Retro game review: Gremlins 2 The New Batch (NES) - Does this break the stigma of terrible licensed games?

Licensed games suck. Let’s be honest, its easy for developers (especially in the 8-bit era) to crank out an inferior game and let it coast on the popularity of a movie, TV show or toy license. Today the problem isn’t nearly as pronounced, but its still there. Put in the NES days, there was a ton of garbage attached to popular franchises. Publisher LJN was well-known for creating crappy games based on popular movies, like The Karate Kid, Jaws and even my beloved Back to the Future.

Another publisher that offered up some games based on popular licenses was Sunsoft. They however brought us better games like the amazing Batman and the popular Fester’s Quest. One of their later releases was also based on a popular movie. Let’s take a look at Gremlins 2: The New Batch on the NES.

_{^{Image Source: original photo by retro-room}}

_{^{Image source: User iRetroGamer on YouTube}}

Gremlins 2 is an overhead action game that follows the plot of the movie fairly closely, where you take control of the adorable Gizmo in the skyscraper where the film takes place. You begin the game abruptly, equipped with an endless supply of tomatoes to defend yourself with as you try to stop the gremlins who are running amok from escaping and taking over the city.

You’ll quickly get used to the controls and gameplay of Gremlins 2. Gizmo can move and fire in 8 directions, though shooting at an angle is difficult unless you’re moving in that direction. The first enemies you’ll meet in the game are surprisingly fast, like rats and bats, and some slower stronger ones show up too.

_{^{Image source: User iRetroGamer on YouTube}}

As you progress through the stages, more and more hazards are slowly introduced. I’m not sure who designed this skyscraper, but the place seems to be littered with holes in the floors, spiked sections, electrified wires and other types of fatal hazards. Gizmo will have to navigate these traps and pitfalls as he progresses through each stage.

While you begin the game equipped with a simple tomato, you’ll find more powerful weapons with each boss you defeat that let you shoot farther and with greater power. The tomato has very limited range, so these upgrades are really helpful because the game scales the difficulty to match your more powerful weapons. The only powerups you’ll find are rare drops - one that wipes out all enemies on the screen and a pogo stick that lets Gizmo bounce through enemies and hazards with limited invincibility for a short time.

_{^{Image source: User iRetroGamer on YouTube}}

As you defeat enemies, you’ll collect orbs they drop, which function as currency in this game. In each stage you’ll find an old Chinese man who runs a shop where you can trade these for health refills, balloons (which save you if you fall into a pit), extra lives and weapon powerups that give your primary weapon multi-shot ability, which is very useful for boss battles. Health refills are also very important, since that’s the only way to refill your health meter — there are no health drops from enemies in this game.

Why the owners let this guy set up a shop in random spots inside an office building is beyond me. But video game logic, right?

Each of the game’s 5 stages ends with a boss that represents one of the famous gremlins from the movie, from one made of electricity to another who brandishes a machine gun. Bosses are very challenging, but so is the game as a whole. Dying at a boss restarts you at the previous stage instead of at the boss themselves.

_{^{Image source: User iRetroGamer on YouTube}}

Gremlins 2 is a fantastic-looking game, which renders very nicely represented office environments for Gizmo to run through. Some of the areas feature great animation on the backgrounds and hazards and everything is appropriately colorful. Enemies are drawn nicely, from the basic bats and assorted minor gremlins to the large gremlin bosses. Gizmo too is drawn very well and looks exactly like he should. The game opens and closes with some nice cutscenes to flesh out the story too.

Sunsoft games feature some of the best soundtracks on the NES, and this game is no different. The music is “lightheartedly dark”, for lack of a better description. Music uses as many of the console’s sound channels as possible and cranks some really high quality tunes out of the humble NES. Sound effects are also well done, clear and crisp.

_{^{Image source: User iRetroGamer on YouTube}}

While licensed games have a negative stigma attached to them, a handful of licensed NES games break that mold. Gremlins 2 looks and sounds great and features fast, difficult but fair gameplay. The game is a bit on the short side, but much longer and they’d would have run out of material to design enemies and stages around. Its still pretty affordable and I think it will hold its value or continue to increase over the next few years, so I’ll recommend the game for NES collectors, fans of the franchise and anyone who wants a nice solid challenge.

Current value:

Loose: $16.99 | Complete: $29.99

Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!

^{Cover Image Source: Giant Bomb}