8 Eyes

Note: Because we're regularly getting new games, and because we're doing this in alphabetical order, when we get new games that are 'behind us' in the alphabet, we're going to play them immediately. In alphabetical order.

Developer: Thinking Rabbit
Year: 1989

8 Eyes is a pretty cool game, with some pretty cool ideas going for it, all of which is executed fairly well. Overall, it's a nice package. Here's what makes 8 Eyes cool:

• It has cooperative play, which was pretty much unheard of on the NES -- Xenophobe is the only other game I can think of.
• It has a really weird story, something about post-apocalyptic gemstones.
• The worlds feel different from one another, which is quite an accomplishment -- very high production values.
• It has that unforgiving old-school play -- reminded me of Castlevania, though not quite so polished.
• You have to play the levels in a certain order, but you don't know what that order is -- you start off with the clue that you should go somewhere bordering on France, but there are castles in germany, spain, and italy. Each boss can be beaten by a specific sword from another castle, so you don't even know whether you picked correctly until you're getting your ass handed to you. (This is that unforgiving old-school play I mentioned above).
  

So again, this worked together as a pretty nice package -- you play as either a guy with a sword or this falcon that follows him around. The falcon is a bit tough to control, but I think that's part of what made him a good companion -- it was really totally different from playing the guy (compared to, say, xenophobe or halo where cooperative means just two master chiefs or alien guys).

We tried Germany, Italy, and Spain and didn't beat them, though we did make it to the boss on a couple. Like I said, NES platformers are hard. You forget that playing today, that it was an entirely different kind of difficulty back then. I bet that if you knew what you were doing, you could beat 8 Eyes in about half an hour, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. Mike Montano and I once spent an entire day trying to beat Malth in Ninja Gaiden, and we didn't, and now I forget why I started this sentence and want to play Ninja Gaiden.

Anyhoo, try 8 Eyes. It's quirky, fun, and has co-op, which is cool.

Rating: 8/10 A really nice platformer, with co-op.
Advice: Figure out how to throw things. I'm sure it's in the manual somewhere...
Best Moment: Remembering how gratifying it is to wait for a skeleton to swing 3 times, dart forward and stab him, run away, wait for the skeleton to swing 3 times, dart forward...