Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: July 18th, 1989
Nerd Rating: 7 out of 10
Reviewed by: bbpower
Grab your sword and shield, gamers, it’s going to be a rough adventure. Willow for the Nintendo Entertainment System is an action-packed RPG that is very similar to the ever-so-popular game The Legend of Zelda. However, this awesome little bargain buy is based a story by none other than the master, George Lucas. Yes, the same guy who came up with STAR WARS! 
Willow is no cakewalk of a game. Players must slowly search through villages for items from the town folks to aid the hero, Willow, in his ultimate goal of stopping a magical Queen Bavmorda from taking Elora Danan, who is a holy baby. The bad guys are relentless and the journey is long, so grab a bag of chips and a couple sodas; you will be playing a while.
As the game progresses, Willow levels up by gaining experience points like in a traditional RPG. Leveling up is easy in this game once you get used to fighting. There is also swords, magical items, non-magical items, and shields found to help him on his way to victory. Players must leave no building entered to find the goods to progress. Everything is stored in an inventory that is accessible at any given point of the game. The items will increase strength, magic, and other stats in efforts to make Willow stronger and more powerful.
The enemies are worth a certain amount of EXP. when defeated. and many of them are difficult to take down. It does not help that Willow is not very fast, either! The enemies move randomly and appear in a flash, which makes it hard to shoot through pathways. The only signal that enemies are appearing is the quick change of music and then BAM, you are under attack. There are a diverse amount of enemies in this game, which makes it fun, but challenging. Also, like many other RPG’s, the battles are randomly encountered and stays on the screen for the fights, so there is no transition into another battle screen. This I liked a lot. Less time transitioning and more real-time battling.
The game will take players through maze-like maps, which are hard to navigate at first. The game has many built-in dead ends, so you may go from screen to screen for a minute or two to only have run into a wall, or bush. The maps are cleverly laid out and most will circle back around for exploration. However, exploring comes with the dangers of running into a monster than may turn Willow into a pig! No joke, you can actually get turned into a pig on the way to beating this game.
Unlike most RPG games, Willow does not have a save function/battery in the cartridge. Capcom used a password system that saves progress and items similar to another fun NES title The Battle of Olympus. I used to think this kind of sucked, because it did not save everything and location, but this game will last the test of time without worry the internal battery will wear out, like many Zelda and Final Fantasy games. There are unlimited continues in this difficult quest, but it takes Willow back to the last village he was in and your experience points are back down to the last level up amount. Your items collected are saved, though, so don’t worry.
As stated above, there is an inventory system that stores all the items found. I liked this aspect of the game and it is easy to use. Everything is categorized for quick equipping and are easily used with a particular button to use the action of the item. 
One of the downsides to this game; it is very easy to die and initially hard to fight off enemies. The first sword equipped is heavy and hard to swing. This makes timing hard and when enemies rush in a flash, it’s hard to counter resulting in huge chunks of your health points gone in an instant. There is a lot of time involved in heading back to villages to heal and leveling up. Arsenals improve as the quest progresses.
I feel like Willow does not seem like a very strong looking main character. He is a youngster wizard and it seems to show in the beginning of this game. Sure he gets better, but it is definitely a Frodo-looking character. He is not much to look at, but he gets much better as the game progresses. This particular RPG has it’s own differentiation from the other NES games that I’ve grown to enjoy while playing this game. It definitely is a challenge that will burn the hours off the clock and melt away a weekend.
Willow is a great RPG game for a low-end NES price. The bang for buck ratio on this game is far above many other ten dollar and under games. I would suggest any retro gamer to snag a copy of this when found and give it a try. It does start off slow, but it builds momentum and will keep you busy for a while. In my eyes, this is an undervalued game that will never gain traction, which is fantastic for collectors, because we will never have to shell out twenty plus bucks for this long adventure. I am proud to say I have a copy on my shelf, which I scored for under three bucks! So, say no to that hot date that wants you to buy them ice cream and score this fantastic RPG! Game on!
