The Wacky Month of Zen Part VIII

The Wacky Month of Zen Part VIII
Zen Intergalactic Ninja NES Video Game Review

October is The Wacky Month of Zen,‭ ‬and we further our celebration of the cult classic character with his adventures on the‭ ‬Nintendo Entertainment‭ ‬System‭!

zen-intergalactic-ninja-carIn the early‭ ‬1990s,‭ ‬Zen’s popularity was‭ ‬soaring.‭ ‬Konami took interest in publishing and developing a video game of the hero for the NES.‭ ‬In‭ ‬1993‭ ‬fans were able to take control of the Intergalactic Ninja to cleanse the Earth of Lord Contaminous in Zen Intergalactic Ninja.‭

Lord Contaminous has kidnapped young Jeremy Baker,‭ ‬holder of the‭ ‬Geocrystal.‭ ‬The Geocrystal is the only item in the‭ ‬universe with the power to destroy Contaminous and his filthy army,‭ ‬and the evil war lord will stop at nothing to control it.‭ ‬Enter Zen Intergalactic Ninja,‭ ‬who has been summoned by the Gordons,‭ ‬an advanced alien race,‭ ‬to‭ ‬save the “star childe,”Jeremy,‭ ‬and clean up Lord Contaminous.‭

A healthy explanation of the story is included in the game‭’‬s instruction‭ ‬manual‭;‬ however,‭ ‬unless you actually read it,‭ ‬you‭’‬ll probably be left a bit confused as to WTF is going on.

Zen is your basic side scrolling beat‭ ‬‘em up that you‭’‬ve seen a lot of in the NES era,‭ ‬and much like the Mega Man series,‭ ‬it‭’‬s very simplistic,‭ ‬yet super challenging.‭ ‬You start out with a map of‭ ‬4‭ ‬different stages‭ (‬An oil rig,‭ ‬rain‭ ‬forest,‭ ‬toxic factory,‭ ‬and railway)‬ playable in any order you choose.‭

Zen is pretty easy to control‭ ‬with the A and B buttons being‭ ‬your jump and attack actions.‭ ‬Using your Photon Staff,‭ ‬you can perform a basic thrust with your weapon,‭ ‬a nifty crouching attack for some low blows,‭ ‬and a neat mid air dash that you‭’‬ll also be using to scale narrow walls and ledges.‭ ‬You‭’‬ll advance in most‭ ‬levels by jumping from platform to platform,‭ ‬but don‭’‬t forget to hold down the DOWN button on the D-Pad to duck low flying enemies.

Zen Intergalactic Ninja-4--article_image

I started my quest for‭ ‬cleanliness in the Slixxon Oil‭ ‬Rig stage where you,‭ ‬as Zen,‭ ‬must search a burning‭ ‬off shore oil refinery for trapped survivors.‭ ‬‭ ‬You doge and smash robots with your Photon Staff,‭ ‬and grab onto hanging pipes to get across large gaps,‭ ‬moving as fast as you can to the upper levels of the facility.‭ ‬Eventually you‭’‬ll come across a fire extinguisher which you‭’‬ll use to put out the burning doorways to free the trapped civilians.‭ ‬Eventually you work your way up to Oilslick,‭ ‬the first of a few very simple boss fights.‭

The next stage Zen and I‭ ‬conquered was the‭ ‬Biggs‭ ‬Toxic Factory.‭ ‬A brief cut scene appears,‭ ‬showing Zen placing explosives along the room,‭ ‬after that, you enter a time lock to escape the factory before it blows.‭ ‬You run past robots and‭ ‬avoid‭ ‬lasers, making epic leaps to moving platforms and finally running into‭ Smogger, another simple boss.‭ ‬Some quick thumbs and‭ ‬repeated Photon Staff blows will take him out pretty easily.

Moving onto the Acid Rain Forest,‭ ‬Zen is confronted with Sulfura,‭ ‬who is killing off the plant life in the forest below.‭ ‬You get in a few quick jabs at Sulfura before you have to go restore the plants down in the jungle.‭ ‬Once you‭’‬ve repeated this‭ ‬process,‭ Sulfura becomes just another‭ ‬piece of trash to be disposed of by Zen.

