those who enjoyed such games would like the game, he wondered "how many of these interchangeable games Nintendo will authorize. Even devotees must be getting tired".
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • In Japan, two sequels appeared for the Famicom. The first was Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 2: Karakuri Land in 1991, and the second was Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3 in 1993. Each of the three NES/Famicom titles feature radically different character designs.
  • There was also a Game Boy sequel called Ganso!! Yanchamaru in 1991. This portable sequel is a unique game and not a port of one of the existing Kid Niki/Yanchamaru titles.
• EGL (Mike, Sean, Joe, Sam)
• My thoughts:
• Turbo button and your weapon don’t work together
• Short game and yet still a chore to work through
• ATTA BOY and RADICAL DUDE
• Game is not very challenging. Some WTF enemies. Final stage changes to some GnG style shit.
• Medicore art EXCEPT for that Buddah

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 KidNicky, Radical Ninja, Data East brings you arcade realism at home.

00:21 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And today we are talking about KidNicky, the Radical Ninja, a huge emphasis on Rad there.

00:38 They really play that. Radical. But no, but Rad specifically, because they play up like these 80s buzzwords throughout the entirety of the game. And so I just wanted everyone to know right away that even though it takes place in feudal Japan, this is definitely one for like Saved by the Bell almost with the way that they do the POWs and Pops. There haven't been any games released recently that have been described as like on fleek, correct? No, that's true. In fact, I don't know if like... People don't really say that anymore, right? No one really says that anymore, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some Fortnite fleek reference, you know? Yeah, like a skeet it. Yeah. That also is not something that's in right now anymore.

01:16 It probably was never in. It was probably something that you have pushed as an agenda to us on the side and now managed to sneak into an episode. All right, Mike, you're not being very yeet right now. Joe, how are you feeling today? You'd rather talk to me, wouldn't you? You seem a little nicer. You know, I'm feeling good. I'm done playing KidNicky. Not that I hated it, but I'm feeling... I got a few things to say about my personal experience about KidNicky. Does anybody have like a cousin Nikki or like a friend Nikki? I have a friend Nikki. You have a friend Nikki? Yeah. Not spelled that way, though. Yeah, okay. Nikki. Nikki on your bus, okay. Yeah, I wondered if this was maybe based off of her. That's probably true.

02:00 Actually, I don't even remember if her name was Nikki. Yeah, I just think like, you know, something about the title KidNicky, I don't even know if that part was necessary, right? Couldn't we just call this Radical Ninja? You know, it's funny because I feel like I recognize the name Radical Ninja. No. I don't know what you could have been recognizing that from.

02:19 But KidNicky doesn't ring a bell at all. You're thinking of the Ninja Turtles who probably at one time in the 80s said Radical. That's probably what it is. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Radical's a good 80s word, right? I always associated it more with the 90s, though. Oh, okay. Interesting. I feel like we were just around in the 90s and it was carrying over. We got the residual Radicals. You're right, probably. What's some other buzzwords for that kind of stuff? So you have like Radical, Tubular is another one I think of. But how many things were ever really described as Tubular? I don't know. Only like surf moves, right?

02:51 Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of surf, like Cowabunga. Cowabunga, yeah. These are all actually just... ...to happen to the Teenage Ninja Turtles. Okay. That's enough of that. We should probably get into the development of the game. Guys, this was developed by Irem and we've gotten this wrong so many times in the past that I'd like to just set the record straight here. Irem so far has made Kung Fu, Deadly Towers, and Schoon and that's it. Sometimes we've said 10-yard fight. Yeah. It's not true. It's Kung Fu, Deadly Towers, and Schoon. But Deadly Towers was Broderbund on the NES. So they just made the Japanese version.

03:34 But Irem only makes the arcade version for Kid Nicky. It was actually Data East who makes the NES port of Kid Nicky, Radical Ninja. These two giants of the industry. Well, the ones that we keep hearing over and over again, at least early on in the NES's life cycle. But if you need a little refresher on Data East, they did Breakthrough, which is not the Arkanoid clone that you guys are probably thinking of. It's the car one where you jump. Yes, the car one where you jump. Joe, I don't think you played that one. I didn't play that one, but I always think you're talking about Arkanoid when you said Breakthrough. Well, it's because you're thinking of Breakout.

04:07 Yes. We're really good at talking about games. Yeah. And then there's Burger Time. Data East made that one as well. Pretty confident arcade to NES port. So maybe they could do Kid Nicky, right?

04:19 Karate Champ, which is terrible. Yeah. So nobody wants that. So maybe they can't do Kid Nicky, right? Maybe they can't do it, right? Then there's Ring King, which they didn't do that well at all. No. We didn't like that one. And that has the weird cut scene that no one's a fan of. Oh, yeah. I don't want to say it out loud. And last but not least, Tag Team Wrestling, which really sucks. Yes. One of the worst NES games we've ever played.

04:46 So, yeah, again, two giants of the industry. Yes. But even though Irem made the arcade version, we're talking about the NES version today. We're not going to talk about the arcade version at all. But if that is something you're interested in, I think earlier last year, 2000, not last year. It might be 2020 by now. Who knows? No, I'm joking. 2018, January 25th, 2018, Kid Nicky, Radical Ninja was published for the Nintendo Switch by Hamster as part of their arcade archive series. So, it's like $7.99.

05:15 You get the actual arcade version. There's like a ton of little things you can do. It's a really cool emulator, these arcade archives. I just wish that they were bundled rather than sold separately. Oh, it's just one game? Yes. And this is how it works for everything in the arcade archive series. So, you've got to really like the game for $8. Yeah. No. This isn't something you can just try. Be like, oh, I wonder what Kid Nicky's like. I'll just spend $8 on the arcade port.

05:40 First impressions? I've got a first impression. Okay, there we go. Joe, you take us through. So, when I was playing my games, my upcoming quota of games, I played Karate Kid followed by Kid Nicky. So, my initial poor reaction was, oh my god, this is so much better than Karate Kid just because, well, it is. So, after a little while, at first I was like, oh, it's so much better pretty much mainly just because it controls decently. Like, you know, comparatively.

06:12 Then, after a little while, it started to wear off. And I was like, okay, this game doesn't have a ton to it. But I did find a little bit of charm to some parts of it. Okay. Sean? I thought that I enjoyed the sense of humor that the game had that sort of hidden around the levels. But whether you go into, there are a couple secrets that I myself didn't find, but I saw people find. And I thought like, oh, that's cute. But the game itself, I thought, was pretty standard fare.

