User Review Retro Updated

Low G Man (Retro)
User Review

Name: Low G Man
Item: Low G Man
Rating: 7
Author: Sonic Angel Knight

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): September 1, 1990
Release Date (EU): February 3, 1991
Publisher: Taxan
Developer: KID (Kindle Imagine Design)
Genres: Action Platformer

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Review Approach:

Low G Man also known as "The Low Gravity Man" (by subtitle on the game) is a science fiction action platformer game developed by KID (Kindle Imagine Design) and published by Taxan in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment system. The game features the main protagonist as the hero sent to a robot manufacturing planet to eradicate the enemy threat of aliens. The main selling point of the game is the character's ability to jump higher than normal dubbing him the nick name "Low G Man"

Who is the best jumper in video games, LOW G MAN! Enough Said!

Welcome to what might be the craziest game you ever thought to play. You might think "how can this be crazy?" Well... Three words, Low Gravity Man! Does it sound crazy to you yet? Well if the name didn't get your attention yet maybe this review will. This game is a early example of people trying to make games for the NES as popular as Super Mario Bros. by trying to do something unique and different with the same genre that game was. If you thought Mario was a good jumper, then you haven't seen this guy jump yet!

Graphics

Now this game has some impressive graphics, not because of some quality animation but because of some detailed imagery. If I was to continue further on that statement, it wouldn't be good. This game has some very choppy framerates that makes the game look like a glitchy mess, just like Ghost N' Goblins does. Stiff character animation and all, what a mess. But the detail in the stages and background looks great. So much colors and shading, even during some of the cut scenes. Each stage in the game has unique looking places, from a city ruins, to polar ice caps, to cave mines and a tower. The enemies are a mix of robots and aliens, this game is science fiction after all. Compared to games like Metroid, or even... Street Fighter 2010 or Alien 3, nice job! I wish I can say more but... that's it.

Presentation

Try not to laugh at this (cause I did) but the presentation is.... okay I'm laughing and I haven't even gotten to the good part yet. Maybe I'll explain the story, no wait... I don't have to, it can be summed up in five screenshots! You thought it was a joke right? That's the story. If you want a joke, I can make fun of how visually unappealing the box art of the game is. "Oh my god, it's a yellow box with a pair of legs cut off at the top, but that letter G sure does look like a piece of art!" The pictures sure are good looking, as I already said when I mentioned the graphics, but this is all you get to see from this presentation. Except from some scenes of the background of each stage you visit that is shown in between levels. This game doesn't even have credits, did no one want to be recognized for this game? Oh well... moving on.

Sound

Well the best thing about this game may be the catchy music. It's upbeat and very situational. There isn't that many songs in the game but it's not bad either. Hearing it for yourself is probably best. It's interesting since I don't believe it fits for the sci-fi future theme or the type of environment the game has, but it worked some how. I'm totally neutral about this, I like it. But the sound effects might be a bit annoying, you won't notice at first but some of them is used too often which may or may not irritate you. If I was to be honest, this is probably the highest point of the game.

Gameplay

So we come down to this, okay let's just remember what this game is about. Low G Man, The Low Gravity Man as it reminds you on the box and title screen, almost as if they don't want you to forget this is a platforming game. It's a 2D side scrolling where you jump, shoot, and stab your way to victory as you defeat the alien and robot menace! You have a standard gun that doesn't damage enemies, instead it freezes them temporarily with enough shots, then you get above or below and stab them with your spear. This is one of those games that couldn't follow the industry standard and have you do oddball things to damage your enemies making the game "unique" yes but I prefer to call it complicating things making it more challenging. Is it challenging enough you have five chapters and each one is divided into "scenes" that can go up to five of them?

There some power ups you can get that gives you new weapons like a fireball, boomerang, wave shot and bombs that do more damage but limited by how many you picked up. Other power ups include increasing your low gravity jumps to go as high as 3 screens worth of height, making you shoot more bullets for each weapon and even recovering life you lost, but be careful you can also get poison and lose life. Other such power ups which make the game more fun are these vehicles you can ride like a bipedal bot with a machine gun, a hover craft to fly and shoot bombs, and a spider walker that jumps even higher than him. You gonna need them all if you wanna beat this game.

