Review of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance (NES)

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance is a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 developed by U.S. Gold. It's got a reputation as being one of the worst games ever released on Nintendo. So does it hold up or is it more a product of blind hatred? Let's find out.

Story : Well since this a role-playing game I assume there's some story but unfortunately I have no idea what it is. I'll assume it's a generic ''band of heroes form to save the world from evil''. Really though, they don't tell you in the game so good luck figuring it out.

Graphics : The graphics on this game are not very good. In fact, that's being quite kind. The effort put forth on the graphics in this game could be considered minimal at best. There's really no detail in anything. The backgrounds are bland, the enemies are just generic looking masses of pixels. The heroes can look pretty decent from far away if you squint. No, truthfully, the heroes have almost no frames of animation making them very boring to watch.

Sound : Here's another area of the game where it seems like they must have have had one person developing the game. There's not many sound effects in the game, and the ones that are in there are underwhelming and often cringe worthy. The music is in the same boat, it fits but there really isn't much to listen to.

Game play : Well, this is unlike any other role playing game I've played. Basically you have a party of eight people, but you don't control them all at the same time. Instead, when one dies you take control of the next. If there's a way to resurrect dead characters, I couldn't figure it out. Navigation in this game is also a pain. I had to look up a FAQ just to figure it out, which I wouldn't have had had I played this game as a kid. What a cruel game.

The game's major flaw is basically it's insane difficulty. Nothing is explained. You're thrown right to the wolves and are expected to run the gauntlet armed with no information at all. Even after I read the FAQ, the game was still absurdly difficult. I feel bad for anyone that paid for money for this game.

Re playability : I promise you won't even make it through this game once, let alone play again.

Overall : 1/10. If you're an absolute die hard D&D fan or a die hard fan of the books, you may find the resolve to make it through this game. For the rest of us, this game is better off erased from our memories.