Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II

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Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II

Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	March 1994
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Famicom/NES
Media	4-megabit cartridge
Input	NES controller

Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II is a video game released in 1994 by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System as the sequel to the 1990 game, StarTropics. It is the second to the last licensed game released on the NES, Wario's Woods being the last.

[edit] Storyline

The game's main character, Mike Jones, went back to high school after his previous journey. Later, he received a telepathic message from Mica, one of the survivors of planet Argonia and daughter of Hirocon whom Mike had saved in the original StarTropics. She told him how to decode the cipher that his uncle, Dr. Steve Jones, found on the Argonians' escape pod. Mike visits his uncle, who was now living in Seattle. Dr. Jones was hard at work researching the cipher when Mike found him. Dr. Jones believed that the answer to the cipher had something to do with the Oxford Wonder World, a book that he received from a wise old man some time ago. After using Mica's message to solve the cipher, Mike held the book and spoke the cipher out loud. As he said it, he was transported through time to the past.

The first overhead map view in the game Zoda's Revenge - StarTropics 2.

[edit] Gameplay

Zoda's Revenge runs through nine chapters, although the first is story-only. Each chapter besides the first takes place in a different time and place and holds one or more bosses, multiple areas, many weapons, medicine, obstacles and puzzles. And while the original StarTropics took place almost exclusively on a series of tropical islands, its sequel takes place in a variety of locales, such as a caveman era, Ancient Egypt, the Wild West, the Medieval Times, and England in old time periods.

During the game, Mike meets many important historical and fictional figures throughout his journey through time. These consist of Cleopatra, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes, Leonardo da Vinci and King Arthur, who help him to achieve his goal, finding the tetrads (Tetris pieces) and defeating Zoda's three clones.

Unlike the original, Mike is no longer limited to moving in "squares", and now can move in 8 different directions. He now uses various weapons, including Tink's Axe, Cleopatra's Bronze Dagger, and Leonardo Da Vinci's Katana, as well as an upgradable projectile magic attack that he learns from Merlin called the Psychic Shock Wave, as opposed to the Island Yo-Yo, the Shooting Star and the Super Nova he had in the first game. Of note, the main weapon in this game, axe, dagger or katana, stay once you find it, unlike the first game. Instead, the strength of the Psychic Shock Wave is dependent on the number of hearts.