06:44 I think there are a lot of just bland decisions that were made for this game. But, yeah, that's my first impression. And I think, for me, I was getting weird vibes back to games like Chubby Cherub and what was that other one? It was a Kid, not Kid Nicky, but that's the one we're talking about. But like Ninja Kid? Ninja Kid? Oh, Ninja Kid? Is that? Yeah. That was the game. Yeah. Came out around the same time as Chubby Cherub. It just, aesthetically, it looks like that, but they also kind of behave similar to those games. You can't fly in Kid Nicky. You could in Chubby Cherub. But honestly, the flying was broken in that game. So I'm glad they didn't include flying in this one.

07:23 It's a short game, but it's still kind of a chore to work through on this one. And we'll get into that in a bit. But that's my general first impression. Personally, I will say that.

07:34 Maybe this is just my experience with Chubby Cherub. But I would put this and probably Ninja Kid in a different, in a maybe slightly higher section than Chubby Cherub. Chubby Cherub, I thought, had a lot, as far as the way it plays, I think that that was like a lot more of a chore. Right there with like Kid Icarus too, right? Whoa. Stop. Get out of here. Yeah, you get out of here. Kid Icarus is essential.

08:01 And I totally see where you're going with that, Joan. And I guess, yes, I think it was just like a first impression I had by the time I had finished the game. I definitely didn't think like it was as bad as Chubby Cherub. I think this, if you're wondering where we stand on this, I think continue listening because we have more to say. I don't want to communicate that it's bad off the bat because I think it's a game worth talking about. And so we're going to do just that. But first we have to do Tales from the Manual.

08:51 Tales from the Manual. And you go and you rescue your girlfriend, I imagine. And then you kill the, I forgot who. The wizard? The stone wizard. And then the game ends. Okay. There was, it takes a while to get to the stone wizard. You made it see. There's a big chunk in between there. I would like a game where you just like. That's the story though. That's not the story. You see a cut scene and it just takes you right to the final boss. You kill him and then it's like game over.

09:22 So I didn't know what the heck that bird was at first either. But then I was watching a playthrough where they described it as being a carrier pigeon with a message that I assume was mistranslated and meant to say like, will you help?

09:36 From your girlfriend. It may have been that. It sort of pops up as if it's being read from a scroll or something. And I don't know. It's got a different style. It's very just thrown at you. You're like, you get it, right? This is the most throwaway of plots. Yeah. And there seems to be a longer plot that goes around online. But I couldn't find that anywhere in the manual. So I'm not going to read that because who knows where they got that from. And that's not necessarily. Maybe not necessarily the NES version. Maybe that's like on the arcade, like on the side of the cabinet. But I don't count that as part of the NES canon.

10:11 That's true. So that's where I got the feudal Japan thing from other than like the aesthetic, of course. But like it's actually said somewhere on this large description that like set in feudal Japan, Kid Nicky must rescue, blah, blah, blah. You know, all that additional information. Now, in terms of things that are actually in the manual, I only have one note. And I thought it was pretty funny. So it lists out your controls. And it's like, you know, to move, use these buttons. To jump, use this button. And then finally it just has this start button. And it just says pause. And then it goes, if you wish to interrupt play in the middle of a game. And it's like, it's almost like I read it like,

10:48 Si, if you wish to interrupt play in the middle of a game, you know, like come on. Like everybody's got to pause it sooner or later. It's not like they want to. I feel like this isn't the first time that we have read a man or we have played a game with a manual that that goes way into detail like that on the pause. Because I feel like that was still like a new concept. But I feel like they're almost scolding you for doing it. Like what? You couldn't just play the whole game through? You had to pause? You can't pause in the arcade.

11:17 You're right. That's true. It's true. See, I did notice that too. But more I was thinking more of along the lines of like, well, this is it's funny that it's in here. It's like the longest description in this whole manual is like what the pause button does. It's true. Also like.

11:32 Yeah. It's just it's just the way we think about it now. It's just like so obvious. But I guess if you think like not everybody had was playing a ton of video games. This could be someone's first video game. Well, I mean, for A, it says like if you wish to if you wish to strike your opponent with spinning blade, press this button.

11:49 It doesn't actually say that. But it might as well have. Yes. Correct. Also, I just want to get into the the lingo here of if you wish to interrupt play in the middle of a game. Do you think like a game was the correct choice? Like they're referring to it almost like around in the arcade, you know, like like they're still treating it as if like this is just a version of the game. Like the game is just referring to when you start to when you die and then you restart and like have another game.

12:17 Oh, meaning like another game of Kid Nicky. I think he's almost like a tennis match. I think they're actually talking about like all games. Like if you wish to interrupt play for any game, press this button. Yeah, this is like a public service. It's not true, but maybe they which game couldn't you pause in?

12:36 Uh, volleyball. Winter games, right? You had to hold it down or something. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You couldn't like actually pause. And then my last thought before we move into actually talking about the gameplay is not involving the manual, but it involves the back of the box. Guys, tell me what you think of this. The back of the box shows the arcade graphics. OK, that's actually false advertisement. That is messed up, right? Like it's like who could tell, right? Anybody like they're a lot nicer.

13:06 Surprising. We were just talking about them do off the mic, but actually off the mic. We were just talking about them doing that at like E3 showing like showing false graphics. Yeah, the history of that happening in E3, like Killzone and Watch Dogs and all that stuff. So this has been rampant in the industry. I bet you they got the idea from this game. Yeah. They were like, well, Kid Nicky got away with it in 87. So we can do it in 2013.

13:35 So now for the meat and potatoes of our NES podcast where we talk about the gameplay. I describe Kid Nicky as Super Mario with weapons. But, you know, you guys probably could describe it a little better. It's not necessarily. It's a platformer slash action game, right? Sure. There's a platformer for sure. That's giving it too much credit. I think if you try to describe somebody that game, they would want to buy it and play it. Super Mario with weapons, right? That's what they should have put on the back of the box. And I'm not saying that probably was in their design doc.

14:09 But I think this game is way too. It looks too roughshod for me to describe it as such. I would say that it is a combination between Ninja Kid and Kung Fu because it's just that endless like enemies coming at you with no actual. There are a couple patterns with like people throwing things at you. But it seemed that in general, if there's ground combat, they're randomly generated and just run at you. I almost feel like it's not even randomly generated. It's like it's like generated to like a beat. Like it's like generated like like every every one second another enemy will come in just forever. It's the first rhythm game. Yeah. Right. Yes. A beat is the bad word. We did have a rhythm game. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. Oh, yeah. You're right.

