Project Blue Review - A Tough NES Homebrew Release Is Now on Xbox And Switch!

Project Blue, an NES indie title, has been ported to Xbox and Switch by publisher 8BitLegit. As with past releases from the publisher, Project Blue is a faithful emulated experience of the game as it would appear on the original NES hardware. Developed by toggle_switch and FrankenGraphics, with additional art from M-Tee, Project Blue delivers a challenging action platforming experience that stays true to its source hardware and genre!

Story

Omni Corp has been conducting experiments on homeless youth in the city of Neo Hong Kong. One subject, codenamed Blue, has shown the most promise for augmentation. But one experiment went too well and Blue has broken free. Now Blue must escape the lab and bring down Omni Corp!

Gameplay

Review code provided by 8-Bit Legit

For fans of classic Mega Man titles, Project Blue will feel familiar as soon as you take your first steps into its world. Blue can run, jump, and shoot while traversing screens filled with baddies. At the end of each area, a boss lies in wait to be taken down, though you don’t gain any new abilities for doing so, but that’s okay! Instead, a smattering of powerups are placed across the world for you to find from limited ammo weapons to health upgrades. While powerups do benefit the player they aren’t a permanent fixture to your inventory. Weapons get around 20 uses before depleting and a death will reset your limited health meter. Like Metroid for NES, a new life sees your health start at a painfully low level. Healing hearts can be found throughout the game but it is a risk/reward pickup as getting to them isn’t always easy.

The core gameplay loop is well-executed and fun, which is good because the game can be a punishing experience as you make your way through it. I opted to play through the normal difficulty level and found it to be a great tradeoff between NES difficult and approachable. Though I have died far more times than I would like to admit, the journey never turned me off from wanting to complete it. Thankfully, the game features a checkpoint system that lets you resume play further into the current section of the game. If you happen to reach a game over, the checkpoint is reverted to the beginning of the current section of play, so you will find yourself set back further upon ultimate demise. 

The game's build-up is also handled superbly with the first full level being a more linear experience like Mega Man. After completion, the remaining three levels feature multiple paths and routes to reach your end goal in a more Metroidvania style of play. In total, there are over 200 rooms to work through with their unique puzzles, enemies, and traps. The layout of each room is set by the difficulty level and never changes upon subsequent playthroughs. Trial and error memorization will become a factor for some screens but replaying earlier segments of the game and seeing how much better you do at it is always a joyous feeling.

Graphics

As with other 8BitLegit releases, Project Blue is being emulated and as a result, it uses the 8:7 aspect ratio the NES internally renders games at instead of stretching it to 4:3, which is how it would appear on NTSC TV’s of the day. Not a deal breaker by any means and fully falls under the realm of personal preference. The artwork found within Project Blue is a good showcase for NES homebrew with a good art style and use of the system's limited colors. Player and enemy sprites are well defined against the large rooms and backgrounds convey the setting well with nice details. There are a few screens where playable layers don’t immediately stand out, making some jumps puzzling. Overall the occurrence was few and far between though, so not something I can count as a negative to the experience.

Emulation quality is superb with minimal latency in player controls and NES quirks in rendering on full display. A digital copy of Project Blue’s manual is available to look through in its entirety, with great concept art depictions of the game's bosses and enemies as well as the story breakdown to get you ready for your adventure! We lost something special from the disappearance of manuals… Several selectable borders are present to choose from during play but I didn’t feel the need to mess with them as the default suited my needs just fine. 

Audio

Project Blue has a nice soundtrack to listen to while you navigate its world. Music cues also serve as a way to let you know when you have reached a new segment of the game, and as a result a new game over checkpoint! While not as memorable as other classic NES titles, it never feels repetitive or gets annoying. Depending on where you are in the game, you might be listening to some tracks for a while, so that last point is especially gratifying! Other various sound effects come across clearly and distinctly in the soundscape.

Replayability

With three selectable difficulties with varying layouts and brutality, Project Blue can give players a good number of hours of play for its $10 asking price. Depending on an individual player's skill level, an initial normal playthrough can take over 4-6 hours. Subsequent playthroughs are much quicker once you understand what you are doing, bringing the time required down to 1-2 hours.

What It Could Have Done Better

As an NES game, Project Blue fits its system well and there is little to criticize about it. That being said, having no form of saving or a password system to jump between different areas of the game is a letdown. With a busy schedule, sitting down to make my way through the game initially was a hard ask. Thankfully, Xbox’s quick resume was there to save the day when I needed to end a current play session to move on to something else. Unfortunately for Switch owners, the system’s sleep mode is the only real option to keep a playthrough going. I hope in future updates and titles 8BitLegit will implement some form of save states into their emulation. A personal nitpick for me, that also continues the trend of previous 8BitLegit releases, is that the full complement of unlockable Xbox achievements can be attained by the second level. Not having at least one of them be assigned to actually beating the game is such a waste.

Verdict

For fans of the NES, Project Blue is another great modern release for the system that is well worth checking out, and being able to get it for $10 on modern systems is a huge plus! Regardless of where you play it, you get a tough action platformer with a good gameplay loop. While the lack of saves or a password system to jump to later stages of the game is obnoxious, it does give you the practice needed to make it through the early game quite efficiently. But if you’ll now excuse me, I need to try the hardest difficulty to see how fast I die!