New Zealand Story

~ THE NEW ZEALAND STORY ~

Taito

HuCard

1990

Way back in the day, before any console version of New Zealand Story had made it to America, GamePro ran a feature on it. The article convinced me that I had to have the game. For one thing, the little sneaker-wearing kiwi seemed like a cute and awesome hero.

For another, I thought it was great that he used arrows and lasers and bombs to kill his enemies rather than the generic hopping/spinning attacks that most "mascot-type" heroes employed back then. And I liked that he got to use those weapons against cool bosses like a giant whale who would swallow him up.

I eventually got the game in its "Kiwi Kraze" incarnation for the NES and discovered it's about more than just a cutesy style and interesting animal characters. This is a very tricky platformer, with tight balloon-flying and swimming sequences to navigate through and spikes and other such hazards all over the place.

Heck, when I was a kid, I regularly got my ass kicked by the second boss. (Yeah, I was HORRIBLE back then.)

I liked the game despite my struggles but eventually sold the cart with the knowledge that I was ultimately going to acquire the PCE version anyway. I was an older, wiser, better player by the time I purchased the HuCard, and I fared quite a bit better with it than I had with its NES counterpart. With knowledge of what the full adventure has to offer finally in hand, I find myself enjoying NZS now more than I ever had before. As mentioned above, it's very tricky, and some parts seem so tight at first that they make you wonder how you'll ever get past them without sacrificing lives. But it's the sort of game where a little practice and experimentation go a long way. You'll eventually find yourself breezing through those tough parts and feeling great about it. And looking for all the hidden warp spots is also great fun.

So NZS is still a sweet little platformer, but some things about the PCE rendition bother me:

The colors. Some of these choices and combinations just boggle my mind. I don't mind the turquoise tones of the third world so much, but even then, there are plenty of "uneasy" visual moments.

I don't think NZS ever had exemplary controls to begin with, but the balloon flying here seems a little too loose. The NES version feels tighter than this.

I've never played the arcade original, but from what I understand, it features five worlds. This one goes up to 4-4 and then straight to Round Final for the battle against a pathetically easy last boss. Leaving out an entire round is a pretty significant omission.

Also, the music is AWFUL. Ugh, I wonder what happened here. It's so shrill and terrible. Kiwi Kraze did a much better job with the main tune, which I'm very sad to say because I think NES audio is shitty in general. But on the plus side, the playfield seems "wider" here, less cramped, than in the NES version, giving you more room to move around in, which makes a number of situations play out a lot more smoothly.

It's too bad that HuCard NZS didn't end up as excellent as it could've and should've been, but the game still rules, and it's a great pickup for the PCE despite the issues I've listed. And while this might be small consolation, it fares better in almost every area than the MegaDrive version, which is wretched.