Deadpool (NES Review)

Deadpool
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Released in 2019
Unauthorized ROM Hack of Ninja Gaiden
Developed by Techmoon
Link to patch at RomHacking.net
I use THIS tool to apply patches.

This isn’t just a graphics hack, Jack.

Deadpool is a ROM hack of Ninja Gaiden, but don’t mistake this as simply a repaint. It’s actually kind of insane how much work went into this. Like the best ROM hacks, it treats the base game like a tool kit to create something more evolved. Now, don’t get me wrong: Deadpool still fundamentally feels like Ninja Gaiden. It doesn’t quite cross the threshold where it feels like something entirely new. Instead, it’s more like a sequel that adds new abilities, along with new headaches related to them. The biggest change is that you can climb any wall instead of being stuck in place like the game is sponsored by Gorilla Glue. You can also pull yourself up onto the platform you’re hanging on, and there’s a lot more surfaces that the wall cling works on. It opens up what I feel is an overly strict and not very fun engine. It sounds great, and in many ways it is. But, like so many wonderful ROM hacks, the changes create several new problems. For example, imagine there’s an enemy you want to jump and kill directly above you on a higher platform, like so:

Notice how I’m climbing and the thing I’m slashing at isn’t, you know, dead? Well, that’s because the binding mechanic is now TOO sensitive and you stick to everything, even if there’s no logical reason why you’d want to. So, half the time you want to kill something above you, you end up stuck on the wall just below it and taking damage from it. As far as problems with game mechanics go, few are as destructive and immersion-breaking as this. Just the act of jumping up onto a high ledge now sucks because you might stick to the top of it and have to pull yourself up. When platforms are clustered together, a screen that you should be hopping around and finishing in a second or two might take five or ten seconds just from the stop-and-go wall-clinging, and that’s before you factor in enemies getting free shots when the sticking happens. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the one thing that could have been added that would have balanced this issue, the ability to attack while holding onto a wall, still isn’t an option. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel Deadpool would be able to hold onto a wall with one hand and attack with the other, and it sucks that you can’t.

Hey look! It’s Batman! Yep, he’s a basic enemy. So is the Flash. Even Wolverine is a basic character, and actually he’s the weakest so at least there’s a meta-gag there. But then Mario and Mega Man and various other gaming icons can be seen in backgrounds or posters or sometimes as enemies and instead of immersing me, it completely takes me out of the experience. When people do projects like this, whether it be a ROM hack or a game built from scratch, my favorite ones are always the ones that try to be “legit.” As in you could believe this is the type of game that would have been released during whatever era, looking and playing exactly like this. When a game does this well enough, it works as genuine wish-fulfillment because it’s a realistic wish. Look at the recent NES Garbage Pail Kids, which felt authentic for its time period. The developers of Deadpool were clearly talented enough to attempt this, and I hate that they didn’t because I never really got immersed. Every single aspect is dulled somewhat because it’s just so lame to have these random IPs show up in arbitrary locations with nothing clever about them, like any other dime-a-dozen ROM hack.

While I think the collision might have been tightened-up over Ninja Gaiden (which has REALLY piss poor collision detection), Deadpool’s collision boxes are still annoying enough to frustrate, and the knock-back when you take damage is still the primary source of Deadpool’s player body count. A few other aspects that I strongly dislike about Ninja Gaiden carry over. The basic attack is never quite as satisfying as you’d hope it would be, nor is it as reliable as it should be. It’s just not a very fun sword to use, is it? Well, it’s basically identical in Deadpool, except in those (far too rare) moments where you get a sword upgrade. Also, while the levels are laid out differently, basic enemies and bosses really do feel like they’re re-sprites of Ninja Gaiden’s, and if they behave differently, it’s subtle. Sometimes a ROM hack is so good you forget that it is a ROM hack. Deadpool doesn’t come remotely close to that. It’s a ROM hack of Ninja Gaiden. It plays like it. It feels like it. So, the real question is does Deadpool do enough to stand tall on its own?

