It takes a lot of courage to name your game Totally Rad. If it is terrible the game will linger on in infamy for eternity as the butt of endless jokes. If you succeed and the game lives up to its title than you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Totally Rad is one of Jaleco’s better NES titles but isn’t saying much. While it is a solid action platformer I don’t know if would say its name is fully warranted. With a little more polish it could have been great.
In truth a lot of the derision surrounding Totally Rad comes from its localization. In Japan it was called Magic John and featured a fairly innocuous story about a boy trying to save his childhood friend from aliens. It matched the cartoony aesthetic perfectly. That went out the window for the English release. Now you are Jake, apprentice magician to the great Zebedia Pong. Aliens from the Underworld have totally kidnapped your bodacious babe of a girlfriend Allison. Not cool. Now you have to use your gnarly magic skills to get her back and drive the aliens back.
If the surfer lingo above is getting on your nerves you ain’t seen nothing yet. The entire game is littered with it in all of its cutscenes. Not to say the game had an award winning story or anything but the outdated lingo is really grating. It was popular in the 80s but by the early 90s even the Ninja Turtles stopped with that bullshit. Someone at Jaleco thought they were doing the game a service but end up hurting the game in the process. At least you can ignore it.
Totally Rad differs from most platformers in that there are no items or power-ups. You start the game with everything you need. Jake has a psychic blast as his basic attack and can charge it like Mega Man’s mega buster. Next to that you have a large selection of magic spells that cover nearly every situation. You have two healing spells, the ability to stop time, invincibility, three animal transformations and four elemental attacks. Whew. It’s a lot to take in but magic is balanced by the fact you only have one meter that isn’t replenished until the next level. It forces you to balance its use and be conservative.
The best comparison gameplay wise would be a slower version of Mega Man 4. Even that comparison is flawed as both games released near each other. His psychic blast is almost identical but is more limited. You can only fire charged shots from the ground which makes it useless against a large number of enemies. As annoying as this can be it can be worked around. Totally Rad is meant to be played at a measured pace. Enemies are strong and require multiple hits to defeat. Even the midlevel bosses seem absurdly powerful. Enemy placement is deliberate and with your limited magic reserve forces you to be careful at all times.
The level design is not anything special but is serviceable. What is ultimately disappointing about Totally Rad is a lack of polish. Removing any power-ups was a bold choice. Magic is supposed to make up for it but its use is so limited you can’t afford to waste it. That is a shame as you have so many cool spells to play with but can only afford to use two or three per level. It makes the game absurdly difficult as well. Because you need to conserve magic to heal yourself you refrain from using the other cool spells. Damage numbers are completely out of whack; you can sustain four or five hits before death. The boss battles, which are a highlight, can be a slog as a result. With one more pass this could have been a great game as the pieces are there. They just weren’t arranged properly.
While I have my issues with Totally Rad the presentation is not one of them. As a late NES release it certainly looks the part. The first stage features four layers of scrolling where most games in the system’s library feature none. While the rest of the game doesn’t reach that height it still remains impressive. Background detail is incredibly high and the sprite work is superb. This is especially notable in the screen sized bosses. The overall color palette can be a bit gaudy at times. Totally Rad uses every color in the NES palette but still relies heavily on purple which grows tiresome. When that is the worst complaint you can make you know you’ve stumbled on to a winner. At least in the graphics department.
In Closing
I wouldn’t call it Totally Rad but it is still a good game. If you can ignore some of its flaws you’ll find a highly entertaining game. Just skip the terrible cutscenes, you’ll thank me later.
