Hydlide (NES)

Hydlide

Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System Year: 1986 Developer: T&E Soft

For other games in the series, see Hydlide.

Hydlide is an action role-playing game released on several Japanese home computers in 1984 by T&E Soft. The game was conceived by Tokuhiro Naito, who was inspired by The Tower of Druaga and The Black Onyx. The game was ported over to the NES by T&E Soft programmer Eiji Kato.

The palace where the king lived and the vast green country of Fairyland were secured by the three jewels enshrined in the palace. Humans and fairies lived in harmony while helping each other. However, one of the jewels was stolen by a heartless human's hand. The jewels that were out of place lost their brilliance, and finally the strongest demon Varalys, sealed by the jewels, woke up. The peace of Fairyland has been struck, and the remaining jewels have been blown away somewhere. The devil Varalys took the king's daughter, Princess Anne, turned her into three fairies by magic and hid them somewhere in Fairyland. In addition, the devil Varalys has dominated Fairyland with monsters all over the country. In response to the evil work of this devil Varalys, a young man has risen to replace the peaceful Fairyland. His name is Jim. Jim clothed himself in a sword and armor and dared to flee to the wilderness where the monsters were moving...

While the computer versions of Hydlide were decent games at the time, the NES version received huge amounts of criticism. By the time the NES version was released in North America, The Legend of Zelda (NES) had already released. Some of the game's criticisms include poor play controls, no save feature, repetitive music, and unintuitive interface.

The NES later received a Japan-only sequel, Hydlide 3: Yami Kara no Houmonsha (FC).

Screenshots

The title screen. Fighting a slime in the overworld. Dying is the easiest thing to do in this game. Entering a password. The final confrontation with Varalys. The ending screen.

Music

Hydlide for the NES surprisingly does not borrow its soundtrack from the first game, but instead, the second game for the FM7. Many have criticized the game's audio, in particular, the main theme, as it strongly resembles The Raiders March from Indiana Jones. This is more than a coincidence, as the Ending Theme also bears a resemblance to the song as well.

In addition, most of the songs are only 14 seconds long before looping, meaning that extended play can really make one want to mute the game.

What may be even more surprising is in Japan, the Famicom version of the game received an LP single called Angel Blue, performed by Mayumi Chiwaki. You can listen to it on YouTube.

For many years, it was thought the game's programmer, Eiji Kato, "composed" the game's music. However, the FM7 version, as well as the Famicom version's instruction manual credits the music to Toshiba EMI's Keiichi Maruyama.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Title Screen / Overworld	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	1:10		Download
02	Overworld (Fast)	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	0:36		Download
03	Password	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	1:10		Download
04	Dungeon	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	1:10		Download
05	Death	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	0:03		Download
06	Ending	Keiichi Maruyama	Eiji Kato	1:10		Download

Credits

• Ripper:
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits
  • Not Credited Arranger: Eiji Kato
• Japanese Manual Credits
  • テーマ曲作曲 (Theme Song Composition): Keiichi Maruyama credited as 丸山 恵市

(Source: Japanese manual, game ROM; Game lacks credits.)

The game itself has no in-game credits, but Eiji Kato's name can be found near the beginning of the game's ROM image. Because his name is in the ROM, and because of the quality of the game, it strongly suggests that Eiji had ported everything over himself, including the music and sound effects.

The Japanese version's instruction manual, like many other Toshiba EMI games, credits Keiichi Maruyama for the Theme Song. However, Hydlide II, which this game borrows its music from, gives credit to Maruyama as well, strongly suggesting he was the composer to all the other songs as well.

Game Rip

This rip is missing songs.

Format	Download
	N/A

The Death jingle is missing from the rip.

Audio Devices

The game uses the 2A03 of the Famicom.

Releases

Japan Title: ハイドライド・スペシャル (Hydlide Special) Platform: Famicom Released: 1986-03-18 Publisher: Toshiba EMI     USA Title: Hydlide Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System Released: 1989-06-?? Publisher: Fujisankei Communications, Inc.

Links

• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/563423-hydlide - GameFAQs.
• mobygames.com/game/nes/hydlide - MobyGames.
• w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/2460.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).