14:58 What's funny is this is something we talked about back in the Super Mario Brothers episode. How like that game programmed the enemies to exactly show up when they needed to in order to like make the level more complex.

15:11 But here they didn't plan on doing any of that. And I really feel like this game could have benefited from that because it did put like some interesting death traps. And like, you know, having to climb trees at certain points. And just the option to scale things when you didn't necessarily have to. So even the fact that they gave us options but just wound up making it like enemies appear wherever you are. It just it doesn't it doesn't matter.

15:33 Yeah. And it's a shame, too, because I do think that the controls are really tight, at least for like whenever we have a game like this, that's like the side scrolling. I guess it looks somewhat of a platformer, but also where you have like a weapon. And I feel like it's like there's a good chance the controls are going to be really tough to manage. I think that we've gotten past the worst parts of that.

15:52 But think of just the one Karate Kid just last week. That was that was a nightmare. And so maybe that's why I'm thinking of it this way. But I feel like if they had done what you guys are saying and like programmed it to be a little more, you know, thought out as to when the enemies are coming, this could be a really like more of a polished experience where you where you're you know, your actions are pretty.

16:15 Yeah, because I want to talk about that because, you know, a lot of times we fault the games that we're playing for their controls. But I didn't think the controls were bad here. I think the attack did what it needed to do and was maybe even a little op in the early sections of the game. You know, I definitely felt like what you said. It's like a swinging sword spinning.

16:33 It's not like an actual sword. It's sort of like how in Zelda, for some reason, you have like a projectile sword. And in this one, you just have a sword that that spins for like a microsecond and then you put it back. Right. And I just felt like it worked really well. It never like the hitboxes weren't confusing to me. I will tell you when we get to it. But when it does not work very well for me, at least how they designed it for like boss battles.

17:01 OK, and we'll definitely get to that. So let's hold on that thought for a second. But I kind of liked how the game wasn't very challenging. But I didn't like that the enemies also didn't really evolve at any given point. They either just were enemies that walk towards you, walk towards you a little faster or some flying enemies.

17:19 Or through. Or through? Or through. Well, I mean like or through things at you. Oh, OK. I thought you meant through you. I was like, OK. Yeah. Which were the ones? What did they throw at you? I forget. I don't know what they were throwing. The red guys though, right? Yeah, they were on trees. And then there's another. It's a frog. People throwing like things from the like bombs from the top of the trees down. And then in another level, there are frogs that like scream at you. I think that's their tongue. I assume that was their tongue that they're like. It looks disembodied to me.

17:50 It's like. Have you ever played Chrono Trigger? Yes. The frog's tongue in that is also like a bunch of little beads that connect. So it can like stretch. So maybe that's why I thought of it as.

18:01 Japanese frogs. That's what they're like over there. Yeah. And the enemy variety, it would have been nicer to see. Some more like different things. Like even just like enemies that. I don't know. Like their behavior gets a little smarter. They kind of just like the blue. The blue ones were the most frequent throughout the entirety of the game. Just walk in one direction.

18:22 And that's all. And like, you know, they come at you. And I get that like that's what a Goomba does too. Yeah. In Mario. But at least Mario had the foresight to also be like. But then there's Koopa Troopers. And there's Red Koopa Troopers. And there's Hammer Brothers. Like we don't have enough of that in this game to justify it. Right. There was, and it's just a palette swap as far as enemy design. Like aesthetically. But there, I think there is another just mook that will stop in front of you. So that you can't time things out quite as well. Okay. And then you have to be a little bit more aggressive. But that's, that's very minuscule.

18:56 So you're working your way through seven scenes in the game. Basically seven stages. And there's a nice overworld map. I'd give that some credit. Right. It's a couple clip arts. Yeah. But it's all, but it's an unnecessary. See, I always feel like an overworld map that you have no control over.

19:11 I mean, it's, it's pretty, I guess, but like an overworld map gets me excited that I'm going to be in some control over where I go next. This, I know, but this did the same thing for me that maybe like with Castlevania's. Yeah. I guess that's true. Like it helps give it at least like a sense of place rather than just like, why did I move from the forest to the desert? Like at least now you can see. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I guess. But Castlevania also had, you had like a clear goal and you're seeing this one big castle.

19:35 Maybe I'm misremembering what it looked like in this game, but I feel like I was just like, oh, now I'm in that side of the map. Well, in this game it is actually, now that you bring it up, it is confusing because you just go around the outside. Like a, like you make an N. It's like, where is, where is my goal? Where am I trying to get? Letter N around the outside and then you go into the middle. It's like, why couldn't I just make a straight line? Why did I have to go over and then N? Maybe you're, maybe you're searching each of these areas for your girlfriend. And you're like, well, she's not in here. Maybe she's in the big tower in the middle of the world map.

20:07 So when you guys are going through, did you get any of the bells? Because I'm a little confused on what one of them does. Well, the thing is with the bells is that when you read the manual, it's described as something that's going to happen like fairly often. Like, like, you know, I'm thinking like the bells from, um, Stinger, you know, like, because they look at the same too, visually. But yeah. Cause the one bell that, that is like protects you, there's a bell that you get in it and it makes these like these circles circle around you and they help attack enemies. And it's almost, it's actually pretty hard to get hit while you have this on. You can still get hit. But I think that it came up for me once.

20:41 Yeah. And I feel like it comes up at the same spot one time in this entire game and that's it. I could be wrong. I had the same experience because I didn't, I saw one bell, uh, not singular. Right. So I don't know what the others do at all. So the other bell, and I don't remember the color, so forgive me. So it's silver and gold. So silver, is that the shield? Silver is the, that's the one that you'll find more frequently. It's by defeating all of the, like an entire squad of attack birds. Right. And that one, if you collect it, you have a, uh, you can throw the star, the ninja star. No, you mean you throw the sword.

21:18 No, every time you swing your sword, you'll throw a star as well. Oh, okay. Okay, so I did get that one. That's right. I totally forgot that that happened. Because I also read in the manual that there's a bell that you get that will kill an enemy somewhere else. Did I read that wrong? Say that one more time. Maybe I'm reading that wrong. But I thought after, after I played it, I was looking through the manual and said, like, this, this enemy, or this bell will kill an enemy somewhere else. And I was like, what does that mean?

21:44 That's very ominous. I'm not making that up completely. I do remember reading that in the manual and then never coming into contact within the game. But when I, when I saw that, I had forgotten that I got the bell that gives you the throwing stars. So I was like, oh, maybe that's the other bell. No, the other bell is the gold bell. And that one is only in predetermined location. So you have, it's like another one of those secret things of this game that is not communicated

22:05 well to the player at all. No. You know how, like, here's my idea with, with, you know, since we're talking so much about Super Mario Brothers, is that Super Mario Brothers has a lot of secrets. Some that are sure they're obscure, but there's also like, there's some guiding, you know? You have to have like the littlest amount of curiosity to happen upon them. Right. In this game, you have to, like, nothing is, nothing is obvious about any of these secrets.

