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Way back in 1990, Electronic Arts released an isometric adventure game called The Immortal.  Though it was almost universally praised by critics for its challenging gameplay, impressive visuals, and balance of exploration, combat and puzzle solving, it never really caught on with most gamers.  I, however, bought the NES version of the game on its launch date, and never regretted it for a second.

The game started off in a small, dungeon-like room containing only a candle.  After I approached the candle, a mysterious visage formed from its rising smoke.  It was of Mordramir, my character’s old teacher, summoning me to save him from the depths of the dungeon.  Of course, he called me by the name “Dunric,” which was not my name, but that was no reason not to save him.  I searched around the room to see if either of the small depressions in the floor would yield any hidden items, and, lo and behold, one of them did!  Sadly, the hidden item was a giant carnivorous cave worm that swallowed me whole.  This was my first lesson in the game’s “trial and error” mechanic, a theme that holds true throughout.  Pretty much every new board I entered included some sort of puzzle or booby-trap that would kill me in order to teach me how to beat it.  Sometimes, it would be a certain set of tiles that, when stepped on, would open up a trap door.  Other times, there were dart guns on the walls that needed to be passed in a certain order to gain entry to the next area.  The game is very long, especially for an NES game, so this trial and error technique can be a bit tedious, but the addictive nature of exploring your surroundings made that very easy to overlook.  Entering the second room introduced me to the item collection aspect of the game, as well as combat.  Items, which are extremely important to solving the game’s many puzzles, are a simple enough affair, but combat is handled in a way I’ve never seen in any other game.  Once you engage an enemy, the screen switches to just you and your opponent on a black background.  You can attack with either a stab or a slash to the left or right, and dodge enemy attacks in both directions.  The best method is to wait for your opponent to wind up his swing, then duck out of the way and counter.  It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but stays strangely enjoyable for hours of gameplay.

The next several hours were spent fighting, collecting, and dying.  Dying very often, in fact.  Along the way, I traveled by magic carpet, disguised myself as a goblin, and even met the game designers in the game (I lied to the creator at one point, Will Harvey, and he incinerated me).  After hours and hours, the game’s big twist finally revealed itself: Mordramir, the man I’d been attempting to save all this time, was a traitor and an evil sorceror.  He had kidnapped the daughter of his first student, Dunric, and held her captive in this very dungeon.

Fortunately, this revelation came shortly before the game’s final battle, so I didn’t have to feel misled and deceived for too long; I would soon have my vengeance.  After one crazy level that included a whirlpool and a water monster, it was time to face off with not only Mordramir, but also a giant dragon.  Now, as I said, this game is all about trial and error; approach a situation, die, re-approach, get a little farther, die, repeat as necessary.  This battle required that you use nine spells in the right order, cast at just the right moment, so you’d expect that it would require plenty of retries.  First off, the dragon will attempt to blast you with his fire breath.  Luckily, I had plenty of spells, including several “Blink” spells, which made me disappear briefly.  I used the first one just as he was about to fire, and wouldn’t you know it, I timed it perfectly.  So now I had his timing down, and I managed to avoid the next five fire blasts he launched at me.  After that, panic set in because I had no blink spells left.  I paused to think about it and saw that in my inventory was a spell that I just recently procured: "Fire Protection."  This seemed simple enough, and I waited for him to attack again, this time with a different timing pattern, and used the spell.  Again, my timing was luckily spot on, and I ignored the scorching blast.  After that, the dragon calmed down and stopped attacking me.  I looked in my inventory again to find an amulet I’d picked up on the first level.  Now, I’d used this amulet before, and when I held it up, it usually helped me out.  Whenever I read the incantation, however, it would kill me, so I figured that holding it would be a better option for this situation, considering my desire to continue living.  Now, it was Mordramir’s turn.  First, he ordered me to read the amulet, but I wasn’t falling for that one.  Seeing that I wasn’t following his orders, he started attacking me, launching lightning bolts at me.  I used the “Gold Statue” spell given to me by Dunric himself.  As the lightning struck my statue form, a dialog box appeared, and Mordramir began speaking as if he’d already won. "You are now defenseless, my student.  What a pity you didn't do as I asked. One thousand years ago, I created this amulet to kill the dragons that governed the Fountain of Youth.  This dragon escaped.  He came back and destroyed my city. I was the sole survivor.  Now I have returned to reclaim my fountain. You were to kill the dragon for me.  You see, the power the amulet takes to kill the dragon will also kill the one using it.  So I can't attack the dragon myself. However, as long as I have this amulet, the dragon won't attack me."  That last sentence was a big mistake, Mordy.  If he needs the amulet, then all I need to do is take it away from him.  I had one last spell in my inventory, but it was just the thing I needed; “Magnetic Hands.”  I cast it, took the amulet from him, and watched as the dragon incinerated him.  Fortunately, the dragon had no further interest in me, so he went away.  Afterwards, a ladder appeared and I exited the room and completed the game.

The final boss in The Immortal is considered one of the most complex and baffling challenges in the entire NES library, and somehow, I managed to beat it in one try.  To this day, it remains one of my proudest achievements in gaming.  Sure, I got kind of lucky picking the right spells at the right times (I could have just as easily used the Fire Protection spell or the Gold Statue spell first, which would have meant certain death), but to me, it was one hell of an accomplishment, and a fantastic ending to one of my favorite games of all time.


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