Yeesh. Menace Beach. I'm going to go on a limb here and suggest Menace doesn't know its audience. You look like you're just a little kid (maybe a dwarf pro skater), but he has a surprisingly well-built teenage/adult girlfriend, and throughout the vague kidnapping plot she gets sorta-undressed. Its not racy, but its whole nature is unnecessary its super tacky. And the enemies make no sense. Many of them just throw assorted stuff at you. Its like this is RANDOM: the game! and it feels rushed.  But random or not this is not a good game, Menace being one of the released that did NOT get the Nintendo Seal of approval they used to put on games back in the day. It is somewhat decent, if underwhelming and with a few glitches and half-baked ideas. And lots of weird, random stuff. Like invulnerable sumo wrestlers who only fear bombs.

The graphics are serviceable for NES, the backgrounds are bright, but sparse. Your adventures take you through sorta beachy town levels, some NES TMNT-like sewer levels (i.e. aggravating), and a few dock levels. It mixes up the background colors a bit, but you will see the sewers so many times, its silly. Where's all the volleyball nets, and the surfers? Basically, why are we not staying on Menace beach? 

The enemy sprites are kind of fun in how random they are (is that the ugliest girl in town popping out of a crate to blow kisses at the hero?), but like I mentioned above, not really fitting in a theme and misguided. There are mainly two types of foe you will see over and over. One is the random little enemies - a lot of them pop out from windows and the floor to throw things at you. The other most common enemy is the mini-boss types. Usually you will have to beat one (or more) of them before the screen will advance .. but not always. These minibosses look like ninjas (dark outfits in broad daylight, nice), surfer guys, and Elvis impersonators. I'm not sure why there are Elvis wannabes hanging out in the sewers, but there you have it.  The animation can be pretty good - as in the case of the impersonator bosses that dance.  There are also a few uncommon types of fiends- such as the seagulls that pick you up, and the dreaded sumo guys that can only be killed with bombs (really annoying). The sumo is nearly a boss unto himself, as killing them with bombs is not usually so simple.


Sound is OK, each of the three types of stage (town, sewer, dock) has their own music. The dock music is low and slightly menacing - in an 80's music way. The town music does have a surf theme, which the game desperately needs, since you don't do any boating/surfing/water stuff in the entire game. Some beach! I did find the bomb explosion was well done. I also liked the 'muzak' that plays at the end of a stage.


I did not find Menace Beach addicting. I knew the game to be taxing, and just wanted to beat it. Otherwise, I would have stopped playing it long ago. It offers nothing novel except a girlfriend with melting clothes and a villain so devious, he doesn't get name-dropped in the game until you're almost done.  Many stages were not so bad, really, and once you understand the limited controls, its not too hard. But there are a handful of levels that can really test your patience. One sewer level in particular, is really, really nasty. Thank goodness for save states!


I don't expect much story from a NES game, but the fact the whole plot is told to you between levels by your frustrated girlfriend who frequently belittles you - was kind of funny. You were on your way to a hot date with your much taller girlfriend when she was kidnapped! Zoinks!  Why? By whom? The end boss was NOT what I expected. Its just random icing on this totally random cake.

No sir, not much depth here. I found the hero's limited spin/punch attack to have about a two pixel reach, so its fairly hard to use until you learn to hit enemies on non-level ground.  The best weapon in your inventory is not even mentioned in game text. All those annoying enemies that throw junk at you? You can pick that stuff up! The bottles and wrenches kill a mini-boss easily. And the bombs, again, are the only hope you have in clearing the few sumo enemies that come your way.


Difficulty is tougher than the average NES game, but its due to your
1) your weak ranged, regular attack
2) The fact you are on a skateboard, and its tough to do a hard stop
3) some pretty unfun situations that are borderline glitchy. Many of the levels you can beat with little effort.  Things like the stage you need to fly on a balloon  - but it doesn't spawn, or a horrendous springboard setup over a pit - and you often glitch to spring from the bottom(right into the pit)  those are terrible. The sumo guys are rough, but not impossible, and don't really come up more than a handful of times. The last boss is not too tough, once you realize how to hurt him. Your continues are unlimited, and if you're not using save states, I expect you go through quite a bit of them, as you don't heal between stages. 


Menace Beach is not the worst game I've ever played. But its definitely one of the weirdest, and seems to be cobbled together from ideas that might have worked better in other games.