493 Words About: Popeye for NES
The original Donkey Kong arcade game was supposed to be a Popeye game, but due to licensing issues Nintendo was unable to proceed with the project. Trying to make sure the endeavor wasn’t a financial loss, Nintendo got one of their employees, a young man named Shigeru Miyamoto, to make something with the hardware and supposedly he made a pretty good game.
Eventually a Popeye videogame did get made.
I played Popeye on a Nintendo Entertainment System(NES) emulator because nobody’s made a Popeye videogame in years and it bums me out. Popeye owns dude, and not enough people remember that.
Popeye for the NES is a side-view, action platformer that is similar to Donkey Kong in that it involves the character navigating multiple levels of platforms.
Popeye’s design is unique because rather than having a stationary enemy, Popeye is chased and attacked by Bluto his long standing nemesis who will actually follow Popeye up and down platforms. Unlike Pauline who remained stationary, Olive Oil (Popeye’s main love interest) moves left and right along the top platform dropping hearts, musical notes, or letters and the goal of the game becomes to collect them all in order to progress. This latter structure becomes complicated, and not just because Bluto is a well designed AI that makes navigating the space difficult. The hearts, notes, and letters that Olive Oil drops will float to the bottom level, and once there a repeating alarm will trigger, alerting me that if I don’t pick it up it will disappear and I will lose the game.
Popeye is a perfect example of early arcade/console systems because the narrative is minimal to the point of becoming irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how or why Popeye has arrived in the locations he’s at; it doesn’t even matter where he is! NES games were working with limited hardware, so abstract representation wasn’t just typical, it bordered on the norm.The first level is nothing but an abstract series of platforms and steps by a body of water, the second stage is outside of a house, and the third stage is a pirate ship because…well, again, who cares?
It’s Popeye my dude.
Playing Popeye was fun, and not just because I watched the original Fleischer cartoons when I was a kid. Popeye is an enjoyable game because of the tension moving Popeye between the platforms, avoiding Bluto who will one-punch me, trying to catch Olive Oil’s collectibles on the first go, and enjoying the sprites themselves which are adorable and well rendered.
Seriously Popeye looks like Popeye down to his characteristic smirk, and Bluto made me double-take.
Humming along to Popeyes trademark song (right down to the whistle) there was a lovely nostalgia trip, and beneath that was an enjoyable videogame. The mechanics demonstrated a concern for active gameplay, and managed to create a fun and challenging platformer.
The whole experience was yet another reminder: videogame players need, and deserve more Popeye games.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
1.13.2025
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