Videogame Review, Lode Runner for the Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo Wii U and Wii U Gamepad)
People who love this game are only witnesses when it’s played by others. A lot of guys feel uncomfortable about doing something completely on their own and would prefer it if other guys give them some perspective before it’s experienced; as such, Lode Runner has been a gimmick leftover from the 80’s which speaks for computer games on the digging, the searching, the burying, even if bad guys chasing your poor little guy from the future around look ridiculous. (Kind of like bad guys in “Pink Panther” movies.) The level selection in Lode Runner is inflated because the innovation puts the visual effects on overkill. Each level is filled with a lot of bricks- whatever they are- and ends with little to show for digging: gold. Why does my poor little guy need all this gold? He can’t seem to get a handle on things because these weird-looking guys in astronaut costumes are chasing him all over the place as the location deserves little notice for uncreative design. There’s too many bricks! Often I’ll get stuck somewhere just due to the poor mechanics- I can’t dig under my feet! Lode Runner is very much a gimmick: the colors, the shapes, the designs all represent a technical excuse for challenge as opposed to real, motion-shifting difficulty. My poor little guy is from the future (he wears lightning bolts on his ears) while music pours in with a lot of slight, weak thumps typical to poorly made NES games. Super Mario Bros. on NES is way, WAY better in music. Maybe my mind goes through these shifts of attention when I’m continually gearing towards madness and yet I have to be patient about digging; however, Lode Runner gives us really difficult courses that require certain kinds of digging by surprise and unreliable expectations of the future. Innovation in the program is only pretended; it’s just the same digging move split between B and A. Couldn’t the programmers of Spelunker have done better on the digging moves? Why not just have the down button be placed with a digging button for digging underneath one’s feet? Games are usually designed with barriers against moves we can do so the challenge is set in. Compared to Dig-Dug on the old Atari consoles Lode Runner on the NES manages less effect in the digging aspect not only from the TV screen’s visuals but also from the physics in our hands in direction for the NES-like controls by Nintendo’s original, normal standard and perhaps a joystick is more needed; but, since the direction pad is the original gift presented to replace the “old” joystick I believe my expectations need to be better met just for the original, intended-to-replace-joysticks device.
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