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Abadox: The Deadly Inner War
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Preamble

Taking a look at a game like this is always kinda fun. It's a game a played a bunch as a kid and was terrible at... that is until Nintendo Power came to my aid and posted a cheat in an old issue. Now I can't say that I have legitimately finished this game without assistance... but I have played the heck out of it and that makes me good enough to be a "journalist" when it comes to this video game.

The Details

   

Abadox: The Deadly Inner War
Action/Shooter
Nintendo Entertainment System
ITL/Milton Bradley
1990

Your home planet of Abadox has been swallowed whole by the deadliest menace in space! Its name: Parasitis. Its prey: All surrounding life forms. Its goal: To feed on the entire Universe!
You are Second Lieutenant Nazal, the only surviving warrior of The World Alive Force. Parasitis has crushed The Force's attack ships and consumed a hospital ship - with the beautiful Princess Maria still on board! Your Mission: Blast your way inside Parasitis' gruesome body and battle your way to its Core. Hurry! Princess Maria may still be alive!
Hurtle down Parasitis' throat, blast through its cellular walls! Fend off vicious, bloodthirsty organisms with guided missiles and lasers in Six Stages of Internal Combat! Kill each Stage's guardian monsters so you can reach the Core! Destroy Parasitis, rescue Princess Maria and save the Universe!

The Plot

Abadox is a game from a time where plot didn't really have to be super specific about details. This could have been an action movie. You're not going to have to sit back and think over the story in depth here.

There's a big ol planet eating thing called Parasitis. Parasitis, if you've seen the good Transformers movie, is Unicron. Floating through space and eating anything that comes in it's path. Bad news there.

What's extra bad is that Parasitis done went and devoured all these ships and one of them had the Princess on board. Princess of what? Space. I guess.

Well now it's up to us, the hero, to go inside Parasitis and save her... if she's till alive and we are able, and get out again.

That's not bad at all really, but it's not groundbreaking and there are no twists and turns. Get it, get the girl, get out. Bam.

7/10

Graphics

This game is... gross. You're inside a living planet. There's teeth, a heart, organs, blood vessels, arteries, goo, icky, microbes, and one little man in a space suit. If you've seen "Fantastic Voyage" it's kinda like that. We're not small, everything else is just big.

The game does an excellent job of making you feel like you're inside this thing. Sometimes the fore/backgrounds even move a little. From the outside of the planet, inside, and back out again, you'll see everything you'd expect.

It looks icky, it feels icky, you can tell what's going to kill you (hint: everything), and what's going to help you (hint: almost nothing). That's what I want from my graphics.

Downside is that there's a little bit of flicker and slowdown when things get a little heavy.

8/10

Music/Sound

You might at some point think that this is a Konami game by the music and sound effects. You wouldn't be wrong. The voices in the music are very similar as are the sound effects.

The music is pretty danged good. It works for the stages and the areas, it fits the areas you'll dig through and the big ol' baddies you'll fight along the way.

Sound effects are good as well. Nothing gets really annoying. The different weapons make different noises and they fit what the shot looks like. You can tell when you're hitting something you can hurt and when you're hitting something you can't. Can't ask for much more than that.

8/10

Gameplay

In this section I'm gonna include a little bit of everything that isn't above this.

The controls are great. If you die it's not gonna be because the game let you drift into a wall or an enemy bullet. You die, it's your fault.

Though I will say you move REALLY slow until you get some of the powerups. Which there are in the game. They include speed up, missiles, weapons like a spread shot and lasers, even a shield. YOU WANT THESE THIGNS! ALL THE THIGNS! The game is hard with full power, it's super hard without.

It's a side scrolling shooter that goes both horizontal (Gradius, R-Type), and vertical (Dragon's Spirit, Gun.Smoke) to keep things a little interesting. I suppose I should have just said it's like Lifeforce, cause it is.

The formula is simple. Good controls, high challenge, power ups to be found and picked up. But the execution from you the player is pretty extreme. It's a difficult game as I've said. It can feel unfair, but I promise it's not an unfair game, it's just HARD.

However, it's a fun game. All the pieces come together and just work. It's a game that, while having a plot that you can get for a dime a dozen, makes you take the actual playing of it serious cause it will wreck you.

It's a fun game, it looks good, it sounds good, it's challenging, and it's not several hours long. You can probably finish it in under an hours after all the times you die.  It's exactly what you want in a early 90's NES game.

8/10

The Recap

Plot 7  Graphics 8  Music/Sound 8  Gameplay  8

Average 7.8


Are you looking for a nice, short, challenging retro game that may have flown under the radar? Abadox is great. It's a fantastic shooter and very well worth the time you devote to it. Check it out.
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