The Guardian Legend
Encyclopedia
The Guardian Legend, known in Japan
as , is a hybrid action-adventure
/shoot 'em up
video game developed by Compile
for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
. It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX
game Guardic
, and was published and released in Japan by Irem
in 1988, in North America by Brøderbund
in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo
in 1990. In the game, the player controls a lone protagonist, the Guardian, who is on a quest to destroy a large alien-infested world named Naju before it reaches the planet Earth. The player must deactivate ten safety devices scattered throughout Naju, thus activating the alien world's self-destruct sequence. The player explores Naju in a non-linear fashion and can acquire different weapons during the course of the game.
The Guardian Legend received mixed reviews from magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly
and Nintendo Power
. While it has been praised for its impressive graphics, memorable sound, and responsive controls, it has been criticized for its repetitive gameplay and complicated password system. The game received little fanfare upon its release, but it has since been considered a classic example of a multiple-genre game that set a standard for others such as the title Sigma Star Saga
and incorporated gameplay elements from other titles such as The Legend of Zelda, Metroid
, 1942, and Blaster Master
.
transformer". The player's mission is to infiltrate Naju, a large planet-like object which aliens
sent hurtling towards the Earth. While inside, the player must activate ten safety devices in order to initialize Naju's self-destruct
mechanism and destroy the alien world before it reaches Earth. Five hostile tribes of alien lifeforms are vie for control of territories within Naju, and the player needs to fight through them to successfully activate the switches and escape. The story is advanced through a series of messages left by one or more unidentified predecessor(s) who unsuccessfully attempted to engage the self-destruct mechanism of Naju before the Guardian arrived. Left by the sole remaining survivor of the attack on Naju, the first message serves as an introduction; later messages give hints that help the player open locked corridors.
Gameplay varies depending on the player's location within Naju. The player controls the Guardian in humanoid
form when exploring the surface of Naju (the Labyrinth) and in spaceship
form when investigating Naju's interior (the Dungeon). The Guardian has a life meter
that decreases after sustaining damage from enemies; it can be replenished by collecting various items. If the life meter runs out, the Guardian explodes, and the game ends. The player can use a primary rapid-fire weapon with unlimited ammunition as well as various powerful secondary weapons that consume "power chips" with each use. Power chips are also used as currency to purchase upgrades for the Guardian in a handful of shops throughout Naju. Found within the Labyrinth or obtained after defeating a boss
, these upgrades include primary weapon improvements, new or upgraded secondary weapons, and round, brightly colored creatures called Landers.
Blue and Red Landers, recurring characters in many Compile games, increase the player's maximum life and power chip capacities, respectively. Blue Landers play multiple roles in The Guardian Legend. Some of them are not items but non-player character
s that dispense advice to the player or exchange upgrades for power chips; others provide a password
that allows the player to resume the game at a later time with their progress retained. These Blue Landers also serve as checkpoints; players can restart their game in these designated rooms after being defeated provided the system has not been turned off.
In the action-adventure
portion of the game known as the "Labyrinth", the player explores the surface of Naju in humanoid form in a top-down perspective. The player must navigate the Labyrinth and find and infiltrate the corridors and ultimately activate Naju's ten safety devices. The Labyrinth consists of screen-wide passages and rooms individually plotted as X–Y coordinates
. A map that details these coordinates in a grid-like form can be viewed on the pause subscreen. While the player can generally walk from one screen to the next, some screens are separated by portals called "warp panels". Warp panels bear a symbol indicative of their surrounding area, and the player can only access these warp panels with keys that match these symbols. Some warp panels lead to rooms containing various clues and story elements while others are gateways to shops, password
rooms, and corridors. Keys allow players to access different portions of the Labyrinth, which they can then explore in a non-linear fashion.
