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Nintendo's mischievous Marvelous mixes Zelda with point-and-click PC adventures
In a new weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. "Before you register any complaints with the management, remember one thing: I'm new here," Mackey says. Kicking off my new column at Joystiq, I thought I'd put my best foot forward with an article focused on a game that's gone completely forgotten over the years – a strange fate, considering the pedigree of talent involved. Of course, I speak of Nintendo's Marvelous: Another Treasure Island (Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima), an oddball Super Famicom release from 1996, that marks current Zelda honcho Eiji Aonuma's first turn in the director's chair.It's not surprising why Nintendo declined to bring Marvelous stateside; by 1996, the company had shifted nearly all of its efforts to launching the Nintendo 64, which led to anticipated games like the fully completed Star Fox 2 to get the axe. Funny thing, though: Marvelous doesn't seem to have much of a following in its country of origin – even the Smash Bros. series, which obsessively collects the most obscure Nintendo ephemera, doesn't give the game a single lousy trophy. It's a shame, since Marvelous hints at the future greatness of Aonuma, and provides a fantastic example of classic Nintendo at the top of their game.
