The Guardian Legend[note 1] is a 1988 hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game Guardic, and was published and released in Japan by Irem in 1988, in North America by Broderbund in 1989, and in Europe by Nintendo in 1990.
In the game, the player controls a lone protagonist, the Guardian, who is on a quest to destroy a large alien-infested world named Naju before it reaches the planet Earth.
While it has been praised for its impressive graphics, memorable sound, and responsive controls, it has been criticized for its repetitive gameplay and complicated password system.
Blue and Red Landers, recurring characters in many Compile games, increase the player's maximum life and power chip capacities, respectively.
These Blue Landers also serve as checkpoints; players can restart their game in these designated rooms after being defeated provided the system has not been turned off.
[note 4] While inside, the player must activate ten safety devices in order to initialize Naju's self-destruct mechanism and destroy the alien world before it reaches Earth.
Five hostile tribes of alien lifeforms are vying for control of territories within Naju,[10] and the player needs to fight through them to successfully activate the switches and escape.
[1]: 3, 6 The story is advanced through a series of messages left by one or more unidentified predecessor(s) who unsuccessfully attempted to engage the self-destruct mechanism of Naju before the Guardian arrived.
[12][14] The box art for Guardic Gaiden was created by Japanese science-fiction illustrator Naoyuki Kato and depicts the Guardian as a female cyborg.
[15] Though it is the sequel to a MSX game that was developed and published by Compile and makes use of the company's Lander characters, The Guardian Legend is the intellectual property of Irem.
[12] Nintendo Power previewed The Guardian Legend in January 1989, where they discussed the game's mechanics, graphics, and shoot 'em up sequences.
[18][19] The Guardian Legend was exhibited at the 1989 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada before its release; it was one of the prime attractions at the Broderbund booth along with the U-Force controller.
Donn Nauert said that the game is repetitive and offers little challenge and that it would have been better as a pure shoot 'em up; he pointed to a special password ("TGL") in which players can enter to bypass all of the Labyrinth portions.
While they acclaimed the game for its "exciting and challenging" shooter stages, they criticized it for its complex world map and "outrageous" password system.
[37] They noted that the fast-paced action seen in the game could not be replicated on a personal computer at that time (1992) without an expensive graphics board and regardless of CPU speed.