King of Kings: the Early Years is a side-scrolling video game developed by
Wisdom Tree and released in 1991 for the
Nintendo Entertainment System. The game contains three minigames each based off of stories in
The Bible, particularly from the New Testament. In "The Wise Men", the player takes the role of one of the three wise men on his way to see the Baby Jesus at his birth. In
Flight to Egypt, the player takes the role of Mary and Joseph trying to escape to Egypt to keep the Baby Jesus safe from King Herod. Finally in
Jesus and the Temple, the player takes on the role of Joseph on his way to Jerusalem to find Jesus.
Tropes present in all three games:
- A Winner Is You: After enduring the Fake Difficulty of all three games, they all present you with a different screen showing a static image and a Bible passage followed by a second screen with a message saying "Congratulations! You have won!" along with a message reminding you to "Give your heart to Jesus".
- Christmas Episode: The Wise Men is about the journey of the three wise men to the temple in Bethlehem on the night of Jesus' birth, making it a Christmas-themed game.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Sometimes the options "True" and "False" are switched on a quiz question just to throw the player off.
- Fake Difficulty: The games have very slippery controls making gameplay difficult. In addition, one of the levels in Jesus and the Temple features a waterfall with falling logs the player must jump across, and the logs have no pattern.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: All three games feature Christmas hymns as the background music. The Wise Men features "We Three Kings". Flight to Egypt has "Go Tell it on the Mountain". Lastly, Jesus and the Temple features "Greensleeves".
- Super Spit: In "The Wise Men", the Wise Man's camel can spit at enemies on the screen, which kills them in one hit.
