Power Blade No-Death Playthrough (Actual NES Capture)

[Note: This video and description were originally posted on Youtube in January of 2015.]

This is a capture of me playing through Power Blade on the NES. This is not an emulator. This footage was captured directly from my front-loading NES using a real Power Blade cartridge. I'm playing on expert difficulty.

Here's another action platformer that NES gamers may be familiar with. Back in the early '90s I owned an action game for the NES called Shatterhand, and I played it quite a bit. Then one day at my local rental store I spotted a game called "Power Blade," which looked similar to Shatterhand (even the artwork looked similar). I decided to rent Power Blade for a weekend, and although I didn't beat it, the game stuck out in my mind because of how similar it played compared to Shatterhand.

It turns out the similarities weren't coincidental. Both games were actually developed by the same company: Natsume. Natsume pumped out a bunch of action platformers for the NES in the early '90s, and they were excellent games.

I enjoyed Power Blade despite my limited time with the game, so when I saw the game mentioned in another video recently, I finally decided to add it to my collection. I managed to snag a sealed copy off eBay, which was nice.

Since this game was featured in Nintendo Power volume 23 (it actually made the cover), I decided to pull out my old issue and take a look at the maps. Nintendo Power did a great job covering the game and I was able to rely on the magazine alone to complete the game without dying once.

Power Blade plays similar to Shatterhand in that it's an action platformer with a special attack ability. Instead of metal fists, however, you use a boomerang, giving your attacks a much longer range.

Just like in Shatterhand, you can choose the order in which you complete most of the levels, and there's even a special armor you can acquire, except this time it isn't on a timer. The armor actually lasts until you get hit three times, and as long you as you wear it, your attacks will go through walls.

One unique thing about this game, however, is that you to have to talk to a specific person in each level in order to acquire a key card that lets you enter the boss room.

The game is definitely challenging, and there is some really tricky platforming where you have to jump from the absolute edge of a platform, similar to Castlevania III. However, once you get used to the mechanics, you can pretty much sail through the game using your overpowered abilities.

There are two difficulty levels to choose from. Normal gives you 999 seconds to complete each level and doesn't have knockbacks. Expert gives you only 300 seconds and has some knockbacks.

I completed the game on expert difficulty without too much trouble. As you can see, the armor is really overpowered if you can manage to hang onto it.

Oh, and the music rocks in this game. Enjoy!

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and a composite connection at 60 frames per second. I used a Toshiba model D-R550 DVD Recorder to upconvert the NES's native 240p signal to 480i so that the Hauppauge could capture the console's audio/video signal.

I'm using a standard NES controller.