Small-Time Superhero Coming Through! Let's Play: Nightshade

Aw, finding Vortex's hideout would have made me weep with joy had I played this as a kid.

You can’t tell form the static shot, but the scroll is now blinking, supposedly to indicate that a Force Dome is over it. Sutekh won’t be drawing any more diabolical energies from THIS ancient piece of paper!

You also can’t tell from static screens, but Nightshade freakin’ CRAWLS everywhere when walking. I really wish there was a way to speed him up other then turning on frame-skip.



Crown is also safely Domed. Two down, 2 to go!



Trying to do anything to the Diamond isn’t a great idea, since an invincible Mummy comes to life to unleash the Curse of the Ancients upon Nightshade. The Curse takes the form of it slowly trampling you to death while you futilely trying to hit it back. We’re going to have to work out some way of getting rid of that Mummy if we want to Dome up that diamond.

The coffins offer up the hint that Talking to a Cat will let us talk to Baast. Which is pretty nice, I guess.



Baast says Meow?

That cat kind of looks like Snarf…



This bit of Ancient Egyptian graffiti is considerably more helpful.

Since I’m in the neighborhood, I drop into the Old Man again, to see if he’s suitably impressed by my displays of heroism.

Jerk. Looks like he still won’t give us the time of day until we take down one of the members of the Cloying Grasp.



Looks like that crazy old crocodile statue WAS the Spirit of the River mentioned WAAAAY back when. Glad that’s been cleared up.




Now knowing their secret weakness, Nightshade decides to ruff up those Statues he ran away from earlier.



This is one of the games few fights against more then one enemy. As these are statues, they are normally pretty resistant to punches, however, when they are spinning, their defense plummets and you can knock them clear across the screen with one blow.

The trick is to jump over them, turn and start punching low. Low punches travel farther and you can smack them just as they turn around. Alternatively you can wait for them to teleport, and hope that they reappear facing the wrong direction.

The fight would be a snap if there was only one Statue, but two makes it pretty tricky.



Having smashed TWO villains in one battle, Nightshades Popularity is almost maxed out! Now back to the Hideout, so as I can dress my wounds and contusions.

West of the Statues is a massive Statue of Sutekh, filled with Beetle-Shaped holes. Now, one of the papers in the Archive mentioned Sutekhs statue of himself, and I do have that Scarab clogging up my inventory, so it’s entirely possible that these are related.



Using the Scarab on the statue causes one of the notches to fill up. Most likely the way to Sutekh’s TRUE lair will be uncovered if I fill in the rest of those Holes.

This is just a theory, since I’ve never played this game before and haven’t even glanced at a FAQ.

Nothing else is near the Graveyard, so I head south and west to another heap of taciturn kitties, and some more hieroglyphics.




The Writing isn’t very helpful, but it makes Nightshade feel more powerful, so who am I to complain.



Oh… err… reading that writing makes it so I can talk to cats now. This is the first actual super-power Nightshade acquired, unless you count the Hyper-Spatial Coat and Wallet. It seems that the Talking Cat has advice with regard to putting a Head Piece on a Staff. I’ll keep that in mind.

Just south of the Talkative Cat is a room with a pipe that is dripping concentrated acids. Nothing else here, so lets press on.

The next room has two more statues and a piece of paper. The paper is likely helpful, but we can’t get it without busting some rocks.

Lets Action Fight!




These two go down with much less hassle then the first two, and even offer a hint for having crushed them to death. How nice of them. Of course learning that Sutekh has Super Ludicrous Psychic Powers is less encouraging.



This list seems to confirm what I already suspected: Sutekhs Mystic Items are the Crown, Scroll, Diamond and a Statue.

That’s all it says and there’s nothing else down here. So it was mostly a wasted trip but, hey, I maxed out the Popularity Bar. Now people will be marginally nicer to me!



Leaving the Complex shows that the Headpiece of Ra is in that crevasse from earlier. Either I overlooked it, or my rampant statue beating caused it to appear. I don’t care which, I’m grabbing it.

