Nods to the NES library abound, but never feel overt or forced. Keeping it Old SchoolĪpart from its awesome anime-as-hell cutscenes, Panzer Paladin evokes so many old-school gaming memories that I'm sure there are a million obscure ones I didn't even pick up on. The final, extra-long (meaning a few minutes) cutscene felt like a reward for your hard work, and Panzer Paladin revives this lost experience. Sure, today we have cutscenes that play out over the span of an hour or more on occasion (looking at you, Kojima), but back then, games like Ninja Gaiden and their microscopic memory sizes meant these dramatic moments were rationed out over the course of your playthrough. It sets the perfect tone for the gameplay, and the story plays out in animated cutscenes that would be right at home in any legendary anime of the series, such as Bubblegum Crisis or one of the dozen or so Gundam series over the years.īeating the 6-hour campaign rewarded me with one of my favorite parts of 1980s gaming: an extended cutscene. As ridiculous as the story of a cyborg named Flame piloting a mech named Grit to beat back the forces of an all-powerful dark magic is, it never winks or nods, but somehow never takes itself too seriously either.

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