On a warm summer evening of 1997, the 5 years old me found a disk forgotten at a bench in a park. I couldn't read the label, but my dad had lots of them, so I figured it was something valuable. So I took it home. That was the Shareware version, which only had the intro levels. And while the disk is long gone, I still have the files on my PC. This game was the PC's finest platformer in an era where such a thing was found mostly in Consoles. Dean Dodrill (AKA Noogy) took great inspiration from both Sonic and Mario (Which is blatantly obvious, I mean, just look at Devon ''Dr. King Robowsernik'' Shell....), but he did not just wanted it to imitate them, he wanted to RIVAL them, and it did so, masterfully. Brightly colored graphics, smooth yet fast paced movements, epic soundtrack, plenty of weapons, a metric ton of secret areas and bonuses, challenging (but fair, in an era of NINTENDO HARD) bosses, and enough levels to last you for a summer vacation. And now, this timeless masterpiece can be played and enjoyed by the new generations!
For a game with less than 100MB of size, this game stands WAAAAAY HIGHER than many Million Dollars AAA titles when it comes to survival; not even Fallout:New Vegas or State of Decay can hold a candle to NS when it comes to TRUE SURVIVAL. Which, when combined with Rogue-like makes for a WHOLE NEW GAME every time you play it; one in which you can never know if you'll succeed or fail until either of them shows up (Like that time when I found the Crowbar, some Binoculars and a Sauce Pan on the first town and I thought I was winning, only to freeze to death because I never found any shoes or clothes). Unlike in those games where you charge into a group of enemies with just a knife and an angry roar, knowing that if you die, you can just keep spamming the Load Quicksave button, in this game, you gotta think out real carefully each of your moves. Just as you would do if you were in the player's shoes (or bare feet). This makes the game feel extremely real and complex. ''Do you sneak up on that scavenger to kill him while he's asleep to steal his shoes and his gun? You already know that almost every gun you see lacks ammo, but what if this one's loaded? What if you trip on something and wake him up? You could end up losing all you've gathered so far, and there's a high chance you won't encounter most of that stuff again.'' That's the feeling you get. And that's not something I've been able to feel with any AAA titles. More than once I stepped into the first area just to be torn to shreds by a Feral Dog. Just a warning, tho; be prepared to die a thousand times, even right after the start; once you've played NS for a while, you'll start noticing how merciful had Dark Souls been with you all this time....
