I decided to just play one NES game tonight. I went for a game that sounded like it would be a fun action romp. How about The Last Starfighter, based on the 1984 movie? That sounds like it would fit the bill. What was I thinking? A movie license is a movie license and this is no different. The confusing part is that the developers weren’t exactly meeting a movie release deadline (this came out in 1990; the NES came out after the movie).

It’s a confusing and difficult shmup game. Your starfighter moves about a vertical line that sits in the middle of the screen. From there, you can accelerate and decelerate, and can turn backwards and forwards. You can shoot with the B button and in some circumstances, you can press the A button to slim the ship into a different shape. I’m not sure when I was allowed to transform in this way or what purpose it served. I just know that it’s arduous to survive more than about a minute.

It’s unclear whether the legendary death blossom made an appearance in the game.