NES Works 148: Alien Syndrome & Vindicators
Added 2025-07-02 11:43:44 +0000 UTCYou know, it's strange. I had it in my head as a kid that unlicensed NES games were generally pretty terrible. I guess I really bought into Nintendo's corporate messaging after reading all those Nintendo Powers. However, that's not really been the case so far. Neither Alien Syndrome nor Vindicators belongs in the pantheon of NES all-timers, but they're pretty good. Frankly, at this point, Tengen has an infinitely better track record than, say, Seta.
Sorry, Tengen. I was wrong about you. You're good people.
Comments
I see a The Little Mermaid clip, I give a like. That's just how I do :)
Nicholas A. Jalowick
2025-07-04 05:46:46 +0000 UTCIt's funny. We (my brother and I) always thought of Tengen as different from the other unlicensed companies because (a) we had friends with the licensed Gauntlet and Pac-Man from them and (b) unlike American Video or Color Dreams, we could buy them at Kay-Bee Toys. And since about 60% of our NES and SNES carts came from IT'S $15 game bin, we ended up with quite a few. I played a ton of Vindicators on NES but never saw the arcade machine, so I was genuinely shocked to play it on Midway Arcade Treasures on PS2 and learn that it had the same kind of tank controls as Assault or Combat with two tread-control levers.
Zach Adams
2025-07-02 18:15:07 +0000 UTC
