A while ago, I started up Power Blade for the first time, and managed to get through four stages without much effort. I quit for the night and didn't touch the game again until last week. I started anew and blazed my way through the "normal" difficultly. I knew I would be re-playing through on "expert" difficulty, so I drew maps of the stages as I played.

Each stage has several branching paths, a contact person you must reach, some dead ends, and several powerups. It is no problem to fully explore on the normal setting, as you have plenty of time. However, the expert setting limits you to 300 units (seconds?), which is just enough to grab a powerup or two, the ID card from the contact, and run to the boss room. When I played on the expert setting, using my maps, I was able to reach each boss room with 70-100 time units to spare.

Even on "expert", this game is very easy. I almost made it through the whole game without a single death. Unfortunately, a surprise attack on stage 2 in mid-jump sent me to my doom. This would have been on-fatal on the normal setting, but expert adds a knock-back effect when getting hit. I was able to complete the entire game in under an hour.

The music in this game is fantastic. The graphics are okay. There is a very small variety of enemies, and animations are comprised of very few frames. The boss battles are rather weak and completely lacking challenge or excitement. Even the final boss pattern is immediately obvious.

I'd definitely recommend this game for a play-through or two. I wouldn't go out of my way to acquire the game if you haven't already. Certainly do not pay much for it if you do. This is one of those games which is literally one day's worth of entertainment.

I agree. Power Blade is an easy game on normal mode. I beat it on normal and died maybe once. It definately wasn't on the hard side. It is fun though and I also recommend it to people. It isn't an expensive game and is a good quick game to play if you don't have too much time. I didn't try it on expert. I may one day though.

Yep. Super fun game. Super easy, but fun game.

I like Power Blade, but it's definitely too easy. I've never played the second one, so I'm not sure about it.

^ I feel like the second one is a huge let down when compared to the first

Oh yeah!If you think the original is easy ,by all means try the sequel!The second game is harder in my opinion .

I beat the entire game in under 28 minutes, recorded the proof for twin galaxies too, that was back in 2008 or so. I lost the tape though and have not been able to find it since. Still a great game though.

Zing - you are The Power Blade Master...

You should use this pic as your own here on NA!



Space Jockey... you are the Keeper of the Dragon Warriors...

I am a man of many talents   Also if I rememeber correctly, the boss on World 2 is a dragon.  Might need one of my Warriors to help out with it.  As well as the boss on Mega Man 2 Wily Castle 1 I believe, giant dragon.  Fun fact: That dragon on MM2 is also beaten with boomerangs...connection maybe?

Play Shatter Hand if you liked Power Blade. Basically the same thing and Shatter Hand is a bit more challenging.

Shatterhand's a tough one, much more difficult than Power Blade. Both are great, though. I've played through Power Blade several times. I've only played through PB2 once and it was certainly more difficult than the first, but not as fun. The game was more about obstacle avoidance than killing things with your kickass suits and boomerangs.

It's easy, therefore it $ucks. Naw I don't agree with that.

It looks great, sounds great, controls great, has some nifty power ups, and is all around a fun experience. The non-linear approach to the levels is refreshing, it gives it a good sense of exploration as going off the beaten path usually yields short cuts or power ups. Of course if you are doing back to back runs and using a map, I could see that taking a lot taking a lot of the fun and challenge out of it.  Though if you didn't like it the first time, I don't know why you would play it again.

It isn't without its flaws, but I don't think they outweigh the enjoyment you get out of the game. If someone already has the Mega Mans, Castlevanias, and Ninja Gaidens, then Power Blade is well worth checking out. It is cheap and common enough that I don't see a reason to pass it up.

Power Blade 2 is a step down in almost every area. Worse graphics, worse sound, less levels, and the levels are much more straight forward. The only upside is the ability to use different suits. The game is harder but mostly due to more one hit death obstacles and enemy cheap shots. Not awful, but if you are fan of the first you will be letdown.

Shatterhand is excellent. Similar gameplay but different gimmick. Another one to check out if you need a lesser known action title.

I thought I had made a thread detailing my Shatterhand experience. I searched and it was actually over on the Racketboy forum. I guess that was during my hiatus from here.

The difficultly and challenge level of Shatterhand was perfect for me. I really enjoyed it, and the music is some of the best on the NES. It also has impressive graphics, complete with parallax scrolling and minimal flickering. It reminded me of Sunsoft's Batman. I tried to no-death that game as well, but I kept dying on the final level.

This game is easy?

Yep, rented it years ago and beat it the first day. Good game but way too easy.

Yes, I also beat it the first day.
The sequel is more challenging.