Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1987 (Nintendo Entertainment System/NES)

Number of Players: 1-2 taking turns

Graphics: Simple and somewhat large. Sprites of water falling disappear for about a second, then reappear, but that might be just because I have a dirty cartridge... I haven't noticed anything so drastic any other game, though. This only happens with the water, too.

Play control: Ugh. The way this game handles movement glorifies the original Super Mario Bros. Press A to jump, B to shoot a bullet (you start with 20 and get 20 more for every gun icon you collect), left and right to move accordingly, and down and up to move accordingly on a ladder (and in the water, where you move pretty freely using all four directions on the control pad--and can only exit the water by climbing up a ladder). Press down on solid ground to duck. If you walk off a ledge, you go straight down--the only way to change how you move in midair is if you have jumped. (Jumping doesn't use gravity, but instead sends him straight up and then straight back down. Well, you can jump to the right and to the left and change your direction in mid jump, but my point is that at no point does his upward momentum grow less--it goes directly from going up to going down.)
Bullets get shot at the protagonist's chin level, meaning there are some monsters he will shoot over the top of because they are too short. You can't duck and shoot, either.

Sound: Happy music. This game could learn a thing or two from something that came out a year or two later, Blaster Master. Everything else is stereotypical bleeps and bloops.

Challenge: Get the highest score possible. This can be done by finding different treasures (most often gold bars) and shooting enemies. The protagonist's engine starts off uncomfortable and doesn't get more comfortable as you play more, but you learn to accept it as part of the challenge and learn to expect the little qualms you may have with it.
If you die, in your new life you start over at a safe location near to where you died.

Gameplay: You have a giant stage to roam around in. There is so much exploring to be done and only three lives to do it in! A lot of places you can see but can't access for quite some time, until you find a way to get to that place. It's basically a giant stage filled with platforming challenges (moving platforms, jumping over enemies and spikes, the usual). It's non-linear, meaning you will have so many different passages to explore, and sometimes by fully exploring one passage you will find yourself in a seemingly unconnected passage you explored some other time.

Bottom line: At first this game went over my head, and then I found out how wonderful it is to explore. I doubt there's a second stage, but this one stage should do for quite a while with the challenges the game poses. People who love to explore every nook and cranny of Blaster Master will have a field day with this.

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