[NES] Astyanax

Ah, Astyanax.

A bit of a unknown game when it came out. While a mediocre action-adventure game, the claim to fame of the console version (in my opinion) is the use of the cinema scenes that first appeared in games such as Ninja Gaiden. Anime-styled, this is before anime became en vogue as it is now. This was back in 1990 when about the only commerically available anime was Bubblegum Crisis, MADOX and Zillion, not counting the re-runs of other series on the air. But I digress.

I remember seeing it in a magazine, and phoning the local Blockbuster video to rent it. They had it, and when I had my folks take me there to rent it, it wasn't on the shelf. Apparently one of the associates had put it behind the shelf for me to come get it, even though I don't recall stating that I would be there to come rent it.

As stated before, the game isn't that great, but the story was cool in a cheesy way to a 8th/9th grader at the time.

You can play through the game in the right way, but I found using the Invincibility Code (Up (4x), Down, Left, Right, Up, Start (on title screen)) and play through the game to see the cinema scenes. You can also just view the scenes with the Demo Select (Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, A, B, Start on the title screen), and even use the Level Select (Up, Down, Left, Right, B (4x), Start (on title screen)).