"Astro Robo SASA" - NES/Famicom

Ah, Astro Robo SASA. I always wondered if the robot's name was SASA, and what that stood for. I've played it a handful of times in my life in various places, despite being a Famicom exclusive game.

Apparently the game has never officially been released here, overseas. It was originally developed for the MSX in 1984, and this Famicom port came to Japan in 1985. It's a shame too, because the game seems like it would have been a success, but more on that later. That's really all English Wikipedia has for us, so let's go to the Japanese one (I need an acronym or something for this phrase because I have to go to the JP Wikipedia every single article to get decent info...).

And to be honest, this time it doesn't say THAT much more. If you play in 2P, you'll have another character named NANA-- and by the way, when you pause the game you'll be given a musical track which apparently is called "Nana Ai no Theme," or I guess Nana's Love Theme (or something like that). Also apparently in the instruction manual for the game, they included musical scores and lyrics for some of the songs. That's pretty serious stuff for a Famicom game.

This port of this game was developed by a company simply called "Works," or maybe "Workss". I've never heard of them before, and I couldn't find anything about them on the Japanese web because of their generic name, so I don't know what to say about that, but I'll try to keep it in mind for the future.

Anyway, let's check it out:

I guess that must be SASA since he's almost blue. If it was NANA, she'd be pink. That's how '80s games work.

----- Playthrough -----

Astro Robo Sausage's main mechanic is that you control your main character by shooting a gun that's so strong it kicks you backwards everytime you fire it. Accompanying that is a fairly advanced gravity simulation (by NES standards)-- SASA has inertia, so if you get going in one direction you'll probably keep on going for a little while until you either hit a wall or I guess wind resistance stops you (he does stop moving horizontally after a little bit on his own).

It gets more interesting than this I promise.

When you collect energy pellets, your total reserve energy will go up-- which you spend 1 point of every time you fire a shot. The cleverest of you might realize that the point of the game is to progress through the levels without running out of energy. The dumbest of you may want to stay after class and we'll circle back around to your questions.

Levels seem to come in groups of 3, with variations on the same idea which make it slightly harder. For instance, in the first three levels, you're introduced to simply floating balloons with carry energy pellets. In the second level, they add walls!

Well that's just great! I may as well give up now; this is far too difficult for me.

The second group of levels introduces another mechanic: the shootable door. And most levels after that are variants of this idea-- there's a door to shoot and you have to shoot it until it goes away to get the energy inside. Sometimes there's helicopters, sometimes you're underwater, sometimes you're in space-- but usually you're gonna be shooting a door.

Why do I get the vague feeling I'm playing as a robot made for stealing the energy sources of a foreign country?

Probably my favorite sequence of levels in the game is the third, which does away with the doors and instead introduces a bunch of little tank-tread robots that go around picking up the energy baubles and moving them from place to place for no apparent reason. It's pretty hard to avoid getting hit in these levels, but the little robots crack me up, they'll basically just carry anything they can get their hands on for no reason (actually, if they carry the dead robots back to the housings, they'll come back to life).

Well, Frank's dead, may as well carry him some.

Anyway, get the energy on every level and eventually you'll get to the last stage, which I had to check out in a longplay because I couldn't even get past the water levels after 4-5 tries. Clear it, and you'll get a little congratulatory animation and be returned back to level 1 for another go, if you so desire.

----- Review -----

How long did I play?
An hour

How much did I beat?
12/16 stages.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

There's really just the one button, and it's pretty clear if you play the first level, where literally nothing can hurt you, what it is you're supposed to do. I will say, I didn't realize for some time that I didn't have to kill all the enemies to pass the level, but it didn't really affect the way I played the game that much to realize that.

Gameplay / Difficulty: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

SASA himself is really pretty tough to control at times, but it is something you can master at least to some degree with some practice. All in all, being able to hover in-front of a door or get in time with enemies so you can consistently dodge them does make you feel a little bit like a wizard.

I don't think I would have much trouble completing this game if I played it for a little longer, but I felt like I had pretty much grasped anything important it had to show and will probably revisit on my own time later on.

Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

With 16 levels and a reasonable degree of difficulty, I'd say you're looking at maybe 2 hours of entertainment if you're just going to beat it and put it down, but as with all NES games, if you like it, you'll probably play it again and again in years to come.

Sound / Graphics: 

How's the sound? How are the graphics?

The sprites in the game are okay, mostly mediocre but pretty good for 1985. SASA himself is a little confusing to me, I can't really tell what's going on with his head.

Is that like... an eye slit and an ear hole?
A visor like RoboCop?

But anyway, the graphics are fine and serviceable, and I appreciate the variety of level designs to keep it interesting.

The music in this game is pretty interesting for an early Famicom title-- there's a variety of different little ditties and compositions, and that they came with scores and lyrics in the instruction manual is really interesting to me. I think this one is probably my favorite despite its simplicity and repetitiveness.

Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I definitely like the cartoony aesthetic in the game, and I particular like this cow sprite. Is that a dumb reason to like a game?

I just like it okay, shut up!

The fact that Astro Robo SASA kind of stands on its own in the department of trying this weird physics launching thing on the Famicom makes it really invaluable to me as a game. I guess you could argue Balloon Fight does something pretty similar, but this game's launching back mechanic is unique as far as I know on this console.

Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

I think it's worth a play if you have an hour to kill and want to play an NES game that's pretty unique. I enjoy revisiting it once in awhile, even though I've never made it past the water stages (they're pretty tough, but I've never really earnestly tried super hard either).

I think for me, it's going on my list as one that I want to remember.

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