After the success of The Legend of Zelda, it seemed that the dungeon crawler genre might be the next big thing in video games. Fans were surprised when the sequel abandoned the model for a side scrolling adventure. Was the top down genre already dead? It would take a few more years, but the true successor to Zelda would arrive in 1990. It would come from Nintendo, but the setting was a little more familiar. This was Star Tropics, a game that showed that dungeon crawling was alive and well.
Mike Jones has arrived on C Island simply to visit his uncle. When he arrives, he discovers that his uncle has vanished and strange things are going on. Given a yo-yo, Mike goes off in search of his uncle, encountering everything from a giant octopus to a ghost. The game was a combination of exploring the upper islands and fighting past the “dungeons”. Mike will discover that these things started happening when a shooting star crashed nearby.
This game was pure Zelda, but not in any knock off way. Designed solely for the North America and European market, the game took what made Zelda great and improved on it. When Mike enters the dungeons, his sprite suddenly has the ability to jump and attack. The enemies are designed wonderfully, pushing the limits on what the NES could produce. The story had twists and turns, surprising players with secrets they had to find in a submarine that becomes available later in the game.
Star Tropics was also famous for how it used something in the real world to advance the game play. Included in the game box was a letter from your uncle. It seemed like just a cool collectible. Until you got half way through the game. You learn that a destination code you need is written on the letter. Just dip it in water and you find out what numbers you need. It was one of the first wall breaking things in a video game.
Star Tropics is still held in high regard. The NES Classic System included it as one of the games. It would spawn a sequel that was notable for being the last game ever produced for the NES. With new titles going back to the dungeon crawler genre, come play a game that pushed it in the right direction. Zelda would also go back to this, but that’s a story for another article
