Little Nemo is a pretty nice looking game. Of course, I mean that it looks nice for 1990, and the basic sprite graphics have not aged poorly. The backgrounds are nice and detailed, and you can tell what everything is when you look at it (if you've played many NES games, you know that sometimes you have to rely on the power of deduction to actually tell what some objects are). There is definitely some noticeable flickering, but this is to be expected with a number of NES games and it doesn't really take away from the experience.
The game controls well and in a simple fashion; I bought the loose cartridge without any manual and it was fairly easy to figure everything out on my own. Nemo jumps and throws candy. Pretty simple for the most part.
The music is catchy and fun. The tunes are pretty nice and will stay with you.
Unfortunately, Little Nemo's difficulty is ridiculous. Extremely ridiculous. In the game, all you have to do is collect keys and reach the end of the level. To achieve this, you have your candy attacks and animals you either ride or transform into. Nemo's candy attack will only stun an enemy for a couple seconds. I haven't encountered a single enemy that Nemo's candy can actually kill. What really makes the candy incredibly ineffective is the fact that the attack is sometimes a hindrance. Because your jump is so low, you rely on the movement of some enemies in order to clear them; when you attack them with candy and stun them, you won't be able to clear them with your normal jump! Also, you cannot attack while climbing, which is fairly annoying when you consider that you will be attacked aggressively whenever you have to climb for something.
A really fun part of the game is the fact that you can ride on the backs of and transform into various animals, including a gorilla, a bee, a lizard, a mole, and an adorable little froggy. Unfortunately, some of the animals are plain defenseless! When you're a lizard, you've basically got nothing but your reflexes because you can't attack any enemies. Riding on the back of the gorilla affords you the ability to punch, but you become such an absurdly large target that you are very easy to hit.
Did I mention that you can't take many hits? Nemo can take three hits, but certain actions like touching a spike will kill him instantly. Some animals will give Nemo a slightly larger health capacity when you're riding them, but it still isn't much. You'll find yourself in numerous situations where you are so easily killed if there are numerous enemies around. As is the case with many games, when Nemo is hit, he flickers for a moment, and you are invincible during this time. With Nemo, this amount of time is far too short.
Out of seven total levels, I've only made it to the third (when playing the game straight through without the level select cheat). The first level can be beaten on your first try without much effort. The difficulty immediately spikes with the second level. The NES is notorious for having games with insanely high difficulty levels. As an unspoiled kid, if I got a game that was really hard, I just kept playing it anyway. I was guaranteed a game on my birthday and a game on Christmas. There were always used games here and there in-between, but you never knew when they were coming, so you had to make due. As a spoiled adult, I have a much different view of game difficulty. I'm fine with a game being difficult and having increasing levels of difficulty as long as I can use the skills that I've gained throughout playing to achieve future success. Examples of this can be seen in numerous games, but to make it simple, just think of fighting games and the Tony Hawk series. If I'm playing a fighting game where I learn a moveset and gain skills with practice, if I'm really good, as I increase the difficulty or move on to another CPU opponent, I'm still going to be pretty good. In the Tony Hawk games, if you've mastered aspects of the game where you understand how to perform tricks and gain high scores, you're always going to be good, even as you're presented with new levels.
In Little Nemo, you can be the best dodger, candy thrower, and key finder in the world, but when you move onto a new level, you will never beat it on your first, second, third, or fourth try. You will need to MEMORIZE, and that's a commitment made only by the most die-hard fans with something to prove. If you do not MEMORIZE and MEMORIZE some more, you won't win.
Please do not take the review to mean that I dislike Little Nemo, I just feel that it isn't a game for me or for most people. Although I enjoy old-school gaming, I do not enjoy the requirement of near perfection that it can require. Modern games can also sometimes require perfection, but generally not for the main quest of a game. Usually, there is some unlockable or achievement that requires a great deal of patience and perfection, but it is optional. If you want a game with a very high level of challenge, pick it up, but if you don't have a very high level of patience, this is not the game for you.
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