Retro Corner: Willow (NES) Review · 2:43pm Sep 7th, 2018
A new edition of Retro Corner is up as I check out a Lucas Film game titled Willow for the NES. As many you know, Lucas Films is always known for its Star Wars and Indiana Jones series. However, you will find this surprising they produced a fantasy adventure akin to Lord of the Rings one time. The movie was called Willow released in 1988 during a time where only a few of its kinds existed during the 80s. With the exception of Labyrinth and Dark Crystal was really the only options available during that time. The story is about Willow Ufgood a Nelwyn (people of short height) and a knight from the Daikini Clan named Madmartigan who try to stop Queen Bavmorda. They become tasked with helping Elora Danan fulfill the prophecy by bringing Bavmorda's reign over the land to an end. The story wasn't anything ground breaking but a classic set up for fantasy adventure film.
Originally, Willow did get an arcade game that got released in July 1989 and was an action platformer. The NES game is not a port of the Arcade title in any way as it was an action adventure game akin to Zelda. The NES title got released a month after the arcade title and saw development from Capcom. It was truly odd for Capcom to develop this as a Zelda clone since usually they made action style games. The company is also known for producing Disney license games like Duck Tales during that era as well. To pick up the license rights to a Lucas Film movie (especially one that wasn't Star Wars) was a strange occurrence to see. Of course, Capcom obviously wanted to take advantage of the popularity the NES Zelda titles were getting. Willow is one of the few occasions where the studio would try to create something from the Adventure and RPG genres.
