From the “dip this manual in lemon juice then use your decoder ring to find the quadrilateral of Uranus’ trajectory during July’s blue moon” era of NES Hard, StarTropics seems more interested in selling copies of Nintendo Power magazine than being a navigable action-adventure. Mike’s arsenal of yo-yos, R.O.B. the robot, submarine, and miscellaneous gear takes him across the ocean to a sea of stars, through isometric dungeons, cool creative puzzles, uncool invisible walls, and late-NES, dialogue-heavy villagers.
StarTropics archipela-goes hard and will have you reaching for Neoseeker and GameFAQs. Getting stuck is normal for games like these because you might not have the manual that actually included a code necessary to progress… or you might not want to press against every wall in the game to see if there’s a hidden path. No shame.
Put a banana in your ear. You are the Banana King.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.
