Every week (If I feel like it), your friendly bitter neighborhood mockery of racial heritage will shine a dim spotlight on a game that’s been hiding at the bottom of closets everywhere like a battered spouse. This week, we explore Naju, a place that time forgot (but nerds remembered)

I knew as soon as I committed to writing for this little nebula of smarm that I was going to be contributing a weekly column about forgotten games from the past; I never had any doubt that I had enough criminally underplayed games to fill three years worth of articles. The reason why I didn’t get this hammered out right away was because of the incredibly tasking choice I needed to make, namely, what game should be my first date, the shining example of a game that never got the attention it deserved. Would it be the thumb-twitching manic frenzy-fest that is Radiant Silvergun? What about the beautiful, engrossing adventure epic The Longest Journey? Could I possibly give this honor to a game with little US exposure, like Ranger-X? HELL 2 DA NAW!

This was a position that could only be occupied by my absolute favorite NES game ever, a game with some exposure, yes, but a game that was so ludicrously underplayed that to this day it makes me weep. I’m talking of none other than the Compile/IREM epic, The Guardian Legend. Never heard it? Well I hope your brain is ready to get its ass kicked, because The Guardian Legend is that damn good. Even at this very moment, as your tender eyes glance over the innocuous blurbs of text, tiny beams of awesome are invading your mind and kicking the shit out of your synapses. I’m talking a beatdown the likes of which we haven’t seen since Ricky Manning Jr. accidently walked into a LAN Party. Why is The Guardian Legend (hereafter referred to as TGL) so damn cool? Read on after the bump, if your puny, unprepared consciousness can HANDLE it, bub. (more…)