- Game: The Battle of Olympus
- Release Date (North America): December 1989
- Developer: Infinity
- Genre: Action-adventure
The Battle of Olympus on NES was developed by Infinity. And you know, after an [admittedly] half-hearted online search, I have no idea where that studio came from or where it is now. However, after playing through a pretty good chunk of The Battle of Olympus itself, I can definitely talk more easily on the game, at least.
It starts by letting you name a hero and a heroine. I’ll just be up front: I didn’t even get to the point in the game where the heroine comes in. But hey, I killed a giant bull (didn’t seem like a minotaur…), Medusa, a hydra, and a cyclops, for Pete’s sake! Actually, I think the developers must have gotten a hydra confused with Scylla, because the “hydra” I fought kept leaping out of a body of water. But whatever.
The Battle of Olympus starts out in a little village, where you’ll find numerous townsfolk who give you a never-ending string of advice that you’ll foolishly forget within a minute of leaving their log homes. Or you can try to remember that “the most powerful sword” is in that one place that stars with a “P”, you need the power to create fire to reach that other place that starts with a “C”, and so on. Once I tried to internalize these glorious words of wisdom, I actually was able to find my way through the adventure somewhat. I defeated classic Greek monsters in epic battles and made my way to several temples to the gods, where I was rewarded with gifts that ranged from stinkin’ useful to somewhat flawed (the Sandals of Hermes and the Shield of Athena, respectively).
As far as gameplay goes, The Battle of Olympus is played in action-side-scrolling style. There is an overhead map, but you can’t move freely on it; it’s just there to show you which location you are entering. Your hero starts with a simple club for combat, but earns a fire staff, a sword, and more on his journey. Each essentially controls the same, but they have unique advantages in combat and progression. As I mentioned above, other useful(-ish) items are received as gifts from the gods. And boy, are theses gods generous. All you have to do is find their shrines to earn their gifts, for the most part, and as long as you make the effort to enter every doorway you find, you’ll stumble upon plenty of shrines, no problem.
I did enjoy how steeped the game was in Greek mythology. And boss fights with the likes of cyclopes and so on weren’t too bad either. I probably only made it through about half of the game, but hey! NES games are pretty hard. ‘Specially when there are these eagle things that drop rocks on you from above and take out half of your life force with each…no? Not working for you? Ah well.
Up Next on Retro Redux…
As mentioned before (in the last Retro Redux post for Mega Man), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link won the reader vote following The Battle of Olympus, so that’s next on the “quest docket” (thanks for catching that reference). Funnily enough, The Battle of Olympus supposedly took a lot of cues from Zelda II, so it looks like I’m in for some more side-scrolling RPG action! The most recent vote found a new winner in Metroid, so that classic will follow Zelda. Finally, I’ve got a new, randomly selected list of games for you to vote on:
- Faxanadu, recommended by Anthony DeVirgilis
- The Legend of Kage, recommended by Darren
- Castlevania, recommended by Ross
- Milon’s Secret Castle, recommended by Josh Russell
