The Guardian Legend

"The OTHER game where a girl turns into a spaceship"

This review is for a little known about game called "The Guardian Legend". When I picked it up about, what, 15 years ago I had also never heard of it, but the back of the box looked pretty good to me. What a pleasant surprise!

Story: 8/10
Basically, there's a huge star, called "NAJU" that's hurtling on a collision course with the Earth. In order to stop this catastrophe, a solitary warrior moves to intersect this star in an attempt to destroy it. There are also rooms in the game that will advance the story further along, and it's actually pretty decent, especially for an old game like this.

Graphics: 9/10
For a NES game, these graphics are very, very good. The backgrounds are varied (especially in the corridors) and there are seriously a TON of enemies in which to fight. As an added bonus, each exploration area has two of its own mini-bosses, and they look great as well! Each weapon has its own look when fired, and the corridor bosses are gigantic and varied.

Sounds / Music: 9/10
This score is more for the music alone. Each new area you explore has its own background music, and most of it fits really well. Also, one of the baddest music selections ever is in this game in the corridor room! You'll also be assaulted by a bevy of klaxons, lasers, and explosions to keep you glued to the action.

Gameplay: 10/10
One of the reasons why this game gets a perfect score here is because I found it VERY, if not impossible, to get bored with this game. The genius is in the fact that no other game at the time (or maybe even now) plays like it does. You see, you control a girl-robot-ship. "WHAT?" ,you might say? Yep, that's right! There are two very distinct modes of play in the Guardian Legend. The first you'll notice is the shooter, spaceship mode. This begins the game as your ship is flying literally at NAJU's outer defenses at around 500 mph! It's a fast and furious dogfight in these types of areas, where you'll be blasting everything in sight. When you reach the end, you'll have to fight the big boss in order to continue.

After you defeat the boss, you'll enter the exploration mode. This is done as your SPACESHIP TURNS INTO A GIRL! This is correct, but it's awesome just the same! Some have said this exploration part resembles 'the Legend of Zelda', but that's not entirely accurate, or to be honest, FAIR to the Guardian Legend. for starters, it's a lot more zoomed in and fast-moving than LoZ. NAJU's areas are all interconnected and you can backtrack between them at any time, which is essential when you get the area keys.

Your goal in the exploration mode is to, well, explore the current area, fight the two mini-bosses if you should find them, and try to get the keys to other areas. This sounds as well and good, but the keys are protected by big evil boss monsters hidden deep inside NAJU. The only way to reach them is to find the entranceways to their corridors. Most corridors will open when you go into their rooms, but some require a special tactic to open them. Fear not though, because if you look around hard enough, there are rooms with friendly aliens who will give you clues or outright TELL you what you have to do in order to open them.

While exploring, you can also find regular gun strength upgrades (which look like little magnums) and shields to increase your defense from enemies. The only beef I have with this is that you can hold a max of 7 shield upgrades, but I've found more than that and they do nothing for you. Conversely, I've never been able to find more than 4 gun strength upgrades total. It's too bad because they should've taken some of those extra shields and made them guns instead.

One thing remains the same for both modes though. Special Weapons. Oh, I hope you love special weaponry, because this game has it in spades. Basically, all but one of your special weapons can be found or bought and upgraded 3 times. The better the upgrade level, the more powerful the weapon. And sometimes the effects can radically change for the better. Special Weapons are all (except one) powered by chips. Chips are also the currency of NAJU, as you'll find friendly aliens willing to sell you weapon upgrades a lot. Special weapons vary greatly, too. From a dual lightsaber (like Darth Maul from Star Wars), to a grenade launcher, to a slow but hella powerful fireball, to Enemy Erasers that kill everything on the screen, there's never a shortage of interesting ways to destroy the enemy.

When you DO find a corridor and go inside, you are treated to a small transformation cutscene where your girl changes back into a spaceship. From there, it's anything goes because the corridors can be downright hellish to navigate without getting destroyed in the process. Your ship will travel at preset speeds, depending on the corridor and completely out of your control. Some, like the first few inside NAJU, are slowish and give you the right time to get used to the controls and such. Others, take you through hundreds of enemies at breakneck speeds! And then your reward for making it through? A warning klaxon and a battle with the corridor's big boss.

I'll be honest here, there are some big bosses that took me a few times to defeat, even with my girl powered up. One especially (I call him the spaghetti man LOL) shoots these long strands of spaghetti beams that stay on the screen and SLOWLY move off the screen behind you. This now creates a ton of lethal obstacles that you have to dodge, as well as avoid the boss's many bullets too! There's one boss, however, that's really not that hard although he looks cool. It's a spaceship that disappears and when it shows itself, it fires about 40 heat-seeking missiles at you. But unlike the lethal spaghetti, these missiles are easily destroyed by your regular gun and don't do much damage.

The game's end boss is actually fought AFTER you destroy the star, which was probably a first in video gaming. As soon as you think you've won, you've only just begun- and the endgame boss is VERY tough to defeat, even at full power and level 3 weapons at the ready. If you can defeat him, you win! Hooray!

Controls: 10/10
The Guardian Legend's controls are very responsive and tight in both exploration and spaceship modes. This is very important because if done incorrectly, some of the fast corridors would be near impossible to accomplish.

Challenge: 8/10
The real challenge of this game lies in the fast corridors and the powerful corridor bosses. Actually, if you're not prepared you can get your clock cleaned by some of the exploration area's mini-bosses too! But basically, if you find or buy most of the special weapons, you should be fine. Although, it may take you a few tries to finish some of the areas or corridor bosses. (Especially YOU, Mr. Spaghetti Man!)

PROS:
+Great Graphics and Sound
+An interesting and ORIGINAL game that employs two completely different modes effectively
+A ton of varied special weapons to collect
+Friendly aliens sell you items in shops you find
+Backtracking is possible so you can go back to an old area to search for new
items when you get new keys.

CONS:
-Slight slowdown when 50+ enemies are on the screen.
-Don't the friendly aliens realize that by helping the girl, they only speed their own destruction? LOL, better spend those chips fast, E.T!

OVERALL: 9/10
The Guardian Legend is fantastic, original, and most of all FUN! You can get it for less than $3 at most gamestops, so go get it and give it a try!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/05