Abadox (NES) Is an Underrated Space Shooter

Abadox: The Deadly Inner War may seem like another generic side-scrolling shoot ’em up on the NES that ripped off Life Force, but this game stands on its own by offering a fun and fair challenge.

The planet known as Abadox has been eaten by a parasitic alien, Parasitis, and it’s up to the player to enter Parasitis’ body to rescue a princess.

But, of course, you’re not going to play a shooter on the NES for the story. It’s all about the gameplay, and Abadox certainly delivers on that aspect.

This game is often slammed in reviews for its supposed immense difficulty, especially considering you die in one hit, but I found this game to be on the fairer side of the shoot ’em up genre. It’s surprisingly forgiving for an NES game.

For starters, there are plenty of power-ups that you can find. If you’re a seasoned gamer, you’ll practically be drowning in power ups that range from a spread gun to a laser.

Abadox also doesn’t force you to start from the beginning of the game when you die, which is always a nice feature. However, some people prefer starting over after dying to hoard power ups. Either way, you’ll have a lot of opportunities to memorize enemy patterns and the stage layouts.

And speaking of the stage layouts, Abadox features both horizontal and vertical scrolling stages that alternate with each stage.

The vertical stages seemed more challenging to me, but in both types of stages, the main challenge is properly navigating tight corridors and weaving enemy projectiles. In a way, it’s kind of like an early version of the bullet hell shooter genre.

The graphics in Abadox are brilliant. Instead of endless boring space stages, the surroundings are designed to look like you are inside of a giant alien. As you play through this game, you’ll be surrounded by alien intestines and other innards.

Overall, this game is a solid package. When I sit down to play a shooter, I usually don’t have the patience (or skill) to play it through to the end, but that wasn’t the case with Abadox.

If you’re looking for a fair challenge or a great underrated NES game, check out Abadox.