Planet Bob - Playing Pool of Radiance (NES)

RSS Bot · November 21, 2009

Hi there!

The only 'Gold Box' game from SSI that hit the NES:

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/poolofradiance.gif

Well, it got the two horrible Dragonlace action games, also Dragonstrike and Hillsfar, but this is the only full blown AD&D RPG that got converted to the NES. Of course I had to check this version out

It is surprisingly close to the computer versions. The graphics certainly suffered. They're even more iconized here and also lost a lot of color. On the plus side you get background music - that is if you like NES muzak

The whole user interface got streamlined to work on the NES and some areas of the game also got simplified, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think most changes were even for the better, offering some convenience that later entries in 'Gold Box' series would introduce just as well. (The PC version of the game doesn't even support a mouse! )

As you might remember, SSI had three different RPG series running on their turn-based AD&D engine: Savage Frontier, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. Being the first of the later, most of the development energy apparently went into the engine, while the upcoming games had much more story and depth to offer.

Here you really start on level 1 with 8 hitpoints, empty pockets and a lone magic spell in your book

Still, I had an enjoyable first night with the game. I mostly explored 3-4 districts of the city Phlan and upped my 3 starting characters to levels 3-4 with a few early missions you get assigned to from the city council.

Greetings,

Manuel

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