In the shoot 'em up
portion of the game known as the "Dungeon", the player battles through Naju's interior in spaceship
form. The Dungeon consists of a series of enemy-filled corridors which are found during exploration of the Labyrinth. The player's objective in the Dungeon is to progress through each corridor and defeat the boss at the end. Upon completion, the player destroys the corridor and is returned to the Labyrinth, where a power-up
(and sometimes a warp panel key) is collected as a reward. While some corridors can be accessed freely, others can only be entered by performing a particular action in the corridor room. Some rooms in the Labyrinth contain clues that indicate how to unseal these corridors. Ten of the corridors in the game serve as the safety devices which must be activated to win the game.
by Compile
as the sequel to the 1986 MSX
game Guardic
, and it was released as Guardic Gaiden in Japan by Irem
on . The director was Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, Compile's president and the creator of the Puyo Puyo
series. The development team featured many of the staff who helped create Guardic as well as Zanac
and Blazing Lazers
. The box art for Guardic Gaiden was created by Japanese science-fiction illustrator Naoyuki Kato
and depicts the Guardian as a female cyborg
. The Guardian Legend was released for the NES
and released in North America by Brøderbund
in April 1989; it was published in Europe by Nintendo in 1990. Nintendo Power
previewed The Guardian Legend in January 1989, where they discussed the game's mechanics, graphics, and shoot 'em up sequences. They promised a full review in the following issue, but it was postponed due to a delay of the game's release. The Guardian Legend was exhibited at the 1989 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas, Nevada
before its release; it was one of the prime attractions at the Brøderbund booth along with the U-Force
controller
.
The game has received both praise and criticism for its multiple-genre format. It was reviewed by four people in a 1989 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
shortly after the release of the game in 1989. Steve Harris said that the game does more than most shoot 'em ups and that it's a "good follow-up for Zanac fans". He added that the multiple-genre format "helps elevate the whole title to a much higher level". Ed Semrad called the game a Blaster Master
clone and "only average at best", and he echoed Harris' opinion that those who enjoyed Zanac would enjoy The Guardian Legend. Donn Nauert said that the game is repetitive and offers little challenge and that it would have been better as a pure shoot 'em up; he pointed to a special password ("TGL") in which players can enter to bypass all of the Labyrinth portions. Jim Allee also compared the game to Zanac and repeated what Nauert said about the lack of difficulty except in the boss battles; he overall praised the game for successfully bringing together two distinct themes.
The Guardian Legend received accolades from the editors of Nintendo Power. The game appeared in the magazine's September 1989 issue, where it debuted at #9 on its "Top 30" NES Chart. The editors praised the game, and described the protagonist as "the ultimate transforming hero". The game would remain on the chart for nearly a year. In recognition of its achievements, the magazine's editors and staff nominated the game for several awards in its first-ever Nintendo Power Awards for 1989—among them, "Best Graphics & Sound", "Best Play Control", and "Best Overall"—but the game did not win the top award in any of these categories. Nintendo Power published a partial walkthrough
for the game in the following November 1989 issue.
The game received moderate praise in some German gaming magazines after its European release. In Video Games magazine the reviewer praised the game as being a good action-adventure game in the same style of The Legend of Zelda; he notes that the need to find hidden items and areas and the top-down perspective closely resemble the Nintendo classic. He appreciated the variety and extras in the game, the various strategies needed to fight bosses, its difficulty, and the well-done graphics. The reviewers from Power Play compared The Guardian Legend to The Legend of Zelda and Life Force. They praised the diverse gameplay and weapons, difficulty, and the mixture of action-adventure and shoot 'em up elements. They criticized the game for lacking battery-backed RAM to save player progress—one of the reviewers said that "the wretched fumbling with the password had long ended"—as well as its lack of challenging puzzles and a high difficulty level in some of the shoot 'em up sections.
favorably compared The Guardian Legend with the NES title The Legend of Zelda and the Game Boy Advance
title Sigma Star Saga
; he emphasized Compile's successful fusion of the action-adventure, shoot 'em up and action role-playing game
genres. Later, in a 2008 IGN
article, Thomas listed the game at #2 on his "Top 10 Unreleased NES Hits" list and contended that The Guardian Legend took the concept of the multiple-genre game to a farther extent than Blaster Master. In October 2009, IGN ranked The Guardian Legend as #87 on its "Top 100 NES Games of All Time" list and deemed it "one of the most influential games in the history of the gaming industry". In March 2008, Game Informer
editors referred to the game as "the ultimate genre bender" and likened it to a combination of the NES games The Legend of Zelda, Metroid
, and 1942. While they acclaimed the game for its "exciting and challenging" shooter stages, they criticized it for its complex world map and "outrageous" password system. In a Gamasutra
interview, Retro Game Challenge
designer Mike Engler said that "The Guardian Legend is one of the best games ever released".
