Yeah, some of these games are not great or don’t hold up so well, BUT...

I bought this collection for one game only: Crystalis! For all the not-so-great games that SNK produced, this one is arguably one of the best action RPGs for the NES, if not one of its best games period. To call it a Zelda clone, although somewhat accurate, would be overly reductive and would do it a huge disservice: it had a lot going for it beyond its top-down adventuring and exploring style. In fact, one might argue that there was some cross-pollination as Link to the Past introduced the chargeable sword spin which is very similar to the mechanic of the elemental swords in Crystalis that requires you to hold down the attack button to build up energy and release it in a missile attack. In fact, since said powers are essential to progression in the game (the sword of fire destroys ice walls, the sword of water creates ice bridges over rivers, and et cetera) and require specific items to enhance them, this adds a unique flair to the game. It also has a magic and experience level system, and clearly influenced beloved games to come such as Wanderers from Ys and Secret of Mana. I also love how the enemies disintegrate differently based on which element you kill them with.

Of course the game is not perfect: the story is a bit convoluted and the mazes can be tedious, but that is to be expected from the genre. Also, while I can respect the purity of direct ports, could you at least fix the flashing pixels at the bottom of the screen or the glitchy coin sprites? It also might be nice to not have all the enemy projectiles be the same color as the ones you shoot, so that when you change your sword, they change don't color too (limitations of the original hardware to be sure). Speaking of changing your sword, since each enemy has different elemental immunities, you will have to pause the game to change swords quite often; a quicker method of switching might have easily been programmed. Also, I am not a fan of the rewind thing... just saying...

Anyway, old-school video game sins aside, Crystalis is definitely worth a play and this might be your best chance to play it. So wait for a sale, pick it up and... well, come to think of it, the other games might not so bad after all. I remember my uncle, who was an army vet and a military history buff, had Iron Tank when I was a kid, and we played it all the time, so this was pretty nostalgic for me. Of course when I played both of those games, I was a bit too young to fully appreciate or complete them, but as of this review, they are the only ones I have the played through... and finally after all these years! Perhaps I will get to the other ones later (I do love me some cheevos) and play with the other bells and whistles of this collection, but for now, I am well satisfied!