On my way back from the Hideout, I once again stumbled across the Rats scurrying across the manhole, and remembered what that kid said earlier about The King Rat living down here. I’m not getting any more popular, and I can talk to cats now, so that Mousy Bastard doesn’t stand a chance!



Ahh, I guess that the Blessing of Baast lets me talk to all animals, instead of just cats. Suck on THAT, Aquaman!



The Sewers are a bit of a maze of pipes valves and cranks. But luckily there’s a nearby manhole that looks promising.



I’m thinking that a Boil-Order wouldn’t help the Metro City water supply.



South of the Water Room is a Pizza Delivery Boy, offering Pizza to a gentleman in the sewers with an Italian name. He isn’t that discriminating though, and gladly parts with his pizza for a mere $10 from The Wallet.

East of the Pizza Dude (seriously, that’s his name), is another Giant Rat. Lets Give Him What-For!

ProTip: You can punch rats to death!



Well, I guess that explains the highly corrosive water in Metro City. King Rats been making a mint by dumping chemical run-off into the reservoir! At least, that’s what I’m assuming he’s done. The game is pretty vague on what, besides the name, makes the Cloying Grasp of Evil so… evil.



Another few featureless rooms over and we arrive at another menacing door, beyond which is a Box containing a square keyhole. Beyond that room…

This game looks like it'd be right up my alley.

(My alley likes puzzle-y NES games.)

It’s him. Dead things tend to smell, Nightshade, especially when buried under the sewer.

In this case, however, it’s Poison Gas. Shade quickly dons his Gas Mask that he got earliar and treks forth.



Incidentally, you’ll notice that my health is quite low now. I won’t go back to heal because there are some unavoidable traps nearby that will finish me off before I can get back to the hide-out, and even if I could, the Healing Booth has gone Out of Order.

Luckily, a quick consultation on Gamefaqs indicates that Operating Food or the First Aid Kit will restore health. Keen.

It also transpires that I failed to save when I stopped played earliar, so I’mma doing the start of the sewers again. And, in so doing, I discovered another region further east of the entrance.




The new chamber contains a rat who leaves some parting words on his way to vermin-hell. Save it for Rat-Satan, Mousey!



The Rat was speaking true, however, since the pipe was vulnerable to crowbar violence, and revealed a switch such a well guarded switch is obviously important, but I have no idea what it did. If anything.

My health was low, so I headed to Als Grocery Store to buy food. I miss the Healing Booth, and kind of wish there was an indication that there was a hard limit of how often it could be used.




I also converse with a friendly squirrel. Thank you, Gift of Baast.



Unlike the rest of the squirrels, these ones don’t talk, but “Look very hungry”, a quick snack of Hot Nuts delights them, causing them to run off and bring me back an Amulet. .



Specifically it’s a Rat Guard Amulet of Baast. Good ol’ Baast, always lending a helping paw/hand/whatever a cat goddess has.



My continued wanderings in regions of Metro City which I daren’t dream yields another store (this one selling Fine China) and an abandoned box.



It’s not a pun, it really is a Red Herring.



The China Shop has two employees. One of which tells me that Evil Tidings are a foot, the other saying that I’m his hero. There’s also a Statue of Anubis nearby. You think I should Dome it? I think I’ll dome it.

I can’t dome it. I can buy it, however. I’m sure it’ll come in handy. Or else it will clutter my inventory. Either way.




A ways away, in the extreme South-Eastern corner of the city is another Museum. Complete with an art critic.

You mean superheroes?





The next room has another of Sutekhs Two-Dimensional Bodyguards and a creepy statue with a sword. The Statues attack, but I’m a pretty deft hand at taking them out now, so they collapse fairly easily.



Behind the creepy room is a statue of Sutekh: The Destroyer. THIS ONE I can Dome, preventing its EEEEEvil magic from being stolen.



I love this game.



Another heap of infinite cash fully restores Nightshades health and belly, and he is off again!



West of the burning building (which is still on fire, I might add), I find another building which I have never seen before, guarded by a Ninja… who is just standing around punching the air.




The air can’t defend itself, so I’m going to help it fight back!

