Journey to Silius
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NINTENDO NES
Game Title:Journey to Silius
System:Nintendo NES
Players:1 Player
Genre:Action/Shooter
Developer(s):Tokai Engineering
Release Date(s):1990
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Journey to Silius is a 1990 side-scrolling run and gun game developed by Tokai. Engineering and published by Sunsoft and Mattel for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Journey to Silius was originally based on the 1984 film The Terminator, but the licensing rights to the film were lost during development. As a result, the graphics and storyline were altered to accommodate this change, but remnants of the earlier version still remain in the game. For example, the final boss has a striking resemblance to the terminator in the film. You take control of Jay McCray, as he goes on a mission to defeat the terrorist group responsible for his father's death, it all begins with nice-detailed cut-scenes that tell the story of how terrorists blew up a space colony, killing Jay's father. At first, everyone thought it was an accident, but Jay discovers a floppy disk left behind by his dad. The disk reveals that terrorists had been plotting against the construction of the space colony, so Jay decides to bring the terrorists to justice, and avenge his father's death.
This is a rather decent story-line, but once the opening scene's end, that's the last you hear of it. As Jay sets out on his journey, he fights lots and lots of robot enemies, but he never comes face-to-face with any terrorists. The ending cinema does nothing to wrap up the story. It's apparent that this plot was just tacked on to distinguish this game from its original "Terminator" roots. There are five stages in all, they are: the ruins of a space colony, an underground concourse, the enemy's hideout, a flying spaceship, and a factory. On your journey you must fight your way through, like i said, lots and lots of robotic enemies and security systems in order to reach the end of each stage and fight the stage's boss. The controls follow the standard conventions of other side-scrolling action games for the NES. Your character can lie down, but he can only aim his gun left or right. In addition to the default handgun weapon, you can switch to one of five additional weapons that can be earned throughout the course of the game, the weapons are: a shotgun, a machine gun, a homing-gun, a laser rifle, and a grenade launcher. Each of these special weapons consumes your gun gauge, and once it runs out, you will automatically revert to the default handgun. You can replenish Jay's health and ammo by retrieving energy capsules dropped by defeated enemies. And the Verdict is...
Even though this title started out to be something else, its story is never drawn out, Silius is still enveloped in a futuristic, apocalyptic atmosphere, and it pulls off rather nicely. To sum-up, Journey to Silius is an overall above-average sides-scrolling shooter with some of the best graphics and sound the NES could offer, and a decent challenge level to boot. Good game! |