I know what you’re thinking. “Where’s the Friday Old Games review for this week?” Well, gentle reader, I’ll tell you. In an attempt to promote the new jetpack-infused third-person-shooter, Dark Void, Capcom forged an imaginary story of an abandoned NES game named Dark Rift. The game has now been “revived” and released as Dark Void Zero. While it’s not really an “old game”, let’s just pretend the story is true.

Dark Void Zero, as the title suggests, takes place before its HD counterpart. You control Rusty, the first human born in “the void”. With the help and guidance of Nikola Tesla, you must find and destroy Portal X; the only stable portal leading the evil aliens known as “The Watchers” to Earth. The story is told in a combination of 8bit still frames before each level as well as occasional in-game dialogue boxes from Tesla.

The graphics and audio are all made to feel like an NES game and work quite well. The music especially is a high point. The songs take themes present in Dark Void and rearrange them into something that sounds like it came straight out of a Mega Man game.

While this 2D platformer only has three levels, each one is quite large and open. Rather than putting you at one end and telling you to get to the other, the levels generally spawn you somewhere in the middle and contain many paths. Certain paths will be blocked off by locked doors. You’ll need to search for keycards to progress to the next area.

One of the games most interesting features is the jetpack. You will not start with it, but can pick it up in certain areas. Once you have it, you will keep it unless you pass through a field that destroys it. There are quite a few areas where you must pass through such a field. This allows the game to force traditional platforming sections on you occasionally.

The jetpack can be used in two different ways. By holding down the jump button, you can rocket upward very fast. For a more controlled approach, you can put it into hover mode by double tapping the jump button. This will allow you to move in all directions with the d-pad or hover in place. Caution is key, though, as controlling in hover mode can be a bit floaty.

The game features a variety of weapons and powerups. You’ll start with a machine gun, but as you progress you will find slower, explosive weapons, a laser, and more (though you can only carry one at a time). One of these weapons actually doubles as a tool for destroying certain walls, granting you access to new areas. Some of these areas are mandatory while others are filled with items to increase your score. With the exception of some of the later weapons, I preferred the default machine gun for its range and rate of fire.

There are a few powerups you can get that will double your firing speed, spread your attacks in three directions, or surround you in a shield, but these are only temporary and will wear off with time. Each level also contains a number of optional items to collect to increase your score. The first level for example, has several journals scattered throughout it. But unlike Dark Void, Zero‘s journals can’t be read once obtained.

What I found most annoying about Dark Void Zero is that Rusty aims down while ducking. Because of this, you have to stand back up to fire horizontally. This results in some trickier dodging as you pop up in between enemy bullets to get a shot in. Perhaps I wouldn’t have minded this if other NES titles like Contra hadn’t already trained me otherwise.

Quite possibly the biggest disappointment though is that the boss at the end of each stage is the same save for an additional feature. You will fight a Dr. Wily-esque pod with a watcher inside. The whole battle will be played in hover mode as you avoid bullets and wait for it to reveal its weak point for you to shoot. The first time I fought it, I felt it was adequate, but by the second and third time it had become repetitive and I was sad to see the lost opportunity of having three unique bosses. There are slight differences between the encounters, but they are very negligible.

Overall, Dark Void Zero is an enjoyable nod to retro gaming and I feel like I got my five dollars worth. Any higher of a price-point would make it a tough recommendation. Thankfully, the three difficulty modes and high score list will give you a reason to play it more than once. It would have been nice to see a lengthier game, but what’s there is charming and fun.

Tags: 2-D, capcom, Dark Rift, Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, DSi, DSiWare, NES, platformer, PlayChoice 10

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.