Game Publisher: Wisdom Tree [Unlicensed]

Year: 1990

Type of game: Multi-Game Platformer

Players: 1

Story: This game has three mini games in it, so I'll divide it up into subsections.

Wise Men: You control a camel carrying a wise man to Bethlehem. As you progress through the levels, you play different wise men and camels. The main goal is to reach baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Along the way you can earn points by collecting FRANKINCENSE, MYRRH, and GOLD. You also earn extra points plus extra health by collecting scrolls and correctly answering the Bible questions. Your journey starts in the desert, but you will also travel through cities, caverns, and oases.

Flight to Egypt: In Flight to Egypt, you control the donkey that carries Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus on their way to Egypt. There are three types of terrain you will encounter along the way: Mountain Trails, Green Meadows, and Ice Cliffs. Your goal is to complete each of the twelve levels (five if you are playing EASY mode) by reaching the colored flag at the end of each trail. Along the way, you can earn extra health by collecting scrolls and correctly answering the Bible questions in each.

Jesus And The Temple: Oddly enough, it appears that they didn't add one to this game, Jeff D doesn't have it mentioned in the text of his online manual.

Thanks to Jeff D, the Gaming Guru for the above excerpts from the manual. [This dude has darn near every game made complete!]

My take on the story; Can't think of much to mock, they have darn near nothing for story, just a quick intro and what the setup is.

I decided to review this game since it is the season, but I would say getting this game from someone will by no means make their Christmas.

This game has three small games in it, all based on three events in the Bible, Right before Jesus' Birth, one the flight to Egypt, two the wise men's journey, and three the search for young Jesus after he gets lost in a temple, heh, they get them out of order, the three games appears as follows, Wise Men, Flight to Egypt, Jesus at the Temple,

I actually see a lot of negative comments about this game, and other Wisdom Tree games "bad graphics", I have no idea why either, look at what Wisdom Tree made in the 90's, compared to what Nintendo made in the mid and late 80's. The only major problem with some WT games is the mapper,[ the program that scrolls the screen], when you move it seems to get distorted in some areas on the far left/right/up/down of the screen, this is in a few notable games like Bible Adventures and King of Kings, not a big flaw but noticeable.

This game here is similar in style to Bible Adventures, in the BA games, one of them is gather up animals, one is to heard sheep until you get a sling [the same as gathering animals, only a lot more aggressive animals], and one of them is take Baby Moses to the other end of the stage, all three of these games are based very closely to the latter of the three B.A. games, in the first one called Wise Men you ride a spitting camel that uses spit as a weapon to kill the occasional bird or scorpion, object is to gather up what the current Wise Man you plays items up and go to the end of the stage, items include Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. In Flight to Egypt you control a mass of three characters, you control Mary, Joseph, and the donkey they ride to town on, you have to make a dangerous climb up a mountain dodging boulders, snakes, and more boulders and snakes. In Jesus and the Temple you have to go and travel a lot of different and various terrain to find Jesus, the second stage actually is similar to the waterfall stage in Mario 2, with the logs rolling down the waterfalls and the method of using them to cross a high set of cliffs.

One major oddity about my game, I can't play Jesus and the Temple very long, for some reason the game freezes up, it isn't the lockout chip because I trashed it last year, I think something is burned out in the game itself because the one game acts like it overheats because the graphics really mess up and freeze after a while, doesn't need cleaning because I tried it several times before and the other games work on it.

Play Control: B-

Not the best but not unplayable either, I would say they actually tried to mimic Mario Bros. 2. Only difference between this one and Bible Adventures is this one you don't have to push a button to pick up stuff.

Graphics: B+

Pretty good for the NES, and unlicensed companies, it has a coding problem when it scrolls up and down left and right, but it is usually at the bottom end of the screen. If you would actually take the time to look, Wisdom Tree does a better waterfall than Nintendo, compare theirs to Mario 2 and you'll get the picture. There is very little pixelation and color is done very well, if the game had a better mapper it would score higher. One thing about Wisdom Tree games, you always get a good animation at the end, well not real good but good for the NES.

Sound: B-

Not the best, actually recycled from other Wisdom Tree games, mostly bleeps and blips, not good for the 90's but not a complete minus at all.

Music: B

Well they do have is good with what they program, but Wisdom Tree always constantly repeat what little they have, atleast in this game you can shut the music off.

Theme and Fun: C+

This is a rehash of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Bible Adventures. and barely that, all you do is the obstacle style of jumping all over the place in most areas, not bad but not good, get it if you like well cloned sequels.

Frustration: C+

Why is my game defective?!?!?!?!

Repetition: C+

Gets boring quick, you'll probably be able to play it all the way through once then will be done with it. It can be beaten in a total of an hour and a half, if you want a good quick challenge for time or to add to the game count of games you beat go ahead and get it.

Challenge: C+

Made to be simple for kids, not many options, depending on your preferred style of play it will be real easy of real hard.

Replay Value: C-

You may want to beat this once when you get it, then once again when you decided to scroll through and play all your games again, after that you will probably be done.

Final Pluses:

Good novelty Wisdom Tree game, slightly on the rare side, not a complete bore so you can waste a hour or so playing, and usually have some Godly message in them.

Final Minuses:

Mapper problem that seems inherited from Bible Adventures, a few more options in the stages instead if just traveling to the end would be nice, music limited to one theme leaves a lot to be desired.

Changes:

Fix the mapper and add a few stages and music,and make a working version of Jesus and the Temple.

Overall C+

Final Note: Nothing you'd want to seek out after, or miss if you never play it, but it's always neat to have a few Wisdom Tree games in the collection.

Value: I got mine at about $5, I would say $4 loose, and about $10 complete since these games are rare complete.

Related Games: Bible Adventures, Mario 2, and about any other platformer that you go beat by traveling from side A to side B.