Take the overworld exploration of Zelda, the action of a Shmup, the level progression of an RPG, the inventory management of a survival horror game and the labyrinthine depth of Metroid - and literally roll it all together and make a game out of it. It doesn't sound too tasty, does it? It comes off sounding like a bastardized mashup, like the Manbearpig of videogames. But if you have never played The Guardian Legend, then you don't know that not only is it possible, it's got the potential to be GREAT. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, this game never comes up in many discussions about games that deserve to be resurrected - that usually gets taken over by the "1 w1s# T#3y c0m3 0uT w1T# a FF7 r3mak3!"=w1n" crowd. This game broke all kinds of molds, and threw together gameplay elements that normally would have gone together like lamb and tuna fish.

But instead, Irem and Compile got those elements fused like peanut butter and chocolate.

So, come back in time with me, kids. I'm about to show you what a real videogame is.
...oh, watch your head there...


These messages add so much to the atmosphere of the game, this first passage alone is burned into my mind forever. You know the odds are against you right from the start.

Forgive me if I wax nostalgic and begin to ramble at times...this game means a hell of a lot to me, and I'm glad to use the soapbox to give some big ups to The Guardian Legend (Or rather, Guardic Gaiden if you want to be a purist about it). There are very few games that achieve a sense of a totally complete package, and even fewer still that can manage that feat while supporting so many differentiations in gameplay and overall design. You see, TGL (as it'll be called for the rest of the article, because I don't feel like typing the whole title out repeatedly) pulled off a masterstroke in conceptualization and the full realization of that concept. It starts as a basic vert shmup, with you taking on an intro stage and a full on boss to end the initial level. Immediately afterwards, you land on the "planet" and remain on foot while on the surface of Naju (no major story spoilers - I usually have a 5-year statute of limitations, but this game's story needs to be played through). While grounded, your movement can be in any of eight directions on a map that is built on a grid structure, complete with X- and Y-coordinates detailing your relative position on the planet. You'll explore the surface in a manner that's one part Zelda overworld and one part Metroid map-fest, as you'll need to remember just where the hell you are quite frequently to get from one spot to another. You'll fight monsters and even minibosses on the surface of Naju, and even though the walls close in slowly enough for you to escape when you encounter these larger monsters, avoiding the fight is not a good idea as the items you get from defeating them are going to help you immensely and the points you score for every monster kill acts as experience and levels up your main weapon and health.


You could run away, but you'd only be nerfing yourself by doing so. Don't be a bitch.

Another cool aspect of the not-quite-but-still-a-"levelup" system is the concept of Chips. The chip count acts as a double-currency of sorts, as you are able to trade them at shops for newer and better gear, but that gear also must be powered by that same chip count. Basically, by spending chips to levelup a special weapon type, you may not be able to use the weapon - and a higher weapon level eats more chips to use the bigger gun. What's also totally jam-tastic is the fact that burning your chips also powers down the levels of your main weapon: with a higher chip ceiling, your main gun is stronger and covers a larger area, but using special weapons (and you will have to use them at times - there's no other way in a lot of scenarios) will decrease the chips that are powering your default weapon. Your default weapon doesn't burn them up like the specials do, but the strength of that gun is directly tied to the chip count you have on hand, and if you fire a bunch of awesome-shots your just-a-shots are going to start being entirely inadequate for the task at hand - and fast. The same goes for buying better equipment, you might find that you're in a bad situation when you walk out that door into the unknown again. It's an element that survival horror games have put into good effect, the feeling of hoarding because you may need it sometime soon, but when you use it you constantly think about the next scenario that it may have been more helpful in.


The choice is yours, but you need to choose very wisely, for your capacity for survival is at stake.

That's not to say that item shops or bosses/minibosses are the only place you'll find quality gear. You'll find a vast majority of your best armament scattered around the world you're exploring, with weapons, armor, and stat boost items found in a myriad of places - but it requires you to EXPLORE the planet. Nothing in TGL is point-A-to-point-B. There is no straight line, to anything in this game, except in one place...the dungeons, or "Corridors," and those are something special to play through for any action game fan.


Be sure to look everywhere. Most of the time, the one spot you didn't check contains something you're going to want, or that can be something that you possibly need.