One smotten ninja later, and the way into this building is open! The writing, incidentally, just goes further to elaborate what’s already been made abundantly clear Re: What treasures need Force Domes over them.





A man with a distinct, baboon-like face appears at the door and speaks:




So Sutekh isn’t actually the reincarnation of some ancient Egyptian guy, he’s just some shmuck with a dog mask.

With the REAL Staff of Ra assembled (the other, it turns out, was just a cheap forgery), I now have the power to obliterate mummies. Kind of a limited use super-power, but considering how Shade’s Arch-Enemy is such a big fan of them, it’s pretty useful. The Staff only has about 8 charges, so it’s a good thing there aren’t that many Mummies in the game. The Staff can also work on other things, but the rest of the games enemies aren’t nearly as hard to beat as the mummies.

Up Next... TRAGEDY!

I'm sorry, but where did I miss how infinite cash was obtained? Is this is a glitch?

You'll find out.

Said with a sly wink and a quiet nod.
It's totally NOT infinite, but I was under the mistaken impression that it was. This revelation came too late to help me.

Between this and the healing booth, I worry for your personal finances, sir I keeed, I keeeed

Wow, having the healing booth be limited in use STINKS. That's just evil design.

No, what stinks is that there is NO indication that there is a limit at all.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the game said "Oh, there's only enough charge for about 4 or 5 uses" when you got it, or some such.

The bad news is that the Quantum Wallet has been emptied.

IT WOULD BE REALLY FREAKIN’ NICE IF THE GAME TOLD ME ABOUT THESE LIMITS!




Just south of The Professor is a Restaurant swarming with Ninja Waitresses. I’m not about to skuttle about fighting them, so I plow on.



Behold, the first actual Boss Fight! The Ninja Mistress!



The Mistress is pretty much the exact same as any other Ninja, except with more health, and instead of shurikens, she tosses a floating bomb at you. She falls (but not before I take many a lump) and leaves behind one of the Scarabs I needs.



Ninja are, by far, the most annoying enemy, and now we don’t have to fight them anymore.

Hooray!




At this point I got stuck and had to consult Gamefaqs. It seems that, due to me having not bought enough Hot Nuts from the Hot Nuts man, and possessing no more money with which to buy nuts (hot or otherwise), I cannot enter the Pyramid Club, which means I can’t fight Lord Muck, which means I can’t get his Scarab, which means I can’t fight Sutekh, which means I can’t beat the game.

So, what we have here, is apparently the games lone instance of showing the darkest side of the Adventure Genre: It being made unwinnable due to an easily made blunder several hours ago.

…so I’mma has to start the game over again.

Luckily, despite the length of this LP thus far, I should be able to retrace my progress pretty quickly, ideally making fewer mistakes. Also luckily, I love this game, so replaying it doesn’t make me sad.

Hooray!

~Time Passes~

Allprevious mentionings of Nightshades adventures happened on Earth 2, of course. On Earth-1 there’s a very similar hero, ALSO named Nightshade who has the same abilities of a preposterously deep coat, the ability to talk to land-mammals and a Fantastic Anti-Mummy Staff who walked forth.

Incidentally, things I’ve Discovered on my Second Playthrough:
You can only enter Vortex’s Hideout if your Popularity is in the Blue, the Professor will only give you the Staff if your Popularity is Maximum, the Urn cuts Ninja’s health in half, and when it comes to talking to non-cat animals, the magic was inside Nightshade all along.

Now that the Ninja Empress has been thusly dealt with, Nightshade returns to the Museum, Anti-Mummy Staff at the ready.





One blast is enough to rip the wrappings off the mummy, and causing it to be embarrassed and run away. Seriously, that’s what happened.

Deprived of its Guardian, the Diamond can be easily fitted with a snug, secure Force Dome.

Though I didn’t get any shots of it, I also bribed the Hot Nuts man enough that he gave me the ability to enter the Pyramid Clubs back door.




Skulking about, Nightshade finally noticed that there was something amiss about a Signpost bearing Vortex’s insignia. Looking at it reveals the location of a Whistle. The Whistle can drive away certain small mammals, specifically bats. Which is nice, because bats are annoying.



