Amagon

Nintendo exclusive

Amagon is a Nintendo Entertainment System platform side-scroller developed by Aicom in 1988. It was subject to a high level of criticism, and never reached a high level of recognition among game critics.

Released: 2 December 1988
Platforms: NES
Genres: Platformer Shooter
Developers: Aicom
Publishers: Tokai Communications
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Warfare
Country: Japan
Age ratings: CLASS_IND L
Languages: English, Japanese

About

Amagon, known in Japan as Totsuzen! Machoman (突然! マッチョマン, lit. Suddenly! Machoman), is a side-scrolling platform action game for the Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Aicom.

›Story

Players take the role of Amagon, who is a Marine trappd on an island as a result of a plane crash. The player must guide Amagon through the island to reach the rescue ship, defeating a number of foes-including the final boss, which is based on the "Flatwoods Monster", a rumoured space alien residing in Flatwoods, West Virginia.

The original Japanese version departs from the above in that the main character is not a marine, but is instead a scientist named "Jackson" who transforms himself into his Macho-Man form using a special drug.

Keywords

modern warfare
retro
modern military
cheat code

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Amagon encounters a variety of enemies which he can dispose of with his rifle. He also has the ability (upon collecting and then activating the Mega-Key) to transform into a larger, stronger version of himself called "Megagon". Upon transformation, Megagon is given 1 hit point for every 5,000 points he scored as Amagon (whereas a single hit from any enemy or hazard will kill Amagon). Megagon cannot use the machine gun, but instead has a punch which does eight times the damage and never runs out of ammo. At the cost of one hit point each, he can also fire waves of energy from his chest; these are much broader than machine gun shots, do 16 times the damage, and can hit multiple enemies in a single blast.

Story

In the game, players take the role of Amagon, a Marine who is trapped on an island after his plane crashed. Inconveniently, his rescue ship is on the other side of the island, which Amagon must now cross on foot.

The storyline used for the original Japanese release was somewhat different. The main character is a scientist named "Jackson" who transforms into his "Macho Man" form by using the special drug "Macho Max" that has been taken from his plane by the creatures of "Monster Island".

Reception

Allgame gave Amagon a score of 2 stars of out of a possible 5. Just Games Retro assigned the video game a score of 40% (F) in their April 5, 2007 review of this game while Game Freaks 365 gave the video game a score of 78% (B+) in their 2005 overview of the game.