The objective is to locate and collect two items per Castle and make your way back out. In the U.S. release of the game, two extra castles were taken out to shorten play length, reducing the dungeons to four. You only have one life, but the ability to continue from the beginning of the castle and you don’t have to recollect any item you need to exit, but health power ups stay gone for good. Apparently there are two ways to beat this game. One gives you a bad ending where you don’t encounter the wizard, and this is the screen I kept getting. Despite getting the items needed, I continued to get the half bad ending. Mostly because I didn't realize that Mystery Quest had to be beaten four times.
Mystery Quest is not a particularly handsome game. Mostly because it’s too damn bright and there is very little hue variation and backgrounds. The outer world’s blue sky is just that one solid color with no clouds and the ground is a pretty light gray stone pattern. Were it not for the occasional vegetation (trees and bushes and lazily placed green platforms here and there, it look like you got lost at an empty Circuit City parking lot. Your main character Hao is so pale in an attempt to get a flesh color tone, he winds up blending in with some of the background buildings. His lips are highlighted, which succeeds at making him look like a clown on a mission to meet up with the McKids.
So you would think that at the very least, the interiors of some of these dungeons would offer a little bit of variety. They do, but not it’s not really an improvement. The floor tiles are bricks, but the exact same color as the ground outside, but at least the background walls are colors that make the game sprites stand out a little more. Except for Castle 4, which chose white, ensuring that I go blind while playing.
Now it's time for the Mystery Quest enemy lineup. Surely, with a title like MYSTERY Quest, you'd mostly be battling some other-worldy creatures, right? Well get ready for these unstoppable forces. Bees, scorpions, snakes, dragonflies, groundhogs, and bats will stop at nothing to slightly, sort of, kind of be in your way. They can be easily dispatched, but why? It’s not like they drop power-ups or health items, and they seem to be minding your own business. Only the boss monsters in each of the four castles are legit threats that have to be defeated in order to proceed, and two of them are a praying mantis and a giant snail!
Mystery Quest was something I really tried to put closure on as a bad game I at least wanted to complete 100%. I just figured I would try to beat a game that haunted my childhood, but it wants to be a jackass! I could’ve used that time to defeat Battletoads for the first time in my life, but NOOOOOO, I gave this more attention than it deserves. For people looking to have a complete NES collection, by all means. Otherwise, expecting anything above lame controls, a lack of visual appeal, repetitive music, stock enemies, and generic puzzles, is way too high.
You need to be a member of Game Fix to add comments!
Join Game Fix