The graphics and sound of The Guardian Legend have been influential. Robert Dewar and Matthew Smosna of the open computing
magazine Open Systems Today cited the game as an example of how graphics co-processors
such as those in the NES
can compensate for inadequate CPU
speed in graphics-intensive computer applications. They noted that the fast-paced action seen in the game could not be replicated on a personal computer
at that time (1992) without an expensive graphics board
and regardless of CPU speed. The music of the game, composed by Miyamoto Shant, has remained popular years after the game's release. Samantha Amjadali of the Melbourne
-based newspaper The Herald Sun reported that a remix
ed tune from the game was rated as the second most popular track on the website OverClocked ReMix
in March 2002. Video game cover band The Advantage
's 2006 album Elf Titled
featured a cover version
of music from one of the game's dungeon levels.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as , is a hybrid action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
/shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
video game developed by Compile
Compile (software company)
Compile Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game company established on April 7, 1982, under the name Programmers-3. Founded by Masamitsu Niitani , they were famed for developing shooters and puzzle games such as Aleste and Puyo Puyo.Compile filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2003, but the franchise...
for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
game Guardic
Guardic
is a shoot 'em up video game for the MSX computer. It was created and developed by Pac Fujishima while working for Compile, the creators of other shoot 'em up games such as Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Blazing Lazers....
, and was published and released in Japan by Irem
Irem (company)
is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture....
in 1988, in North America by Brøderbund
Brøderbund
Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...
in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
in 1990. In the game, the player controls a lone protagonist, the Guardian, who is on a quest to destroy a large alien-infested world named Naju before it reaches the planet Earth. The player must deactivate ten safety devices scattered throughout Naju, thus activating the alien world's self-destruct sequence. The player explores Naju in a non-linear fashion and can acquire different weapons during the course of the game.
The Guardian Legend received mixed reviews from magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
and Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
. While it has been praised for its impressive graphics, memorable sound, and responsive controls, it has been criticized for its repetitive gameplay and complicated password system. The game received little fanfare upon its release, but it has since been considered a classic example of a multiple-genre game that set a standard for others such as the title Sigma Star Saga
Sigma Star Saga
Sigma Star Saga is a hybrid science fiction role-playing game -space-shooter for the Game Boy Advance. The player explores a standard 2-D overworld but is transported into space for side-scrolling shooter random battles...
and incorporated gameplay elements from other titles such as The Legend of Zelda, Metroid
Metroid
is an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
, 1942, and Blaster Master
Blaster Master
Blaster Master is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a localized version of a Japanese Famicom game titled , which was released on . The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on...
.
Plot
In The Guardian Legend, the player controls the female guardian of Earth, a "highly sophisticated aerobotAerobot
An aerobot is an aerial robot, usually used in the context of an unmanned space probe or unmanned aerial vehicle.While work has been done since the 1960s on robot "rovers" to explore the Moon and other worlds in the Solar system, such machines have limitations...
transformer". The player's mission is to infiltrate Naju, a large planet-like object which aliens
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
sent hurtling towards the Earth. While inside, the player must activate ten safety devices in order to initialize Naju's self-destruct
Self-destruct
A self-destruct is a mechanism which causes a device to destroy itself under a predefined set of circumstances.Self-destruct mechanisms are also found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people...
mechanism and destroy the alien world before it reaches Earth. Five hostile tribes of alien lifeforms are vie for control of territories within Naju, and the player needs to fight through them to successfully activate the switches and escape. The story is advanced through a series of messages left by one or more unidentified predecessor(s) who unsuccessfully attempted to engage the self-destruct mechanism of Naju before the Guardian arrived. Left by the sole remaining survivor of the attack on Naju, the first message serves as an introduction; later messages give hints that help the player open locked corridors.
