Little Samson for the Nintendo Nes

Description

The game’s setup reminiscent of Mega Man by Capcom. The player jumps with the A button and attacks, usually in the form of a projectile, with the B button. The character’s health is shown by a series of bars, stacked vertically, to the left side of the screen. Throughout the stages the characters must defeat enemies and avoid pits, all the while collecting standard power-ups including one ups, energy-replenishing hearts, and spheres which increase the capacity of the character’s health meter.

The two choices of gameplay the player may choose (Easy, Normal) dictates the level of difficulty. If the player chooses Normal mode, several changes will occur in comparison to if the player chooses Easy. Characters have a limit to how much their health meter may extend (about half of their maximum in Easy mode). Levels will also sport more enemies in Normal mode, and should the player die playing with either the dragon, golem, or mouse, that character will no longer be selectable until the player either uses a potion on them or beats the level. Little Samson on the other hand is always playable, and because of which, he alone can complete almost all the levels alone (exceptions being the introductory levels and the very last level).

An uncommon feature of the game is that the player may switch characters at any point during the level. Each character has their own health gauge, but they all share the same “lives” (if the character which the player is using dies, then they lose a life and all heroes’ health gauges are restored). When confronted the boss’s health is displayed in a similar fashion to the player’s but on the right side of the screen. There are two kinds of boss battles: regular bosses, and the dark prince’s 4 henchmen. Normal boss battles consist of one fight against a creature Samson and company encounter along the way. A henchman boss battle, however, consists of two phases: their cloaked form, and the boss’s true form (typically a large monster). After defeating the boss the player is shown their password.