22:28 And we'll talk about the secret areas in a second. But the, the, you have a thought. I figured out what the bell mystery. I solved it. Love it. So it does say in the manual, gold bells will kill enemies far away. Oh, it's a ranged attack. Yeah, it's a ranged attack. So that's another really weird way to describe something. When I read it, I thought it was like somewhere in the level an enemy will die. Right. So that's not what happens.

22:56 Yes, the gold bell is the shield, though. The gold bell, it says in the manual, will kill enemies far away. Making me think the gold bell is the throwing star. And the silver bell, it says circles around and protects kid enemies. You guys are both reading the manual. Yeah, this is interesting. I'm not reading the manual, but I'm reading the wiki. And I think that, like, I don't know. Honestly, at this point, I don't know who to trust more, the manual or the wiki. That's funny. Who's right? Cast your vote at home.

23:24 I think the bottom line is it doesn't matter because you're really not going to find too many of these anyway. And I don't know about you guys, but I didn't feel like they were necessary. They weren't. No. It was nice to have that shield one. I guess I would have expected the power-ups to just be either more frequent or found easier than just, like, in predetermined locations or by killing the birds. It seems like it should have been something that, like, you were killing the birds. I mentioned another thing it says in the manual. And I'm paraphrasing because I put the manual down again. But something like this bird, if you kill this bird, you can find golden bells, which it stole from the school. The school.

24:05 So I don't know where this lore is going from and why they don't want to, like, expound on it at all. Slightly mad that you didn't include this in tales from the manual. A masked bird in disguise trying to hide. He bears the golden bell that he stole from the school.

24:19 So funny. And also those coins are only worth 500 points. So it's like you don't need them. And I don't even look at points anyway. Screw it. There's also the Extra Life and the Princess Doll. Yes. Did you guys see either one of these? Again, these are in hidden places that I didn't find. Okay. Yeah. The Extra Lives are only found in the secret bonus rooms. Yeah. The secret areas, as I'm referring to them. But you'll have to dig deep for that. But that makes sense, you know. An Extra Life is a big deal. Yeah. But we also gave one-ups.

24:52 Pretty, you know, like that was easy to find in Super Mario Bros. every now and again. Yeah, they just sort of popped up. Yeah. And then the Princess Doll is an interesting one because it gives you basically, like, an extra hit. But that's also, isn't that a gi? It's not a doll. Does it say it's a gi in the manual? Do I have to get off the wiki?

25:16 It just says mini princess. Because it changes your attire. It changes your attire. No, it changes your attire. Yes. That's true. But it's described as a princess doll. Oh, that's weird. Yes. It doesn't really look like a princess, to be honest. But it doesn't look like a gi either. So I'm not prepared to give that battle up. But you get the new gi and your outfit turns white.

25:39 And then in exchange, you can take one extra hit. Which I think, like, this game should have had from the beginning. I hate one-hit games. I hate any game that... Basically, all these games are one-hit games. I know. And I get why they are. But I'm just saying, like, if... When in doubt, just get, like, a ROM hack of these games where you can take a few hits. Because it's just... That's the way these games should be played now. I'm serious. Who wants to get hit once, die, and then start from the beginning? Hardcore gamers. Like, real gamers.

26:08 I just... I think it's funny that we kind of started out this podcast as almost purists, in a way. And I just, like, get a fucking ROM hack. Like, see, because I don't know. I feel like then just don't play this game. I mean... But I think some of these games can be fun with the right ROM hack.

26:27 All I'm going to say is that I may or may not have played a ROM hack version of this game where you have, like, three hits and then you die instead of one. Did you really? Yeah. Oh, okay. He really may or may not have. That was a review copy. Yeah, that was... I got the review copy from Irem. We're on such good speaking terms since I continue to screw up which games. He's done so much, too. All right. So we've talked about the regular enemies here. We've talked about the bells. Do we want to talk about the boss fights? We should probably talk about the boss fights. A.K.A. the best part of the game? Yes. That's the only good part of the game is the slightly inspired designs of these bosses.

27:07 My favorite was probably the first, at least in the actual, like, visual of it. It was just this giant-headed kid that, like, sneezes at you or something. That's V.O., too. Yeah. His actual name is Death Breath. Death Breath. Okay. Yeah. He has a gigantic head and he does three different ways of attacking you. And it's, like, all of this work went in to making these bosses and not a single extra enemy could be made with these kind of, like, thoughts in mind, like, specific to their stages. Yeah. Where, like, they do similar things but on, like, a less threatening scale.

27:45 I don't know. See, that's, like, confusing to me. It's, like, the bosses in this game are, I'm going to say it, pretty damn good. I had a lot of fun with most of them. I will say, though, and this is what I referred to earlier, that I don't understand, and I actually found it kind of frustrating, that you have to go and retrieve your sword whenever you attack a boss. Yes. I don't fault the bosses for that. No, no, no. The bosses had nothing to do with how bad you are at swinging a spinning sword.

28:16 But it almost made me feel like I was not hitting them and this was the wrong way to fight. Sometimes I think you're not. I think it depends on the reaction from the boss. Yeah. It'll give you, like, an ugh graphic and he'll go backwards. Right. There's also, like, certain bosses that are just, like, they can only be hurt from a certain point or something. You know, like the witch who flies around the stage. Oh, yeah, yeah. Third stage.

28:43 She has a cape and if you attack from the cape side, it does no damage. Right. But why are you, you're sort of punishing the player for landing a hit by making him go and retrieve the goddamn sword. I know that it, like, makes it a little bit more of, like, a strategic thing because you want to hit him so that you can retrieve the sword quickly. But it happens every time. Yeah. And it takes most of the time, like, three to five hits to kill most of these guys.

29:10 And I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but meanwhile, you have no weapon in your hand and you have to figure out a way to dodge the attacks that they're doing to you. And I get it. Like, there's some strategy. But it'd be nice if that only happened on, like, the very last hit before you killed the boss, you know? Like, so you do the hit. That would be a tension builder. Right. Exactly. Finally, now you don't have a weapon and you have to go retrieve it. That'd be cool. I'd be down for that even if it happened in every single boss.

