By 1993, developers had long maxed out what was possible on the humble NES. Prison City resembles a game from this era – something that would have dazzled late NES owners alongside such gems as Kirby’s Adventure, Batman: Return of the Joker, and Mighty Final Fight. Although, it would have definitely required a few additional chips inside the cartridge to handle the action. Publishers would have balked at the idea, but the result would be one of the best NES games ever released.
If you’ve played a lot of modern NES homages, you’ll know that they crib from a small selection of classics. Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, et al. Prison City sips from a different pool, citing Shatterhand and Power Blade as its inspirations – two games that have only just started to gain the recognition they deserved back in 1991.
Our hero, trapped in a dysfunctional Detroit turned into a walled prison city, has a small selection of attacks and manoeuvres, each vital to master and beneficial in certain instances. It’s possible to slide along the ground (which also trips up larger enemies,) grab onto ledges while shooting, and unleash a boomerang-style projectile attack that creates a small impenetrable arc when the button is bashed. Whether you’re climbing, underwater, or sliding under platforms, the control system feels as if it can be wholly relied on, which in turn removes a lot of frustration. If you die, it’s always your own fault.
The eight stages can be tackled in any order, with the majority being of a similar level of difficulty. This eliminates any potential fear of entering an unfamiliar stage and finding it full of difficulty spikes. Based around sewers, stadiums, facilities, a highway, and even a grassy outdoor location, these aren’t simple left-to-right scrolling affairs. Instead, they scroll in different directions, and each has a map – with the goal being to locate a key holder, and then the stage’s exit. This may require a tower climb, scaling the highest point of a stage, followed by a swift drop down a shaft to the lower levels. Checkpoints are logically placed, and if you scour areas fully you may find a temporary attack upgrade or a generously timed invincibility power-up.
Each stage also ends with a boss – with some being easier than others – and a unique bonus stage, many of which take a few attempts to beat. These are homages to retro classics of yore, including Street Fighter II’s car crushing bonus round, and a short underwater bomb disposal quest – as seen in Konami’s first TMNT tie-in. References to other NES classics are common too, some of which are delightfully subtle. A good thing too, as we’re sick of “Our princess is in a different castle” parodies.
Indeed, there’s a lot to like here. There’s a choice of difficulty modes, with Easy Mode dishing out health pick-ups liberally, and a couple of challenging difficulties that’ll test your mettle. One boss gave me a pasting for a good thirty minutes, but never did I feel angry, as it was clear each death could have been avoided had I reacted quicker or paid more attention to prompts. The presentation is also especially appealing, with impeccable pixel art. Rewinding back to the intro, and in all fairness, this wouldn’t have been possible on a stock NES – this is an 8-bit game on steroids, which in turn, gives it quite an unmistakable look.
The only negative thing I can say about Prison City is that I ran into an issue during its final moments. Once the eight stages are beaten, you’re whisked off to a much larger final stage that’s clearly intended to take a while to finish. Then, as you’d expect, the final boss battle occurs. I exited to the menu during this battle, and much to my dismay, found that upon resuming progress I had to complete the stage again, losing around an hour of progress. It isn’t too generous with Trophies when playing on Easy Mode either, but this is something negligible – and a very good reason to play through it again on a harder mode. And that’s the clincher – Prison City only asks for a few hours of your time, but you’ll likely want to revisit and become a repeat offender.
Retroware’s Prison City is out now on all formats.