2025 Game of the Year Countdown #5: Malasombra 4MHz Nintendo Entertainment System, 2025
That is right, a brand new NES game released in 2025. Malasombra was under development for about seven years, with early demos available at conventions in Spain as early as 2018, and it snuck under the radar for years. I only stumbled upon the Kickstarter by accident, and I’m so glad I did.
4MHz is a small Spanish developer that has focused on creating games for old systems like the Amiga. Malasombra is their first NES game, and I hope not their last because it feels like someone time traveled to the 80s and brought a game back to the future. Everything about this game feels genuinely straight out of the NES era, for better or worse.
I say for better or worse, because some mechanics of the NES era are difficult for modern gamers to swallow. The saving mechanic in Malasombra is perfectly manageable, with perhaps one of the more satisfying features of the game being when you stumble upon the next fairy (finding fairies saves your progress), but I can see how a modern gamer could become frustrated between saves. Enemies are numerous and health is scarce. I found myself dying frequently when exploring a new area, but this is just what gaming used to be like. You died often and progressing through the map was usually a trial-and-error sort of experience, but it helped players to master the controls. I actually found myself frustrated quite often in new areas, and I had to remind myself to use that time to explore, knowing I could respawn without issue.
The game itself is a side-scrolling action game not unlike Faxanadu or Link’s Adventure, although I have seen some compare Malasombra to Metroid in that you will often return to areas you previously cleared once you acquire new abilities or gear to open up new paths. Combat isn’t terribly different from something like from Megaman since you cast spells from your wand, and the spells just shoot a projectile from your wand. Although, it was odd that you only have one jump height, unlike the short hops Megaman can do.
One interesting thing is that shooting a spell from your wand pushes you back ever so slightly. This makes shooting mid-air dangerous, and I died quite a few times before really getting this under control. Yet, this gives you another tool that can be extremely satisfying. There was this one gap I just couldn’t jump, no matter what ability I was using or how perfect my timing was. But, I wondered if I could do a RAR backair sort of attack, Smash Bros style, and then double reverse my direction to continue forward. Turns out…it worked! And I’m pretty sure it was intentional from the developers. I love this sort of thing because it is precisely what NES era gamers had to do: bang their heads against a wall until they came up with a way to move forward. No guides or YouTube walkthroughs to help. I’m not going to say it was better back in the day, but I do think it’s good to experience this sort of thing every once in a while. The satisfaction of figuring it out yourself is immense.
Visually, I am not sure I’ve ever seen a prettier NES game. The leaves in the background are in constant motion, birds sometimes fly past, and characters aren’t always static, but move around. We may have come to expect these sorts of things with later consoles, but they were far from standard on the NES. It brings a lot of life to an 8-bit adventure game. The colors are also interesting, because many NES games can look dull, with only a few colors on-screen at the same time. The nighttime area is particularly striking and beautiful, with the full moon and deep blacks and blues. Perhaps it was the variation of colors chosen, rather than total number, but I really enjoyed just seeing the world and exploring.
The final boss was actually hilariously easy, and I’m not sure if that’s a result of years of Megaman, or something else. A lot of the difficulty comes from tough platforming and being overwhelmed by enemies and hazards. However, the final boss takes place on a giant screen with tons of space to move around. Yeah, he takes a ton of hits to kill, but he wasn’t particularly difficult. Perhaps there are alternate endings and I found the easier one. I’ll have to wait for other players to finish the game and add their thoughts. Although, I did a fair amount of exploring and just trying things out, so I’d be surprised if I missed too much, and the finale felt satisfying and complete, so I’d be surprised if there was another ending.
Malasombra is an amazing experience on the NES, and one that I hope marks 4MHz’s future with the console. I’m thrilled to have been able to get my hands on a physical cart and play on console, just like back in the day.
