Hydlide NES FULL OVERHAUL Patch
A downloadable mod
This is a pair of patches for the Toshiba EMI/T&E Soft game Hydlide for the NES and Hydlide Special for the Famicom. It's a complete graphics and gameplay overhaul with redrawn graphics, re-arranged and re-written music, rebalanced difficulty, and tons of Easter Eggs and references to other versions of the game.
Also included is an NSF sound file of the re-arranged sountrack.
CHANGES:
Graphics:
1) The ROM has been converted from NROM to CNROM to allow a completely redesigned title screen based on the PC-8800 version. The palette in the graveyard has also been adjusted to look like that in the PC-8800 version, as well as the font.
2) Major changes/redraws of nearly every enemy, the player, items. and menus.
Music:
1) Title/Ending theme has been replaced with an approximation of the one from the FM-7/MSX version of the game.
2) I've combined together the "Indiana Jones music" (the two parts of the Hydlide 2 theme that were the original title and ending theme) into one longer, less repetitive song.
3) Instead of a sped up version of the game theme, special tricks/invincibility now plays a short clip of "Angel Blue" by Mayami Chiwaki (based on the arrangement by Famicom hacker Makimura Mfg), the promotional single that came with the Famicom version of the game.
Gameplay:
1) Standing in grass or using the ring heals you much faster.
2) Weak enemies no longer decrease in XP value as you gain levels.
3) You no longer have to kill both wizards simultaneously to permanently kill them.
Bonuses:
1) Restored the Invinciblity password 3DGOLFSUPERVERSI from the Famicom version which was omitted in the US version. Removed the gauntlet of prerequisites you normally have to pull off to use it. If you are interested in just that hack specifically, you can find it on my Ko-Fi here:
https://ko-fi.com/s/ff4f6b6cae
2) Collecting the sword, with or without the lamp, activates the "Golden March" cutscene/bonus.
3) Halved the amount of sandworms you have to kill to get the giant sandworm to appear.
4) You now only have to kill one sandworm with Wave Magic to get the dinosaur footprints to appear. Probably too easy now. I don't care.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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I never played the original so I had to go check out some videos to see what it used to look like. WOW this is a huge upgrade. Very nice work. Excited to try this out!
Thanks! The game gets a bad rep because it was released in the US in the late 80s after many much more elaborate JRPGs had already become popular here. It's also very non-intuitive and quirky in a way that makes more sense when you contextualize it as a very, very early Japanese computer game (it was originally released in 1984!). I figure a nice polish and coat of paint might go a long way to making the game more enjoyable.
this looks fantastic, i'm looking forward to trying it!
Thanks! I've hacked this game before, many times, but wanted to develop something that enhanced the actual game, rather than trying to turn it into something else entirely.