Overall=9

This game is near perfect. It is challenging without being sadistic. If you are having trouble with a corridor,power up and try again. You are The Guardian Legend,tasked with destroying NAJU,a space station that was your home,but is now infested with monsters. You will fight everything from spider like beings,eggs,hockey puck like beings,ice cube like beings,and when you travel further into NAJU,sub bosses that appear as normal enemies. How many games do you know on the NES that pack an overworld exploration game with a shooter? You gain hearts at specific point totals and through Blue Landers. Red Landers increase your chip stock or special weapon ammo. Chips are also used as money. But be careful,your chip stock determines how powerful your standard shot is.

Graphics=10

This game is one of the best looking on the NES,the main character is large and looks nice,the enemies for the most part are pretty good,and the backgrounds are awesome. The overworld is probably the weaker of the two,but both are great and this is a classic and when I first played it as a boy,it looked almost 16 bit,that is how good it looked. The Bosses look great and have a ton of ordinance to dodge or destroy.

Sound=10

The music does not disappoint at all. The music is good for pumping you up and readying you for a battle. The boss music is good and you feel yourself tensing up to fight them. The sound effects are great and are not annoying at all. You would want to keep fighting through NAJU because you wanted to hear the tracks.

Addictiveness=9

The game is fun on all levels whether you are trekking through the overworld,flying in the corridors,or just taking a breather at the Lander shops. You want to explore to find new weapons,power up existing weapons,find Red and Blue Landers,attack and defense boosts and so on. It is fun to do Corridor 21,the boss rush area,but we all wanted to beat the final boss. You also have a sort of "second quest" by punching in TGL at the password screen. It is a flying-only area and you have to do well to earn items and weapons.

Story=7

The story is basic,you are the lone survivor/warrior of the star NAJU. You want to blow it up to kill off all the evil critters that plague it. You meet many strange and powerful enemies and the bosses do not hold back. You explore rooms and it gives you hints on how to access certain corridors. The exploration is done well and the map works well. The are no real surprises or story twists but you really did not need them.

Depth=8

You have to constantly decide what sub-weapon to take into battle with you,(you can only use 1 at a time),figure out attack patterns,and look for weaknesses in enemies. You are always improving your arsenal and abilities and you want to explore every area for anything you may have missed from weapon upgrades,sub weapons,bosses,Landers and abilities. (Hint: A powered up fireball and back wave[not sure on the actual name] and enemy erasers are godsends.)

Difficulty=8

The bosses are challenging,the exploration demands you pay attention to where you are (look on the bottom of the screen,it does display your current location) and it just feels right. The controls are near perfect,except if you diagonally walk into a wall,but that is a minor nitpick. If you die,it was not the control's fault. The later levels bombard you with all kinds of projectiles and you have to either destroy or dodge them. (A level 3 fireball is an immense help to burn through the levels and enemies,no pun intended.) The enemy erasers appear just enough to defeat minor enemies that are crowding you. The game is winnable and if you have the drive and courage,this game will not disappoint.

Wow....this game sounds very challangeable and strategic was well. It sounds like fun maybe I could try it sometime. Reviews are meant to persuade people to play certain number of new games to play, and you have done that to me. Also great review I enjoyed reading it. It wasn't too short or too long. I look forward to seeing another one from you. ^^

It is a challenging game and it is a reasonable challenge. The controls are good and you can switch your sub weapons on the fly. If you liked Legend of Zelda and shoot 'em ups this is a game you will enjoy.

Because you were kind to respond to my review,I will give you a couple of bugs you can exploit. If you see a bunch of item boxes,like the ones when you walk to the right and then down when you first start the overworld exploration,if you need a ton of chips in a hurry walk diagonally down and to the left or right and fire,you will activate a bug that  refills you in a hurry. When you see the red invincible blocks,if they are in a vertical (up and down) line you can phase through them by walking diagonally up and to the left or right.

I have to agree with Eniitan, this review makes me want to play the game. Thanks for bringing one I hadn't heard of to my attention. It sounds like the game was ahead of it's time in some ways, namely the over world part. I'm a sucker for stuff like that in an old school title. lol

As for the review itself, it's well written, detailed, and structured good. You did a good job with this one.

Thank you. I just try to tell people why I liked it and I am glad others want to try it out. I agree the US box cover does not make you want to play it,but if you like exploring and shoot em ups,you will enjoy this.

This was a game that suffered from bad box art, but it is a very decent game.

Indeed,endings. The European art was better and I think the US cover is part of the reason it did not do well.

https://somewhereinthemidstofnowhere.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/1088530996-00.jpg

The password system was a nightmare though.

Oh, yes, The Guardian Legend. This title is my favorite of the US-released NES games (my absolute favorite is Earthbound Zero). I would not say this is a perfect NES game; rather, it encapsulates all that was the NES. The graphics are humble yet beautiful, the music is limited yet catchy, the gameplay is simple yet refined. What makes this my favorite, though, isn't just that, it's also the traits that are typical of a NES game: relentless onslaught of enemies right on the first level (Castlevania), wonky learning curve (almost every NES game ever, possibly excluding the Mario ones), exploration with a minimum of navigational assistance (think playing Zelda 2nd quest for the first time), flickering sprites everywhere (...it's a NES...NES's do that), secret 2nd game... sort of (SMB, Zelda1, Metroid, Donkey Kong, and more), basically if I had to pick a single game to represent both the positives and the negatives of the NES but still make it enjoyable, it would be The Guardian Legend.

Thank you for your reply Ness. No game shall ever be perfect. But Guardian Legend did a lot of things right. The enemies can be relentless esp. in the flying levels. In the exploration levels it is not too bad,unless you run into a couple of powerful enemies. I would say the learning curve is decent,it does not force you to be an expert by the second or third level. (Hint:If you are having trouble with a boss or section,kill some more enemies to boost your hearts,look for a sub boss you have not laid to rest and look for more items.) But it was the challenge and the thrill of defeating a nightmare of a boss or level and that the game did not hold your hand and walk you around that we loved. I think you are right about what you said and if you think about it,it was almost like getting 2 games in one.

Great review. I enjoyed reading it.

With regards to the game itself. I love this game. It's a classic. A very unique hybrid of a game that wasn't really seen at the time. Great gameplay, music and challenge comes together to make a game that I would recommend anyone interested in the NES to play.

Thank you for your kind words,Jordan. It is a great game and challenging without being unfair. This game deserves a remake like Duck Tales got.

This was a nice (albeit short) review. You structured your argument well and gave enough details to let people know what the game is about. I personally prefer more details (what makes the music so great? how does the game compare to other of the genre?) but it is still worthy of a 4.

The music was catchy without being overbearing or annoying. Thank you for your review.