Holy Diver (Famicom)

[Sketcz-1000]

Irem had always been a somewhat obscure Japanese company who nonetheless released several quality games, most of which were designated for public arcades. Their primary claim to fame is the (in)famous R-Type series of sci-fi shoot-em-ups, famed for their power-ups systems and tight gameplay, freakish stage and enemy design, and their unrelenting brutality. They released some titles for the NES, such as ports of Kung Fu and Kid Niki, both of which even got Japan-only sequels on the Famicom. Their 8-bit console output was generally distilled in terms of pain compared to their arcade presence, but they did at least slip by one cartridge of such inconceivable malice and wretched horror with a curious title inspired by American heavy metal: Holy Diver, a title most closely associated with seminal heavy metal album by the late, great rock god Ronnie James Dio.


www.hardcoregaming101.net/holydiver/holydiver.htm

[apachacha]

I loved this game but it got realy annoying by the time the golems showed up.

[dire51]

Thanks to sotenga for the shoutout there at the end, but I want to clarify: I actually had the story from the manual translated by T3M forum regular Brick McBurly. So, since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, can someone add him to the thanks?

[aganar]

I remember starting to do a write-up on this game like two years back, just to see how many heavy metal allusions I could cram into it. But then I never got around to finishing the game, so the article just kinda fizzled out. Oh well.