The Railway stage was probably my favorite.‭ ‬The‭ ‬game gets‭ ‬extremely fast paced here,‭ ‬and if you aren‭’‬t quick enough,‭ ‬you‭’‬ll‭ ‬be repeating this one over and going through a lot of lives.‭ ‬You and Zen are dropped into a railcart where you move throughout the caves,‭ ‬having to flip switches to change the direction of the tracks before you derail.‭ ‬There‭ ‬are also some jumps over large gaps where the track is out.‭ ‬Over all, the level‭ ‬is‭ ‬reminiscent‭ ‬of something from the Battletoads series.‭ ‬Your boss for this level,‭ Garbageman,‭ ‬is‭ ‬cake.‭ ‬He‭’‬ll burrow into the ground and try to‭ ‬jump you from beneath,‭ ‬but he‭’‬s simple to track and evade.

Zen_Intergalactic_Ninja-3Between these four stages are awesome‭ ‬bonus stages where you have to save‭ ‬animals from taking a toxic waste bath,‭ ‬or knock trash into a giant‭ ‬furnace.‭ ‬You rack up‭ ‬bonus points and‭ ‬acquire special‭ ‬items like shields or health‭ ‬regenerators‭ ‬which are great for the more difficult boss battles to come.

After you overcome the first four stages,‭ ‬you battle through a poisoned swap where you‭’‬ll‭ ‬rescue the Star Childe himself,‭ ‬Paul Stanley, Jeremy‭ ‬Baker.‭ ‬The rest of the game is a series of pretty intense boss battles.‭ ‬You‭ ‬drop down a long pit,‭ ‬with a deadly‭ ‬guillotine dropping right behind you,‭ ‬take on a robot who likes throwing rocks (‬again,‭ ‬some quick‭ ‬dodging and Photon Staff action make short work of him‭)‬,‭ ‬leading up to a fight against‭ ‬– GASP‭ ‬– a‭ ‬Zen‭ ‬doppelganger‭!‬ What makes this boss so difficult is that the evil Zen twice gets to regenerate his health.‭ ‬But if your soul is pure,‭ ‬and your will strong,‭ ‬the evil clone will fall.‭

Now for the final fight against Lord Contaminious himself‭! ‬This battle is comprised of‭ ‬two acts.‭ ‬The first is while Contaminous is sitting about his throne,‭ ‬spitting fire and tossing enemies at you.‭ ‬Once you‭ ‬wear him down some,‭ ‬he takes the fight to the atmosphere.‭ ‬You fight in the stars under another time lock,‭ ‬with the Earth in the background,‭ ‬slowly decaying.‭ ‬Like Zen‭’‬s evil counterpart,‭ ‬Contaminous will twice‭ ‬regenerate‭ ‬his health,‭ ‬and if you can defeat him before the Earth rots completely,‭ ‬then you will have‭ ‬once again proven why Zen is the baddest Ninja in the galaxy‭!

zen-12Depending on how skilled you are with these types of games,‭ ‬it should take between‭ ‬30‭ ‬minutes and an hour to finish.‭ The graphics are about as ordinary as you‭’‬ll find‭ ‬in any other early‭ ‬90s NES game,‭ ‬as well as the music.‭ ‬Some‭ ‬of the sounds were imports from an‭ ‬earlier Konami release and fellow Archie Comics published characters,‭ ‬Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The game was pretty fun for what it was.‭ ‬Other games,‭ ‬like the‭ ‬aforementioned‭ ‬Mega Man series does what Zen tries to do‭ ‬better,‭ ‬and the story doesn’‭t make much sense if you aren‭’‬t already‭ ‬familiar with the character.‭ ‬You won‭’‬t be missing out on anything by passing up on Zen Intergalactic Ninja,‭ ‬but it sure is a fun way to help kill an afternoon if you like this style of game.‭ ‬3/5

Konami also released a Game Boy version of Zen Intergalactic Ninja which isn‭’‬t much to speak of,‭ ‬but‭ ‬then again,‭ ‬not too many Game Boy games were at that time.

Seeing what Konami has become over the years, publishing games like‭ ‬Castlevania,‭ ‬Silent Hill,‭ ‬and the super popular Metal Gear Solid series,‭ ‬it would be cool to see what they would do if Zen was revisited for an Xbox‭ ‬360‭ ‬or PlayStation‭ ‬3‭ remake.

Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Andy

    I definitely dig side scrollers. I wish I had an NES so I could give this game a good playin’.

  2. billy

    It’s funny to look back at older games. I usually think “wow, I thought that was really great as far as graphics.” These days the games are so realistic it’s scary.

  3. Infinite Speech

    i never knew there was a Zen game, it looks similar to the TMNT game Konami put out earlier

  4. Josh

    Wow, I had no idea this game ever existed. I wanna play it! ‘The Wacky Month of Zen’ series is compiled of some the greatest Zen article’s on the net. I love reading these. Keep up the great work Andrew!

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