Big Nose The Caveman Review by: rcarter2 - 7/10
One Determined CavemanAnyone who has watched documentaries or were lectured in school about the early man knows one thing. Live of a caveman is rough. Just surviving everyday is like it's own little adventure. Not having the technology of blades or guns, they have to further risk their lives with a club and stone to eat. This is what Big Nose The Caveman offers in this side scrolling game where you control a caveman through jungles, caves, volcanoes, and ice in his quest to eat. Set in the prehistoric time, you must club your way through dinosaurs, scorpions, and other creatures. From the same creators of The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, Big Nose is another challenging game worth playing.
Graphics: 7
This is your typical later NES game when it comes to graphics. Big Nose and the other characters and enemies are well shaded so they don't look so flat, but the background wasn't given as much attention. For the most part, the background is pretty empty where you see solid colored outlines of mountains, trees, and bushes. Also, a lot of the levels are simply repeat environments. All the caves are pretty much the same, and you quite a few levels look like other levels that are colored differently. However, some of the levels do look very good such as the jungle levels and many ice levels. Had they given the backgrounds on all of the levels as much attention as those levels, graphics could have easily been bumped up a few points.
Sound: 8
If there is one thing that the game developers at Camerica know how to do, it is put good music in their NES games. Like the Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, the music is what steals the spotlight in the sound department. It is fun, not annoying, and very catchy at times. The boss music will also get you pumped for a fight. Even though some of them are short and easy, the music makes it seem more epic than they really are, which can be hard to do. But along with the pattern of Camerica, sound effects took a backseat to the music. There isn't more than 6 different sound effects that you will hear through the entire game, keeping it from a top rating in sound. But with the music, you don't notice it that much.
Addictiveness: 8
This game was one of the early games with cavemen and dinosaurs as the theme. The game mixes clubbing dinosaurs in the head with platform gaming that will have you jumping as much as you would in a Mario game. It is entertaining, and more than difficult enough to not bore you. The difficulty is high, but due to the fact that you don't get passwords, saves, and you have to buy most of your extra lives for a steep price, it takes away on the addictiveness. Camerica knows how to make a game difficult, but they seem to not how to make passwords for games that are not only difficult, but long, which this game is. You have four different islands to play through, each with around 7 levels, which some can get lengthy. If you get fairly far into the game and die, you probably won't start over that same day.
Story: 3
According to the manual, food is getting scarce, so every creature is extra aggressive to eat. Big Nose is no different. When he walks out of his cave, a pterodactyl flies by his cave, and Big Nose pictures a nice big cooked pterodactyl meal. So this WHOLE game is Big Nose trying to get that pterodactyl. And Big Nose has to be one of the most determined characters ever made. He wants that bird so bad, he fights through hoards of dinosaurs and travels through four different islands just to catch it. Although, if he wants to eat, he could have just as easily dragged the first stegosaurus he clubs in level one back to his cave, and he could eat for a week. But if Big Nose wants pterodactyl, the by God, he will have pterodactyl. But the game has nothing to do with saving anything from peril, nobody but big nose and the dinosaurs he clubs are affected by his journey, so there really isn't much of a story.
Depth: 4
Along with the story line of this game, depth takes a bit of a dive too. This game can get repetitive after you are halfway though the second island. The whole game is pretty much platform jumping and clubbing. The only exception is the last level of every island, where Big Nose uses his club as a helicopter and flies over the sea to the next island. But when you take that, and the fact that many levels are nearly identical to some previous levels, only with a color change and a few different enemies, it gets a little annoying. Even the bosses are repeats of each other. There are up to 28 levels, each level having a boss fight at the end, and there are really only 10 different bosses. You fight the same bosses many times throughout the level. Sometimes they are the same, and later, they are the same except they are faster. Big Nose does not offer much diversity.
Difficulty: 8
Camerica can make their games difficult, and they aren't afraid to do so. Big Nose the Caveman will give you quite a challenge. Given, it is not one of the most difficult games to beat, it will take you a while. This is because everything that harms you is an instant kill. The only way to combat that is if you acquire stones, which you use to throw from your club at enemies. But if you get hit while you have stones one time, you go back to your normal color and are vulnerable to instant death. Extra lives are sparse too. The most effective way to get extra lives is to buy them from the shops (given you choose the right shops), but they take a lot of bones (money) to purchase. You likely want to buy all the upgrades for Big Nose to make the game easier. Problem is, if you get hit once, you lose all the upgrades you have purchased, and must start over again. Jumping on enemies will also kill you unless you purchase 'hard feet'. When you take all that, and include the fact there are up to 28 levels filled with enemies and environmental hazards, and you add the fact that there are no passwords or saves, this gets very difficult. Make sure you have a lot of time and are very patient if you decide to play this game.
Overall: 7
For those who have read my other reviews, you might notice my overall is typically averaging the other scores. That is not the case with this game. If I average the scores, I get a 6.3. However, even though I stand by my scores, there is something about this particular game that makes 6.3 sound too low of a score, so I bumped it up to 7. To recap, the graphics aren't bad, but nothing to really brag about, except in a few select levels. Following the Camerica trend, the music is pretty great, but the sound effects are overshadowed by it. The game is fun, but can get annoying with the repetitiveness and the difficulty without the option of continuing with passwords. The story is severely lacking because it is all about chasing a bird across a ridiculous distance just to eat it. The depth takes a dive as they reuse levels with different colors, and you will see almost every boss 3 times through the game. And also following the Camerica trend, this game is very difficult, and made even more so by not being able to save, have passwords, or even having any continues. But with a lot of practice (or cheating using save states on an emulator), you will get the hang of it and eventually be able to beat it. It is worth playing through at least one time.
Graphics
7 Sound
8 Addictive
8 Depth
4 Story
3 Difficulty
8
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