Gameplay
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
form when exploring the surface of Naju (the Labyrinth) and in spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
form when investigating Naju's interior (the Dungeon). The Guardian has a life meter
Health (game mechanic)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
that decreases after sustaining damage from enemies; it can be replenished by collecting various items. If the life meter runs out, the Guardian explodes, and the game ends. The player can use a primary rapid-fire weapon with unlimited ammunition as well as various powerful secondary weapons that consume "power chips" with each use. Power chips are also used as currency to purchase upgrades for the Guardian in a handful of shops throughout Naju. Found within the Labyrinth or obtained after defeating a boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
, these upgrades include primary weapon improvements, new or upgraded secondary weapons, and round, brightly colored creatures called Landers.
Blue and Red Landers, recurring characters in many Compile games, increase the player's maximum life and power chip capacities, respectively. Blue Landers play multiple roles in The Guardian Legend. Some of them are not items but non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s that dispense advice to the player or exchange upgrades for power chips; others provide a password
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit eras , after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return to this part in the game...
that allows the player to resume the game at a later time with their progress retained. These Blue Landers also serve as checkpoints; players can restart their game in these designated rooms after being defeated provided the system has not been turned off.
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
portion of the game known as the "Labyrinth", the player explores the surface of Naju in humanoid form in a top-down perspective. The player must navigate the Labyrinth and find and infiltrate the corridors and ultimately activate Naju's ten safety devices. The Labyrinth consists of screen-wide passages and rooms individually plotted as X–Y coordinates
Cartesian coordinate system
A Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
. A map that details these coordinates in a grid-like form can be viewed on the pause subscreen. While the player can generally walk from one screen to the next, some screens are separated by portals called "warp panels". Warp panels bear a symbol indicative of their surrounding area, and the player can only access these warp panels with keys that match these symbols. Some warp panels lead to rooms containing various clues and story elements while others are gateways to shops, password
Password (video games)
In many video games of the 8-bit and, to a lesser extent, 16-bit eras , after a level was beaten and/or when all continues were used, the game would display a password, that when entered in the game would allow the player to return to this part in the game...
rooms, and corridors. Keys allow players to access different portions of the Labyrinth, which they can then explore in a non-linear fashion.
In the shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
portion of the game known as the "Dungeon", the player battles through Naju's interior in spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
form. The Dungeon consists of a series of enemy-filled corridors which are found during exploration of the Labyrinth. The player's objective in the Dungeon is to progress through each corridor and defeat the boss at the end. Upon completion, the player destroys the corridor and is returned to the Labyrinth, where a power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
(and sometimes a warp panel key) is collected as a reward. While some corridors can be accessed freely, others can only be entered by performing a particular action in the corridor room. Some rooms in the Labyrinth contain clues that indicate how to unseal these corridors. Ten of the corridors in the game serve as the safety devices which must be activated to win the game.
Development and reception
The Guardian Legend was developed for the Nintendo FamicomNintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
by Compile
Compile (software company)
Compile Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game company established on April 7, 1982, under the name Programmers-3. Founded by Masamitsu Niitani , they were famed for developing shooters and puzzle games such as Aleste and Puyo Puyo.Compile filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2003, but the franchise...
as the sequel to the 1986 MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
game Guardic
Guardic
is a shoot 'em up video game for the MSX computer. It was created and developed by Pac Fujishima while working for Compile, the creators of other shoot 'em up games such as Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Blazing Lazers....
