The Guardian Legend (NES, 1989) - Video Game Years History

A look at The Guardian Legend, the shooter and action title released on the NES in 1989.
Join Pat the NES Punk, James Rolfe, Pro Jared, brentalfloss and others as we talk about great games!
The Guardian Legend, known in Japan as Guardic Gaiden (ガーディック外伝 Gādikku Gaiden?), is a 1988 hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game Guardic, and was published and released in Japan by Irem in 1988, in North America by Brøderbund in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo in 1990.
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The Video Game Years 1989 Edited By:
Cameron Behzadpour
Matt Burkett
Coury Carlson
Mark Carr
Jeremy Castiel
Pat Contri
Lance Cortez
John Delia
Joey Desena
Marc Duddleson
Kevin Guillet
Michael Licisyn
Daniel Mitchell
Joe Redifer
David Schulz
Ryan Stout
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[Cannotbetamed]

I never played this one as a kid, but after playing it this year it's one of my favourite NES games. I wish more games had this kind of hybrid gameplay.

[oofta.gaming]

Why hasn't anyone cosplayed as the guardian? Her outfit is bomb!

[FinalBaton]

One of my favorite games of all time. Using the light saber weapons is so damn satisfying in this.
And since there are so many weapons, it's fun to experiment with them to find out wich are more effective against wich bosses, wether in shooter mode or in overhead mode.

[TruePoindexter]

This game was my childhood and it holds up even today as a fantastic game. Highly recommended.

[bigdumer]

So glad that I got this game back in the NES days. I spent years telling everyone it was my second favourite game (after SMB3) only to get blank stares. Now I feel that TGL is getting the respect it deserves. It always shows up on "NES Hidden Gems" lists. Grab a piece of grid paper and go play this game!

[shuichiboy]

My all-time favorite NES game! I still play through it once in awhile. :)

[RealGaming]

One of my favorite NES games of all time. It's damn good.

[Tryphen]

Genre mixing, a Female protagonist, a functional map system, a password check system, hidden shooter-only mode. Beyond being ahead of it's time, considering this game hasn't risen in price all that much, this game is the definition of "Hidden Gem" on the NES library IMO.

[TheDeFiler]

I rented the game not knowing what I was getting myself into. Boy, did I not regret a single second. Transforming into the ship caught me off guard but so well done. Great game!

[IzludeTingel]

There's a website and forum for TGL. theguardianlegend. com and you can see various projects in the works. we want a true sequel eventually, but IREM currently holds the final rights to the title (after contacting them directly). The Japanese version of the game (Goardic Gaiden) (guardic gaiden) is a nice collectors piece (make sure it includes the cloth poster if you decide to pick it up).

[AntigonePoss]

Pat almost fell asleep while Ian was talking!

[mandrias]

I see a lot of people saying similar things and I must concur.... The Guardian Legend is one of my favorite games of all time.

[jordanromaker]

Wow, never heard of this one. Feels very reminiscent of Blaster Master. Looks awesome!

[VirtualRobotsRevolt]

I wanted to get into it. But my copy doesn't load right.

[juliabrnssr]

Oh yes I remember this game. I was left with a barely functioning N.E.S. and a cartridge of Super Mario bros 3 cover in mold and dust.. So I ordered 20 for $20. This was one of the games in the catch. I tried it but could not get past the first level. So I sold it for $1. After getting the N.E.S. functional and beating some of the hardest games I wanted to try again. bought it back again for $1. Took about a month or so (and lots of notes for the passwords) I finally did it and was happy I went back. Now I see a copy of the game once in a while and it's about $10. I laugh because of the money I made but and sad because less people will be interested in buying it for that much. Then again it's mostly emulators now.

[GallowglassAxe]

This is a really awesome game. I never heard about it until a couple of years ago through Cinemasscre (The guys who do Angry Video Game Nerd).

[Tommylop]

I got this when I got my NES. It took me a year before I found out about the adventure parts. You guys should have mention the passwords. For those who complain about Metroid password there simple compare to the Guardiean Legends.

[ARCWuLF]

Truly one of my favorite NES games, but one of the few that I condone emulation over actually playing the physical copy. It's a reasonably long game, and has one of the worst save systems ever implemented in a video game: There is a battery in the cartridge, but the only thing the battery saves is the password, which is incredibly long (if memory serves, 32 characters ?) and uses capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers. Old passwords don't work, and if you wrote down the wrong new one (which was likely) you're starting from the beginning. Never has a game DEMANDED a save-state system like this one.

[Elkdog]

lol Pat looked like he didn't give a flying fuck during this video. I owned this game, but I was pretty young and had no f'ing clue how to progress in the game. I could do the spaceship shooting sections, but then when I was walking around I didn't know where I was going and ended up losing interest every time.

[wess]

My favourite game on the NES. The European version got a way better cover.