Help me name this NES game!

bwanie

Ok, i remember seeing a game once while visiting some friend, his dad was sick with the flu and was playing on their NES. we were waiting to have a go but he kept on playing. Asshole.

Anyway, it was a 2D platformer/shooter, basically like fighting an iron maiden cd cover. I don't remember anything about the protagonist, but i do remember the bosses.

He was fighting giant skeleton and zombieheads. They were firing larvae and insects and constantly changing form. There might have been some platforming between these bosses.

I remember it being totally insane and over the top, with pretty darn good graphics for the NES.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Ghosts n' Goblins is the only thing that comes to mind.

bwanie

No, i had Ghost & Ghouls for my master system , nothing like that

bwanie

think contra gameplay, bu with the most insane bosses ever.

Macro9

Street Fighter 2010?

MushroomStick

Blaster Master?

Atlus Parker

Wizards & Warriors?
Monster Party?

SatanIsMyMotor

Monster Party was my guess too.

bwanie

Brb checking that out.

It's not monster party. The bosses in the game i'm looking for are bigger, and mostly just giant floating zombie/monster/skeleton heads.

god was this even on the NES? I'm beginning to doubt myself.

bwanie

well there's zombie nation, where you play as the zombie head...

but it's not big enough.

the stage 1 boss is apporaching what i'm looking for (edit: only think gross backgrounds and more maggots & shit):

DirtyDirtyVagrant

Are you talking about the same game that we see a kid playing in the Ninja Turtles movie during the first scene in the warehouse hideout?

I remember that being a sidescrolling shooter, and he was fighting a giant skeletal head that tried to bite him if I recall. Sound familiar?

bwanie

could be, i never saw the turtles movie.

Snowbody

The NES hardware was limited; you couldn't have both a background and a big boss. If you had a big boss, it basically WAS the background, and the rest of the background would be black.

The game from TMNT was NARC.

Nerdgasmic

could it be castlevania?

bwanie

I agree about the NES probably not being able to do both. My memory is so hazy on it all, it's been almost 20 years

The only other console it could have been was a megadrive. I owned a mastersystem and a snes and i've never seen or heard of the game, and probably went over to the dudes house to see something new.

bwanie

Nerdgasmic wrote:

could it be castlevania?

No, it was a lot faster and more shoot-em uppy than that. it was also really gross.

like a lot of slime, skulls, maggots, zombieheads and what not.

amateurhour

Did you rule out wizards and warriors already? I know it was mentioned earlier.

bwanie

yeah, it's not one of the more well known franchises i am affraid.

Xaquin

Abadox =)

I loved that game

Jimmy King

There was a space shooter that sounds just like this, except you know, it was a side scrolling space shooter and not a platformer. I'll be damned if I can remember the name, though. I'm trying to find it just in case.

Nevermind. Xaquin named it while I was off looking for the name of the game. Abadox is what I was thinking of.

bwanie

abadox i saw some screens of, but i'll look into that some more.

edit: the left to right levels seem similar, but i'm not convinced.

edit: nope, still not enough giant floating head spewing forth maggots.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Can you narrow down the year any?

thegandork

Astyanax?

Junpei

Wurm maybe?

There weren't all that many side scrolling shooters on the NES cause it also reminds me of Wings of Wor on the Genesis/Megadrive

Bedlam

The only thing I can think of with maggots and gross stuff would be splatterhouse but I dont think that was shooty.

SatanIsMyMotor

Wait, is it Splatterhouse?

Thesmileyemo

Maybe Ghoul School?

CowShark

Could it have just been a Contra sequel? All the games start having crazy monster bosses midway through, right?

Ringo

NARC and 8 Eyes were the first two to come to mind for me

Viscountalpha

it wasn't burai fighter was it?

bwanie

Wow thanks for replying folks!

But, at this point, i'm about to give up.

Samourai zombie nation and Abadox are the closest contenders in terms of atmosphere, graphics and spritesize.

If anyone can think of a comparable game on the genesis/megadrive i'd be interested to hear about it.

urahonky

Alien Soldier?

This game looks nuts!

urahonky

Damn it's not that... Looks like it may not have been released in the US.

LoveIsUnity

Not sure if this is it, but this is what came to mind:

bwanie

not enough zombies and maggots and skeletons.

this is the key part guys. fighting an iron maiden cover

MushroomStick

Maybe you're off on the year a little and its Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?

AaronKI

Shadow of the Best was what I originally thought of but held my tongue since it wasn't on NES. You only start out with punches and kicks, though you do get to shoot stuff later on.



It gets pretty bizarre:






More screens: http://www.mobygames.com/game/shadow-of-the-beast/screenshots