29:32 There's also this weird thing, though, where, you know, because your sword just, like, ricochets wherever. So one time my sword ricocheted all the way to, like, the top of the screen. And I'm like, how am I going to get that? So I go over to the edge of the screen and jump. And the game just teleports me to the sword, grabs it, and comes back down. And I'm like, oh, that's one way to solve it.

29:51 At least they tested. That was where I was like, I was like, okay, that's kind of silly. But I was, like, at least impressed. But I was like, hey, at least they didn't just let it be game-breaking. Like, at least they knew that this was a problem. He doesn't have a sword anymore. But I'm still at a point, I think, in our nostalgia career where I'm, like, impressed by bosses having boss patterns.

30:10 Because there's been so many that don't. Yeah. This isn't, we haven't had that many. No, we've had a couple. And I feel like I usually bring it up when we do. But when you think about what we just played before, Karate Kid, right, last week. And that game being essentially, oh, the boss is coming up? Well, some of these guys will just straight up jump off the platform if I just wait over here. You know, like, that level of dumb. It is really nice when you get to a boss like this. Because what I really like about these bosses is that they have multiple attacks. They have tells for when it's a good time to attack them.

30:44 And they have, like, movement around the stage that makes sense to their particular characters. So it's not like they just hang on the right side of the screen and you have to charge at them. Yeah. There's a good time to attack all of these guys. I think that's what makes them such great bosses. They almost feel like early Mega Man bosses. Yeah. You know? I would say that. Yeah. Not nearly as inventive. No, exactly. Mega Man bosses are obviously awesome. This is a primordial version of good boss design.

31:10 Couldn't have said it better myself. But, yeah. Because I do think there were definitely flaws in the witch one that you said. Mm-hmm. Every time you hit this, I guess it's a witch. I don't even remember. I just remember something flying around. Every time you hit it, it splits into double of itself. Right. Into smaller versions of itself. And I was like, that's a cool concept.

31:27 Until it's really, like, do you guys agree that was, like, the easiest boss by far? You just hit it six times and just hit them all. Like, they were, like, flying through me and not hitting me. It does so that it doesn't make it harder that there's more of them. It makes it easier to attack the ones that are directly in front of you. And also, now that I'm thinking about it, did that one, did you lose your sword in that one? I remember kind of just going and slashing away. Actually, you're right. I don't remember losing my sword in that boss battle. Which, the losing your sword didn't bother me too much anyways. Because I hadn't really thought about it too much.

31:55 Well, I definitely, let me put it this way. I don't hate that it's in the game, but it's something that you notice. Right. That, like, every single time I hit one of these bosses, it goes flying. And it does become a bigger deal in the final stage. Yes. But we'll talk about that when we get there. And again, it's just mixed messaging to the player. At least the first few times that you do it, it does not make sense that you've hit and you've lost your sword. It is not clear until you kind of, like, figure it all out. But I will say that the, I think it was the fourth boss, which is like the centipede thing that's, like, going up and down. And you have to hit each, like, segment of it.

32:34 That, I think, the gameplay, I mean, granted, there's other ways to make the gameplay more challenging. But I think that losing your sword every time helped the gameplay. Because otherwise, I feel like it would have been very easy to just kill him all at once. That's true. And then one other thing I want to say about the losing your sword is that the, I guess it's the fifth boss, then, is like the suit of armor holding, like, a spear above his head? Stage six.

32:58 Six. Five is the big baldy who screams at you. Oh, fool, right? Yeah. He calls you a fool. Yeah. He screams at you and you have to dodge his screams and commands. I liked that boss fight. But more of what I really liked about that stage were those giant Buddha statues. Oh, yeah. The bits in this game are pretty mediocre for the most part. But then I'm like, yeah, that's a pretty detailed Buddha. They saved all of their art department for these, like, two Buddha statues in this one stage. I mean, if you're going to do it for something, might as well do it for something that's, like, respectful, I guess, at least. I guess so.

33:31 But for, so then for the fouling boss, well, first, I do want to mention that that guy who yells fool at you, a cloud of what he's saying appears above, above you, and it says fool. And then this cloud of fool drops a bunch of little, like, letters, like, F-O-O-Ls on you. It's cute. Yeah. That's what I kind of meant when I meant there's, like, some charm to this game. Yeah. But what did you guys think of that suit of armor guy holding the spear? I didn't know what I was doing wrong.

34:00 Yeah. Hated it because I couldn't tell, like, what I was doing. And eventually what I just came up with, I'm not even sure if this is the strategy, but I just made it so that he got as close to me as possible on the left side of the screen because he's in guard mode the entire time. I'd attack him, be able to pick up my sword right away because it would just deflect right to the end of the screen, and attack him again before he could go back into his guard stance. And when you have to cheese the game, I mean, like, okay, so we're talking about good boss design. This was the dud. So I gathered by the end, I thought that you had to hit him on the jump and hit him on top of the head, which was working for me.

34:37 Really? Yeah. I could be wrong. Maybe there's something else at play there. But the thing is, before I figured this out, I actually thought this was the coolest boss design until I realized what it really was. Because I thought what you're supposed to do, which is not true, is when you hit this boss,

34:52 your sword falls out and goes to the other end of the screen, but his spear also falls out and goes to the opposite end of the screen is your sword. Not as far away, though. Not as far away, but he scuttles back to get his spear while you have to run back at your sword. And I thought the goal was to get him off of his end of the screen, but it would be like a constant race to get to your sword and get back to him to keep knocking him back. And I got him really close to the off, but I don't think it's possible. Right. No, apparently that is the idea.

35:20 Oh. No, like that, yeah, essentially you want to get to a point where you'll be able to retrieve your sword faster than he is. Oh, yes. Right. But that's not what I thought it was. I'm just saying like it doesn't matter anyway because at the end of the day, the only way to really have that work is to cheese it. And I don't think that that's... Right. Fun. That's fun, right. This one, I would say like I thought I was doing damage to him for a while and then I realized like there's no way this boss takes like 13 hits to kill. And I realized I just wasn't doing anything yet. I haven't even started fighting him.

35:47 Yeah. If they had gotten it to work that way, though, where you have to knock, you have to get him off of his end of the screen while having to go continuously retrieve your sword. I think that would have been a good like, not finale, but a good payoff to the whole losing your sword gameplay mechanic. Yeah. It's like, oh, this is like where I put what I learned to the test. Yeah. But not so. Well, I learned about dropping my sword and getting it.

