The Portopia Serial Murder Case

Portopia is a very interesting and overlooked game in the NES canon - overlooked because it never leaved Japan, and the Western world would soon grow acustomed to other more exciting forms of adventure games, but I get the feeling history would've been much more different if Portopia had been played by Westerners.

In true LucasArts fashion, before LucasArts made adventure games, you can not lose, die, or get stuck in Portopia. That's the game's strongest design principle, and for the rest of the game you play a detective that's on the hunt for clues, and walks from location to location examining witnesses and calling for their alibis. The world is your oyster and the world is made surprisingly alive and vibrant for just a 40Kb game, but retro games' inclination towards obtuseness shines when you realise you need to use your magnifying glasses to hunt for invisible clues that are telegraphed by nothing. You're going to need a walkthrough to beat Portopia and it's deeply flawed, but it is inspiring in what it managed to capture in the NES era, and was one of those games that inspired Hideo Kojima that storytelling in games could be so, so much more.

Real Gayms