The Guardian LegendOverall=9
This game is near perfect. It is challenging without being sadistic. If you are having trouble with a corridor,power up and try again. You are The Guardian Legend,tasked with destroying NAJU,a space station that was your home,but is now infested with monsters. You will fight everything from spider like beings,eggs,hockey puck like beings,ice cube like beings,and when you travel further into NAJU,sub bosses that appear as normal enemies. How many games do you know on the NES that pack an overworld exploration game with a shooter? You gain hearts at specific point totals and through Blue Landers. Red Landers increase your chip stock or special weapon ammo. Chips are also used as money. But be careful,your chip stock determines how powerful your standard shot is.
Graphics=10
This game is one of the best looking on the NES,the main character is large and looks nice,the enemies for the most part are pretty good,and the backgrounds are awesome. The overworld is probably the weaker of the two,but both are great and this is a classic and when I first played it as a boy,it looked almost 16 bit,that is how good it looked. The Bosses look great and have a ton of ordinance to dodge or destroy.
Sound=10
The music does not disappoint at all. The music is good for pumping you up and readying you for a battle. The boss music is good and you feel yourself tensing up to fight them. The sound effects are great and are not annoying at all. You would want to keep fighting through NAJU because you wanted to hear the tracks.
Addictiveness=9
The game is fun on all levels whether you are trekking through the overworld,flying in the corridors,or just taking a breather at the Lander shops. You want to explore to find new weapons,power up existing weapons,find Red and Blue Landers,attack and defense boosts and so on. It is fun to do Corridor 21,the boss rush area,but we all wanted to beat the final boss. You also have a sort of "second quest" by punching in TGL at the password screen. It is a flying-only area and you have to do well to earn items and weapons.
Story=7
The story is basic,you are the lone survivor/warrior of the star NAJU. You want to blow it up to kill off all the evil critters that plague it. You meet many strange and powerful enemies and the bosses do not hold back. You explore rooms and it gives you hints on how to access certain corridors. The exploration is done well and the map works well. The are no real surprises or story twists but you really did not need them.
Depth=8
You have to constantly decide what sub-weapon to take into battle with you,(you can only use 1 at a time),figure out attack patterns,and look for weaknesses in enemies. You are always improving your arsenal and abilities and you want to explore every area for anything you may have missed from weapon upgrades,sub weapons,bosses,Landers and abilities. (Hint: A powered up fireball and back wave[not sure on the actual name] and enemy erasers are godsends.)
Difficulty=8
The bosses are challenging,the exploration demands you pay attention to where you are (look on the bottom of the screen,it does display your current location) and it just feels right. The controls are near perfect,except if you diagonally walk into a wall,but that is a minor nitpick. If you die,it was not the control's fault. The later levels bombard you with all kinds of projectiles and you have to either destroy or dodge them. (A level 3 fireball is an immense help to burn through the levels and enemies,no pun intended.) The enemy erasers appear just enough to defeat minor enemies that are crowding you. The game is winnable and if you have the drive and courage,this game will not disappoint.
Graphics
10 Sound
10 Addictive
9 Depth
8 Story
7 Difficulty
8
User Notice 
.png)
.png)
.png)
