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#1
06-30-2010, 10:03 PM
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42 roads to Doomsday! Let's Play Clash at Demonhead
  Welcome to Let's Play Clash at Demonhead. How awesome a game is this? It starts with our heroes having already accomplished some death-defying mission, getting some much-needed R&R on the beach.  But they can barely watch a pair of crabs scuttle offscreen before Billy "Big Bang" Blitz's communicator starts beeping. It would seem that big damn heroes like Bang are always on call. Headquarters apparently has a theory that it was Professor Plum with the Doomsday Bomb on Route 42, and they need Bang to put it to the test. (That will be the last Clue joke, I promise.)  CLASH AT DEMONHEAD! The game that's so awesome you don't Start it--you ATTACK! Clash at Demonhead is enjoying a very mild resurgence in the public eye, thanks to heavy allusions in the cult favorite comic and soon-to-be-blockbuster film Scott Pilgrim. Before that, it languished in obscurity as one of the lesser-known games in the NES library. Vic Tokai wasn't exactly a powerhouse of publishing, and there were so many platform shooters on the system that it took some supreme effort to get yours to be noticed amongst the pack. For whatever reason, though, I played this back when it came out, and it made such an impression that it's always come quickly to mind as one of my favorite NES games whenever anyone asks. That's because Clash at Demonhead has ambition and heart out the wazoo: it's a a proto-Metroidvania open-world platformer with spiffy art design; it has loads of gadgets, weapons, and powers to play around with; and it has some pretty cool cutscenes and plot twists (for its time) sprinkled throughout. But why keep telling you what Clash at Demonhead is all about when I can show you?  Here we are at Route 1. The stages in this game are called Routes, because the game is so nonlinear that you'll probably be passing through each of them several times during the game, trying to figure out where you're headed. Anywhere you want to go to in Clash at Demonhead, you have to travel to on foot, navigating each Route in turn to your destination. (Later, of course, you learn some navigational tricks, but we'll get to that when we get to it.) The very first screen of Clash at Demonhead throws a trio of enemies at you, and it's not kidding around: if you don't destroy that missile nearest you right away, then it'll get close enough to you that the resulting explosion after shooting it will damage you anyway. After the missiles are some less threatening critters that just hop around aimlessly, followed by what look like some red apples with goofy expressions and propellers on their heads. The apple things bounce toward you while also firing intermittent shots, which can be destroyed by your own fire if you have good aim. These are the only three types of cannon fodder you'll see on Route 1, so let's turn our attention for a second to what they'll sometimes drop.  The self-explanatory Heart. Not every hit you take knocks a full notch off Bang's Power meter, but every Heart will replenish a full one. The less self-explanatory Apple. These don't mean much to us now, but their eventual purpose will be to refill 10 of our Force points. Money, obviously. Unlike Samus Aran, most of Bang's power-ups aren't permanent. Instead, if he finds a shop, he can buy several varieties of items, weapons, and special suits. (You can also find gold bars, which confer no immediate gain but can be sold for quite a bit once you get to the store.)  So what exactly can Bang buy? Well, the last thing we'll do before moving on is take a look at Bang's inventory screen. I'll lay it all out for you: Top Row Barrier (GC) - Just like the Gradius barrier, this nullifies all damage from collisions or gunfire until it wears off. Rolling Star (RS) - These act sort of like Quick Man's boomerangs. Fire one, and it'll arc around and back to your gun. Powerball (PB) - The Bubble Lead, basically. Thundershot (BS) - Fires a vertical wave that travels straight forward, eliminating all enemies or bullets in its way. Very powerful, but also usually very expensive. Shop Call - These can be used out in the field to call the shop, so long as you're aboveground. Middle Row Power Boots - Improves Bang's running speed and jumping height. Jet Pak - It's a friggin' jetpack. Very limited fuel. Aqua Lung - Your standard scuba suit that lets you maneuver underwater so long as your air holds out. Supersuit - Like the Aqua Lung, except it lets you swim in lava. Microrecorder - What I'd be using to generate passwords if I weren't using save states to save my game instead. Bottom Row Ultra Food - Eat one can to restore one point of life. Can only hold 3 at a time. Dynapunch - Drink one can to restore some Force points. Below the equippable or consumable items, you can see a slot for "Medal." What are Medals for? Hmm...  While we mull over that mystery, we run afoul of a levitating skeleton wearing red gloves and a cape. We pelt it with shots, but it doesn't go down--clearly, this is a tougher customer than the run-of-the-mill enemies we've been blasting so far. He attacks with swooping dives that catch Bang off-guard and reveal how goofy his "damage" sprite is.  After the skeleton and Bang trade a few hits, Bang calls out to his foe. That's right, boys and girls. It's TALKING TIME. Probably a good thing, too, since the intro to this game pretty much consisted of Bang springing into action without knowing: 1) Where Professor Plum was taken, 2) who kidnapped him in the first place, or 3) what their demands or deadline was. Royal Medallions? Seven Governors? At least we've got something to go on now.  Tom Guycot disappears, leaving a weakened Bang to blast few a through more propeller apples and missiles before reaching the stone head the marks the end of the stage. Touching one of these will bring Bang to the world map. Which brings us to the format of this Let's Play. It's going to be much more in keeping with the spirit of a Let's Play than Maniac Mansion was: I'm going to be at the wheel, naturally, but you guys will be doing all the backseat driving. After every update, you guys will vote on which Route I should tackle next. It doesn't matter if you know the game inside and out or if you've never heard of it before; everyone's vote is equal. I'll amble around exploring stuff until I hit a brick wall, then turn around and let you pick a new path. Each Route is fairly short, and updates will be correspondingly brief, but I'll do my best to keep them frequent to make up for that. To facilitate that, each vote will be first-to-7 or the majority after 24 hours. Again, Rey, I ask that no one spoil the "correct" routes or upcoming challenges so as not to influence the votes.  So let's get this started. Where we goin'? Last edited by Nich : 07-02-2010 at 05:06 PM. 