Since I’m armed to dispel bats, and a deft hand at smashing rats, I head off to fight the King Rat again. This time knowing that I have to Pick Up a hidden crank found under the puddle, and I know not to pull every lever (since many of them increase the Water and Steam flow in other parts of the sewers, making advancement quite treacherous).





Using the Crank in the Square Box apparently stops the Poison Gas from filling the room that Vortex was left in. It also drains a Manhole, allowing access to deeper parts of the Sewer System.

Well, only one part of the Sewers. The Lair of the King Rat! Like how the Ninja Mistress is a modified Ninja with more health and a new attack, the King Rat is a Rat Man with more life and a new attack. His new attack is short range, however, so it’s not so bad. Point in fact, he’s easier then most Rat Men, and they’re wimps. To his credit, he moves really, really quickly.



The King Rat falls, leaving behind another Scarab. 3 down, two to go.



First off, I head back to the Hideout. I still have 2 uses of the Healing Booth, and a light breeze is lethal with the health bar so low.

That taken care of, it’s in to the Rear-Entrance of the Pyramid Club, by way of the kitchen.



This is pretty much the most asinine puzzle in the game. There’s no real indication that buying multiple packs of Hot Nuts outside the club is the secret to getting inside, and, as previously noted, it’s entirely possible to run out of money before buying the afore-mentioned Nuts. Luckily, this is not an issue this time, so we have free reign over the Kitchens.



Man, that running gag never gets old.



Slight variant there. I like it. It makes less sense, but whatever.



The Pyramid Club is the secret headquarters of all those crazy British guys I’ve been pummeling all this time. While the British guys are less dangerous then Ninja’s, Thugs and Mummies, they’re vastly more difficult to fight then Rats and Statues. So I’ll try to avoid combat as much as possible until I find the kingpin.



An off-handed glance at the moose reveals a fairly clear hint. Unfortunately, it seems that the two Dapper Gentlemen are between me and it, so it looks like we must resort to mindless violence afterall.



I think I’ve already mentioned how much I love this games writing.



Here the two Gents fight me simultaneously. As previously mentioned, these Limey jerks are middlesome for difficulty, even individually. In a group they’re especially bad.




Not that they’re unstoppable, just irksome.



Twisting the Moose’s antler causes a secret entrance to open. I thought it was weird that such a large club only consisted of the two rooms.

Up Next: Peril in the Eyes of Muck!

It’s Lord Muck! Who looks identical to any other British Gent! Except he has a cane!




Like the other members of the Cloying Grasp, Lord Muck has a couple of different moves then their henchmen; His swirling cane means he can move and attack simultaneously, and instead of tossing his cap, he causes rocks to fall from the ceiling, somehow. Fortunately, he isn’t much stronger then his minions.



Mad Lord Muck falls after some consternation, and Metro Cities plague of portly British stereotypes has fallen. Lookin’ good Mr. Shade! One more Crime lord to go and then it’s on to Sutekh!



The only place left is the Mysterious Green Building guarded by a thug. After a few seconds of waiting, an elevator also descends nearby. Logically, you need to leap on top of the elevator when it drops.




The roof of the building contains a fuse box which is securely screwed on. After using the screwdriver to de-secure it, the fuse box can be deactivated. The rear of the building (I guess) is armed with a ridiculously gigantic rifle. It doesn’t do anything, so supposedly flipping that switch deactivated it.



The third side of the building has another machine gun and a ladder to the roof.



Why yes, Nightshade, I bet you could.



Theoretically, bashing down the grate with a crowbar may not have been the most stealthy of plans, luckily, this is not a sneaking mission, so I don’t care.



Surprisingly, Goliath isn’t a slightly modified sprite for a Thug. And, as his name suggests, he is very, very powerful.

And he’s dressed to blend in to the carpet of his office!



Goliath is easily the toughest enemy so far. He’s simply too powerful for any of your attacks to even slow him down, let alone damage him. Occasionally he puts his head down and tries to tackle you, if he does this while close enough to the edge of the screen, he’ll hit a wall and be stunned for a few seconds, leaving him slightly vulnerable. Usually not enough to knock off more then a single notch of his life bar. About your only advantage when fighting him is that he’s incredibly slow, and his attacks are easy to dodge.

