The Hunt for Red October (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Hi Tech Expressions' 1991 license-based submarine shoot 'em up for the NES, The Hunt for Red October.

The Hunt for Red October for the NES, based on the 1990 film starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin (which itself was based on a Tom Clancy novel), was developed by Beam and released just after the close of the 1990 holiday season.

Like the film, The Hunt for Red October on the NES has you, as Jack Ryan, lurking about in a submarine trying to track down a Russian boat. In order to keep their tech from the Americans, the Kremlin formally requests the aid of the US government in a search-and-destroy operation, claiming concern for the safety of America's eastern seaboard. The Red October is fully capable of launching missiles with nuclear payloads, and the window to intercept is shrinking fast.

So then, you might be asking yourself what this all means when it's translated into gameplay. Is it a strategy game with war scenarios? An adventure game with a heavy focus on military politics? A straight action-shooter along the lines of Sqoon or In the Hunt?

Nope, nope, and nope.

It's a shooter, yes, but it's nothing like those two aforementioned Irem titles, nor is it like any other horizontal shooter I've ever played. The pacing is pretty sedate, and it features surprisingly little shooting. Most levels slowly scroll from left-to-right, and you'll spend the majority of your time trying to avoid environment hazards. Walls will extend out from the background to unexpectedly crush you, rows of pistons force you to carefully time your advance, and mines anchored to the sea floor are always happy to rip your hull wide open if you aren't careful. There are also stages with narrow caves filled with all sorts of rock formations that require absolute laser precision with placement and timing - remember the second stage of Ninja Turtles when you had to swim through the Hudson River, avoiding electrified seaweed while wrestling with really awkward collision detection? It feels very similar to that.

There are enemies, of course, but the majority of the time you won't fight them: if you stop to fight every sub that attacks you, you'll never have enough weapons or power to finish off the stage boss. You just have to do your best to slip by them undetected - much easier said than done.

And yes, I said stage boss. Of course there are bosses. It's an NES game! Whether or not they make sense in context is not the point. Remember in the movie when the US sub had to destroy an underwater military complex, or to blow a hole through a steel wall big enough to drive through?

The final stage, too, is quite the big surprise. Instead of playing like every other level, the game puts you in a platformer-style stage as you search out and diffuse bombs with gun in hand. I'm not sure where they get these submarines, but I've certainly never seen any that had wide-open, ten-story high rooms in them. Watching an 8-bit Connery portrait deteriorate from radiation exposure is novel, though.

The game itself got thoroughly destroyed by the critics of its day, modern critics tend to be even more savage talking about it, and most of the criticisms are completely valid. The graphics are grainy and ugly, the background music is blurpy and strange and insanely repetitive, and the game is way too stingy with resources in the later stages. Without continues, it can become a real slog.

But still, it's not a total loss.

If you're looking for an arcade-style game, look elsewhere. Red October goes for a more heavy-handed, methodical approach. Though reflexes are important, the strategies you use will dictate whether you win or not. The controls are oddly laggy and slow - I think it's an attempt to simulate water physics - but they work well enough the majority of the time.

The cutscenes are thoroughly entertaining, too. The American agent loves to angrily point and glare over the top of his glasses while Nikita Khrushchev mops sweat from his brow and pounds the table when he's irritated, and the game is almost worth playing just to watch how the melodrama plays out. And because it's (probably) the only NES game to feature the likeness of Khrushchev, even if it does leave out his teeth.

Things bog down quickly, though, when the game asks more from you than what the controls are really equipped to handle. Those caves I mentioned earlier - the seaweed-like ones? I won't mince words here - they're abysmal. Sadistic enemy placement and level design really wreck those sequences.

In the end, it's playable, but it's not one of Beam's brighter moments as a developer. Whether or not The Hunt for Red October is worth your time is going to be a matter of personal taste. I had an okay time with it, but I have no burning desire to play it again anytime soon.

I think "meh" sums it up quite well.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

[NintendoComplete]

If only the game had been as entertaining as its portrayal of Khrushchev was, it might've had a shot.

[ice]

There was a trick that I stumbled on where if you destroyed the aircraft carrier, then died before the level cut out, when you got to the next level, you would have 99 lives! I loved this game.

[Juuhazan_]

The most impressive part of this game has to be the wavy effect they have in the title, because otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to learn that this was released in 1991!

[freyafanboy]

Oddly enough I have some very fond memories of this game, played it a lot with my dad and while we never beat it the game always stuck around in my head. I even enjoy the 9 second droning music, never knew it turned into that weird platformer towards the end, it's nice to see a game from my childhood beaten.

[thpuma]

The US representative looks like Steven Colbert 🤣. Loving the old skool graphics on this.

[XiaoFury]

I loved watching my brothers play this game. It gives off Metal Gear Solid vibes despite being in the sub nearly throughout the game.

[Mark-porp]

This was the kind of game you rented from Blockbuster on a Friday.

[aleksandr]

In my opinion, this game has the best soundtrack.

[cratedivizion]

I remember surprisingly enjoying this game

[adamsanter]

Man I absolutely sucked hard at this game, glad to see someone actually beat it

[samuelcarrasquillo]

They Should Add The Tom Clancy Logo
On The Box.

The Hunt For Red October
© 1986/1990 Tom Clancy
All Rights Reserved

[rjcupid]

The base/boss at 16:25 looks like Rare's
NES art style.

[benjiestcor]

This has always been the most frustrating game I have ever played. I never managed to last more than the first 3 minutes of it.😂😂😂😂😂

[YukaTakeuchiFan]

I booted up the Beastie Boys at roughly 25:56 in order to end my punishment for not muting the gameplay. I think letting it run in the background of the final section over the actual soundtrack here was worth it.

Also, is there any story justification regarding why we blew up Sealab roughly 16 minutes in?

[bigduke]

The first and only time I rented this game I was convinced the game was what my brother and I called "eternally glitched" because of the way the water looked. Have you ever encountered a cartridge that always seemed to have its text or sprites distorted every time you turned it on? I thought for sure that was the case with my rental store's copy of this. I was really surprised to find it was meant to look like that.

[vgaoct]

Like a better Hunt for Red October experience? Play the board game adaptation.

[blacki]

that is the smoothest sub i've ever seen

[mikeposnikoff]

They really stuck to the source material for this one, just like the book!

[luispuente]

THESE WERE THE GAMES BACK IN THE DAY LOL

[DANNYTWISTER]

I just read the book. I watched the film years ago.