So let' preface this glorious event with a disclaimer. The games in question were provided by Wisdom Tree and Piko Interactive for the purpose of impressions. Yes. They sent a full press kit and "pre-release" (We'll come to that) games to a little indie developer because I make gaming videos on YouTube. Isn't the bar high?
Wisdom Tree, back in the day, made religious spins on classic games. Super Noah's Ark 3D was an SNES game (I can't tell if licensed or not) that was a religious Wolfenstein. Again, we have a high bar to vault here.
So I got access to Noah's Ark for NES and Super Noah's Ark 3D for Mega Drive. Now this is also a Kickstarter to rerelease/port these two games. According to this press release, they want to make Noah's Ark run faster than it did when published by Konami Germany in the 90s. They bought out the rights to the game and are bringing it back for a worldwide release. If funded they will make region free carts and boxes and good old colour manuals like "Back in the day", and doesn't that just titillate the nostalgia buds?
So getting into the games. Noah's Ark. As stated in the press release "Think Contra". To the point yes, it involves Konami. But not in gameplay.
So Contra isn't the best example. The camera autoscrolls, but you can move forward at your own pace, often to the other edge of the screen. Your main attack cant decide if its a straight shot, alternating between staright and diagonal, or a weird ricocheting shot. I don't know what caused it.
You can also jump on enemies, though the game gives you the "I've been hit" flashing animation you expect in games from the time, so that's confusing. Speaking of jumping, it doesn't feel fluid. In fact, I'll take Castlevania jumps, since you at least know where you will land. Here you sometimes go forward, other times not. Maybe it's based on momentum?
Do I have any praises? Yeah. It looks alright for an NES game actually. But then you have weird quirks where a power up you activate seemingly at random (The HUD says nothing beyond lives and health bar) causes enemies to stop moving.
This game, it is clear their intent. Make a game on Noah's Ark. Wish I could tell you why we smack loads of animals with...er...seeds...and why there are knights throwing spears. It's certainly functional, or at least the first level is. It's just not that fun.
Let's hop to Super Noah's Ark 3D for Genesis/Mega Drive/SNES. This is just a demo ROM to demonstrate the 3D engine, which is fine. Apparently it is 90% done and using a new engine. Isn't that peachy? Props for effort.
So booting the ROM boots you into a level select. For the purposes here let's do 1-1.It looks as you expect. Plays as you expect. Runs around 20FPS, sometimes below, which for the "hardware" (Ignoring my monster PC) is reasonable. But there is this really repetitive looping soundtrack, you haven't even got any health. In fact I saw very few HUD elements.
Or anything beyond moving. Didn't see enemies either for a good 10 minutes. 90% may be an exaggeration.
So really what can I say? Obviously there is an attempt. But the demo for Super is obviously incomplete. Noah's Ark on NES is okay at best if you want to adjust to the no guidance mechanics that you don't even learn via gameplay, since that first level chucks so much at you on the first screen, If Super really is a new engine just to port it to the Genesis/Mega Drive the operative question is why? And where is the rest of the game, I suppose.
They say the Kickstarter is for the production run, but maybe it's that and more. I cant say for sure, but Wisdom Tree is back, they are on Kickstarter, and you can go fund this if you want and have the hardware to play the games.
Noah's Ark 3D for SNES was in fact unlicensed, as it would never have gotten past Nintendo's policy against religious content at the time. In fact, according to Hardcore Gaming 101, it was the only commercially released unlicensed game for the system, and had to be connected to a licensed cartridge to get around the security measures. Wisdom Tree seem like an oddly determined bunch. And it's kind of impressive that they have the game running on Mega Drive, or at least it will be if they manage to finish it. Yet I can't answer the question of why. Presumably it's all a clunky attempt at spreading the Christian message, but surely in that case it would make more sense to release on modern systems?
Super Noah's Ark is indeed based on the Wolfenstein 3D SNES engine. It's an unconfirmed rumor id licensed the engine to unlicensed publisher Wisdom Tree as a mockery to Nintendo for making them censor the game.
(although it's possible id could've just wanted to make more money off it, since supposedly they had to write it in only like three weeks after the original developer SNES publisher Imagineer hired had supposedly done little after being given months to work on it)
I got handed a press kit. This site didnt. Thos site also reported on it.
At what point do I say you should back it? And given how image posting works here to better illustrate a point, itd be advertising any given account regardless of how its done.
Im not lining my pockets. Im not saying do this or that. Im saying the games are crap, here is what they are.
Feel free to delete the thread/ask me to delete it should you not be able to. Surprised it took you over a day to pose said question.
Down to you
Now Playing: Mario & Luigi Brothership, Sonic x Shadow Generations
Now Streaming: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
That was a much more generous review of Wisdom Tree games than I have seen everywhere else over the years. I remember one of the NES games a neighbor had. It quite honestly was one of the worse games I have ever played.
They do have an interesting place in NES history as they originally were Color Dreams and worked out how to bypass the 10NES Lockout chip. As Color Dreams they released a bunch of poor quality games (for which the NES Lockout Chip was created to prevent). Eventually they made the Wisdom Tree label which created Christian-themed games which became their biggest sellers.
Tengen reverse-engineered the lockout chip to create a clone lockout.
From what I heard, the other unlicensed companies of the time created a charge circuit to incapacitate the lockout. I heard it could potentially damage the console and was why Tengen went to the effort they did to create the clone. (though I heard that somehow makes those other unlicensed carts incompatible with the official top-loader, whereas Tengen's work. At least verified with the one Tengen unlicensed game I have.)
I've heard Color Dreams' change to a religious company, described as fans as, since Nintendo was pressuring stores to not sell unlicensed games, they turned to religious games so Nintendo wouldn't want to sue them and risk the media blowing it out of proportion to create some kind of "Mario vs. Jesus" smear campaign.
Forums
Topic: Wisdom Tree - Noah's Ark and Noah's Ark 3D Impressions!
Posts 1 to 8 of 8
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.