The NES was my first console. When I was a kid, we had a small library of NES games that my brother and I would play repeatedly. We had our favorites, Batman, Duck Tales, its sequel, and more. My mom is a huge fan of Zelda herself. To this day she can recall every secret heart container, hidden room, and bombable wall in the first game in the series. She is also the only person I have ever seen or known personally to have beaten the notoriously difficult Adventure of Link.
One day I may tell you more about my mom, but today we are here to talk about my late father. My dad was never big on video games. I can remember him enjoying the NES port of Gauntlet and sometimes Diablo II. He would watch my siblings and me play games, but he was never a gamer. Today, I want to tell you about the only game I ever saw him obsess over.
Now the NES was my first console, but for a long time, it was my only console. We never had a SNES and did not have a Nintendo 64 until a few years after its launch. If we wanted to play video games, which we did, we had to make do with the few dozen titles we had. One of those games was Capcom’s Willow.
Capcom was a legendary name in game development and publishing in the 1980s. While they are still around today, publishing excellent titles like Monster Hunter: Rise, it cannot be denied that Capcom was once a massive fish in a much smaller pond.
Released in 1989, one year after the Ron Howard film of the same name, Willow is a top-down adventure game in the style of The Legend of Zelda. The title character Willow Ufgood can move in eight directions, use a sword, and use magic items and spells. It is extremely easy to write Willow off as a Zelda clone. The little sprite moving around a world with scrolling tiled maps swinging a sword at monsters looks like it was ripped straight from Miyamoto’s playbook.
There are plenty of mechanical differences, including an experience system. As the player kills monsters and bosses, they gain experience points. After leveling up, you are rewarded with more hit points, magic points, and strength. Strength is one of my favorite mechanics in Willow, as you need to be at a certain level to swing certain swords swiftly. This creates a practical incentive for a player to level up more than just having numbers go up, the feel of the game changes as well.
What truly separates Willow from Zelda, however, is the amount of context given to your journey. From the moment you boot the game, you are met with this incredible score by Harumi Fujita. The opening song evokes mystery and wonder. It slowly builds to a crescendo and puts the player in the exact mood to go on an incredible adventure.
Willow does an admirable job retelling the story of the movie, but the gameplay and especially the music carry the player through the experience. Dark and moody caves, imposing forests, and towering castles are there to explore, each with its own musical theme. I still hum songs from Willow, particularly the main overworld theme, occasionally. Its music is on par with Super Mario Bros. 3 or Mega Man 2 in my memory.
I can remember being young, maybe 6 or 7 years old watching my dad play Willow. It was a game I was enthralled with, but he was better at it. I remember him meticulously writing down the game’s passwords, making sure he got it right to not lose any progress. I remember how close he came to beating it on more than one occasion, only to die to the final boss. Finally, after many days of attempts, he did it.
I had never felt anything so victorious, and to this day whether it’s beating Capra Demon for the first time in Dark Souls or winning a close match in Splatoon 2 or Legends of Runeterra, I think of my dad and when he finally, finally beat Bavmorda.
These days, Willow is only available to play if you own the cartridge or through emulation. Regardless of how you choose to play it, Willow is an NES game well worth your time. I’d go so far as to say it is the best movie-licensed game on the system.
What are some of your favorite gaming memories with your friends and family? Tell your stories in the comments below!
