Retro game review: Low G Man (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Between the retro classics and hidden gems, there’s another category of games. I call them ‘just there.’ That’s exactly what they are, they’re just there. For some reason or another, they’re forgettable -- not good enough to be a hidden gem, not bad enough to be the subject of an episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd. That’s where I find myself today as I test out Low G Man. For a game library where every retro reviewer seems to turn over every stone for stuff to talk about, this game is very rarely mentioned.

Game publisher Taxan had a short life and only released a handful of games on the NES and Game Boy before quietly fading away into gaming history. Low G Man was one of the games in their small library, so let’s take a look at it.

_{^{Image: photo by retro-room}}

_{^{Image source: User Gameplay and Talk on YouTube}}

In Low G Man, you take control of the titular high-jumping character (hence the “Low G”) and must defeat an alien invasion single-handedly. I don’t know why so many world governments in the stories of NES games think putting the future of humanity into the hands of a single soldier or pilot is good enough, but anyway…

Low G Man is fairly original compared to its contemporaries. While every other game had you running and blasting everything in sight, this game gives you a stun gun and a spear as your primary weapons. The stun gun does exactly that - freezes your enemies in place for a short time. While they’re frozen in place, you can stab upwards with your spear if they’re airborne or down to attack ground-based enemies. Once they’re stunned, you can jump on top of them and attack downwards to dispatch them quickly. They can also be used as platforms when necessary by freezing them wherever you need them.

When killed, some of the aliens drop powerups for your sub-weapons. You’re given a power shot, bomb, boomerang and wave shot, which have limited ammo. Once you switch to a sub-weapon, you’ll need to use it all up before you can get your default weapons back.

In addition, certain enemies pilot vehicles that you can commandeer. By freezing and killing these enemies, the vehicle becomes free for you to take over. From high-jumping walkers to flying machines, you’ll get a number of vehicles you can take over for a short amount of time.

Scattered across the stages are hostages held in, I dunno, they look like phone booths. So you can free the hostages who are held up in these ‘phone booths’, and as a reward they will give you various powerups like extra health, additional lives and dual-shot upgrades for your gun. Low G Man doesn’t have much health, so picking these up is vital.

_{^{Image source: User Gameplay and Talk on YouTube}}

Once you reach the end of the stage, you’ll fight a boss like in practically every other video game ever made. They range from basic to complex. The first level is broken up into three stages and each end with their own boss. The boss of level 1-3 is a huge, two-screen tall robot thing that you have to climb in order to reach its vulnerable head. This boss fight was very tricky and took me a good 15 minutes to figure out the best way to take it down. Yeah, that was the first boss.

Unfortunately, the controls really drag this game down. Jumping is erratic and floaty (he is Low G Man, as in “Low Gravity”). Attacking with the spear is cumbersome and you often have to be lined up just right to attack the aliens above or below you. The screen scrolling is choppy too, which makes the game feel even more clunky. It feels like the game needed a couple more months in development to iron out these kinks, but it was kicked out the door before these elements could be improved.

_{^{Image source: User Gameplay and Talk on YouTube}}

The game fares better than average when it comes to presentation. Graphics are nicely drawn, with well-drawn sprites for the main character and enemies. Backgrounds range from passable to quite good and the environments have a lot of detail and creativity. Bosses are very large and feature some creative designs. The game features a very nice color palette as well (if you can overlook the garish yellow box and label artwork).

The music is definitely above average, with some very well composed and complex tunes full of energy. If the game is overlooked for anything, its definitely the music. Sound effects are average all around - simply nothing special.

_{^{Image source: User Gameplay and Talk on YouTube}}

Low G Man is definitely a ‘just there’ game. While it does a some original things in the standard action platformer genre and it has good graphics and great music, the poor gameplay and jerky scrolling definitely drag it down. I’d love to rate this game higher and declare it a hidden gem, but the gameplay issues keep it from being something I can recommend. There’s just better games like this on the NES. If you’re looking for some deep cuts, maybe give it a try. Just be aware of its issues going in.

Current value:

Loose: $7.53 | Complete: $20.49

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

_{^{Cover Image Sources: Romsmania and User Gameplay and Talk on YouTube}}