Solomon's Key

"Remember the days of great gameplay?"

Solomon's Key is an old Nintendo puzzle game that is surprisingly challenging......and fun.....

Graphics 7/10....
Graphics are finely aged and are top notch for the NES, the Main character and enemies are distinct..and there is really no problems getting from place to place....Nicely done from the NES.....

Sound 9/10...
The Music really fits the game and never gets repetitive....This is really hard to do on the Old NES...there are also plenty of neat sound effects

Control 8/10...
The control takes a little getting used to (mainly because the A button isnt used to jump and the B button is not used much except to use fireballs) but it works pretty good.....

Ok now that I got those 3 out of the way......

In Solomons Key there are 50 stages to defeat and you do the same thing in all of them.....get they key which opens the door and then make your way to the exit....Sounds easy? Well it isnt... The Main Character Dana?(yes its a guy...probably a bad translation), using his wand must Build blocks to jump on top of or break blocks to clear a path in order to make his way to the key..and the exit.. While Doing this Dana must try to avoid enemies and trap them using the Blocks he builds....Along the way Dana can acquire power ups, Fireballs,scrolls(lets you hold more fireballs) and tons and tons of other hidden goodies that I have not yet begun to find all of them. For an NES game this game is surprisingly deep. It takes lots of thought and quick timing to clear all 50 puzzles....all this while being under a time limit.....

Secrets and other stuff...
As I said there are a ton of secrets in this game....They range from astrolgy symbols hidden such as Cancer, Gemini etc...(Uncovered by making a brick then destroying it) to an appearance by MIGHTY BOMB JACK! finding the astrology symbols give you access to special hidden stages where you can find tons and tons of more goodies....

Replay Value.....
if you are good enough to win the first time (This game is VERY TOUGH) there is tons of replayability just to find all the secrets...I have heard there are 2 endings to this game....I have only encountered one of them.. I heard you have to find all 13 constellation symbols..which I STILL have yet to find....

Overall, Have fun with this game, it wil twist your brain for hours and hours, go to funcoland or ebay for a copy, Im sure you can find it cheap

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99