36:11 It would have been... Hey, that's a good motif, though. I would have liked that. You know? Keep it back up. Yeah. Before we go to the final stage, stage seven, I'd like to talk about the secret areas. Did you guys experience any of those? Nope. I'm on my own. I went to one of them only after I saw it happen in a Let's Player. And I'm trying to remember what it was. I had to hit certain columns or something. I honestly don't even really remember. My favorite one that I saw was, I think you have to accidentally die by falling into water. And then you get eaten by like a sea monster of sorts. And then you were just in his stomach.

36:48 Yes. That's the best one. I was actually just about to mention that. Yes. You fall into the space between the island and the fish. And then you get transported into the belly of the fish. That was the secret area I was going to mention because it's the most interesting. Because you actually see like the skeleton.

37:04 What would you call it? Of the fish. No, no, no. But it's not like necessarily the skeleton. It's the spine. Yeah, the spine. Yeah. Sorry. And it's just weird that they relegated their most interesting map design with like context and like not just random islands that you have to jump over to these bonus areas. Because even like I guess you climb a tree. Yeah. And you climb a tree, which is just like not something I would have even done in the game. I never really thought about like, oh, scale the trees. Like, you know, like when a vine pops up in Super Mario, it's like, yeah, scale that vine. Yeah. Like when a tree is just in the game, I'm not thinking like, oh, yeah, Kid Nicky is known for climbing trees.

37:40 Also, there's some other weird things like in that same stage. If you just go to the at the very beginning of the stage, just go to the very left of the screen and squat for several seconds, you'll just be transported to a tunnel with a bunch of eggs in them. And then there's like a not like a dinosaur, but like some kind of green worm thingy that looks like a dinosaur.

38:02 They're like, Jason, after you. And I'm like, I don't remember seeing him anywhere else in the game. So like, why is he also only in this secret area? Yeah. There's just so many things that they put into the secret area. Like even in the Buddha stage where there's like four different temples that you can go to as secret areas that have like cool power ups and other neat things to pick up. Maybe we're just not paying good enough attention.

38:24 I don't know. I feel like they wouldn't have put this much effort into these areas if they didn't think that people could find them. Okay. Well, how about this one? Okay. This one you can only get to in the Famicom version. Wow. They expected us to buy the Famicom version? In this one, you have to, you go on to the giant Buddha statue that we all love so much that we thought was interesting. And you squat in the middle of its lap. And then you yell into the microphone that's in the Famicom controller. And then that will transport you to the bonus area where you'll get like some extra coins and princess dolls and extra lives. And show the trailer for Silent Hills. Yeah. That's really funny that they would have that in 1987.

39:09 Suspicious. So I think that like the verdict I'm getting from this is that the secret areas are awesome and very thoughtful. But like, geez, put them in like a manual or something. Like give us some hints on how to find these things. It's almost like they planned on selling you a DLC strategy guide. You know, like where you'd be able to download the content. Yeah. I knew what you meant.

39:36 It's more of a microtransaction, right? In that regard. It was just a transaction. I think it's just buying a strategy guide. A macro transaction. Oh, capital. Capital. Even if they didn't have like a hint to get to it, like make it discoverable in the game. Like make it. I mean, I guess it hints within the game. Like, you know, it just seems it all seems so random. Who would ever. I mean, talking about the Famicom version, who would ever squat down in that specific spot and then yell into their microphone? I could see myself squatting down in Buddha's lat, but I can't see myself like then making a loud noise. Unless you were like, hey, hey, check it out. Jimmy, come over and look at what I'm doing. And the microphone picks it up.

40:15 So we get to the final stage. Stage seven, which is actually not the final stage, but we'll talk about this in a second. You get to the final stage and am I crazy or did this game just get really hard?

40:28 I mean, there's a little bit of a, yeah, it got hard. Sorry, I don't want to say like Ghost and Goblin's hard. But I meant harder than it's been. Harder than the rest of the game completely. And I'm just like, what's happening all of a sudden? Like, what's going on? And then you get to the stone wizard and it's not so bad, but it's a pretty tough boss fight. I'm definitely not expecting there to be a whole nother stage after him.

40:54 Wait, so is this the level where there's all the things in the sky that I'll dive bomb down at you like just over and over again? Birds? No. No, I know what you're thinking of. They got speared. That's the next level. The next level is when you're on top of the roofs. In this one, you're walking through like the Japanese houses. Huh? This, no? Yeah. So this level... I'm showing it to you.

41:23 Viewers of our podcast, can you see this? Because this level I thought was tough at first, but then apparently if you just run, nothing, none of those things that are dive bombing will hit you in there. You just run and you just don't stop. I mean, to me, the guy who runs through most games, I never thought to do that in this one. Like if you stop, you screw up the timing of it, and then you have to defend yourself.

41:42 That's funny. But yeah, I did think that overall the rest of the stage was more difficult, especially the boss. Yeah, and then so you get to the stone wizard, who's the final boss. Any thoughts? Well, I mean, it's just strange that you have this showdown with your girlfriend present, and then you defeat him, and then he runs away, and you have to keep doing that.

42:06 Yeah. I just don't... I mean, I guess it's like, oh, there's more content. I guess you gotta make sure he's dead, right? Yes. Like, he just kidnapped your princess. I'm pretty sure you wanna make sure that he doesn't do it again. No, it's a revenge story. It's almost like if at the end of Super Mario Brothers... Well, I don't know what else Mario would have done. He literally set Bowser to pool lava.

42:27 So I'm not sure. But it's almost like if he would have put on gear and went down there and then done like a lava level where he has to make sure Bowser's officially dead. And then there's no Super Mario Brothers games ever again. Yeah, right? He never sees it through. In fact, in the latest Mario games, think about Odyssey, right? A little slight spoiler here, but it ends with Mario and Bowser just stuck on the moon. And I'm like, wouldn't that be a good time to just make sure Bowser stays on the moon?

42:55 Sorry for being like, like that, Bowser. But Bowser's a cool guy. I wish he'd keep showing up. Do you guys have this thing happen when you're fighting? First of all, what are you calling this? The Stone Wizard? The Stone Wizard. He's a Stone Wizard. He doesn't look like a Stone Wizard to me. He's a stoned wizard. Oh, okay. Right on. But the Stone Wizard, he's throwing fire, right? Pillars of fire come up, and that's kind of like your biggest obstacle in this fight. Stone fire. But then for me, like, after like the first hit, he just stopped throwing the fire. And then there were no attacks. That wasn't my copy of the game. Maybe I shouldn't say after the first hit, but after a few hits. It was very tough until he stopped, and I was like, oh.

43:34 Let me put it this way. There's definitely a window of opportunity to attack this guy. It was a good amount of time. I was like, is he going to attack again? Do you think the Kid Nicky is haunted? Oh, could be. It's not. Irem. You've been doing this episode for too long now. You're losing it. Let's stay focused.

