Journey to Silius is a side-scrolling action game by
Sunsoft released for the
Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. It was originally slated to be based on the
James Cameron film
The Terminator, but Sunsoft lost the license before its scheduled release date. Sunsoft decided to continue development rather than canceling their hard work. As it turned out,
Journey to Silius became a cult-classic which was given a rerelease on the
Nintendo Switch Online service in December of 2019, while later NES games that carried the
Terminator license
are all but forgotten.
Tropes of this game:
- Book Ends: The stage 1 theme is also used for the final stage.
- Boss-Only Level: Played with in the final stage; the final battle is preceded by a relatively brief auto-scrolling segment with no enemies, but plenty of hazards.
- Bottomless Pits: Bottomless pits are here and there and make the player lose a life when fallen into.
- Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Final stage has some alcoves that have electric currents going through them.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: The third boss consists of a core and several turrets.
- Down the Drain: Stage 2 takes place in the sewers.
- Eternal Engine: The last two stages take place inside a factory, which include most of the stock deathtraps.
- Excuse Plot: The game has an opening about Jay taking revenge on terrorists for the death of his father in their plans to stop a space colony from being made, but gets no more development beyond that, not even in the manual. With the first stage being a clear leftover of the The Terminator's opening war prologue between the Resistance and Skynet, Jay looking like an Expy of Kyle Reese in a space suit, and all of those "terrorists" being androids and occasionally Contra-looking aliens, it becomes obvious the story was a last-minute addition to cover the loss of the license.
- Flash of Pain: Enemies flash in pink color when hit.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts appear in the final stage. Some carry items to bottomless pits, others have no purpose than to hinder the player.
- Japanese Ranguage: You're most likely supposed to be journeying to Sirius.
- King Mook: The sub-bosses of Stage 3 and 4 are upgrades of the missile batteries and the "HumpBots", respectively, and the Final Boss is a giant version of the tall Mecha-Mooks from Stage 3.
- Lava Pit: Stage 5 has pools of lava.
- Market-Based Title: Known as Rough World in Japan. Often mistakenly called "Raf World" since "Rough" is spelled rʌf (the middle letter being a turned v). Jay also has a more normally-proportioned head and wears futuristic armor in this version (like he does in the European release).
- New Game Plus: A very backhanded example. The only things that carry over are your health and ammo, which remain at whatever levels they were when you defeated the final boss. So if you beat the game with one hit-point left and no firepower, you start over at Level 1 with one hit-point and no firepower.
-
Nintendo Hard: The game's only five stages long, but has a very steep difficulty curve. - No OSHA Compliance: The final stage is a factory requires player to navigate very hazardous factory.
- Ratchet Scrolling: Once you go right, you can't go back. One of the last NES games to have this.
- Sentry Gun: Some of the turrets are capable of shooting at you as soon as you approach. They can even increase their own elevation to shoot you, requiring you to jump or crouch to avoid being hit.
- Sequential Boss: The final battle consists of two separate bosses to destroy.
- Slow Laser: Sentry Guns fire lasers that move at visible speed.
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: Crushers make an appearance in the fourth stage and fifth stage.
- Stalactite Spite: Large blocks in stage 4 start to fall when the player is under them.
- Stealth Sequel: To Chō Wakusei Senki Metafight, the Japanese version of Blaster Master. Rough World is set in the year 2373 of the space calendar, while Metafight is set in 2052 of the same calendar.
- Temporary Platform: Fourth stage has blocks that fall when stood on.
