Little Samson

Little Samson is a side-scrolling action–platform game reminiscent of the Mega Man franchise. It takes place in a world once terrorized by the demon king Ta-Keed until he was sealed away by gods, whose power was dispersed in the form of four bells. When the kingdom of Forgy was threatened by Ta-Keed, emperor Hans VI and his aides sealed him deep within a mountain. One day, a lightning released Ta-Keed, and emperor Hans XIV led his army into battle, but they were powerless against the demon king's subordinates. Hans XIV summoned four warriors who possess the bells with the task of defeating Ta-Keed.

O—each with advantages and disadvantages. Samson attacks enemies by throwing bells and can climb walls and ceilings. Kikira can fly for brief periods and breathe fire that can be charged up, while her claws allow her traction on icy surfaces. Gamm is slow but strong, can walk on spikes and attack with short but powerful blows in any direction.

Little Samson was created by Takeru, which had previously developed Cocoron for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was directed, produced, and written by Shinichi Yoshimoto, who had been a designer for Capcom on titles such as Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Strider. Artwork for the game was done by Kiyoshi Utata, who had worked on Cocoron and Nostalgia 1907. The Japanese and Western covers were illustrated by Mitsuru Todoriki and Greg Winters, respectively.

Taito published it in Japan as Seirei Densetsu Lickle on June 26, 1992. The game was shown at the 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show and released in North America in November of that year. A European release followed on March 13, 1993. Due to poor marketing leading to low sales in North America, Little Samson became one of the rarest and most expensive NES titles, commanding high prices on the secondary collecting market.

The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game ninth in popularity in its September 1992 issue, and it received a 21.2/30 score in a readers' poll conducted by Family Computer Magazine. Famitsu's four reviewers found the game's audiovisual side to be good for the NES and that each character was unique but believed the action lacked intensity. George Sinfield and Rob Noel of Nintendo Power noted that swapping between four characters with their special skills added a strategy element to the game's action. Club Nintendo deemed Little Samson an entertaining game, highlighting the audiovisual presentation, character and enemy animation, and level of challenge. Billy Moon of Game Players Nintendo Guide found the game to be average, feeling that the character switching kept it interesting, but that its graphics were unexciting and the unlimited continues almost rendered the password feature useless.

Manfred Neumayer of Video Games commended the game's graphics for their variety and attention to detail, likable characters, and the difficulty level of the stages. Tony Jones of Play Time regarded it as a fun and complex the game, while HobbyConsolas' Manuel del Campo liked the character switching ability and visuals while criticizing the dull sound. Nintendomagasinet's Tobias Bjarneby considered it a fun platform game due to its good controls and four different characters. Merche Garcia of Superjuegos underscored the animation of the characters, particularly that of the mouse. Ação Games regarded Little Samson as one of the best games for the NES.