, and it was released as Guardic Gaiden in Japan by Irem
Irem (company)
is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture....
on . The director was Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, Compile's president and the creator of the Puyo Puyo
Puyo Puyo
is the inaugural game in the Puyo Puyo series originally released in 1991 by Compile for the MSX2. Since its creation, it uses characters from . It was created by Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, the founder of Compile, who was inspired by certain elements from the Tetris and Dr...
series. The development team featured many of the staff who helped create Guardic as well as Zanac
Zanac
is an arcade-style shoot 'em up video game designed by Compile and published in Japan by Pony Canyon and in North America by FCI.It was released for the MSX computer, the Family Computer Disk System, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and for the Virtual Console. It was reworked for the MSX2...
and Blazing Lazers
Blazing Lazers
Blazing Lazers, known in Japan as , is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Hudson Soft and Compile. It was released in Japan on for the PC Engine, and it was released in North America in November 1989 for the TurboGrafx-16. It was later released on the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on...
. The box art for Guardic Gaiden was created by Japanese science-fiction illustrator Naoyuki Kato
Naoyuki Kato
is a Japanese illustrator, a native of Hamamatsu City, Japan.-Illustration works:A noted science-fiction artist since the 1970s, he has contributed to many science fiction/fantasy magazines, novels and games....
and depicts the Guardian as a female cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
. The Guardian Legend was released for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
and released in North America by Brøderbund
Brøderbund
Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...
in April 1989; it was published in Europe by Nintendo in 1990. Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
previewed The Guardian Legend in January 1989, where they discussed the game's mechanics, graphics, and shoot 'em up sequences. They promised a full review in the following issue, but it was postponed due to a delay of the game's release. The Guardian Legend was exhibited at the 1989 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
before its release; it was one of the prime attractions at the Brøderbund booth along with the U-Force
U-Force
The U-Force was a game controller made by Brøderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It employed a pair of perpendicular infrared sensor panels to translate the user's hand movements into controller signals.From a print advertisement circa 1989:...
controller
Game controller
A game controller is a device used with games or entertainment systems used to control a playable character or object, or otherwise provide input in a computer game. A controller is typically connected to a game console or computer by means of a wire, cord or nowadays, by means of wireless connection...
.
The game has received both praise and criticism for its multiple-genre format. It was reviewed by four people in a 1989 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
shortly after the release of the game in 1989. Steve Harris said that the game does more than most shoot 'em ups and that it's a "good follow-up for Zanac fans". He added that the multiple-genre format "helps elevate the whole title to a much higher level". Ed Semrad called the game a Blaster Master
Blaster Master
Blaster Master is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a localized version of a Japanese Famicom game titled , which was released on . The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on...
clone and "only average at best", and he echoed Harris' opinion that those who enjoyed Zanac would enjoy The Guardian Legend. Donn Nauert said that the game is repetitive and offers little challenge and that it would have been better as a pure shoot 'em up; he pointed to a special password ("TGL") in which players can enter to bypass all of the Labyrinth portions. Jim Allee also compared the game to Zanac and repeated what Nauert said about the lack of difficulty except in the boss battles; he overall praised the game for successfully bringing together two distinct themes.
The Guardian Legend received accolades from the editors of Nintendo Power. The game appeared in the magazine's September 1989 issue, where it debuted at #9 on its "Top 30" NES Chart. The editors praised the game, and described the protagonist as "the ultimate transforming hero". The game would remain on the chart for nearly a year. In recognition of its achievements, the magazine's editors and staff nominated the game for several awards in its first-ever Nintendo Power Awards for 1989—among them, "Best Graphics & Sound", "Best Play Control", and "Best Overall"—but the game did not win the top award in any of these categories. Nintendo Power published a partial walkthrough
Strategy guide
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in...
for the game in the following November 1989 issue.
The game received moderate praise in some German gaming magazines after its European release. In Video Games magazine the reviewer praised the game as being a good action-adventure game in the same style of The Legend of Zelda; he notes that the need to find hidden items and areas and the top-down perspective closely resemble the Nintendo classic. He appreciated the variety and extras in the game, the various strategies needed to fight bosses, its difficulty, and the well-done graphics. The reviewers from Power Play compared The Guardian Legend to The Legend of Zelda and Life Force. They praised the diverse gameplay and weapons, difficulty, and the mixture of action-adventure and shoot 'em up elements. They criticized the game for lacking battery-backed RAM to save player progress—one of the reviewers said that "the wretched fumbling with the password had long ended"—as well as its lack of challenging puzzles and a high difficulty level in some of the shoot 'em up sections.
