Retronexus - Neutopia

It'll draw comparisons to the more popular Zelda series for sure, considering the the fact that it's a Zelda clone, this is understandable. But Neutopia has a lot going for it, especially for fans of the Original Legend of Zelda.

You play as Jazeeta, a young warrior who must recover magical medallions, save the princess and defeat the evil sorcerer Dirth. In order to do so, you must travel through 8 different labyrinths and defeat a horrible monster inside. Pretty simple stuff that you've seen all before.

This seems awfully familiar...

Neutopia is Zelda on the TurboGrafx-16. There, that's it in a nutshell. But what makes the game worth playing? There's a few things.

- Take the tried and true dungeon exploring gameplay of the original Zelda.
- Double the size of the world, add some cool new locales to explore.
- Enhance the graphics, make them 16-bit. (This was before A Link to the Past)
- Add a handful of more interesting boss battles.

Voila. You have a game that genuinely improves on the original Zelda formula. The key thing that makes the game better is the graphical overhaul. The game is pretty, all the characters and monsters are well-drawn, the bosses are fantastic looking and the various worlds you explore are interesting and well-designed. The dungeon-design is drab and boring much like Zelda's, but I guess you can get away with that, considering it's a dungeon and all. The Audio is pretty fantastic too, the boss theme is a standout tune.

Old men live behind bombable walls in this game too! Silly old people!

The gameplay is as simple as Zelda was, the only real addition is the upgradable
weapons and armor that are scattered through the various labyrinths, which help in defeating many of the enemies, you also have access to items like bombs and the fire rod. Allowing you to effectively kill everything.

While it's nowhere near A Link to the Past, Neutopia is superior to the original Zelda. If you can get yourself a TurboGrafx-16 and a copy of the game, you're my hero. If you're like me, you'll make due with the the Virtual Console version for only $5. Give this bad boy a shot!

- Kyle K.