43:53 Sorry. We have to just finish, because after you defeat the Stone Wizard, it's like a total psych out. You go to stage eight, where you fight him on the roof like nine times, right? Yeah, this is the level I thought where I was like, no, this is really hard. This is just ridiculous, because you have to do the boss fight that you just did that usually is like the end of a level. You do that. I'm pretty sure nine's an exaggeration, but at least five, right? I think so. And then at the end, he turns into a bat, and then you're going to fight him in his bat form, which is described as his ultimate form, but I'm also like, yeah, but I'm also like,

44:22 why? He's not really any more intimidating. You're a giant wizard made out of stone. Stone wizard. Now you're a bat? That's your ultimate form? You were interpreting that as that he's made out of stone? I don't know. You guys call him the stone wizard. I just went along with that. He's just using the name he was given. Is it on the wiki or in the manual? It's in the manual. His birth name. I'll call him Stone Wizard. That wizard's his last name. All right. So you get to the final version of the stone wizard after all this other crazy stuff. And by the way, I should mention that it's not the same boss fight on Loop. There's some times where he does things with bubbles.

44:57 Oh, yeah, bubbles. He does that bubbles thing. And then... I dislike bubbles. It kind of felt like they were... It was like a little bit of like... You get a little... With each boss fight in this, you get a little taste of a previous level. Like the bubbles were in an earlier level. So it's like, oh, you're fighting them. But now that thing from that level three is there or whatever. And I don't know if that holds up for the other ones. But I feel like... I didn't feel that. The different thing. That's nice of you to say about this game.

45:22 But I think this is... Let me put it this way. I'm just giving them... I'm just throwing them bones now. I'm like, you know what? They tried. Let me put it this way. As frustrating as this is because it's like at this point you just want to be done with the game. Like, look, it wasn't very challenging. All of a sudden it's very challenging. And you have to deal with a boss fight several times over.

45:39 It's nice that they thought to include like this epic boss fight at the end where it's like form after form after form. But I'm just like, yo, I already saved the princess in the previous stage. Go get her. Go back home. Go dojo training. Exactly. That's how I'm feeling. And so I'm kind of exhausted. Just put locks on the doors. By the time he turns into a bat, I'm not even convinced that's his last form. I'm like, oh, he's going to turn into a dragon next, you know? Bat dragon. But he doesn't.

46:06 He does these giant flames, though, with faces on them. It's pretty cool. And you just have to keep attacking him and then he dies. And that's the... That's the end of the game. Yeah. I think we can move on. Yeah. I have one stray thought. I did like that there were words of encouragement after you beat bosses. It would just be like, you know, attaboy. Okay. That's my stray thought. Oh, yeah, we didn't talk about that. You're right. That's my favorite thing. Sorry. That's my favorite thing. I just reacted to you like you were an idiot real quick.

47:17 Because I was thinking about something. But now that I'm thinking about this, I did think that that was like the weirdest part of this whole game was that it would say like radical, dude. And then you'd get the scroll and it would be like attaboy. And I'm like, what am I playing? It feels like they just Americanized it all of a sudden. You know, again, feudal Japan. And then all of a sudden it's just like, oh, you know, get the scroll before you got to go to class.

47:43 So I'm just getting confused here. I don't remember the bat form at all. Okay. That's strange, Joe. I'm trying to remember. You know what? I wasn't going to say anything because I thought maybe I forgot. But I don't remember it either. I was like scrubbing through it now. And I can't even find it. It's a bat, but that's it. But he's standing right there. Yeah, but that's him too. Clearly that's him.

48:06 You don't think that's him? I guess it's him. He's his wizard. It's him, Mike. No, I know. I'm just saying. Like, it is actually his hair and his face and his makeup. It's everything of him. And yes, you can't really tell it's a bat, but like he has like these little flappy arms. You're still fighting. To be clear, you're still fighting him. He's still standing there. But now like another little flying version of him. I thought that was like his friend. Could be.

48:31 Anyway. It's like the same color palette and everything. But like I totally forgot about that thing. For what it's worth in the arcade version, it's more like. Oh, just demons. You know, it's like it's better, I guess, pronounced. Gotcha. That you're dealing with the bat. Okay. In this game, I guess I was just, you know, I guess you could assume it's also just like a mini version of himself with just a floating head. Yeah. Because the arms aren't necessarily apparent. You are witnessing a breakdown of communication between all three of us. Yep. Because what's funny is we all beat this game, I want to say, right? Yeah, we beat. Yes. We all beat this game and we're all having very different experiences.

49:05 I've never had memories about this game. Well, here's the thing. What does that really say about this game, though, in terms of how memorable it is? If three people beat it and barely remember like the final boss fights, forms and things, it was like at that point, I just wanted to be done. I was thinking about pizza. Nice. Yeah. Because you're a ninja turtle. Yeah. But when you beat this game, you get another nice message. Can I read this message? Yeah, please read the message. Thanks to your awesome ninja skills, peace has been returned to our castle once again. We will remember you forever, Kid Nicky. You are one rad dude. See, it's so nice. It's sweet. Are you a rad enough dude to save the president?

49:45 Yeah, rad is just really played up. Yeah. Well, it's on the title of the box. And you know what? I'm just watching the ending of this on YouTube right now. But then the end comes flying in from the corner. It's all small and it gets bigger. It's better than game over. Color curtains come in. It's a whole cut scene. It's a lot of thought into that ending. It's got charisma. Yes. Cool. Are we good? I think we're good. I have one more straight thought. My God. Related to pausing the game. Great. I love a good pause tangent. Because you know every couple episodes I like to put the pause in there. It's not really about the sound of pausing the game. It's about when you pause this game and when you unpause it, the music starts over.

50:27 Did you guys notice it? I didn't. The music starts at the beginning. So every time you pause it, it starts with the intro music to the level again. I just figured that was a good little straight thought to add to the Joe's Pause Sounds archives. The compendium. Yes. Yeah, that's actually good to know. This is actually a controversy that's happening right now in Final Fantasy IX on Nintendo Switch and Steam. It's a game where every single time you're in the overworld, you hear the music. When you go to a boss fight and you come out of – not a boss fight. When you go to any kind of random encounter and you come back, it starts the song all over again from the beginning. So nobody's able to hear like two minutes into the track or whatever.