Legacy
The game continued to receive praise from major game reviewers over a decade since its release. Lucas Thomas of the Evansville Courier & PressEvansville Courier & Press
The Evansville Courier & Press is a local newspaper in Evansville, Indiana. The Evansville Courier & Press serves 58,098 daily and 86,201 Sunday readers in 30 counties in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. In 2002 and 2004, the newspaper was named the state's "Blue Ribbon Daily" by the Hoosier State...
favorably compared The Guardian Legend with the NES title The Legend of Zelda and the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
title Sigma Star Saga
Sigma Star Saga
Sigma Star Saga is a hybrid science fiction role-playing game -space-shooter for the Game Boy Advance. The player explores a standard 2-D overworld but is transported into space for side-scrolling shooter random battles...
; he emphasized Compile's successful fusion of the action-adventure, shoot 'em up and action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
genres. Later, in a 2008 IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
article, Thomas listed the game at #2 on his "Top 10 Unreleased NES Hits" list and contended that The Guardian Legend took the concept of the multiple-genre game to a farther extent than Blaster Master. In October 2009, IGN ranked The Guardian Legend as #87 on its "Top 100 NES Games of All Time" list and deemed it "one of the most influential games in the history of the gaming industry". In March 2008, Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
editors referred to the game as "the ultimate genre bender" and likened it to a combination of the NES games The Legend of Zelda, Metroid
Metroid
is an action-adventure video game, and the first entry in the Metroid series. It was co-developed by Nintendo's Research and Development 1 division and Intelligent Systems, and was released in Japan in August 1986, in North America in August 1987, and in Europe in January 1988...
, and 1942. While they acclaimed the game for its "exciting and challenging" shooter stages, they criticized it for its complex world map and "outrageous" password system. In a Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
interview, Retro Game Challenge
Retro Game Challenge
Retro Game Challenge, known in Japan as , is a Nintendo DS game developed by indieszero and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is based on the television series Retro Game Master . Shinya Arino himself gave much input into the game creation process...
designer Mike Engler said that "The Guardian Legend is one of the best games ever released".
The graphics and sound of The Guardian Legend have been influential. Robert Dewar and Matthew Smosna of the open computing
Open system (computing)
Open systems are computer systems that provide some combination of interoperability, portability, and open software standards. The term was popularized in the early 1980s, mainly to describe systems based on Unix,...
magazine Open Systems Today cited the game as an example of how graphics co-processors
Picture Processing Unit
The PPU , more specifically known as Ricoh RP2C02 / RP2C07 , is the microprocessor in the Nintendo Entertainment System responsible for generating video signals from graphic data stored in memory....
such as those in the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
can compensate for inadequate CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
speed in graphics-intensive computer applications. They noted that the fast-paced action seen in the game could not be replicated on a personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
at that time (1992) without an expensive graphics board
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
and regardless of CPU speed. The music of the game, composed by Miyamoto Shant, has remained popular years after the game's release. Samantha Amjadali of the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
-based newspaper The Herald Sun reported that a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ed tune from the game was rated as the second most popular track on the website OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
in March 2002. Video game cover band The Advantage
The Advantage
The Advantage is an American rock band from Sacramento, California that formed in 1998 and specializes in doing covers of music from old NES games...
's 2006 album Elf Titled
Elf Titled
Elf Titled is the second release by video game cover band, The Advantage. Following the same concept as their first album, the band recorded several tracks based on compositions that were originally written for numerous NES video games.-Track listing:...
featured a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of music from one of the game's dungeon levels.
External links
- Nintendo of Europe—the game's European publisher
- Irem—the game's Japanese publisher
- The Guardian Legend remixes at OverClocked RemixOverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
- The Guardian Legend at RetroJunk