Difficulty

This is probably the part that makes most people not want to play this game. Honestly the game is challenging. Yeah I know, there is challenging games on NES already, Ninja Gaiden & Street Fighter 2010 come to mind, even Ghost N' Goblins and many more that may keep us here longer than we need to be. There is just two things that make this game different than those. The first thing is the bad choppy framerate and glitchy mess that Ghost N' Goblins has but the other two mentioned doesn't, and the second is this game actually has passwords! So one good thing and one bad.

It has everything you expect from a arcade game, plenty of cheap enemies and ways to die, annoying difficulty spikes and a timer. Seriously, why do home console games have timers? If the game was a arcade port or had two player taking turns, I would understand, but a game made for console, why!? You have some of the easiest stages ever and some of the hardest, some easy bosses and some hard. The only problem with the game is how inconsistent it is with the difficulty. Hard stages have easy bosses, and vice versa, some boss setups are deliberate to be cheap killing, not to mention every stage has a boss, some take too many hits and then the there is the last stage boss... what the heck is that! A kid playing this is either gonna be sick or have nightmares!

Just to be clear, this game has unlimited continues and passwords unlike most games like this. You aren't forced to start all over every time you want to play later and it's only five chapters long, good job! So you actually have a chance huh? Yes I did it, beat the boss, and save the world, end of the game... wait... second quest!? You heard me, the game or should I say programmers wasn't satisfied with you beating it one time, you have to do it again on a much harder difficulty. Sound familiar right? Ghost N' Goblins. Man I hate this prank, another thing done for arcade games that is put into a game that was EXCLUSIVE to a home console, as if that wasn't enough, let's see what happens after you beat the "second quest".... Uh oh, a third one!? Two times just wasn't enough, got to do it three times! Least they was generous enough to give you a password for each quest. Can you beat all three quest and by that I mean "Do you have the patience to play this game three times in a row?"

Verdict

I think I covered all I need to about the game, this is a game I distinctively remember playing a long time ago. All the appeal of "The Low Gravity Man" being a platforming game like Super Mario Bros. but not realizing the challenge of those more well known games you see on many top 10 list. If you wondering why this game isn't on most of them, probably cause this was a overlooked game (Box art may have something to do with it, or it's advertising) despite being made by Japanese developers, it was never sold in Japan. It's indeed a unique game worth trying, and worth a rental at least back in the day.

FUN FACT! Did you know Ken Lobb worked on this game? You might hear his name a lot cause he worked at Nintendo for a while during the 1990 decade before working for Microsoft in 2000 till this present day. Mostly well known for co-producing Killer Instinct and voicing characters, he actually worked at Taxan USA video game division before working for Nintendo and receiving "Special Thanks" in many of the game's credits for what... I don't know. Well time to do my part. "Thank you Ken Lobb"... for whatever you done... making this game... and the other games. (Seriously thanks for Killer instinct)

Verdict

What I Liked ...

Nice graphics
Good music
PASSWORDS
Unique and interesting gameplay

What I Didn't Like ...

Choppy framerates
Irregular difficulty spikes
Arcade style challenge
"The obligatory video game ending prank"

Gameplay

The only problem with the game is the bad framerate but the concept is there, some interesting stuff even if the game is hard and wants you to beat it over and over again before it stop teasing you about it. Unlimited continues and even password puts the gameplay above the other challenging games even with some unfair difficulty spikes.

Presentation

Oh gosh, don't make me do this... I'm laughing again! Okay seriously, this is funny. How could you tell the whole story in just five screenshots! What is the guy's name, who are the bad guys, not "They came, we'll send in Low G Man" Come on! I get it, you got some fancy looking pictures for the scenes and graphics for stages but you could have seriously done better!

Lasting Appeal

It's hard to rate the appeal of this game. I played it and I can still look back at it for some things that made it unique, but it's probably a game not many people even know about, being the companies behind it a mystery, not existing anymore or lack of anything memorable... like the plot. Still I'll look back at it as a under achiever for the NES, asking anyone about it and probably getting a "Never played it" response.

out of 10

Overall

It's not a bad game. Somethings could be done a lot better, mostly in the presentation and programming department and balance difficulty. I would have wanted a sequel of the game. My only hope is someone tries to do a faithful representation of it for others to play. This is something you should try at least once, just once is enough, not three times, no need to keep it. Play it and be done with it. Living as a memory until the day you die.

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