Nightshade and the Things We Never Forget
How a simple new addition to an online library of games can trigger the good memories
As a young boy, I was the proud owner of a Nintendo Entertainment System, as was the desire and goal of any child of my age and my timeline. I played the hell out of that system for several years with its amazing library of games. As fate would have it, we didn’t have a whole lot of money growing up, so our parents couldn’t exactly get us the next-gen systems as soon as they dropped. Well into the 16-bit era, my brothers and I were still getting NES games for Christmas and birthdays, which was fine. Again, my favorite era of gaming was the NES because of how many classic games with replay ability it had. It was a different era of gaming, games made to be completed within a reasonable one-time sitting but with enough allure to keep players coming back rather than now, where games are built for 40-100 hours but are complete endeavors where you might pick them up again after a longer rest time. That’s neither here nor there.
One of those late-era games was a mystery-adventure-detective game called Nightshade. The story is simple. Metro City has a problem with seedy crime gangs, one that has gotten worse ever since its resident superhero Vortex turned up dead. Even more hair-raising, the crime gangs all unionized under the direction of Egyptologist-turned-supervillain Sutekh. You play as the titular character, looking to fill Vortex’s massive footsteps for a city that isn’t impressed that you’ve eschewed tights and a cape for a fedora and a trenchcoat. Most of the action in the game is driven by an observational command system. You walk around and have a menu of actions you can take. This play system is punctuated with a simple battle engine. Your quest is simple – to stop Sutekh. Your objectives, compared to a lot of modern games, would seem paltry in nature, but in 1993, it was a meaty, meaty game. I never quite beat it, but man, did I come close.
Eventually, our family did get a Sega Genesis. It did what Ninten-didn’t, after all. After that, my parents eventually did better and were able to keep more current with our gaming desires. And then all of us got jobs too. Generally, we never were in a spot where we’d be behind on a generation of consoles again. Sometimes, life works out for the working folks, and we’re all able to count our blessings. More and more, that’s becoming a fleeting proposition for more and more Americans, and that’s why I believe what I believe. I don’t to get too far off the lighter road, but it’s just something to think about the next time you see how much money Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk have made during the COVID-19 pandemic. End of digression.
While younger kids are busy playing the games that would become the basis of their nostalgia in future years, old folks like myself like to indulge in their own nostalgia between the newer games that they’re playing. Nintendo players have that option available to them on their Switch systems with the NES and SNES Online, which are basically cloud-based emulators with a selection of games. The NES Online has a weird selection of games for which it has been uniformly critiqued. The classic first-party titles are there, sure, but then there’s a strange selection of third-party titles that few gamers really have familiarity with, which is fine. Playing an old game you’ve never played before is just like playing a new title. Still, nostalgia is nostalgia because you have previous attachments to said game. Perhaps a title like Twin Bee or Shadow of the Ninja evokes memories in a certain gamer, but it wasn’t for me.
Then Nightshade dropped on the NES Online this past Friday, and I too got to feel the selective entitlement that the lone players of the other obscure titles probably felt when those games dropped. It was almost like I had won the lottery. Sure, there were no MegaMan or Castlevania titles, but finally, this niche little weirdo detective simulator with the offbeat sense of humor finally made its way to be played legally once more.
The first thing I noticed was how much of the game I actually remembered. I didn’t sink as much time into this as, say, Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. 3. I didn’t have the luxury of playing it again on both the Wii and the Switch as well. I’m pretty sure it had been at least 15 years since the last time gave that game a spin, and yet it was as natural as riding a bike. The games that imprint on you leave a lasting imprimatur, it seems. The second thing was that even though I knew what to do, actually executing the button pressing was a bit harder than I remember. Was it a function of my old age and slower reaction time, or was it the fact that the controls were either never tight to begin with or had deteriorated with emulation? It took a little while before I could remaster the combat system, so I was getting knocked out in fights I remember easily handling at a younger age.
Overall though, it was a reminder of a simpler time when all I had to worry about was finding out how to defeat the villainous Sutekh and not have to clock in at work or do responsible adult things. It’s the burst nostalgia can provide in short relief. In some ways, it’s even better than a new game, because you at least know where the pitfalls and pratfalls are with the older things. The folks who made Cyberpunk 2077 found that out the hard way. Of course, it’s not perfect, given Nintendo’s shitty track record with enforcing its patents against people who emulate their archived titles without payment first, especially since Nintendo is incredibly shoddy making those old titles available.
Of course, this time around, I completed the game. Again, these games are easier in my old age, even with the deterioration in motor skills. It just goes to show that sometimes, the pleasant surprises can indeed be just that, pleasant.