Retro Review: Kid Niki for the NES
By bobafettjm 2 Comments
Kid Niki, a weird side scrolling game from my NES past. I remember as a kid I played this game quite a bit. I could always get around two-thirds of the way through the game, but could never finish it. Well my friends as of now I have finally beaten this game, and I will give it a quick review.
Kid Niki is a pretty straight forward side scrolling kill the endless waves of enemies until you reach the boss game. Think of Kung Fu, but with some very strange enemies. There are fire breathing frogs, expressionless ninjas, cat looking flying squirrels, birds with mohawks, very strange bosses, and even some dreaded bubbles.
The story is apparently about a "Stone Wizard" who steals a princess and you set out to rescue her. That is really about it on story. At the end of the game you end up rescuing her, only to find out it's not the last level. The last level instead is you chasing the boss around, defeating him multiple times.
The music in this game mostly consists of the same two songs. There is the level music and the boss music. While the music does get repetitive listening throughout the game, there is something strangely likable in it. It could be fond memories of my childhood, but I kept getting the tune stuck in my head. There is actually a couple of short moments with other music, but I would say 90% is the same song.
The game play in this game is actually quite good. This is what stands out for the game (besides the weirdness) and actually makes it a pretty fun game to play. The controls feel very responsive and you can use your attack as fast as you can push the button. The only times I really died in this game were because I did not time something correctly, and not because of wonky controls that can be prevalent in NES games.
Overall I would say it is a pretty fun game, and if you have it laying around in a closet somewhere, dust that bad boy off and give it a go. Or of course you could go the emulator route, which you would get most of the experience, but it is really more fun using the old NES controller.
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