Game review: Operation Secret Storm (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Nintendo had very strict licensing requirements during the NES era -- a single company could not publish more than 5 games a year, they had to buy cartridges from Nintendo and they could not publish the same game they put on the NES on competitor's systems.

Some companies wanted to publish on the popular NES console, but didn't want to follow Nitnendo's rules. This led to the infamous 'unlicensed' NES games produced by companies like Atari offshoot Tengen, Camerica and Color Dreams (which later became Christian publisher Wisdom Tree). These games were notable for their cartridges that stood out in black, gold and blue and the designs differed from the iconic NES gray carts.

The early 90's was an interesting time. Iraq became a threat to the Middle East and after they moved their army into Kuwait, the US intervened to repel the invasion in Operation Desert Storm. Saddam Hussein became a household name and the subject of ridicule during this time, which led to the creation of this interesting unlicensed NES title.

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Operation Secret Storm is one of the few games released by unlicensed publisher Color Dreams, where a secret agent (conveniently named George B) fights the entire Iraqi army to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

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In Operation Secret Storm, you take control of "agent George" and have to singlehandedly reach Saddam Hussein to take him down. Rather than equip this single agent with a strong arsenal of weapons, they sent him in with...nothing. This game is a beat-em-up.

As you begin, you'll instantly be put off by the slippery, unresponsive controls. You have several attacks available to you, a basic punch, a jump kick and a worthless knee attack. Within a few steps of dropping into the first stage you'll meet your first enemy. A few punches and they'll go down.

The first stage is walking forward until the game generates two or three enemies that you have to defeat before you can continue and it ends with a battle against a giant bird.

Once you reach the second level, any possible enjoyment the game had vanishes. Enemies are more aggressive and are now equipped with guns. Your punches are kind of useless here as the jump kick becomes the only reasonable method of attack, as the hit detection in this game is terrible.

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Gun-toting enemies are introduced here and they will fire on you relentlessly, so jumping is a necessity. If they corner you on the edge of the screen, dodging their fire becomes extremely difficult. Add that the bullet sprites cause screen flicker, making them sometimes invisible. INVISIBLE BULLETS.

I managed to reach the end of the second stage, but holy hell its unfair. The boss of the second stage is a guy on a camel. This boss jumps and fires volleys of bullets at you that are nearly impossible to dodge.

After falling to this boss, I turned off my console and decided I'd had enough of that.

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The visuals of Operation Secret Storm are adequate, though far from impressive. For a game released in 1992, it's appearance shares more in common with games released around 1986 like Kid Niki and Deadly Towers. Colors are fairly vivid and some backgrounds are fairly interesting, but for the most part everything lacks polish. Animation is basic, character sprites are clunky and sometimes downright bizarre and most of the game is overwhelmingly blue and yellow.

Sound and music fares worse than the graphics, with a single bland tune that repeats throughout the entire game. Big chunks of the tune only feature a single instrument, which really makes it seem like the sound designer cranked out the main theme for this game in an afternoon and called it good. Sound effects are decent, but below average.

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Let's be honest, Operation Secret Storm is a bad game. Not the worst I've played on the NES, but within striking distance. What I will say about this game is that it has some novelty thanks to its absurd, over-the-top Desert Storm-era theme.

Look no further than the instruction manual, which has some elements that seem like they were ripped from a 13-year-old's notebook scribbles. I took some photos, because these just need to be shared.

^{_{Image source: photo by Retro Room}}

^{_{Image source: photo by Retro Room}}

If you want to actually own this game you should know its definitely one of the more rare and expensive games, but not worth the cost unless you need it to fill a gap in your collection.

For everyone else I'd say to steer clear of this game.

Current value: $132.98 complete / $78.00 cartridge only

Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!

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