Comments on: [I ♥ The PC Engine] Nectaris

By: brandon

brandon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:12:02 +0000

yeah, I was surprised by your lack of famicom wars mention as well – because nectaris, though I really love it dearly, is notable to me as one of Hudson’s early attempts at perfecting a genre piece that someone else had started.

famicom wars – nectaris
zelda – neutopia
mario – bonk
gauntlet – dungeon explorer
wonder boy – adventure island (though this is a sort of different scenario)

By: CRV

CRV — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:38:26 +0000

> Whoa, I never made the connection between Nectaris and the Earth Light games before. I wonder if the series shared any significant development staff?

Earth Light: Luna Strike was developed by Kogado Studio. Don’t know if they had anything to do with the other games…

By: Dais

Dais — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:35:44 +0000

Whoa, I never made the connection between Nectaris and the Earth Light games before. I wonder if the series shared any significant development staff?

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:27:26 +0000

I like captions a lot, especially for a game that is boring to watch like this one. Your viewers can always turn them off if they’re too much.

By: Esteban

Esteban — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:40:55 +0000

..and the music + sound effects are wonderful in Nectaris. One of my pet peeves is when sound effects are annoying. For me, Nectaris has really yummy sfx that I haven’t gotten sick of, even after 20 years. Plus, I think some cell phones borrowed some (or one) sfx for their UI.

My favorite aspect of Nectaris, from a puzzle-solving perspective, is the role “conservation” plays. Every last unit is precious, and you discover ways to use seemingly useless units (for example, anti-air units can be repurposed after you eliminate your opponent’s air force, if only to block/surround your opponent).

Consevation won’t win every battle, though. When you do decide to sacrifice some troops, you bite your nails hoping that your calculated suicide run will pay off.

The challenge ramps up nicely in Nectaris, with Hunters (Death with wings) quickly becoming the bane of a player’s existence. Sometimes, the path of least resistance is to focus on capturing your opponent’s base instead of decimating every last soldier. Needless to say, these two approaches require vastly different tactics, particularly in the later stages. .

By: keving

keving — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:26:28 +0000

I wanted to mention Famicom Wars but never quite got around to it. I think I will add that.

Nectaris is way better however *crosses arms*

Also the video was mainly a test of video capturing for me, so I just let it run on CPU v CPU mode while I futzed with things.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:14:28 +0000

Never played this game, despite hearing about it over the years. One thing I’m struck by after reading the description of the combat system is that the Gundam strategy game series Giren no Yabou apparently borrowed VERY heavily from Nectaris.

By: Jan Larres

Jan Larres — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:16:22 +0000

As much as I love Nectaris, Famicom Wars came out a year earlier and was probably a more direct predecessor of Advance Wars (and possibly other games):
http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/famicom-wars

Also, you did a pretty poor job at this Nectaris level