Totally Rad (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Jaleco's 1991 action-platformer for the NES, Totally Rad.

Somehow, Totally Rad doesn't stand out for its strangeness against many of Jaleco's other NES offerings, but it is one of the better games that the company put out on the platform.

Totally Rad (or "Magic John", in Japan) was developed by Aicom, the company that also handled the development of Jaleco's 1990 release Astyanax (   • Astyanax (NES) Playthrough  ), and though the two aren't directly related, it's easy to see where much of the groundwork for Totally Rad was first laid. (It also feels like it draws inspiration from Sammy's    • Ninja Crusaders (NES) Playthrough  , in case you're familiar with that one).

Totally Rad stars a kid - a rad one - who looks and speaks like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. One day, as Jake is learning magic from a creepy floating wizard head named Zebediah, someone swoops in and kidnaps his valley-girl girlfriend.

"Jake, they're like stealing me or something. Help!"

At first glance, Totally Rad looks like any run-of-the-mill platformer, but there's a fair amount more to it than running to the right and jumping. Jake has access to four different forms that he can switch between at any time (providing he has enough magic to do so), and they each provide some sort of advantage - the fish can throw ninja stars and swim, the bird can fly and chuck boomerangs, and the tiger can power swipe and becomes invincible while jumping. As himself, Jake has access to a chargeable fire shot that looks an awful lot like Mega Man's buster arm, as well as a few magic spells that can do things like temporarily freeze enemies or refill his life gauge.

The gameplay flows well, the animal forms and magic provide a good variety in choice, and the mini-bosses put up a solid challenge. The graphics are great, too. The parallaxed background layers, the use of color, and the enormous bosses all live up to expectations for a late-gen NES title. And finally, the cringe-inducing cutscenes are hilarious in how perfectly capture the early 90s variety of "hello, fellow kids" energy.

It's a fun game, overall. Everything about it embraces the ridiculousness of its era, and it's pretty endearing. Or, dare I say... totally rad.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!