The Guardian Legend (NES) Playthrough

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A playthrough of Broderbund's 1989 action-adventure game for the NES, The Guardian Legend.

In this playthrough I went through all of the optional corridors and picked up all of the upgrades.

And The Guardian Legend is nothing if not special.

The Guardian Legend is as unique a chimera as you're likely to find in the gaming world, pairing the fast action of vertically-scrolling shooters with the exploration and light RPG trappings of the action-adventure genre.

It was created by Compile, the legendary development house behind hits like Zanac, MUSHA, Puyo Puyo, Golvellius, Blazing Lazers, and Devil's Crush, and it serves as a real showpiece for the skills that they had honed to this point.

The game begins as Naju, a planet teeming with alien life, is hurtling through space on a collision course with Earth. You play as the Guardian, a bikini-clad android who has flown to Naju in order to avert the looming disaster.

Inside Naju lies a huge network of corridors that connects its core to several different areas that can be accessed from the labyrinth on the surface, and the planet's self-destruct mode can be activated by defeating the creatures that protect the gates in each area.

The Guardian's task, then, is to explore Naju, destroy the gates, set the planet to blow, and escape before she becomes collateral damage.

She searches the hub area and the ten major outlying areas on foot for clues, upgrades, and the entrances to the corridors. These areas play out a lot like the overworld sections do in The Legend of Zelda, and Naju is a big place that'll take quite awhile to fully explore.

You don't have to find everything - the gate keys are the only things that are absolutely essential - but taking the time to max out your defense, shot power, and fully upgrading all twelve of your weapons will make life much easier when you're facing off against some of the game's harder enemies.

If the overhead areas in The Guardian Legend are comparable to Zelda's overworld, then the corridors would be this game's equivalent of dungeons, and this is where the game flips the script: when she enters a corridor, the Guardian transforms into space fighter jet and the game suddenly becomes a vertically-scrolling shmup.

In these stages you can freely switch between the weapons you've collected in the on-foot sections, and when you defeat the boss at the end of the corridor, you'll be rewarded with a power-up, a key, or a gate will be destroyed. There are twenty-one corridors in total, and to beat the game you only have to finish the first ten, but as I said before, it would really behoove you to collect all of the upgrades, and many of them can only be won through beating corridors 11-21.

Both gameplay styles are done so well that they could stand just fine on their own. If you split The Guardian Legend in half, you'd have two excellent, very different games. But the true success here lies in how these halves complement each other in such a way as to elevate the entire experience. What happens in one directly influences how you'll experience the other, and this interaction between them does wonders for selling the game's premise and for justifying the bizarre crossing of genres.

Once everything clicks into place in your head, the two styles start to feel like natural extensions of one another, making for a pretty fantastic experience that I've yet to see matched in the thirty-three years that have passed since The Guardian Legend's release.

It's not by any means flawless: the password system is obnoxious, some of the environments can become repetitive after awhile, and sprite flicker runs rampant through the busier shooter stages, but those are minor quibbles. There aren't many games out there that get as much right as The Guardian Legend does, and it's one of the very best games the NES library has to offer.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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One of the best NES games ever right here.

NintendoComplete
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I’m 43 yo now… and the music and sounds from this game just took me back to 1988, I remember this as being the hardest nes game I ever flipped

ironman
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Yes, this game is S+ Tier on NES, such an incredible MASTERPIECE of gaming!

EuSouRCS
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I would love a true remake/remaster of this game and sequels. One of my favorites!

dovalink
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I have been looking for this game for over 20 years! Played as a kid and some how what I googled today (top down shooter on ground shooter space etc... Whatever the hell I searched) it finally brought me right to this game! (it was a list of best nes Shooters) The guardian legend! Wow. Had no idea the title. The nostalgia I'm feeling right now! Yes! This playthough is gonna bring back some Serious memories. I knew this game was good! But never owned it. Borrowed it from a friend. I'm a game developer these days... Thanks in part to games like this! Some of the music from it has been stuck in my head for decades! So happy to find it! Ok I'll shut up now! Haha

reidprice
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My favorite game on the NES and probably the most underrated in my opinion. And man that soundtrack!

rickn
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I must’ve spent $800 renting this game before I finally bought it. Blew my mind how incredible it was. Only NES game that tops it is Blaster Master.

mattlentry
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This was a game that fascinated me as a kid. It’s like if you take Life Force and mix it with Zelda, Crystalis and Blaster Master, all with a Phantasy Star type vibe. This almost felt like a Sega game to me back then. The soundtrack is amazing. I think if Brøderbund games had had better box art their games would have sold much better and would have been mainstream classics.

rjcupid
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Such a classic. I played this so much as a kid. Need to revisit it again

Grilled_cheezus
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Oh man the Guardian Legend! Of all the games I didn’t own, this is the one I came back to the most. I forget who I borrowed it from, but I loved this game. This and Blaster Master were two games I just couldn’t play enough.

And years later, when I first discovered emulation, this was one of the first games I checked out, and it was every bit as great as I remembered.

I’m surely not alone in wishing there had been a 16-bit update. Imagine Space Megaforce shooting sections with Link to the Past overworld. It would’ve been glorious!

Peter_Morris
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I never understood how to save this games progress, so I got so good at this game I played it all day, got about halfway through then paused at night, left Guardian Legend on pause over night with the t.v. off so my parents would shut it off, then beat the game the day after. I wish they'd remake this game todsy!

jhetling
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I loved this game as a kid and I still love this game and especially the soundtrack. Well, overworld tune can get me zoned out in a less pleasent way after wandering back and forth forever figuring out the puzzles and clues.
However the feeling from the intro stages and into the place with the first letter is something that drove me forward through the whole game, even through the tedious clues and puzzles.
It was epic back then and it is still one of the most epic sensations left in me.
This game left the biggest impression on me through my life as it really opened up to me what games could be.

SocietyFilth
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One of the most underrated NES games. Thanks for the upload!

j.r.
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I remember my mom renting this for me from the local video store. I had no idea what it was and I was super impressed. I don't recall if I ever beat this game, I remember doing well in the shooting levels but maybe not fully understanding where to go in the corridors etc. Either way, what a great game. And the cover art! As soon as I saw it I knew I was in for a treat.

ghostish
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I haven't thought about this game in forever. I love this. Memories coming back

andrewaeymour
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This masterpiece still holds up. So many memories

tpolutts
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Божественный саундтрек. Игра бомба выжимала из денди нес консолей все что можно и по аппаратной и по программной части. 😊

VERHOVNIY.BOG.VSELENNOY
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This game was a real gem! I had no idea what I was in store for when I played this as a kid, and it's influenced me over all these years as game developer. My game Interstellar Sentinel is a love letter to a life long love of gaming. Shooters, umm... Shmups are an extension of that love. Thank you for the content!

DrBossKey
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The Guardian Legend is one of the best games on the NES that deserves a remaster, like Legacy of the Wizard and Sweet Home

mskiara
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I was never able to beat this game as a kid. Now, as an adult... I still can't beat it. Thanks for the memories.

JJ-trcu