If you find an icon with a sword, you get this gigantic Strider-like slash for the rest of the stage you’re on. It was the most fun and most enjoyable part of the entire game. Except for the fact that the game was too stingy with drops for it. In my first playthrough, I didn’t get one until very, very late in the game. As far as I could tell, only enemies drop the giant slash, and even though I’m pretty sure I killed every enemy I could reach, I just never got it enough. In my third playthrough, this time on the game’s easy difficulty, I still didn’t get one until the third stage and only got three overall. What should have been Deadpool’s defining gameplay mechanic instead barely ends up a net gain because the game is so miserly about dispensing it. Maybe the developers thought it would have made the game too easy. WHO GIVES A SH*T? It’s more fun! It certainly doesn’t trivialize the combat or the overall challenge, especially compared to the sub-weapons, which absolutely DO trivialize the combat and the overall challenge.

Deadpool is a character that regenerates from damage, and that factors into the NES game. A constant ten second countdown starts and restarts that’s unaffected by the gameplay. Whenever the countdown restarts, you gain some health back if you’ve taken damage. That seems awesome, but when Deadpool starts leaning more into swarming enemies late in the game, if you play the game like a complete coward (cough) it can lead to a lot of waiting around to heal. Whatever. It’s Deadpool, and Deadpool heals so I’ll call it a plus. Also, I found the level design in general is just better. Now granted, it was inevitable the stages would feel more open and free-flowing thanks to the additions to the wall clinging. But, for what it’s worth, I think the stages are just more exciting and better done, and the themes to those stages are certainly more interesting. Hell, Deadpool even pulls-off a pretty damn good slippy-slidey ice level. That’s hard to do, so kudos. There’s even some fun set-piece facades, like a Total Recall-like x-ray section where you see your skeleton. But, by far the best new elements are the items.

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The cheap shots of Ninja Gaiden are largely here, but because of the thrilling new sub-weapon design, they’re only a problem if you play too conservatively. In Deadpool, ammo is more plentiful than Ninja Gaiden, item costs are more intelligently balanced, AND you can swap between different items by pressing SELECT, which opens up the game tremendously. Plus, they’re a lot more fun this time around. The spinning whirly blade attack and a basic throwing-star like attack (replaced with a gun, of course) return from Ninja Gaiden, but they’re joined by a fourth-wall breaking teleporting move where you hit whatever is furthest away from you that’s effective and awesome. Finding an Uzi icon gives you a gun separate from all-other sub-weapons that gives you 30 bullets at no cost to your standard ammo. The catch is that if you scroll through your other items before the Uzi runs out of ammo, you lose it prematurely. So fun to use and I only wish that I’d found more of them.

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And then there’s the food. On its own, it does nothing, but if you eat enough food items, you begin to blink. When this happens, you start to flash, indicating that you can activate a screen-clearing bomb at any time. Works great, except it obviously doesn’t one-shot bosses. The game even wisely created events that might require a bomb. There’s blinking enemies that are impervious to your attacks and sub-weapons. The only way to kill them is to bomb them, and I was INCREDIBLY impressed by how well paced-out these types of enemies are and the pitch-perfect timing of when to insert one into a level. Weirdly, sometimes Deadpool feels unpolished and inelegant, what with all the unintentional wall-sticking, and at other times, Deadpool feels like a more professionally fine-tuned game than its base game. Hell, it even has adjustable difficulty with no gating, making this accessible to those who would avoid Ninja Gaiden due to the brutal challenge. Even if the game is too intense despite the more powerful sub-weapons (over-powered, frankly), you do have the option to tone it down. Very cool.

Free lives are plentiful, no matter the difficulty.

I’m frustrated by Deadpool because I can’t really say it’s amazing, and I should be able to. I never got bored, even if having Batman show up had me rolling my eyes. It’s that damn wall cling that I can’t ignore. I also can’t think of how it could be better on a two button controller. Maybe holding the button if you want to stick? It’d take getting used to, but, I dunno. Maybe it would work, or maybe it’d be unwieldy. But, for all the problems, fun is fun, and I had a lot of fun playing Deadpool. I didn’t have any fun with Ninja Gaiden, so that’s saying a lot. I usually beat these shorter retro games twice for a review. I beat Deadpool three times. Of course, I got eight total sword upgrades in that three game span, which sucks because it’s the best part of the game. Makes the combat feel different and better than Ninja Gaiden. Without it, and I was mostly without it, this is just a more flexible Ninja Gaiden with Deadpool sprites. And Batman. And Wolverine. And the ghost monsters. And Space Invaders. And the Flash. And..
Verdict: YES!