Also, during this fight I learned that by pressing Up and B I can kick, and kicks are much more powerful then punches. Good to know.





Now almost the entire Cloying Grasp of Evil has been defeated, and all 5 Scarab Keys have been found. All that’s left is to unseal Sutekhs lair and beat seven shades of crap out of him.

And as for that old man who said he would help us way back when?

He wasn’t particularly helpful after all. So in order to defeat Sutekh I have to… beat him up. Odds are I would have tried that, thanks.


“So at Last We Meet Again for the Last Time!”




Inserting the Five Scarab Keys causes the statue of Sutekh to open, and revealing his TRUE lair!



Said lair also gives me a hint as to how to beat him. I’m not sure why he bothered to leave a reminder of what his weakness is, but then the minds of evil are not to be fathomed by the honest folks of the Earth.




Despite what I just said, I’m somewhat confused as to Sutekhs mindscape here.



…seriously.



…



The eye is an electric deathtrap. Not a very powerful one, since it only drops your life by half a notch.



After a vastly long hallway of confusing graffiti, Nightshade finally comes face to face with the diabolical Sutekh! Naturally, being a republic serial villain, he reveals his plan while there’s still plenty of time to stop him.





Well, bonus points for creativity, I guess.

Since, as previously mentioned, Sutekh is a villain in the truest sense, Nightshade opts for a bit of psychological warfare to determine what the villains Achilles heel is!

All right, let’s settle this! I’ve got two fists full of Justice! Exact Change Only!






Sutekh won his Final Boss status pretty fairly. Not only is he crazy-fast, but he can teleport, and has a heap of attacks, and luckily a predictable pattern. First he’ll appear far from you and launch a single fireball which you can duck under, then he’ll appear nearby and strike with his claws, he does this twice, then he appears far from you again and tosses a grenade, after that he’ll disappear and summon an enemy (usually a statue, but sometimes it’s a mummy, so it’s best to save the Staff for them). Then the pattern repeats.

The Staff of Ra is an effective weapon, but it can only be used a few times and barely does more damage then a kick to the chest. A series of quick, low punches when he comes in to use his claw is the best strategy, as any blow causes him to recoil.



Finally, Sutekh is defeated and his hideout begins to shake violently.







No daring escape or anything, just a series of quick snap-shots detailing that Sutekh is in jail and vowing revenge, clearly paving the way for Nightshade: Episode 2!

…which I’m still waiting on, 17 years after the fact.



And now we know who to blame.

After the credits, the game resets.

And thusly ends the great saga of Nightshade. And that is not a factitious statement, this is the first time I played the game and DAMN did I like it.

Woo! Good show, old bean. Jolly good show!

Man, three pages of running through Metro City and nobody made a Final Fight joke?

I'm disappointed in all of you.

I'm also disappointed that this LP is already over.

Nightshade is my hero.

Such is the peril of doing little-bitty games for an LP. I was trying to stagger it out, too. The lack of Final Fight jokes I have no defense for. You're right to be disappointed in me.

Great thread! Thanks for saving me the trouble of playing through this again -- I love the writing, but the fighting system really kind of blows. Duck and punch to win! Also: use lots and lots of savestates.

Looking back, I'm surprised I was able to finish Nightshade as a kid, what with all the dumb fighting and silly puzzles (go to hell, hot nuts guy). Never underestimate the power of infinite patience and a subscription to Nintendo Power, I guess.

I haven't gone through all of the thread to check this, but did you give some nuts to the squirrels in the park? They would have given you an amulet of whatevermajig.

Yep, the amulet takes off half the health of all Rats.

I am incredibly late to the party, and I don't know how I missed this, as I have attempted to follow all your LPs, PrimeOcto, but man, a wonderful show as always. I thank the overlooked NES thread for making me come read it. Yep!

There was obviously a lot of love put into this game. It is indeed a shame that we never got that episode 2.