Neutopia (1989)

Neutopia is an overhead action-adventure video game developed by Hudson Soft. It was released by Hudson for the PC Engine in Japan on November 17, 1989. It was then released by NEC for the TurboGrafx-16 in North America in 1990. It was re-released for the Virtual Console service worldwide for the Wii in 2007 and in Japan for the Wii U on April 16, 2014; it was re-released for the PlayStation Network in Japan in 2010 and in North America in 2011. The game takes place in the land of Neutopia, where the evil demon Dirth has captured Princess Aurora and has stolen the eight ancient medallions which contain the wisdom and power necessary to maintain peace and prosperity throughout the land. It is up to the protagonist Jazeta to retrieve the eight medallions, defeat Dirth, rescue Princess Aurora, and save the land and its people. Neutopia is widely regarded as a clone of the popular Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda in nearly every aspect. Many reviewers have praised the game for making noticeable improvements over Zelda, but various shortcomings – which include long passwords, repetitive gameplay, and poor collision detection – prevent the game from being superior over the 1987 Nintendo title. But overall, reviewers have called Neutopia one of the better video games of its type and one of the better titles in the TurboGrafx-16 library