Gremlins 2: The New Batch

The Good
Gremlins 2 was a fairly fun movie, even though, or because, it refused to take itself seriously. The games based off it all sucked, though. Except for one. Sunsoft's effort for the NES was different from the games on the other platforms. On the Amiga, Gremlins 2 was a horrible platformer. But on the NES it was a great top-down action game with Mogwai in the lead role.

Much like the equally excellent Batman-game from Sunsoft, Gremlins 2 is far from faithful to the movie. But this is no bad thing. We recognise some of the environments and enemies from the film, and the ending is the same. But most of all, Gremlins 2 is genuinely adapted into a video game, and all the better for it.

Mogwai scuttles around, killing mice, bats, giant tomatoes (!) and, of course, badass gremlins. All while avoiding traps and holes and the occasional lava pit. It's a quite difficult game until you master it, but once you've done that it can be beaten easily. I played though it again yesterday for the first time in over 15 years and I didn't lose a single life (it was close on the electric gremlin boss, though).

The graphics are excellent, some of the best on the NES. I also like the typical Sunsoft aesthetics, with the slightly dark tone to the graphic style. It's gritty and cute at the same time.

The music is good, as always when Sunsoft is involved. It's not as good as in Journey to Silius, but it's good. The SFX are adequate and they do their job. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

Gremlins 2 on the NES is an overlooked little gem of a game.

The Bad
Gremlins 2 isn't perfect, but it hasn't got any huge, obvious flaws. It does, however, have some minor annoyances. The first is the store. On most levels you can find a store where you can buy one of three things. Nothing wrong with that, but it's kind of pointless to have you buying the things, since you quickly and easily gather more "money" than you could ever spend. It's no big deal, but it's slightly dumb.

The game is quite short. As soon as you get the hang of the game, you can rush through it easily in a short amount of time. On the other hand the game can be forgiving to new players. It's one of those weird games that seem too hard at first, and almost too simple when you learn how to deal with the many, many sadistic perils in the game.

The Bottom Line
An overlooked licensed game that is actually good. Up there with other good Sunsoft games like Batman and Journey to Silius.

The Good
Video games based on films (like games based on a cartoon or comic books character) have a nasty habit of being really, really bad, if not utter rubbish.

This is not the case with Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The game features cool 8-bit graphics, animation, sound and game play. Heck, it even has a storyline, told through nice cut scenes, that follows the film.

In a nice touch, Mr Wing, who had a small role in Gremlins 2, appears in the game to sell you valuable items.

Hats off to the folks that made this game! It is a really fun, well programmed game, and one of the best film-to-video game adaptions for the NES.

The Bad
Gremlins 2 reminds me of an early, 8-bit version of Elite, Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Herc's Adventures. All games that I enjoyed very much.

To that end, it would have been nice of 2 players could tackle Gremlins 2 together, even through that would have been difficult to successfully work into the game.

Likewise it would have been nice if Gremlins 2 featured more levels and a bit more choice in your weapons.

Yes, the levels offered are fun and, yes, I like the weapons given. But you do not have too much choice in the weapons that you use to fight enemies.

Likewise the levels are not really designed to explore too much, unlike other

The Bottom Line
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a video game, based on a film, that is actually fun to play. Everything about the game demonstrates real care, creativity and talent on the part of its developers.