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#2
06-30-2010, 10:25 PM
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My friends had this cartridge at their house when I was a kid, but even though I found the title intriguing, I never actually asked to play it. What could have been!
I've...still never played it, actually. Maybe this'll spur me to finally patch that hole in my nerd cred. For now, though, Route 2 comes after Route 1. That's just math.
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#3
06-30-2010, 10:31 PM
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A retail NES game that's actually using a VWF font...that's amazing(ly rare).
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#5
06-30-2010, 10:33 PM
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It's the game this subforum was made for.
Route 2 looks like you can continue to a dark and mysterious forest... okay, maybe just a grove. Regardless, it looks like the best place for a terrible night to have a curse, so let's go there.
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#6
06-30-2010, 10:38 PM
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I don't see how it's variable-width, though.
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#7
06-30-2010, 10:51 PM
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Route 4 will lead you to an awesome isoceles triangle, so go there!
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#12
06-30-2010, 11:33 PM
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Aw man, I friggin' love this game, and I'm gonna love this LP. Hell, one of the earliest WarioWare D.I.Y. minigames I made was an alternate take on the scene where Tom Guycot divebombs Bang, constructed with near pixel-perfect accuracy.
Also, an interesting thing I found out when duplicating Tom Guycot's sprite was that he's actually a skeleton wearing a skeleton suit. I also learned that his flying attack's sprite has the top half of his normal sprite just pasted atop a flying body. That makes him all the more awesome. I'm looking forward to this. =D
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#13
06-30-2010, 11:41 PM
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I'm not kidding, I've wanted to play (or otherwise) this game ever since I learned about it in January 1990's Nintendo Power, a month after I first got my NES. It looked so amazing to my impressionable, newbie eyes that had only seen Atari games up to that point. The "Talking Time" references in Talking Time only resurrected that fascination and made it worse. Particularly worse because the possibilities of it ever making it to the Virtual Console are infinitesimal :( Quote:
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(Oh, wait, I just noticed the blown-up cutaway in the sidebar. Route 2 it is, then!)
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#14
06-30-2010, 11:47 PM
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TALKING TIIIIIME!
I'm looking at the map and all I can think is "Konïsberg". Quote:
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#15
07-01-2010, 01:04 AM
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So many in-jokes explained at once!
This was one of the many classic games that weren't originally released in Europe (like Crystalis, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger) so I'm really excited to find out what is the deal!
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#16
07-01-2010, 04:17 AM
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3 and 4 BOTH lead to Triangles; Natures LEAST trustworthy shape.
Go to 2. It's only sensible. And it leads to a lake! You want to visit a lake, don't you?
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#18
07-01-2010, 05:34 AM
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Also, the "pick a route" music is one of the coolest little 10-second ditties ever composed. It's really good thinkin' music. I went ahead and looped it for three minutes, just to be safe.
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#19
07-01-2010, 05:41 AM
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My fondest memories of playing this game revolve around using a Game Genie to give myself infinite energy... and then getting hopelessly stuck because the Demon couldn't kill me.
That didn't stop me from renting the game endlessly, mind.
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#21
07-01-2010, 06:50 AM
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#22
07-01-2010, 07:08 AM
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#26
07-01-2010, 09:50 AM
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I vote Route 4 because I like its jaunty angle on the mini-map. The other routes are so staid and... and orthogonal. P.S. Clash has spiritual successors of sorts in two of the GBA Shaman King games. Master of Spirits, I think? It's been a while, but they have a very similar structure. Sadly, they're based on a real anime property rather than simply embodying the spirit of anime like Clash.
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#27
07-01-2010, 10:00 AM
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While it's a bad introduction to the Shaman King property, it's pretty functional as a game.....though enemies take way too much damage to kill and the characters' in-game sprites have little resemblance to their anime counterparts. It could use a lot of work, but you could do much worse.
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#28
07-01-2010, 10:16 AM
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I'm going to be recommending routes on whether or not they are prime numbers. Since we've already done 1 the next is 2.
So go route 2. EDIT: Also I've determined in order to be a cool person in TT my name must reference this game in some manner... Please change my name to Route. 33
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#30
07-01-2010, 11:30 AM
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Fooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuur!
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