The NES was an amazing system, but many games released for its Japanese counterpart, The Famicom, never released in the west. One of these games was The Mysterious Murasame Castle, a game that saw players take on the role of the Samurai named Takamaru. Takamaru has been tasked with defeating a demonic invasion of Murasame Castle.
The game plays a lot like another Famicom Disk System game, the original Legend of Zelda, albeit much more action-oriented. Takamaru has his sword to attack enemies, but there are also projectiles he can use against his foes. The enemies consist of not only monsters but also human enemies like Ninjas as well. There is a certain skill in how you attack, based on how close you can get to the enemy, and you can even deflect shuriken if you time your attacks right.
There are secrets to find like various Tanuki, who give you new arms and other foes to beat. You can even gain powerups and new upgraded weapons such as an explosive lighting shuriken if you put in the effort to get them. This is a challenging game though, and death will see your hard earned upgrades go away and you will need to start over.
The game has an interesting legacy both in and out of Japan. The game was only released recently in the west, a few years ago on the 3DS eshop, but a remake was released earlier. Well, I say remake, but it was a recreation of the game in Samurai Warriors III as a Wii exclusive mode. Takamaru appeared in Captain Rainbow and has shown up in Smash as an assist.
This is a game Nintendo should consider remaking for modern audiences. Get a dev like Team Ninja or PlatinumGames on it and you will have a surefire hit. This is one Nintendo classic that should not be left in the past.
The game is currently available on the 3DS eshop for those interested.
In addition, I would like to add that there is an active Nintendo retrogaming Facebook community group you can join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/nintendoretrogamers/
For more, visit Retro Gamers Hub (www.retrogamershub.com) for their extensive collection of retrogaming interest groups to choose from.