Mischief! Mayhem! And puppets? You bet!
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: SunSoft
DEVELOPER: SunSoft
GENRE: Action
RELEASE DATE: October 1990
I really hated this game as a kid, but I’m not sure what I was expecting. Granted, “Gremlins 2” was one of my favorite childhood movies, so my incredibly high expectations couldn’t be met. Or I was just really bad at the game. Yeah, probably the latter. Sunsoft has crafted a straightforward, but challenging overhead platformer where you play as Gizmo and work to stop the Gremlins from taking over the city. Gizmo may be a cute little dickens, but he’s also lethal. You start off hucking tomatoes, but you can get weapons upgrades like flaming arrows that allow you to take out the new batch and beyond. You only get one life and three hearts to start, but if you search around, you can find that kindly, creepy Chinese guy and buy additional hearts and lives from him. You do get continues and there is a password system, so despite the difficulty, the game is playable and beatable. It also, more or less, follows the plot of the movie, albeit in a shortened version. Cinematic cutscenes really make you empathize with Gizmo, if only because of his heartbreaking sad faces he gives the camera. Special props go to Sunsoft for the top-notch eight-way controls. Shooting may not be as smooth with the D-pad as with other eight-way directional games like Contra, but I still managed to hit my targets more often than not. Here’s one licensed game for the NES that doesn’t reek of horse manure. That still doesn’t mean you should play it after midnight, though. That’s asking for it.
B+
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3 replies on “#270 – Gremlins 2: The New Batch”
I hated this game as a kid, too. I remember being frustrated because it was difficult and confusing. I also wanted to play as one of the “cool” gremlins. You know, the demonic looking ones.
Are you guys crazy?? This game was classic! Think about all the impossibly difficult badly programmed games that were on nintendo , not to mention the crappy graphics and bad story lines . This game had it all, fun , good graphics , good story lines , good programming and it was just simply one of the only movie games that somewhat stuck to the story. Oh and i forgot to mention the kick ass weaponry. 9/10
This is one of my favorite NES games. It controls so well, its music is SO fucking good, and the animation is superb. Truly an underrated gem.