The doorway to awesome. Be ready.

The Corridors usually have some sort of lock mechanism that you must decipher to gain access to the dungeon levels. In these levels, your only goal is to shoot everything in sight and try not to get hit - in a shmup stage, just like the initial level, except with access to your bigger, better guns and special weapons.


Demon fish, great with lemon, dill and some fresh chopped basil over brown rice.

At the end of these stages, you fight a boss, just like you would in any other game. The only difference is this: while the stages themselves may range from "breeze" to "challenge," the bosses only have one mode, and that mode is called fuck you up. The bosses are no joke in this game, please know this before playing - especially the floating tentacle-covered eyes that shoot some crazy girder-looking shit at you at the same time they release regular shots. Those dudes are a pain in the ass. And what's worse: every boss in the game pales in comparison to the final boss of the game, who has caused the deaths of many controllers in the late 80's. Once you blow the doors off of some poor Japanese aquatic-space-beast, you get weapons, stat boosts, levelups, and even keys to get into different overworld levels to continue to search for the rest of the 20 (a hell of a lot, but that's 21 if you count the last stage) Corridors to arm the self destruct system of Naju. You've got your work cut out for you.


A big-assed cyclops-fish that spits a swarm of calamari at you...your best weapons would be drawn butter and a fuckin' basket of biscuits, in my opinion.


KEY GET! Why are all the keys shaped like mostly-failed Lucky Charms marshmallows? Also, what's that rumbling sound...?


Run run run run run ruuuuuuuuuun oh shit it's all gonna blow up oh shit oh shit ruuuuuun


After blowing a massive amount of shit up, including Japanese daikaiju aqua-space-beasts, I would want one of those damn Blue Landers running the shop to at least offer to sell me a beer. At least.

After all of that, you repeat the process about 19 to 20 more times, depending on whether you count the last stage as a Corridor - which it is labeled as Corridor 21, but it's the last ride, so...

Everything you could ever want in a single player game is here. There's challenge. There's exploration. There's freaky bosses. There's some radical weaponry. There's a compelling story (at least for NES standards). There's incredible music (one of these VG bands needs to completely do up the TGL soundtrack - it could actually sell copies, the music is that well constructed). There's a lot of playtime to be had. There's a chick in a bikini that turns into a space fighter jet, which is one of the coolest things that anybody's ever come up with, period (which happens to be the main character). There's even a shmup-only mode once you beat the game and get the password for it. Oh...that brings me to the one thing about this game that totally fucking blew. The ONLY thing about this game that totally fucking blew. And it was needlessly totally-fucking-blow-tastic, at that.

The password system. Oh, sweet Christ, at the password system.


Don't waste time with a pen and paper. Get a damn camera instead. Trust me.


Well, it must be about that time to call over that weird German foreign exchange student that you know- because I can't understand a single damn bit of this shit. One mistake - and you're screwed.

Take a look at the above image. Does it look like English, Japanese, Dutch, German, or the ancient speak of demon folk in the 6th level of Hell? My money's on either the 4th or 5th option. Seriously, this password system is needlessly unforgiving on so many levels. Progress in a game shouldn't have to be fucking encrypted to this degree. I bet banks use this password system, especially Swiss banks. What sucked even more is screwing it up - then you've got to backtrack through thirty-two characters to see where you mistook an "o" for a capital "O" or a "0" (zero). Or, it may have been a lowercase "o," but it didn't have its all-important umlaut attached, so no dice for you, son. Start the fuck over.

Which is almost preferable to putting in the goddamn thing in the first place.

All in all, the game is completely worth playing, by any means necessary. I'd say to pick up the cart just for the sake of buying the actual game, but if you do decide to emulate it, I won't hate on you - the magic of savestates never met a game more deserving of its purpose, since its password system is an unabashed tool of the devil. Everything else, however - is divine. Play it at all costs. And hope that some developer/publisher has enough sense to remake this game, if it's done right, we could have a true genre breaker on our hands. It'd be something to remember, rather than forget...which is what I fear has happened to a game that deserved a fair share of the spotlight for trying to be everything to everyone - and actually pulling it off.