51:02 And I'm like, you know, this is now – this is a problem that has been going on since 87. It's tearing the community apart. What's funny is it can't be that hard to fix. Why don't they just fix it? They fixed it for Final Fantasy VII. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe by the time this episode publishes, they'll have fixed it. Actually, I'mottish. Actually, I'mottish. Actually, I'mottish.

51:41 Actually, Iottish. Computer Gaming World called KidNicky, yet another in the seemingly endless parade of horizontally scrolling, running, jumping, shooting games for the NES. While the reviewer stated that those who enjoyed such games would like the game, he wondered how many of these interchangeable games Nintendo will authorize. Even devotees must be getting tired. He wrote, that was written in Computer Gaming World when this game came out. Like, that was an original review. He was in for a treat. Right, if he's feeling tired already, that's crazy. Because I'm not necessarily, like, I'm thinking about it. We haven't had that many horizontally scrolling, running, jumping, shooting games.

52:45 That's the name of the genre. That's the genre according to him. But I'm like, I'm much more tired of the shmups at this point. Oh, yeah. Me too. There won't be one soon, right? No, there's one next week. Oh, okay. Do I have news for you, boy? Joe, I think you had one more straight thought for us. I do. And this is another thing I should have put in the Tales from the Manual section. But I legitimately didn't notice this until just now.

53:09 Underneath all your bonus items section, there's a section called Secret Techniques. And I'm just going to read you the two secret techniques in this game. Quick jumping techniques. There are many hidden dangers where you need to jump quickly. For example, when Kid Nicky is on the rock, he must jump right away to avoid danger while the rock is moving up and down. That's a secret technique. Jump off the rock quickly. Well, I mean, it's information. Here's another secret technique. Stabbing technique.

53:38 When fighting a big boss, you may lose your sword. Be quick to pick it up again. That's the stabbing technique. What does this mean? Those are almost like parts of a walkthrough that just somehow made it into the manual. Like, they feel so... Also, the rocks... That's just advice, first of all. You have to do that stuff. Those are not secret techniques. And there's no stabbing in that technique.

54:00 Yeah. I'm just saying, thank God that this manual has been archived and is still around because it's filled with lovely things. It's a gift that keeps on giving because Joe continues to go back. He keeps finding new things. It's funny. I looked at the manual at the beginning of this episode. And now I've just been obsessed with the manual for the whole episode. Like, finding all these new things. Sean, I don't think we heard you, but did you say it's under Joe's pillow?

54:24 You know, it's like I heard you, but didn't register until you were reading it. They probably still didn't hear me because you guys laughed during the pillow. So, collectively. It's time to go into sequels and spinoffs. No, I thought it was almost over. You know Kid Nicky has sequels and spinoffs. In Japan, two sequels appeared on the Famicom. The first was... And they go under their Japanese name, which I'm just going to butcher here. But it's like Kaiketsu, Yana, Muchoaro, 2, Kaikouriland.

54:53 And that's just basically Kid Nicky 2, Karakouriland. Okay? Perfect. It came out in 1991. We won't get it. It's a Japan-only game. And the second, in 1993, so very late into the NES's lifespan, we just get Kid Nicky 3. But obviously with the original Japanese name that I'm not going to try to butcher anymore. Kid Nick 3. Yeah. Each of the three NES games have radically different character designs. You'll notice the radically there.

55:26 Very cool. Thank you. I think that's funny. And there was also a Game Boy sequel called Ganso Yanchamoru. Yanchamoru. And that's 1991 as well. But it's actually like a standalone game. It's not a port of any of the Kid Nicky games. So if you're into the Kid Nicky franchise, especially the second and third Japanese exclusive ones, and you haven't checked out the Game Boy game, you might want to check it out. Essential. Yep. Speaking of essentials, Sean, I think we should go into our Essential Games list. So we've talked at length here about Kid Nicky. I don't need detailed reasoning, but if you have it, I'll take it. But let's hear your guys' votes. Sean, you first.

56:13 I'm just going to reiterate my first impression where I really like some of the charm that it exudes. The sense of humor is cool, especially in parts that most people will never play.

56:25 Precisely because of that reason and because the actual action is kind of blasé to me, save for the boss battles. It's not essential. Cool. Joe? Like I said, this is not as painful as Karate Kid was. So it's a playable game. I can say that about it. And the bosses are interesting, but nothing there is a must. And in fact, a lot of it is frustrating enough to definitely keep it off the Essential Games list. All right. And I'll just add that I do not think that this game is essential, but I also don't know if I'd say play it. We talked about this game at length, and all three of us beat it.

57:06 I'm not necessarily certain that that means that you have to play it. If you've liked what we've been talking about and you're interested in some cool bosses and early NES games, I think that's a very niche thing that you're into. But go ahead. Play this game. Otherwise, there isn't enough variety in what's going on here in music, in gameplay, in level design.

57:30 Music's fine, but repetitive. Yes. Yeah. The music track that's in there is pretty cool, but it just repeats itself for three stages and then changes and repeats itself for three stages. And then if you pause it, it starts from the beginning again. Yeah. And that's crazy. So there's just little things like that irk me about this game, but it's also just not a very challenging game. And then all of a sudden steps it up to, in my opinion, like WTF level at the end. But you can still beat it. So I guess it's not like I said, it's not Ghosts and Goblins hard.

57:59 But the art's mediocre. There's some cool Buddha statues. You've heard all this before. I think you know where you stand now, whether you want to play this game or not. But I go on to NostalgiaCast.com and I put in whether I think games are essential, play it, or skip it. And I'm kind of saying that this one's probably a skip it on that list.

58:20 So thank you for listening to about 50 minutes of us talking about it. Yeah. Definitely pick up the manual, though. Yeah. Pick up the manual at your Barnes & Noble or Borders gift store. But I think if you've listened to our episode, you've known enough now and you probably don't have to play it. But at the same time, if you've listened this much, you might as well just play it. Yeah. I mean, like, you've got to figure out whether Joe or Mike was right about such and such or if we're misremembering the entire game. Right. Was there a bat? Right. We don't know.

58:49 There was a bat. I guarantee it. I guarantee you there was a bat. We are not that bad, people. One last thing I'll say is that if you use a turbo controller button, like if you have that on your controller, it doesn't work here. The turbo button works so fast that your sword doesn't register with opponents. So you won't be able to kill any enemies with your turbo thing. It's a short game. Yeah, it's still a chore to work through.

59:11 There's Attaboy and Radical Dude, so that's worth something to some people. You can reach us at contact. No, you can reach us at anyestalgicast. At gmail.com. Or use the contact form at www.nestalgicast.com. I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me on at Esposito Film on Twitter. And we will talk to you soon. I'm Michael Esposito.