Solstice

"You are smack-dab in the middle of a huge castle with 300+ rooms, including courtyards and catacombs. Explore."

Solstice is my absolute favorite NES game, topping even classics like Mario and Zelda. I still occasionally work my way through it, and thoroughly enjoy it every time I do. In the grand scheme of NES gaming, it may be the little guy... but it's a pretty addictive little guy.

Imagine being plopped smack-dab in the middle of a room. There are 3 exits: one to the west, one to the south, and one at the top of a staircase to the north. All you know is that you're smack-dab in the middle of the evil wizard Morbius's castle, which is presumably full of things that go bump in the night. Your goal is to explore THE ENTIRE CASTLE, looking for the seven pieces of the sacred Staff of Demnos (which could, of course, be ANYWHERE), then to seek out Morbius himself. And you're just a simple wizard, not trained in any deadly arts. All you have to protect yourself with are four magic potions, each of which is only half-full.

Begin.

The task is daunting, but if you're a fan of games like Metroid, Super Metroid, or CastleVania: Symphony of the Night, you've seen this sort of thing before, and you thrive in these kinds of environs. Solstice is a game of sheer exploration. And unlike its vastly more popular kin, Solstice is 100% 3D. ''But Wyrdwad,'' you say, ''how can a NES game be 3D? Wouldn't that look godawful?'' NO, I answer! For the good people at CSG Imagesoft were very smart, and decided upon a form of 3D the NES hardware could handle flawlessly: isometric.

Solstice's many rooms are drawn entirely from an angle -- kinda like looking out diagonally from the ceiling of the southeast corner of each room. The result actually looks pretty dang good, and the room layouts are generally kind enough to NOT take advantage of the potential blind-spot flaws inherent in isometric-view games (unlike Solstice's SNES sequel ''Equinox'', which seems to derive great joy from messing with you in this way). And while it's true that the objects in these isometric rooms tend to be kept rather simple, there is still a rather surprising level of detail in this game, with all sorts of objects represented, including statues, blocks, clear blocks, stones, spikes, BIG spikes, spikey balls, bombs, detonators, orbs, trees, conveyor belts, teleportation devices, and more. Plus, there are a pretty wide variety of walls and floors used for the game's multiple surroundings, making it perfectly clear when you're outside in the castle's courtyard, or in the rocky catacombs, or moving your way along the main thoroughfare. In general, given the fact that this is a true 3D game on the NES, these graphics are actually QUITE fantastic, and really get the job done well. The only things that could've made them better would be if the conveyor belts were actually visibly moving, or if your hero, named Shadax, actually had a shadow.

Like its more lauded brethren, Solstice isn't just about exploration, but very distinctly about exploring ONE LOCALE. This is likely part of the reason the game is so successful at what it attempts to do. The entire game takes place in and around one castle, and every part of this castle fits together with every other part in true 3D, so accurate that you could potentially sculpt a scale model of the Solstice castle if you were so inclined. It's a very ingeniously designed place, too, with multiple towers, a ''guest house'' of sorts, and a courtyard full of pits that lead into the castle's vast underbelly, which serves the purpose of all catacombs worth their salt: to connect ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING through semi-secret passages. Excepting for the castle's general architecture being designed around Solstice's typically inexplicable game elements, this could perhaps have been the single most well-crafted castle ever featured in a video game until ICO (though Solstice is still a MUCH better game than ICO).

The game elements in Solstice, while still remnants of an era when players were merely expected to accept the laws of their game worlds without question, successfully combine to make Solstice both challenging and intriguing. The game expertly weaves puzzles around thorough exploration, effective potion usage, block handling, intense tests of dexterity and timing, and even effective planning of when to pick up ''continue'' credits. The result of all of this is that same sense of excitement and discovery that haunted you around every turn in Super Metroid -- but from a game that was published five years beforehand!

Blocks play perhaps the most important role in Solstice's gameplay. You'll quickly learn which types of blocks can be picked up or moved, and which cannot. You'll also quickly learn how to pull off some rather daring moves, like dropping a block underneath you, then jumping off of it and quickly grabbing it again for a much-needed mid-air boost. Combine these blocks with things like moving platforms, high ledges, conveyor belts, or even enemies' heads (to generate your OWN moving platforms, of sorts), and you've got yourself some truly innovative and challenging puzzles -- and as we all know, innovative and challenging block puzzles are somewhat of a rarity in the gaming world.

And as mentioned above, your only offense and defense in this game comes from potions. Shadax's four potions give him the powers to make himself invincibile, freeze time, reveal all hidden blocks, or instantly obliterate anything that moves. The game does a very effective job of utilizing the first three of these potions to their fullest, reserving the fourth (the purple potion) for times when you just don't feel like dealing with enemies anymore. Since these are potions, though, you obviously don't get an UNLIMITED amount to use. Each bottle holds four ''doses'' of potion, and when you begin the game, your bottles are only half-full. During the course of the game, there will be plenty of refills -- but don't go squandering them, or you'll lose a great many lives quite needlessly! The only way to replenish potions once you've collected all the refills is to lose all of your lives and restart at a continue credit!

Which brings me to my next point. There are no saves in Solstice, but there ARE continues. They aren't unlimited, however, and you have to FIND them before they take effect. And once you pick up a continue credit, your game is basically ''preserved'' as-is. If you lose all of your lives, you will be returned to the last credit you picked up, with full potions, but with only three lives. Should you lose all your lives again before finding the NEXT credit, you'll be returned to the credit you picked up PRIOR to that one, and so on and so forth. As such, judging when to pick up credits becomes something of a strategy in and of itself. Should you wait until AFTER you get that difficult-to-reach staff piece, so that even if you die, that one event is preserved? Or should you grab the credit before attempting a rescue of it, for fear that you might die in the process? There are even some situations in which catching a falling continue credit on your head and positioning it properly in the room can allow you to use it as a stepping stone to reach a high platform or secret area!

The beautiful gameplay of Solstice is perfectly augmented by its haunting atmosphere. Shadax himself is quite the looker (by NES standards), and his deaths consist of full-body disintegrations (except for the hat) accompanied by an ear-piercing scream. The enemies who troll around the premises sometimes seem to pay you very little heed, going about their business as if they can't even see you -- but you, most assuredly, can see THEM, and they're quite grotesque! Everything from zombies to ''eyeball ghosts'' to slimy worms to skeletons to some truly bizarre foot-shaped creatures are covered, and the slightest touch from any of them will reduce you to a pile of ash with a hat on top.

The music, too, is a major factor in Solstice's atmosphere, and may be among the best the NES has to offer. Composed by the pseudo-legendary Tim Follin, Solstice's title theme grabs you, the in-game theme drives you forward, and the ending theme ties it all together. Of particular note is the in-game theme, as Solstice may be the ONLY game I've ever played that can get away with having ONE SONG continuously looped in the background during gameplay. This is, of course, because that one song is both lengthy and exceptional, and many of the instruments used in it actually sound REAL -- a true NES rarity.

The colors, the environs, the sounds, the creatures -- it all adds together to give this game an eerie feel that truly makes exploring its massive castle an absolute pleasure. If you're a fan of games which focus on exploration -- particularly ones that stick you in the dead center of ONE SINGLE LOCALE and give you free reign, such as the Metroid games or the newest wave of CastleVania games -- then you may find Solstice to be a truly worthwhile gaming experience, and a great reason to dig that old NES of yours out of the closet.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/25/02, Updated 11/25/02