Without much in the way of preamble, Project Blue drops you into the first level of the game. There are no directions, no recommendations, no NPCs to ask questions of. Just you, a jump button, and a fire button. Each screen is self-contained and enemies respawn when you leave. Killing them leaves behind money but the only real benefit is gaining an extra life if you get 100 coins a la Super Mario Bros. Considering how often you’ll die, chances are you’ll be a world renowned expert before this benefits you. You see, Project Blue is a NES game in every sense of the concept. Not only is it 8-bit but it’s gruellingly difficult with a steep learning curve as well. There’s no question that a variety of vintage titles inspired the look and mechanics of the game but they’re all utilized in new and interesting ways making a new game that feels old and utilizes exceedingly good design philosophy.
You can shoot and jump, no problem, but take a bullet or touch an enemy and you’re going to lose some life. You start out with 5 hearts and 3 lives, but you can gather powerups that expand your health and power up your guns. You also have infinite continues, which is good because you’ll need them. Imagine if you combined Super Mario Bros. with Mega Man and added in a dash of Kid Icarus to top it off. That’s the vibe that Project Blue puts off. Even standard enemies often take multiple hits and require precise aim to beat. Each room is like a self-contained puzzle that you’ll have to solve to progress, and rushing through without knowing what you’re getting into is a death sentence.
The beginning of the game is almost like a tutorial for how to play, showing you how to use your abilities and what not to do if you want to survive at all. While there’s no run button, moving forward builds up momentum, speeding you up and allowing you to jump further or higher and reach otherwise unattainable areas. Timing your jumps helps you to avoid enemies, lasers, and falls into acid and other hazards. Everything in Project Blue is about precision and timing in a way that is slightly reminiscent of Super Meat Boy but somehow more fun and wholesome. Miss a jump? You’re either dead or taking a hit. At least you’ve got a life bar! Rush through a room without timing out the enemies? You won’t survive. Try to attack the boss without learning the pattern? You’re toast.
The physics in Project Blue are fantastic. The control is tight and precise and clearly designed for D-pads so don’t even try to use an analog stick. You won’t get far. But the timing, precision, and attention to detail that makes every screen a challenge also makes every screen interesting and fun to play if you can manage to survive. Clean, responsive jump physics with predictable enemies (once you learn how they move) and achievable expectations? Sounds like a winning combination. This is what the best of the NES library felt like when you played those games back in the day and it’s refreshing to see a modern game that lives up to the vintage feel in such an effective manner.
There are only four stages in Project Blue but it’ll take you a hell of a long time to actually beat the game, even on easy. It’s just that difficult. Maybe you’re better at timing than some of us (*cough, cough*) and it’ll only take you a few hours but after spending a fair amount of time with the game, it’s safe to say that it’s going to take both skill and practice to work your way through this one without save states. Each stage is broken up into sections. They aren’t labeled but if you’ve gotten far enough, when you continue, you can start from the section you’ve reached. There are two sections before the first boss (which isn’t even the end of the first stage) and if you get to the boss, you can continue from outside their door, but only until you die. Then it’s back to the mid-section for you to reach the boss all over again!
Speaking of save states, we come to the biggest failing of Project Blue. There aren’t any saves in the game. We’re not talking about how you can only save after beating a boss either. There’s no autosaving. There is no rewind or save function. There are no passwords. And most importantly of all, if you turn the game off, you’ll have to start over from the beginning. On the Switch, you can use the sleep function to keep playing as a kind of placeholder save but if you want to play another game? Start over. In the modern era with digital games galore on every system, this is a bit of a surprising fail for an otherwise outstanding game. It’s frustrating too because even a vintage 25 character password function would have been fine. Irritating, but fine. But a complete lack of saving? No. Back in the day, we left our NES systems on for days for games like this but that’s not a realistic expectation anymore with modern hardware and aging vintage hardware if you bought the NES cart of Project Blue.
Moving past the near deal-breaker of the no-save system, the game itself looks phenomenal. The enemy design, character design, and backgrounds are all outstanding here. The artist for Project Blue is a pixel art master, managing to channel dystopian vibes, a bit of Mega Man, a bit of Castlevania, and a healthy dose of creativity to create a new and immersive experience. The variety of areas from screen to screen is vast and the levels don’t pull the eye at the wrong second to distract players but they still manage to please. Would I love to see more detailed art? Sure. But everything is clearly NES focused here and it doesn’t seem like the game ever does something that an original NES couldn’t do, making this one hell of an achievement visually.
The music manages to dovetail nicely with the visuals and gameplay as well. Songs shift from area to area with a variety of chiptunes that are catchy and not at all irritating. It’s not a soundtrack you’re going to expect an orchestral version of but it’s good. Meshed with the solid sound effects, it’s easy to immerse yourself in the world of Project Blue, something that most indie NES-style games simply don’t pull off.
Project Blue is a fantastic game. It’s gorgeous looking, the gameplay is tight and responsive, and the design sensibilities channel the best of what made the NES fun and approachable. It’s also relatively inexpensive at $10 on the eShop (more for a cart of course). But it’s also intensely difficult and requires a significant amount of practice to incrementally proceed. Beyond the learning curve, the lack of any save functions of any kind hamper players that want to do anything other than play Project Blue until they beat it. If your child wants to play Mario Kart with you for example, you’re going to lose your progress.
The kind of retro experience that Project Blue provides is awesome and also emulates the original NES experience a hair too perfectly to have a wide appeal. Retro enthusiasts are going to love Project Blue but casual players may end up stymied by the difficulty or frustrated by the lack of a save or password system. This is the modern NES experience in all its original 8-bit glory and Project Blue is an achievement that is as impressive as it is admirable. And just like the original NES, not every single thing is perfect about even the best games. But they were fun. And like those old titles, Project Blue is surprisingly fun too and will definitely keep you coming back for more. We can only hope future releases let us take breaks in order to finish them!
This review is based on a digital copy of Project Blue provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Project Blue is also available for Xbox and PC on itch.io.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.